View From the Cab

LANGDON, Mo. (DTN) -- At the heart of U.S. agricultural production lays not only diversity of the crops we grow, but the ability of family farmers who grow them. That's the way it is with View from the Cab farmers Jamie Harris of Madison, Fla., and Karen Johnson of Avoca, Iowa, as they use innate talents to feed America.

Planting on Jamie's family farm, Jimmy Harris and Sons, is finally over. The last of the broccoli seed was placed in the ground on Sunday. Planting dates were staggered over the last month or so to spread out harvest and ease delivery. "We're gonna keep it wet with the irrigator," Jamie said of his broccoli crop. In addition to wet, Jamie will keep the crop nourished with N applications totaling about 275 to 300 pounds per acre. A like amount of K will be applied to broccoli beds as well. "That's about the same as for our irrigated corn," he added.

But even as planting finishes up, harvest is accelerating for three other crops, pumpkins, soybeans and peanuts. "You put out a 'fire' one place and another one is going on someplace else," Jamie said.

Dryland soybeans have been yielding in the mid-30s up to 40 bushels per acre. Jamie hoped for slightly better yields, near 50. "Moisture is running 11% to 13%. Most three-bean pods have one aborted bean in them," he told DTN. Aborted beans could be a sign of moisture stress, or heat, or both. Irrigated soybeans harvested later this month should be better. Jamie noted that while he has read about farmers finding pods with four or five beans, he's never seen pods larger than three beans in his own fields.

Small fields keep Jimmy Harris and Sons on the move as they complete about 40 acres of soybeans every day, moving from field to field at least twice daily. Cutting is accomplished with a 25-foot CNH 3020 platform. Would a larger platform speed things up? "I don't think our land would handle a 35-foot head," he said.

Peanut harvest continued last week on about 60 acres. A particular variety of peanut with heavier foliage than usual slowed things down a bit until a second set of coulters was added to the digger to cut more vines and eliminate plugging. Another bottleneck for peanut harvest has been a shortage of drying trailers -- older van trailers adapted for drying high-moisture peanuts, with aeration fans and propane burners. For the time being at least, this year there aren't enough to go around.

Peanut yields of about 20, 50-pound bags seem light compared to soybeans, but Jamie pointed out that growing costs for peanuts are far less than most other row crops on the farm. That's because seed can be saved from the previous peanut crop, and fertilizer applications are minimal.

Broccoli was sprayed last week for pigweed, with a product called Goal. "It was very effective," Jamie observed. Latest-planted peanuts were sprayed with a fungicide to tide them over until harvest is complete in about three weeks. And iron clay peas were sprayed last week for hungry little caterpillars called loopers.

More pumpkins are due to be picked this week. "We've got to have 5,000 out by Friday," Jamie said.

Agriculture has moved at a slower pace in Iowa, where Karen and Bill continue to wait for corn and soybean crops to mature. "We went to Maryville (Missouri) with our pickup and a trailer to get a 20-foot culvert extension and right-angle riser to go in our pasture's dam. We saw a lot of water standing in fields and surprisingly little harvest had been done for this time of year all the way from Avoca to Maryville -- only a few soybean fields here and there had been combined, some corn chopped but very little combined," Karen told DTN via email.

Not helping with a speedy beginning to harvest has been the weather. Later in the week during a frontal passage, there was over 3 inches more rain in Karen's gauge. She quoted rainfall amounts in southwest Iowa as high as 6 inches. Temperatures dipped to 30 degrees Fahrenheit behind the cold front, but plants show no sign of frost damage.

Hail adjusters came back last week for a second look at a deferred claim, and Bill pulled a few ears of corn testing 25% to 27% moisture. Another of the Johnson's crops, this time the calf crop, continues eating their way to market. Bill marks time by refilling creep feeders on a regular basis. Adding an even greater sense of importance to that task, Karen noted that this year's frozen beef stocks are down over 20%.

Cattle will make one more move to fresh pasture ahead of stalk fields opening up. Last week Bill mowed underneath an electric fence to prevent green vegetation from shorting it out before turning the cows in.

Quality is always job one for Bill and Karen's hay crops. Fourth-cutting alfalfa hay samples were taken to a lab in Omaha for nutrient testing. The Johnsons use test results to help buyers know the value of what they're getting.

As harvest lags, Bill pointed out that soybeans can dry out quickly, leaving yield in the field as farmers harvest less weight due to reduced moisture levels. "Every soybean field in the Midwest will be ready to harvest at the very same instant when beans get fit at about 13%, and then they'll drop to 7% moisture almost as quickly. This gives 6% of our crop to the end user for nothing," he said.

What's the solution? Farmers should accept moisture dockage in return for higher pay weights.

Farm safety week was last month. Farmers should take note. The delayed harvest means Iowa farmers will be hurrying to finish ahead of winter. So far this year, Karen has seen reports of three farmers killed in accidents related to harvesting downed corn.

There have been at least two life-or-death events on Karen and Bill's farm. The first was a tractor rollover in the '80s when Bill nearly lost his life. Thankfully, he survived, but injuries from the accident continue to affect him today. The other event happened as Karen, a young farm wife helping with harvest, discovered one of her two young children trapped in a gravity box wagonload of corn. Thanks to a huge effort with help from young son Alan, and clear thinking on Karen's part, daughter Kris survived. But a similar accident a few years later resulted in the death of a neighbor and friend.

"Accidents happen, and not just to the other guy," Karen said, "PLEASE, farmers, use good sense and caution this fall when working with machinery and equipment -- and stay safe!"

Richard Oswald can be reached at Talk@dtn.com

Follow Richard Oswald on Twitter @RRoswald

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