A slow start to the day due to drizzle is the perfect opportunity to get grain to the dryer.
“Three weeks ago we did some corn just to test everything, and it was 28% to 29% moisture,” explains Casey Kelleher, a farmer in Whitewater, Wis. “We got back into it last week, and it was down to 18%. Now we’re into some 15%, and it’s going right into the bin.”
That quick dry down is keeping their harvest pace high and trucks rolling across their on-farm scales.
“We got beans done in about a week,” Kelleher says.
Big August Rain
That quick turn followed a challenging finish for the crop, which saw a massive 11" to 13" rain in early August.
“The biggest impact we saw was in soybeans,” Kelleher says. “It brought in disease, even though we had treated with fungicide and really killed our yield. It’s still a respectable yield, but not what we were expecting going into pod fill.”
While disease took a bite out of beans, Kelleher credits that timely fungicide application for preserving the crop as he watched disease pressure ravage the corn belt.
“If you walk and look at our corn, we have tar spot,” he admits. “Iowa and southwest Wisconsin got hit with a southern rust pretty bad. We had a little bit; we were fortunate it didn’t come in until late.”
Yields Keep Pace with 2024
As their combines roll into corn this week, the yield results are proving respectable.
“I think it’ll be just a touch better than last year,” he says as 240 flashes across the yield monitor (although he doesn’t always trust its accuracy). “Test weights are probably the same to a little better than last year.”
Today, they’re harvesting a farm that was underwater during that big August rain.
“We had to pump water off because the water was as high as the ears in some spots,” Kelleher says. “We got it off fast enough that it didn’t take the crop down.”
The biggest challenge this harvest has been back at the bin and deciding what needs to go through the dryer. Much of the corn is within a point of being dry enough, and so it’s forcing them to mix and match and make decisions load by load.
Input Costs Top 2026 Concerns
It’s all part of the harvest process as this Wisconsin team hustles toward the finish line of 2025 and makes plans for 2026.
“At the top of my list are input prices,” Kelleher says. “We’ve been so religious with putting down inputs, not over-applying, but using our variable rate prescriptions to put on what we need, where we need it for the yield we’re getting, but we’re going to cut back this year just because of the prices. I mean, you’ve got to be able to try to turn a profit and not put it all into the ground.”
They continue to face the unknowns of the future while counting this season’s performance in the present. Fundamental agronomy, timely applications and reasonable weather teamed up for this farmer to hit their 2025 expectations.
