View From the Cab

Iowa Farmers Tackle Corn Harvest, Calf Weaning; Florida Farmer Moves to Iron Clay Pea Harvest

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) -- All good things come to an end. That's the way it is for View From the Cab farmers Karen Johnson of Avoca, Iowa, and Jamie Harris of Madison, Fla., as crop year 2014 slowly draws to a close.

It hasn't all been good. Heavy Iowa rains earlier this year created washouts and wet spots Karen and her husband Bill are still contending with. "We have some ruts, but the biggest problem was the deep ditches from heavy earlier rains and the super wet spots here and there," Karen told DTN early this week. "The mud is in several weepy hardpan spots right on hill sides and this year it seems they are where you would least expect them."

One day was especially trying. "I got my big 8970 Ford tractor and 750-bushel Brent wagon, which was plum full of corn, stuck in the field; and when I called Bill, I learned he had just gotten his tractor and wagon stuck in the field just over the hill from me," Karen said.

Soybean harvest is finished for the Johnsons as they plow ahead into corn. "We tested a large field of our corn today that was still 19.2% -- disappointing because it's getting late in the season," Karen said. Not all their corn is that wet. One field testing about 17% was delivered to SIRE (Southwest Iowa Renewable Energy) in Council Bluffs last week. Yield was exceptional, ranging from 225 to 250 bpa.

With their 12-row corn head, moving so much corn from field to bin or grain elevator requires a large workforce. While son Jerod runs the combine, Bill, Karen, and sometimes a helpful neighbor haul from there to the bin. For longer trips, Bill drives the truck.

Even before harvest is over, it's time to think about next year. Last week, Crop Production Services out of Avoca applied deep-banded dry P and K to rotational soybean stubble for next year's corn crop.

Bill and Karen weaned their spring calves last week, but not without a glitch. "We were combining corn most of the week, and were tired, and we could not get trucks yesterday (Saturday), so attempted to wean calves because the moon signs were right for such. Well, last evening (Sunday) Bill discovered we had left four big calves in the pasture hiding down by a creek!" Karen explained via email.

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Karen and Bill made a first stab at recovering the strays with limited luck. As sometimes happens on family farms everywhere, the call went out for assistance. After helping with the first roundup, daughter Kris and her son Dakota, and Jerod and his wife Amber came back to help round up the wily critters. "We got them out on the road again -- this time they got in with another group of cows in another pasture and we ended up bringing them all up the road to home to sort them," Karen told DTN.

Mission accomplished. "Finally we got them all into their proper yards and Kris had brought a huge kettle of homemade chicken noodle soup, so we came in and enjoyed a quick dinner and then Bill, Jerod, and I headed to a rented farm to combine corn," Karen said.

The Johnson's growing season has ended with two hard freezes in a row last week on Friday and Saturday. Temperatures at the farm were 27 and 23 degrees Fahrenheit. "I was calculating today on acres we have left, and it will take us a dozen days at least of solid running and hauling barring rain, bad weather, or equipment breakdowns," Karen said. Then, on Monday, "It rained the second I stepped in the door at home this evening, after coming in from another day of hauling corn from the combine to the bins. I'm counting on being done with harvest by Thanksgiving," she added.

The growing season in the Florida panhandle has ended abruptly. "Yesterday we had a widespread killing frost from 28 to 32 degrees (Fahrenheit)," Jamie told DTN late Tuesday. Forecasts had been only for 34 to 35. "There was still frost on the ground at 10 a.m.," he added. Produce crops in the area like bell peppers, cucumbers, eggplant, squash, tomatoes, watermelon, and pumpkins were stopped dead in their tracks.

Peanut harvest should be complete today at Jimmy Harris and Sons family farms. As of Tuesday, there were only 30 acres left to combine. Ideally, that should take about three hours. But the last week wasn't easy. "A landing gear collapsed on one of the peanut trailers. And the DOT pulled us over for flickering lights on another," Jamie said. That turned out to be a simple wiring problem. How does the Florida DOT treat farmers during harvest time? "They're real good unless you're completely out of compliance," Jamie said, pointing out that officers appreciate a good attitude. "A lot depends on how you are toward them."

After 2,000 acres of grains and soybeans, the combine platform needed a new sickle. Then it's on to the next thing as iron clay pea harvest has gotten underway. One hundred acres have been picked -- 900 more to go. Yield is average, about 20 to 25 50-pound units per acre. Peas have a tendency to lodge in the field. "They can be kind of aggravating, but we've had no trouble so far," Jamie said.

From the field, peas go to a buyer who decides if green matter in the crop requires drying before being sent on to the processor. Then dry peas may be bagged, or cooked and canned for retail sales.

Broccoli plants were unharmed by frost. Two of three plantings have been sprayed for beet army worms. The two- to three-week residual should protect plants until harvest. And the oldest planting has had a foliar application of calcium and boron, which helps prevent hollow stems, a condition considered undesirable.

A new irrigation well is completed on a recently cleared pine timber field. Two new Reinke center pivot irrigators will be installed next. One issue facing many farmers today is how to carry on the farming operation and get along with neighbors at the same time. That's why Jamie and his partners will install a propane power unit, rather than diesel, on the new well. "It'll (a propane engine) be a little quieter for the neighbors. It's about halfway between electric and diesel. Electricity is half the cost of diesel, but lines are a mile away, and we'd have to cross two neighbors to get it there," he said.

In Florida, where the growing season almost never ends, production cycles seem continuous.

Though Jamie shared in Karen's cold weather last week, he didn't see the rain. "We really need some so we can plant rye (for grazing). By the end of the month, we need to plant triticale for seed. Our 10-day forecast is for zero probability," he said.

Richard Oswald can be reached at Talk@dtn.com

Follow Richard Oswald on Twitter @RRoswald

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Richard Oswald