03 Oct Christy: Desiccation for the win

Ocheyedan, Iowa—After reading all the literature on spraying a field of beans by Ocheyedan using Gramoxone, it sounded like Paul’s beans should be ready to combine by day fourteen or fifteen. After looking them over on day ten, Paul decided they were ready on day eleven. The plant wasn’t completely dried out, but the beans were dry. They combined well, if still a little slow going, and I’m really happy to report they averaged 81 bushels per acre. Paul says he will be using this method in the future. It helps so much to have a more exact timeline with our schedule so we can also accommodate our customers in a timely manner.
Bean harvest is rolling right along this week. We have two combines around Hartley, Iowa, that have seen averages around 60 bushels per acre. After a good rain on Friday, everyone got going again and we’ll still be looking to continue with beans through next week. It’s good to see great averages so far and we hope to see that number rise as we work through more fields.

Rolling through bean acres. It’s great to see good yields overall so far.

After many rain delays in North Dakota, Gary finally finished wheat harvest by Ray. And not a moment too soon as the skies opened up again in the final field and dropped a hefty amount of rain. It continued to rain as they loaded equipment, but they started their move to Elkton, South Dakota, yesterday and arrived today. As things have really progressed with the warm dry weather this fall, machines are desperately needed back around here. As we get all the machinery back, it’ll take a little time to get everyone set up with the customers who are ready. We’ll be able to determine who needs to go where and get combines switched over to beans.

Combining beans by Round Lake, Minnesota.

After Paul finished combining his beans, he moved back over by Round Lake, Minnesota, and was able to get started there again after running into wet beans. On Sunday, the elevator is only open until 6, so they’ll fill up what they can and get started again on Monday. This afternoon Zoey and her cousin decided Paul needed some company and they jumped in for a round in the field. It’s always a great visit, and hopefully the girls didn’t drive Paul too crazy with singing along to all their favorite country songs.

Zoey and her cousin, Emmy, take a ride in the combine with Paul. Hopefully they were pretty good for him. 

There’s definitely beginning to be more farmers in the field in this area, and I think we will see a lot more this week. Things have changed greatly in the area as I’ve said due to dry warm conditions. The weather will be a little cooler this week topping out in the mid-60s to low 70s with the sun shining. It’s good to see no rain in the forecast, and it will give us the opportunity to hopefully cover many acres and get us closer to switching over to picking corn.
Hope everyone else has had a great start too, and so grateful for good weather.

Christy Paplow can be reached at christy@allaboardharvest.com.

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