18 Oct Christy: Beans, beans, and more beans

All over the place—As harvest goes, every year is very different from the year before. This year it seems like so many farmers have planted a lot more soybeans than previous years. As far as things look right now, most places we harvest will be either continuing to work on beans, or some are switched over to corn.

Out in Roscoe, South Dakota, Patrick’s crew is still working on beans, and as of a couple of days ago they still had 5,000 acres to go. They probably won’t switch over to corn for about another week. The beans are still averaging out there around 45 to 50 bushels per acre and are being hauled 55 miles one way to an elevator by Aberdeen, South Dakota. That’s a long haul and slows things down a bit.

By Elkton, South Dakota, Gary is working on corn, and Cameron is still going on beans. Not too sure how much is left for beans out there, but hopefully soon Cameron will get done on beans and be able to help Gary with corn. Our farmer by Elkton contracted a lot of corn to be delivered by Oct. 15, so it needs to come out and get hauled in by then.

Down in Hartley, Iowa, Parker’s crew has completed soybeans, and they are switched over to corn. The corn there is doing about 220 bushels per acre. I thought this is pretty good, but according to the farmer it isn’t quite what it should be. By Hartley they didn’t get enough rain this summer and corn is producing below what they usually see—between 250 and 260 bushels per acre. I hope they too, like so many other places, get plenty of rain next year.

Picking 220 bushel corn by Hartley, Iowa.

Paul was able to complete our bean harvest by Ivanhoe, Minnesota, and he started on corn by Round Lake a couple of days ago. If things go the way they should, we should complete our customer by Round Lake in the next two weeks. At that time, we can move that machine over to help whomever else who still has acres to cut, or work on our corn. But usually our corn comes last.

Combining corn by Round Lake, Minnesota.

After the wild transmission troubles we had last week, we found out they were more solvable a problem than it appeared at first. It seems there was a coupler failing that caused the transmission trouble, but parts were available and all three machines were fixed quickly. That was good news during this crucial time on harvest.

Great weather by Hartley, Iowa, for fall harvest.

The weather has been absolutely awesome for harvest so far. We did see some rain earlier this week that stopped operations for a day or so, but the current outlook tells me we won’t have another break for the foreseeable future. Which is a good thing, too, because it means we are that much closer to finishing up for the year.

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

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