Sometimes the trend is your friend, sometimes the trend is not your friend. The current trend is not our friend this summer as the prevailing dry weather has been continuing. There was no measurable precipitation over the last week. Thankfully it has been cooler out, which is limiting the crop stress. Overnight lows got down as low as +5C on a few nights! Forecast for the next 7-10 day period is still looking dry, with no change in the pattern in sight. What started out as one of the better crop conditions entering June that we have had – great emergence, plant stand and crop competitiveness, is turning into a below average potential as we enter the middle part of July. As they say, Rain Makes Grain…you can only live off subsoil moisture for so long.
We have been busy getting ready for harvest – going through all the grain bins; augers; semi trucks and trailers; and also the major pieces like combines and swathers. We had bought John Deere X9 combines for the 2022 season, but with production delays they did not arrive until harvest was complete. This will be our first season with these machines – we are excited to try them out and see what their potential is. With the increased capacity of these machines we reduced the number of combines we are operating, but also increased capacity in adding a grain cart, another semi / trailer; and using a different strategy with augers as we unload to grain bins. Once we get into harvest, and if we have some fields that are able to produce average to above average – we will be able to see where our bottlenecks will be. Logistics has become the major component to maximizing efficiencies. We have a plan, now we will ground truth that plan to see if we have to make any adjustments / improvements.
We have also been busy with other tasks around the farm — yard upkeep such as cutting grass, spraying weeds around the yard, and limiting the amount of “stuff” that always seems to accumulate. There are some smaller grain contracts that we have been keeping 1 or 2 trucks on the road to deliver to grain terminals. People are also planning their holidays and will be taking time to get rested up prior to the big push that is coming up!
Here is to hoping an unexpected weather event shows up and gives us some much needed moisture!
