Another harvest is in the books. It seems kind of anticlimactic. We started corn harvest on August 27 and finished on Tuesday, September 15, with lots of starts and stops along the way. We only had 243 acres of corn, so it is not a primary crop here on the County Line.
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| The last load, September 15, 2015 |
This was our third corn crop. It was not a banner year for corn for us. Our highest yield was 73.7 bushels to the acre, but that was only a 17-acre field. The next best was 55.8 bushels per acre on a 50-acre field. The worst yield was 23.5 bu/acre on a 29-acre field. Overall yield average for 2015 was 43.88 bushels per acre.
All our corn is dryland. We had hot weather and no rain during the critical stages of corn development. We also had trouble controlling herbicide-resistant weeds.
So, how does corn harvest 2015 compare to our first two years? Our first year of corn production was 2013. We had an average yield of 57 bushels per acre, with a low of 18 and a high of 78. Last year, in 2014, we had a great year. Our average was 108 bushels per acre, with a low of 82 and a high of 145.
Here's a photographic look back at Corn 2015, with links to the blog posts telling about each stage of the crop's journey:
PLANTING
Randy initially
started planting April 11, but we got rain that night
and the next day, totaling 1.50 inches. Then, we got another 3.10 inches
on April 16 and 17. A week later, April 23, a couple of
fields had dried out enough to plant more. But when Randy about got the
tractor and planter stuck after moving to another field, he took another
hiatus. He started again April 28.
Just getting started
GROWTH
June 1, 2015
HARVEST
Kim, I've said it before and will say it again, I'm still amazed at how far ahead of us Kansas is. Chopping corn for silage is on the horizon for the farmers in our area.
ReplyDeletePreconditioning is in the books at our house. Friday we got .85" of rain!
I'm glad you got some rain. We have a foggy day today, so Randy is starting to plant wheat. He had hoped to harvest soybeans, but I don't think that's going to happen today. We only have one field of soybeans, so it's not a big to-do!
DeleteI've seen a few monarchs fluttering around on their migration to Mexico. I haven't gotten close enough to any of them for photos though.
I'm sure you're glad to have the corn harvest finished. I'm sorry it wasn't a better year for you! As we farmers knows, it's all dependent on the weather. We just finished up with corn silage on Saturday, but haven't yet begun shelling out the dry corn.
ReplyDeleteGood luck with your corn harvest. We use a forage sorghum for our silage. We have it custom cut. Randy has called the harvester to come, so we hope he'll be able to work it into his schedule soon!
DeleteI like watching corn harvest here. It always amazes me. MB
ReplyDeleteI don't think it's as pretty as wheat harvest, but, then again, I guess we're a wheat farming family at heart!
DeleteI always find your end of season harvest reports very interesting. And you can't beat having the same model to measure the height of the corn growing. Great photos
ReplyDeleteYes, I must say I have a very cooperative model!
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