Crops

[Kansas]

Its a good thing farmers aren't a big percentage of our business. Yields are starting to come in from the dryland corn. So far the ranges right around here are running from 8-34 bu per acre. Talked to one guy where they got a bit more rain. 50-60 bu range. The soybeans are turning color on the dryland. You can see exactly where the pivots ran, and the yellowed beans in the corners. I guess aflatoxin is definitely a problem this year this year in the corn, with severe docks on price if they find it. I see a lot of combines running, rarely meet a grain truck. Sounds like the irrigated corn will be down as well. Those 10 straight days in July of plus 100 degrees took their toll. The pivots running nearly nonstop on the beans seems to have slowed down. With 103 yesterday and up around 106 today, maybe it just doesn't pay. I can't imagine what bills for pumping water are.

A lot of corn went in for silage that would not have normally. With hay bringing from 200-300 plus a ton in Texas, feeding silage here and shipping hay there makes a lot more sense.

[Norm]

I wondered how things were going in your area Kansas, thanks for the information.

On Tuesday we had a storm move through that started raining at 11AM and lasted through the late afternoon. We got 1 1/2"s which is the most rain we've had since mid June. It will help some of the beans but I have fields that are done for the year no matter. Our corn is half dented so it's too late for it too. Yields will be off 20-30% easily in our area.

What are the yields like in an average year in your area?

[Kansas]

The farmer across the road is one of the last to do conventional tillage around here. He is used to 180 bu dryland corn. A river bottom field that he has that would normally yield that, he put up in silage. They figured for crop insurance about 8. I can't tell that there has been any difference between conventional tillage and no till. They shut the pivots off the corn a fair amount of time ago.

[submarinesailor]

They shut the pivots off the corn a fair amount of time ago.

For us non-farmer types, what's a pivot?

Bruce

[Norm]

Here's wiki on it Bruce.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Center_pivot_irrigation

It's a big irrigator that pivots around a central point which is normally where the well is sunk.

[submarinesailor]

Thanks.  That's what I thought it was, but wanted to be sure.

Bruce

[paul case]

about 1/2 the corn here is being baled. some looks like it never even made any ears. just cow filler.  the beans are still green and look good but i dont know if there is anything in the pods or not.
with the high cost of fuel and fertilizer, it looks like to me that a fell couldnt make much money on a good year and this year would be a bust. pc

[Kansas]

I would really be worried about nitrate levels in that baled corn. In silage its not so bad..In the bale, not good. I kind of wonder if they won't bale some soybeans. Haven't been around that much.

[Al_Smith]

I didn't know they were called pivots either .I do recall going across I-70 on the way to Colorado  years ago and seeing the exhaust  manifolds of the Ford industrial  engines 429's and 300 6's glowing red at about 3 am in the morning just a pumpin the water .

[Coon]

Excuse my ignorance on baling corn...... we don't even see it grown around these parts.  Do they cut the corn and lay it in swaths to dry before it is baled up like hay or do they cut and bale right away.  I know here when they bale any kind of crops they lay it down to cure for so many days to allow the nitrate levels to drop.  Canola, barley, oats.... evry one of them I know they cut it and leave it for 3-5 days for the nitrate levels to receed to certain levels.  This is even if they wrap the bales to create silage. 

[Norm]

Most times they'll run a chopper of some kind through the field, rake into windrows, and then bale. If it's dry enough to start with they'll pretty much do it  in a couple of days. Silage has to cure to reduce the nitrates is my understanding but Kansas has more experience with this kind of stuff so I'll wait to see what he says.

[Roxie]

Silage is direct cut (green) into the silo and goes through a curing state to release the heat and gas. 

In our area, they are hand cutting the fields knocked down by the wind before they get rained on again and get moldy. 

For the record, the no till fields held up to the wind far better than the tilled fields. 

[Patty]

I heard the same thing Roxie. We had a bad wind storm (over 100 mph) back in July. The corn was flattened. I was amazed to see that most of the corn that had not been uprooted straightened itself up (they call it goose necking because of the bend in the stocks). They said the majority of the uprooted corn was in tilled land.

We no till directly into bean stubble, but the corn on corn fields get chopped & disced to help break down the stocks.

[sandhills]

It's funny how different terms are used around the country, with our silage, we chop the corn green, but mature, and pack it tight in a pile (what we call a silo, just a hole dug into the side of a hill with a concrete bottom) and let it cook the nitrates out.  I'll bet what Roxie calls a silo is along the lines of what Norm and Patty shot down on their farm, just saw a link to that thread last night .  Anyway you look at it I'd definately be at least a little concerned of the nitrate levels in baled, drought stressed corn.

[Roxie]

You are correct.  The silo that I'm referring to is the thing Norm and Patty shot down.   

[Patty]

Yea, nobody uses them around here anymore; they just dump the silage on the ground or into a cement 3-sided area, that we call a silage pit. That way to can just drive up with your tractor's front end loader and scoop up what is needed.

[Kansas]

Yes,  silage does reduce the nitrates. About the only thing you can do to reduce the nitrates in baled corn is cut high. The bottom part of the stalk is often the part that holds the most nitrates. So they cut about 9 inches or so high. But to be safe you have to test the baled corn stover and figure out how much of it you can feed. Cattle can tolerate some nitrates. Grinding that and hay and feeding the appropriate mix is a lot better than just freely feeding it. My guess is there will be a lot of irrigated corn that will be baled up after the combine goes through. I also would bet corn gluten from the alcohol plants will be in hot demand this year. Be a lot of that flowing south from Nebraska and other areas where they got rain. Lot of cattle will be going north. Its cheaper to move the cattle to the feed than the feed to the cattle.

[paul case]

yes they cut it with a hay mower and let it dry(which dont take long right now) then just bale it. large round bales.

the nitrate thing has been on everyones mind here and i know of some fields that didnt get cut fore corn(no ears) and are still standing because of too high nitrate level. it is a big concern.

as far as sileage goes, our corn is too far gone to chop  and do much good. all brown and dead looking. they like to green chop it here too and it is anything but green. it is common practice here to set 2 rows of round bales as sides and dump chopped sileage in the middle and cover the whole thing with a tarp. only the folks who use it every year have a pit silo. as far as letting the nitrates  cook out of sileage, i dont know. however all the sileage i have ever been involved with had to be put in the silo real wet and packed in tight. that way it would fermint and not rot. the smell of good sileage is about like a brewery smells.  pc

[Kansas]

The old timers had a way to put a jug in with the silage and make whiskey. Can't remember the exact process now, but it was pretty simple.

[WH_Conley]

Mason jar, lid not screwed on tight, bottom of pit. As a disclaimer, I have not tried it myself.