View From the Cab

Soybeans Blooming in Iowa, Florida; Corn Harvest Set to Begin in Florida

Richard Oswald
By  Richard Oswald , DTN Special Correspondent
This year's DTN View From the Cab farmers are Jamie Harris of Madison, Fla., and Karen Johnson of Avoca, Iowa. (Jamie Harris photo by Elaine Shein; Karen Johnson photo by Nick Scalise)

LANGDON, Mo. (DTN) -- Over the last few years, input costs have risen steadily on U.S. farms and ranches from coast to coast, where the rubber hits the road of family farm food production. That's the way it is for View From the Cab farmers Jamie Harris of Madison, Fla., and Karen Johnson of Avoca, Iowa, where not just fertilizer and seed, but repairs, have gotten pricey.

"While Bill was in the city today (Monday), he had eight new tires put on the semi, $250 each for less than year-old virgin (not recapped rubber) tires," Karen told DTN late Sunday.

With hot summertime pavement adding to the chance of tire failure, summer is a good time to replace worn tires as the Johnsons' old-crop corn deliveries wind down. Other than that, with most pesticide applications completed and crops enter their reproductive phase, summer is also a time for continuing livestock chores -- and making hay.

"The vet came at 9 a.m. and we worked the rest of the cows and calves who were in the yards. Then later in the afternoon, when Bill got back from delivering a load of corn to SIRE (Southeast Iowa Renewable Energy), Jerod came with his pickup and the fifth-wheel livestock trailer and we loaded 11 cows and calves and took them to pasture," Karen said.

Karen and her husband Bill are members of the Western Iowa Feeder Calf Association and their feeder calf preconditioning program. Members' calves identified with green ear tags are sold at auctions in Dunlap and Denison, Iowa, where about 48,000 head are marketed annually.

More hay filled the middle of the week amid showery conditions that can challenge even the best haymaker. "The hay just would not dry down this week because of some light rain and dew and super humidity," Karen said. With rain in the forecast for Friday, the push was on. "As soon as I was done helping haul in bales, I went right to mowing yards while Bill and (son) Jerod went off to Bill's brother Duane's to try to get bales made for him. I mowed until 7:30 p.m. and then came in to make supper. A long, busy day," she said.

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Farmers know the value of an early start. Bill is on the board of directors for Carstens 1880 Farmstead, an 80-acre turn-of-the-century working farmstead near Shelby, Iowa. That's why Bill attended a 6 a.m. board meeting on Wednesday, a planning session for the annual Farm Antiques and Threshing Show held on Sept. 6 and 7. Area school kids will get their own sneak preview on Sept. 5.

It's fair time in Shelby County, Iowa. Bill attended Apple Pie Morning on Saturday where senior citizens get free pie just for showing up. Then, on Sunday, Bill and Karen watched granddaughter Ella win first in her division of a Farm Bureau-sponsored pedal tractor pull. "She was excited with her trophy," Karen said. Later this summer, Ella will compete for the state championship. Ella's 3-year-old-sister Katie, too young for competition, was proud of the participation ribbon, awarded her when she pedaled the length of the course.

Other than the evolution of modern fossil-fuel-powered wheel tractors, nothing has revolutionized farming more than modern electronics and mobile communications. On most farms today, cellphones are a must. That's why, when Bill's phone died, it triggered a mandatory trip to the city for a new one. "Cellphones are so handy, but my, they are costly to have. How did we used to do without them?" Karen asked.

Karen reports that soybeans treated recently with the herbicide Cobra have begun to recover from leaf browning and are beginning to set the first blooms. And corn tassels have emerged.

From cellphone service to crops, despite the distance separating them, Iowa and Florida farms have much in common -- even some blooming plants. After a little research, Karen noted that in her gardens at home, she has a flower called Baptisia Australis, or false indigo, which is markedly similar to a weed Jamie fights in his Florida fields known as Perry Indigo.

Like Karen's Iowa soybeans, Jamie's soybeans have begun to bloom. Double-crop soybeans following small grain crops are about a foot tall. Regular-crop soybeans range from thigh to chest high. "We had to spray one field that was about thigh high for nutsedge (last week)," Jamie told DTN.

One variety of blueberry bushes has been treated with copper fungicide for a bacterial infection. So far, the infection is affecting only one variety that was most likely infected at the nursery where the plants were started. Jamie and his family, who operate Jimmy Harris and Sons family farm, have also been treating peanuts with a fungicide to combat white mold. "We're still watering peanuts. We spray them at night because the leaves close at night. That way the fungicide gets to the base of the stem where the mold is," Jamie explained.

Planting season isn't over yet in Florida. Jack-o'-lantern pumpkins, a new crop to Jamie, are almost ready for planting. "We've been hooking water lines up to drip tapes under the plastic-covered beds," Jamie said. Pre-emerge herbicides are being applied to bare dirt areas between beds prior to planting so they won't come into contact with vulnerable plants.

It's almost time to plant another crop, iron clay peas. Monday will be the day to start. An 11-row Kinze planter is almost ready to go. At 5,200 seeds per pound, iron clay pea seed is smaller than a soybean but larger than grain sorghum. That makes it hard to find a Kinze brush unit seed plate that's just right. Experiments in the field show the soybean plate works best.

Not many farmers can say they start planting and harvesting on the same day, but next Monday is also set for the beginning of corn harvest. "We got the combine serviced and put in concaves for corn," Jamie said. Corn was watered for the last time on Friday as the first two fields have blacklayered. A field infected by Southern rust will be harvested first with Jimmy Harris and Sons' latest equipment addition, a new self-adjusting Drago corn head. Jamie told DTN that grain moisture at harvest is usually pegged at 30% to 32%. But with this year's lower prices and drying costs remaining high, harvest of other fields might be postponed until grain moisture levels are closer to 25%.

Florida weather has been better this year than any of the previous three. Temperatures forecast in the 80s this week are what Jamie calls "kinda just right." But there's another possible downside in Florida where weather and high operating costs aren't the only risk.

"I hope I never get stung by a bumblebee again. After that one stung me last week, my right arm swelled up twice as big as the left," he said.

(AG/BAS)

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Richard Oswald