Growers are Ready for Fieldwork – Soil is Not
It’s Pretty Spongy
Trent Brandenburg wants to begin his spring fieldwork, but reports the soil is “pretty spongy”. He is hauling grain and is hampered by the wet soil in getting his trucks into his bins to load. This past week’s bright, sunny days in Central Illinois bring on the urge to plant. “Last year was a good year for soybeans,” Trent observed, commenting on Piatt County, Illinois, having the largest per-acre soybean yield in the United States.
“I don’t have a crystal ball,” Trent continued, as he plans to stick with his 50-50 corn-soybean acreage split. “Corn prices are good, too,” Trent continued. Trent’s fertility inputs are stable, but costs are up. He expects to use more fungicide to keep his yields up, even though crop protection chemicals are more expensive. “You have to keep the yield up, in order to have bushels to sell,” Trent concluded, hoping continuing high market prices will minimize his profit squeeze.
More from The Field Report
Wild And Windy Winter Weekend
Trent Brandenburg and family endured a near miss yesterday as a tornado touched down a few miles from their home place. Tornadoes are a rare occurrence in December, but a "bomb cyclone" ripped through central Illinois yesterday. Houses were unroofed [...]
Dry Weather Speeds Harvest
Trent Brandenburg is trying to get his field work done "before it rains". Much of the area Trent farms is in "extreme drought" according to the Illinois Drought Monitor https://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/CurrentMap/StateDroughtMonitor.aspx?IL map, which is updated every Thursday. The very dry soil [...]
In a Drought, but Corn is Too Wet to Harvest
The current Illinois drought map (11 September) shows severe drought in the northern 40% of Piatt County and moderate drought in the rest of Piatt and adjacent areas of neighboring counties. Trent Brandenburg has barely started harvesting because his corn [...]