And That's A Wrap: Corn Harvest 2020

 

The sun has set on Corn Harvest 2020. (Actually, it set a long time ago, but I had other things to write about.)

And the numbers are in.

The overall average was 98 bushels per acre. The high was 107 bu/acre and the low was 85 bu/acre. We don't have irrigation, so these are dryland crop totals.

How does Corn Harvest 2020 stack up with previous years' averages?

2020 - 98 bu/acre
2019 - 66.6 bu/acre
2018 - 82 bu/acre
2017 - 43.6 bu/acre
2016 - 71 bu/acre
2015 - 43.88 bu/acre
2014 - 108 bu/acre
2013 - 57 bu/acre (This was the first year we added corn into the crop rotation).

When you reach the end of a season, it's always good to look back to where you've been. To read more about each stage, click on the links:

 

Back in April, we received this "care package" in the mail from some anonymous friends (who didn't end up staying anonymous ... Thanks Bob and Debbie!)

Anyway, at the time, I made the hypothesis that given the Great Pandemic Toilet Paper Shortage of 2020, we might be smarter to bypass the corn itself and move directly to marketing the cobs.

Facebook photo post by Jim Chansler of our local grocery store, Paul's, on March 18

 

However, my farmer didn't go for that theory, so we planted corn April 20 through April 28, with stops and starts because of rain.  

April 2020

 

Wheat has always been our primary crop, and that was the case again in 2020. Because we are a totally dryland farm, wheat typically performs better than corn on our acreage.  

 

After 2019's increase of corn acreage because of prevented planting of wheat acres, we planted 600 acres of corn in 2019. This year, we were back to just 150 acres of corn planted. Our corn acreage is not going to "break the bunker," so to speak, at our local co-op, but it does play a role in our crop rotation here on The County Line. 

Planting, April 2020

The corn had emerged by May 1.

By the first week in June, it was off to a good start after beneficial spring rains.

The corn crop survived three different wind storms in June and July that demolished trees and made our lean-to "lean" a little more than it needed to.

June 22, 2020

It's amazing to me how quickly corn grows, compared to wheat. Wheat harvest is 9 months in the making. Corn goes from planting to maturity in just a little more than 100-114 days.

July 16, 2020

We were the first to deliver corn to the local elevator, though some of our neighbors had cut and delivered high-moisture corn to a nearby feed lot. I wrote "You Might Be a Farmer ..." when we began cutting.

And that's a wrap ... until next year.  On to milo and silage harvest! We hope to finish up our 2021 wheat planting today. There's always something to do.