With harvest underway for most producers in the state, the next big challenge is to properly manage logistics to successfully deliver high quality grain to the point of sale. Depending where a producer is located it may or may not make sense to sell corn or soybeans right out of the field for numerous reasons (basis or future price, deferred income in next tax year, etc.). Harvest crop moisture can add another layer of complication for the 2020 growing season. So far this fall corn is taking a while to get dried down, and in some situations, soybeans are [...]

Q & A with Christy Ford, Grain Originator with CHS Carrollton I’m sure we can all agree that we will be glad when the challenges of 2020 are behind us. However, we may all come out stronger and more appreciative of how life used to be and how simple it was to do business. With soybean harvest underway in some parts of the state, I felt it was important to reach out to a good friend and my personal grain advisor to share how to handle the grain elevator during fall 2020. Christy Ford is the grain originator with [...]

With harvest starting on some early maturing varieties, soybean yields are on a lot of growers’ minds. This year Illinois experienced a large feeding frenzy by Bean Leaf Beetle in many areas that called for late application of insecticide, but what else could explain loss in yield? Apart from June planted beans, little can be done at this point to help retain yield, but there are a few things to scout for in order to help explain some problem areas that you might encounter this fall or possibly next year. Insects & diseases Final stand counts Stressed areas Soybean [...]

Four years ago, I entered a field in the Illinois Soybean Association 100-Bushel Challenge. The field was an early planted full-season variety. To say they looked great was an understatement. They had a good stand, good branching, and, most impressive of all, great pod counts. Unfortunately, the year turned dry at the end and my plants wound up dropping about 30% of their pods. My full season maturity hurt me. They still looked good (not great), so I decided to enter them into the contest. I had hoped to cut them at the end of the week, but due [...]

I know you’re thinking this might be another repetitive article about basic, common sense information. But it’s that very mindset that increases the likelihood of farming accidents. Most accidents happen in the peak of the season when everyone is tired from the long days and little down time. Optimal weather conditions and daylight hours seem to be at a minimum and the time to get the year’s crop out shrinks as the year comes to a close. This issue is personal for me because I lost my grandfather in a combining accident this past December and it has forever [...]

With 2020 soybean harvest upon us, we are starting to see several fields turn yellow and soon the results of management practices and how a variety handled the season will be in. Yield is a weight number of how well a soybean managed itself during challenging environments and how efficiently it underwent photosynthesis. But yield is also an indication of how well we as agronomists and farmers managed a field and crop. Now is a great time to become a “student of the field” and learn as much as you can to improve management decisions for next year. Below [...]