November Crop Comments
Dec 18, 2011
Use this link to send us your comments (or e-mail CropComments@agweb.com) about the crops in your local area. Be sure to send us your photos and videos! Comments will be edited for brevity and clarity. (Please keep your comments crop-related.
Here's a sampling of what some folks are saying:
- 11/30 - Texas: Cold fronts brought rain, from a trace to 2" or more, to much of the state during the last week, according to Texas AgriLife Extension Service personnel. As usual, when it comes to weather, there were winners and losers. East Texas, North Texas, Central Texas and the Rolling Plains were the main beneficiaries, with the Coastal Bend, South Texas and Far West Texas regions largely passed over, while the Panhandle and South Plains regions fell in between these extremes, according to weekly reports by AgriLife Extension county agents. Where rain fell, cool-season grasses and winter wheat benefited, though the consensus, even where 2" or more fell, was that much more rain was needed to keep winter forages going.
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In the Panhandle, producers were working around rain to get cotton stripped and into modules. (Texas AgriLife Extension Service photo.)
(Have any photos of the crops on your farm? E-mail (CropComments@agweb.com) them to AgWeb and have them posted on Crop Comments! Be sure to include a caption.)
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- 11/30 - Logan and Menard counties, Illinois: William shows the depth of the paraplow for vertical tillage for no-till fields. Video courtesy of http://farmandranchcountry.com.
- 11/30 - East central Iowa: This is the second-to-last field we have. Videos courtesy of scotthinch’s YouTube channel.
- 11/29 - Roane County, Tenn.: Rain, rain! Hoping the ground will dry out enough to finish fall tilling. Corn went well this year, soybeans average to above. Maybe if we get a little wind the next few days, we can finish plowing before the next rain.
- 11/29 - West central Ohio: It has been a very unusual year for weather.
April: Over 8.5" of rain
May: 6.78", soil was very wet. We were able to plant on the 12th and 13th on well-drained soil only.
June: 4.08" by June 21 -- started planting on the 3rd
July: 1.71", very hot and was tough on corn pollination
August: 2.32", very hot, tough on corn pollination
September: 7.38", rained 21 out of the 30 days -- little drydown on corn
October: 3.36", soil very wet again -- could not park any trucks or wagons in fields to harvest
November: 4.13" by Nov. 27 and predicting heavy rain the next three days.
There’s still about 15% of corn in fields. Soil will have to freeze before any more harvesting can be done. Grain moisture is still around 25%. Test plots ranged from 118 bu./acre down to 92. Corn yields are down about 40% and soybeans down about 30%. It has been a very trying and stressful year. Unlike some areas in the South, we at least will have subsoil moisture to work with next year! If this continues, we may have trouble with ducks and geese in 2012. Have a safe, happy and blessed holiday season!
- 11/29 - Crooks, S.D.: I'm happy I got my grandpa in a video. He started our operation with horses and a plow. It’s such a neat thing to still have him around and get to experience the many changes in agriculture he has got to see over 80+ years. We had a bountiful harvest this year and it almost went too fast! :) We got done on Oct. 27. Video courtesy of therealfarmgirl’s YouTube channel.
- 11/28 - Clark County, Wis.: Crops of corn beans were very good, 175 bu corn 55 bu beans. All work is done. Fertilizer is being spread. We have all fertilizer spread on our farm. Seed corn and bean seed are purchased for 2012.
- 11/28 - West central Illinois: Crops were better than last year. Corn avg. for me was low 190's. Beans avg. was 62. Started selling corn last year at $5.07 then some at $5.45 then $6.50 then$ 6.75 never hit $7. Harvest came and price fell. Hope to get over $6 for the rest. In my position you have to start selling when you think it’s profitable at the time.
- 11/23 - Henry County, Ohio: Wet and getting wetter. Another inch of rain today. Still a few fields of beans left and somewhere around ten percent of the corn left.
