View From the Cab

Corn, Soybean Harvests Done!

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) -- Like farmers everywhere, View From the Cab farmers Karen Johnson of Avoca, Iowa, and Jamie Harris of Madison, Florida, share much in common. Perhaps most important, for now, is the fact that both Karen and Jamie have completed corn and soybean harvest.

Jamie's corn has been out for weeks. Soybeans wrapped up last week. Now peanut harvest is done. That equipment has been cleaned, repaired, and put away for next year. Next up is iron clay peas.

"We're having a hard time with peas. It's about five days after frost. They want to wrap on the (combine) cross auger," Jamie told DTN. It takes special preparations to get peas into the combine, like removing cross auger fingers that tough, green vines cling to. But it should get better as frost burned vines dry in sunny Florida, where Monday's high temperature was about 78 degrees F. Yields so far are good on dryland with an acceptable 22 to 23 50-pound bags per acre.

A custom harvester with two Case IH 7230 combines and draper heads has been lined up to help with peas. Those combines along with Jamie's 7120 combine should make short work of the 800 acres remaining.

Soybean yields were good this year. Jamie and his partners at Jimmy Harris and Sons family farm filled all their forward contracts, with some still left in the bin for later sale. Delivery has been easier this year, after last year's 14 to 15 hour per load wait at the elevator.

"This year it's about an hour and a half. I imagine they got an earful about that," Jamie said. But demand seems stronger. Maybe faster unloading is a result. "All our corn buyers are having trouble getting corn in on rail ... maybe soybean buyers are having trouble too," he added.

The new root picker has been put to work on a recently cleared field where pine stumps were dug out of the ground by an excavator. But first, two or three passes with an offset disc harrow with 32-inch blades cuts roots up and levels the soil, filling in stump holes.

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Jimmy Harris and Sons family farm has reclaimed several such fields for row-crop production once loggers removed the trees.

Soil samples on the farm are being pulled on 5-acre grids. Earlier samples were done on every 2.5 acres to help "level" fertility. Sampling over larger areas saves some money. "Five-acre grids with maps cost $7; 2.5 acres costs $10 to $12 depending on who does it," Jamie said.

Broccoli plants remain healthy in spite of frost -- it wasn't a bad thing. "Actually the frost cleaned up the field by killing all the weeds," Jamie noted. Spraying of a fungicide/insecticide/foliar fertilizer tank mix has been stepped up from once every two weeks to every week. Harvest of first-planted broccoli is at least a week or two off.

This is the first time the Harris' have grown broccoli. "Right now me and Dad are getting ready to get on a plane and fly up to Virginia out of Jacksonville to see the people we grow broccoli for," Jamie said, "we're going to see how they cut and package it. They'll send somebody down (to help), but it's better for us to see it for ourselves first hand."

Meanwhile in Iowa, Karen and her husband Bill can put the combine away. Corn harvest is done. "Field conditions were certainly a challenge this year. We got stuck more times with tractors and wagons then I ever remember," Karen told DTN. "I do remember a wet year when we were doing custom harvesting for a neighbor and we pulled nearly every wagon load out of the field with two tractors. ... What fun we farmers have!" she said.

It was a team effort near the end as son Jerod ran the combine, keeping Bill, Karen, and neighbor Mark Wilds of Shelby, busy hauling away. This is Karen's description of one day last week;

"I got stucker than stuck at a rented farm with my tractor and full wagon on a muddy terrace around a high knob in the field, and it was just before dark. My wagon was leaning badly after the wheels on one side sunk in the wet goo. The men put a tractor and chain on it to keep it upright and Bill went home to get our vacuuvator to transfer the corn to a grain cart. It was completely dark by now, which added to the challenge. Then the big grain cart became a victim of the gooey mud and the men brought up another grain cart to transfer some off of the blue Kinze 1000 bu. grain cart to lighten it up. They were then able to get it out of the mud and on its way. After my wagon was emptied of its corn, Bill was able to get in the tractor and get my rig loose. We headed everything down the hill and called it a day, vowing to come back to better luck tomorrow. Each of us had been stuck more than once for this day as well."

While they battled high moisture grain throughout much of harvest, the wettest at 19%, Karen reported the last two fields were drier, near 14.5%.

The day everyone was waiting for was Sunday, as the last field of corn was finally picked. "I came in and prepared homemade spaghetti and salad and sides for our midday meal. Afterwards we continued hauling grain from the combine home to our 36 foot grain bin and finished just before dark," Karen said.

Just because harvest is over doesn't mean an end to work. Karen points out, there's more to do.

"Now for Bill and me it's on to fixing fence, moving cows to stalk fields, hauling manure, closing or filling field ditches, and winterizing cattle waterers and equipment. I have yard mowing to do and some final work with all of my outdoor plants and shrubs. Then for me, windows to wash and housecleaning to do for upcoming Thanksgiving and Christmas" she said.

Richard Oswald can be reached at Talk@dtn.com

Follow Richard Oswald on Twitter @RRoswald

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Richard Oswald