View from the Cab: Pulling it all off

By: Kent Casson

Sometimes harvest is like ripping off a Band Aid. You just want it to get here and be done.

It’s usually not so bad as I greatly enjoy bringing in the corn and soybean crops each fall, but when we don’t start the season until late September is a different story. This only pushes everything back and we are then at the mercy of Mother Nature to get all of the crops to market in a timely manner.

There is nothing worse than being stuck with a field of soybeans standing out in the snow and waiting who knows how many days to get them out. Or, we could be stuck with week after week of wet weather where soybean cutting is not possible. Someone just told me today they couldn’t imagine being out there at Christmas time harvesting. Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.

We all recall the late fall season of 2009 when we didn’t finish everything until the middle of December. I don’t think we even started harvesting anything until the second week of October, if I remember correctly. That was a harvest full of wet fields and muddy equipment. Even though it is getting a tad late now, hopefully ground conditions remain good and we can get through the fields alright.

I knew when we got those heavy rains about the time of the Fairbury Fair in late August that things would stay green a while longer. Not only did the corn and soybean fields stay very green for a long time, but the grass kept growing. They always say if the grass looks lush in late summer, the crops are doing alright. Let’s hope that is the case.

While I haven’t heard too many official harvest reports yet, I am optimistic for strong corn yields. It was a very dry start to the summer in June but the rains came at a good time for many cornfields in July as pollination began. Then, we had cooler nights right on through grain fill.

Soybeans are the crop we are really looking forward to harvesting as I feel they have excellent yield potential this year. August rains often make soybeans and we received plenty of showers around here. If you mix an application of insecticide and fungicide into the equation, the stage is set for superb soybean performance.

As of this writing, we have not ventured out into the field with the combine just yet but I hope to have some actual news to report next week. I am hoping to tell you how smooth and flawless the 2022 harvest is going.

The long days and sleepless nights of the fall season in Central Illinois are almost here. Are you ready? I sure am.