- 11/22 - Bristolville, Ohio: Started corn yesterday evening with the (new to us) New Holland TR99. Huge difference between the TR99 and the TR85's he used to run. We can just keep up with it using two trucks and two gravity wagons. Corn was averaging around 175bpa. Average of soybeans this year was around 40bpa. Video courtesy of ACFarmer89’s YouTube channel.
- 11/23 - Texas: Rain came to large parts of Texas, an early Thanksgiving feast for already planted winter pastures, according to Texas AgriLife Extension Service personnel. Though welcome, the rain came too late for drought-hammered summer pastures, many of which are in sad shape, according to AgriLife Extension county agent reports.
- 11/23 - Cedar Rapids, Iowa: Using a Case IH 600 QuadTrac for tillage in Iowa. Video courtesy of http://lefebure.com/
- 11/22 - Sigel, Ill.: Corn was much better than last year. 5 year history for continuous corn was 186 bu. per acre, Last year it was 155. This is our 4th highest on record. Extra sidedress nitrogen paid off. Last year sold $3.85 to $4.85 corn, this year sold 75% of production at $7.54 corn. That will make a nice Christmas, for us and the tax man. Beans made 62 whole farm avg. Double crop avg. 32, not bad for the excess rains in June Then very little rain in July & Aug. Most of our ground has been corn on corn for 30 years. Very pleased with the outcome.
- 11/22 - Downs, Ill.: Well, here it is: the 2011 Harvest video. 2011 will definitely go down into the books as a crazy year. It started out pretty great. In June, the crops were looking phenomenal... then, the rain stopped. Central Illinois barely received any rain from July-September. Adding to that obstacle, July and August saw hot days and warm nights. You'll see the yield monitor in parts of the video. We would get into some really good 200+ bushel/acre corn, then it would drop off to below 100 bu/ac, then right back up. We were very fortunate though to have a good time this year and a lot of fun making this video and taking pictures. Tom Petty said it best in this song....."It was a beautiful day, the sun beat down I had the radio on, I was drivin." So true. We are ready to relax this winter, do some traveling, and continue preparing for next year. I hope you enjoy the video and see you in 2012! Video courtesy of www.wentworthfamilyfarms.com.
- 11/21 - Haakon County, S.D.: Finished fall tillage in October of 1991.
- 11/21 - North central Kansas: Finished harvest on 11-15, Tuesday. Even though we had 24 days over 100 degrees this summer corn and beans held on very well. 154 bushels an acre for the corn and 50+bpa for the beans. These are above average yields for our area. Early planted corn, that planted before May 8th had severe pollination problems. Some of this corn for people was silage with yields funning 3-40 bpa. Our corn was planted the first week of June and did not suffer this problem.
- 11/21 - Dickinson County, Iowa: Corn yields below average due to early wetness. Soybeans in mid-50's
- 11/21 - East central Iowa: Now that's what I call service! Combine and 2 tractors will use about 400 gallons when close to being on empty (400 x $3.70= $1480). No wonder there isn't any money left at the end of the year! Video courtesy of scotthinch’s YouTube channel.
- 11/21 - Centre County, Pa.: I don’t do any fall tillage, since I am a no-till farmer that would be classified as a useless pursuit, similar to picking belly button lint or such
- 11/21 - Winneshiek County, Iowa: Corn is in the bin—yields down slightly from last year, but still have to be considered strong. Tillage work is completed. Traditionally put fertilizer and NH3 down in the spring pre-plant and elected to do that again in 2012.
- 11/18 - East Central Iowa: An update.
- 11/17 - Green County, Wis.: Beans were some of the best ever. Average 60+ on all acres, had one small field average 78. Corn was tremendous for the year. Averaged 182 bu over all acres. Had some good farms do 200+. Wind storm blew down some that was effected. We will wrap up fall tillage tomorrow. We have been running turbo disc over corn stalks and then hitting with ripper or chisel plow.
