December 2015 Field Report
A Wet Ending to 2015
Trent Brandenburg is happy to recall the excellent spring and harvest weather and work progress during 2015. Yields were “very good”, Trent observed, just not quite up to 2014 levels. Market prices, on the other hand, weren’t good. The unusually dry fall helped corn dry in the field, thus saving drying expenses at the grain elevator.
Looking ahead to 2016 after several days of record-breaking rainfall and record flood levels in Central Illinois, Trent recalls that warm, wet winters are often followed by hot, dry summers. Trent wryly speculated that a hot, dry summer might reduce yields so much that crop insurance would provide more revenue than the grain market. Trent thinks it’s good that the ground is not frozen.
He held off applying fertilizer in the fall because of the dry soil. Thus he escaped the leaching loss of that fertilizer from the heavy rain, ponding, and flooding of the past few days.
Wishing everyone a happy and healthy new year from Brandenburg Farms.