Cornfields in central Illinois usually look like this in mid-October if they haven’t been harvested already. This year the record-breaking drought has made fields look like this in July when corn is supposed to be actively growing and pollinating. Considering that rainfall totals for the year in Trent’s area are roughly 20 inches below normal, […]

With the extensive drought from California to Ohio and corn prices soaring to over $8 a bushel, Trent is one of thousands of farmers who very seriously want rain. Trent tries to look for positive things to offset the pervasive gloom he hears from older farm operators. He says, ” The fields that are getting […]

Trent Brandenburg notes some corn damage already from the extended dry period. According to the National Weather Service in Lincoln, “Much of central Illinois (except for Springfield) is running 7-17 inches behind 2011 precipitation totals for the first half of the year, with Paris and Lawrenceville nearly 20 inches below last year” Trent estimates that […]

Trent is about half-done with his soybean planting today, May 11, and expects to finish Monday, May 14, if there is no rain.  The planting is going well, although from one field to the next the soil condition ranges from dusty-dry in this field, to wetter than you should plant in the next. The corn […]

As the days get longer marking the arrival of spring, the farming focus is on planning the year ahead, beginning with planting beginning in April. Trent’s immediate decisions concern crop insurance. Big changes in the crop insurance landscape this year require careful study of the various programs and options ahead of the March 15 signup […]

Trent Brandenburg makes a safe prediction for 2012 as he reflects on 2011. Trent is finishing his year-end bookkeeping and tax work, and hauling grain for January delivery as muddy conditions permit. Trent is happy for the rain, because the ground is not yet frozen, so the rain will soak into the soil and not […]

As the first frost of fall appears in the Brandenburg fields, Trent looks back on a season which dealt some adversity, but ended with about average yields overall. Trent has completed his own fall harvest and tillage, but is still doing some custom work for other operators. The fall tillage has been made easier by […]

This picture of wind-blown corn in mid-season illustrates the problem with getting a combine and its corn head through a field of corn downed by wind damage. Trent Brandenburg has several of areas of fields like this from a windstorm this summer. Because it’s slow going, Trent is harvesting these first, while waiting for the […]

Trent Brandenburg is happy to see all the corn tassels but he would prefer that all of his plantings were tasseling at the same time. Due to the “water stunting” of plants which were in wet ground during the the protracted wet weather in May and June, the crop maturity progress is uneven. Trent foresees […]