- 11/17 - West Salem, Ohio: Excited to have finished 1st & 2nd crop soybean #harvest11 last night, enjoying a rain today before we start back into corn! @farmerhaley
- 11/17 - Kendallville, Ind.: After eight weeks on the road, AgDay is at its final stop on the Interstate 80 harvest tour. Since mid-September we've visited farms from Nebraska to Ohio to gauge this year’s corn and soybean crops. Our last stop is in Kendallville, Ind. where harvest is rolling along. Watch AgDay at www.AgDay.com.
- 11/17 - East central Iowa: We’ve been hauling corn in the early mornings to ADM plant that is 60 miles away. Check out how long the lines are!. Video courtesy of scotthinch’s YouTube channel.
- 11/16 - Dekalb County, Ind.: Most beans done with average yields , some 20 to 30 yields, but most in the 40's and some 50's reported, corn is probably about 70% done with yields all over the board, heard of a lot of 60 to 100 bu/acre in some areas, and some running from 100 to 190 bu/acre. Way below our average, also fighting muddy fields, probably will have to freeze-up to finish the corn
- 11/15 - Grant County, S.D.: My crops were 30% less than last year.
- 11/15 - Onondaga County, N.Y.: Heavy corn yields at high test weights.
- 11/14 - Barron County, Wis.: Completely finished with the 2011 harvest and mostly done with the fall tillage. Corn crop was one the best we have had with an average yield of 175 bu/a and one field that had a yield of 210 bu/a. Test weight was not as high as last year but still very good at 57 to 58 1/2. Very little drying cost as it was coming off the field at 16-19% moisture. Soybeans were good at about 50 bu/a, but could have been about 60 if not hit by the early frost in mid-September. Corn silage was fair at about 22 ton/a. Going to put some acres into 15 in. rows next year to try to push yield up closer to 30 ton/a.
- 11/14 - Caldwell County, Mo.: We got the rest of our lime put on and finished up plowing.
- 11/14 - Haakon County, S.D.: Great year. CC winter wheat 35+. Corn 90+. 100 % No-till. (Read more wheat-related comments at AgWeb's www.VirtualWheatTour.com)
- 11/14 - Jackson County, Iowa: Can’t complain about the yields, especially with all the goose-necked corn we have. The second video gives you a tour of our neck of the woods. Video courtesy of scotthinch’s YouTube channel.
- 11/11 - Cayuga County, N.Y.: Done with corn. Our "final average" just shy of 170 bu/a. Weather has been great all 10 days to start November. Most guys went back to beans and got them done. Sold 5000 bu. beans for fall 2012 $13/bu at farm back in August. To see prices now wish I did more. Happy holidays to all.
- 11/11 - Western Walsh county, northeast North Dakota: The country has gotten pretty quiet around here. A warm, dry fall has allowed everyone time to get jobs done that had been delayed with very wet falls the past number of years. Thousands of acres of CRP were not renewed by the USDA, so all that ground was burned off, work multiple times, drainage ditches cleaned, and now it's about ready for seeding. My son and I took on 350 ac. of CRP. It's a lot of work, but again, we had the weather. Lots of tree rows cleaned up and burned, rocks picked, etc. Not much grain is moving, in part because we had all these other things to get done. Even had time to go deer hunting last weekend. Now we're into the "meeting season".
- 11/11 - Sandusky, Mich.: Harvest video captured on the last day of sugar beet lifting for Stoutenburg Farms of Sandusky, Michigan. See two Artsway 6812 harvesters lift 12 rows of beets on 20 inch spacing. Also see the Michigan Sugar Sandusky piling ground adjacent to Stoutenburg's field. Video courtesy of eagerjeffrey's YouTube channel.
- 11/11 - Crooks, S.D.: Just a quick recap of soybean harvest for 2011. Went very fast this year with wonderful temps and no rain! Video courtesy of therealfarmgirl’s YouTube channel.
- 11/10 - Otero County, Colo.: Two thirds done with corn average running around 200 bu/acre. Had one field do 240. All irrigated. Soil moisture very low.
- 11/10 - Marshall, Minn.: I just drove up Hwy 23 through the heart of MN, and I would say that the elevators are not even close to full, like last year and previous years. In fact, I heard that the ADM ethanol plant was nearly running out of corn and narrowed the basis to 10 cents to bring in grain, but they won't pull ahead any Dec corn because they don't know that they will have enough corn to keep the plant running at capacity. And MN was supposed to help carry the poor corn crop!
- 11/10 - East central Iowa: A picture is worth a thousand words (this is a photo from our farm on Wednesday (Nov. 9) morning)! 2-4 inches of this crap is expected. 30-40 % corn in county left to go.
- 11/9 - Ingham County, Mich.: ADM in Webberville has been full for almost a week now. They must now understand the concept of harvest because they pulled this stunt last year too!
- 11/9 - Henry County, Ohio: The year to throw the calendar out the window. Beans planted June 7 yielded 77 bpa. Beans planted in May yield 30 bpa. Corn planted in June is 50 to 70 bpa better than the May corn. 95 percent of beans gone and maybe 50 percent of corn gone in county.
- 11/9 - Allen County, Kan.: Got about 200 acres to finish and it is going to be tough from here on out. Rain finally came yesterday to the tune of as of this writing.... 3.56 inches. Yields are well below average with a high of 10 bpa to 3.2 bpa with an overall average so far of 3.86 bpa -- very disappointing. A lot of the pods had shattered and the moisture measured an average of 9.72% with a test weight average of 54.82 lbs per bu. Not looking forward to mudding out the remainder of the crop but it has to be done. We’ll get ‘em next year! Have a great one
- 11/9 - Texas: Large swathes of the state received rain, from slow drizzles to heavy downpours, but the moisture came too late this year for most rangeland, according to a Texas AgriLife Extension Service expert.
"The reason is that we have predominantly warm-season, rangeland-type grasses here in Texas," said Dr. Charles Hart, AgriLife Extension range specialist and associate department head of the department of ecosystem science and management at Texas A&M University. "Most of the grasses are warm-season grasses and their growing season is during the hot months of the year." That’s not to say there wasn’t a benefit from the rains received, said Hart, who is based at the Texas AgriLife Research and Extension Center at Stephenville.
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November rains came too late for most Texas rangeland, such as this stretch in Schleicher County, south of San Angelo, where the only things left growing are cacti and mesquite. (Texas AgriLife Extension Service photo by Dr. Charles Hart)
(Have any photos of the crops on your farm? E-mail (CropComments@agweb.com) them to AgWeb and have them posted on Crop Comments! Be sure to include a caption.)
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- 11/8 - LaGrange, Ind.: Harvest is done. Beans ran 35.7 bu./acre and 14.5% moisture.
- 11/8 - Le Sueur Ccounty, Minn.: Did not even put any wheat in the ground, we planted tillage radishes on last years winter wheat ground and they did not sprout to grow , they were planted late august and very little since beans were planted late and froze and were combined in the first eight days of October and that it is getting a little late for Winter wheat here unless we have ideal conditions, with no moisture to get it started and low prices compared to corn why plant that late. (Read more wheat-related comments at AgWeb's www.VirtualWheatTour.com)
- 11/8 - East central Iowa: Trying to beat the 2-4 inches of rain that’s on the way. We finished beans up today. Video courtesy of scotthinch’s YouTube channel.
- 11/7 - Cayuga County, N.Y.: Finally we have a week of dry weather after 16 inches of rain in August, September and October. We finished beans 270 acres avg. 42 bu/a. Not as good as 2010 corn still avg. (170+ better than 2010).
- 11/7 - Richardson County, Neb.: Harvest is virtually over here. Maybe 1-2% to go. Yields were average. Our soybeans were 7 bu. below our farm's historic average and corn a little below. After 6 weeks we got 4/10 of an inch of rain two days ago.
- 11/7 - East central Iowa: Here’s a video of another late night of combining. We ran into more goose-necked corn than I’d thought we would. We have rain in the forecast. Video courtesy of scotthinch’s YouTube channel.
- 11/7 - Trempealeau County, Wis.: Some of the best corn we have ever had, bottoms running 200-220 and the hills running 180-200bu. The beans were disappointing, around 40bu especially how tall they were. Overall an excellent harvest, stalks were definitely weak, and we had some corn down but nothing more than patches here and there. Started on fall chisel plowing and now I am wishing I had a turbotill to go over the stalks with first, its taking time but we can get thru the trash but we are plugging more and more every year. I hope everyone had a safe and successful harvest.
- 11/7- Caldwell County, Mo.: We continued to plow terraces, and cleaned up a fence row and bulldozer pile, sure was better plowing after are rain. This week we hope to apply more lime and get are plowing done. Might even go deer hunting over the weekend!!
- 11/4- East central Iowa: We received 1-2" of rain on Wednesday afternoon. Sounds like most of the state needed it (but we didn't in our part of state). The break in the action allowed time for some maintenance. 50-55% of the corn is still in the field. A few beans are left to combine. We will start combining again today (Friday). Some nh3 is going on. Lines at the processors are horrible (2-5 hour wait).
- 11/4 - Louisiana: Sweet potatoes are more than just a Thanksgiving dish. They have become a year-round staple. LSU AgCenter correspondent Tobie Blanchard reports Louisiana growers have a good crop of sweet potatoes this year.
- 11/3 - Caldwell County, Mo.: We had an inch and three tenths of rain over night!!!
- 11/3 - Southern Hancock County, Ohio: The combines are finally rolling. Most having to cut ruts to get to crop. The dust is flying but the ground is saturated. Trucks and wagons waiting on nearest roads. This is the second day of full harvest. Hope the rain holds off so the combine can get here.
- 11/3- Coles County, Ill.: Crops on some of my clay ground were as bad as I feared. 112 bu. corn and 27 bu. acre soybeans. Corn on dark ground ran 140 to 195 soybeans on dark ground 39 to 63 bu. acre. That is about 40 bu. acre short on corn and 20 bu. acre short on soybeans.
- 11/1 Hendricks County, Ind.: Seventy percent done with corn. Yields are better than expected running around 160 bu per acre. Our soybeans averaged 53 bu per acre. Thankful to the Lord for harvest and the increase He's given. Be safe.
- 11/1 Coles County, Ill. : Crops on some of my clay ground was as bad as I feared. 112 bu. corn and 27 bu. acre soybeans. Corn on dark ground ran 140 to 195 soybeans on dark ground 39 to 63 bu. acre. that is about 40 bu. acre short on corn and 20 bu. acre short on soybeans.
- 11/1 - East Central Iowa: We got back to combining corn Friday afternoon.
- 11/1 - Hancock County, Ind.: Worst corn yields ever. Just goes to show you, corn needs RAIN. I actually saw the monitor read 0 although there were lots of corn stalks. No ears on the stalks. Pray I never see another year like this.
- 11/1 - Logan and Menard counties, Illinois: William is happy that harvest is over for the year. Not to get ready for next year. Video courtesy of http://farmandranchcountry.com.
- 11/1 - Allen Parish, La.: Louisiana rice farmers are more than halfway through their harvest. Weather created challenges for growers throughout the season, but LSU AgCenter correspondent Tobie Blanchard reports that rice plants seem to have rebounded. Video courtesy of LSU AgCenter. http://www.lsuagcenter.com/
- 11/1 - Rush County, Ind.: Harvest is going better than expected but not good.
- 11/1- Louisiana: Farmers in the Pelican State are more than halfway through the corn harvest. A dry spring and early summer was hard on the crop. LSU AgCenter correspondent Tobie Blanchard has the story. Video courtesy of LSU AgCenter. http://www.lsuagcenter.com/.
