A 2017 Corn Report: Mother Nature Won

Mother Nature won. In the epic battle of Farmer vs. Mother Nature, she denied access to timely rain. She opted for 100-degree temperatures during critical growing times. She would tease us with rain clouds we could see on the horizon but kept the raindrops from falling on our parched fields.

So, it's a bit anticlimactic to report on Corn Harvest 2017. On second thought, let's just keep it lower case ... corn harvest 2017 doesn't deserve the capital letters. It was not a bumper crop. In fact, it was the worst corn crop we've had in the five years since adding it to the crop rotation on the County Line.

 

 Our 320 acres planted to corn yielded an average of 43.6 bushels per acre.

 

Since we are a totally dryland farming operation, we are dependent upon Mother Nature's rains and her heat index during critical times like pollination. She seems to be like the playground bully when it comes to County Line corn.

To compare with previous years, 2016's overall average was 71 bushels per acre. Our first year of corn production was 2013, and we had an average yield of 57 bushels per acre. In 2014, we had our best year to date, with an average of 108 bushels per acre. Overall yield average for 2015 was 43.88 bushels per acre.

The journey toward Corn Harvest 2017 began in April, when Randy planted the crop. (For a look back along the way, click on this link.)

April 2017:  The corn seed in the middle of the photo was at the end of the row, where Randy turned. Most of the seeds end up underground, where they are supposed to be, but I still liked the photo.

May 2017

We finished corn harvest September 25, but it would have been sooner had we not had some combine problems.

Our 320 acres of corn likely sounds like small potatoes - or small sprouts - to anybody who has circles of corn.

But we are primarily wheat farmers, and we were thankful for our second-best wheat crop ever here on the County Line.

After a nice, gentle 3.40" rain the week before, we started planting wheat on October 2. However, we've gotten 0.50" in the past couple of days, so we are at a standstill in that process. No complaining about moisture is allowed! We'd like to keep on Mother Nature's good side for this crop.

More on wheat planting to come ...

Picking? Or Cutting?

Are we picking corn or cutting corn? That is the question.

Since we're relatively new to corn production here on The County Line, I fall back on my wheat harvest terminology and say we are "cutting corn." My Farmer says that there just might be an old fella or two at Joan's Cafe who would correct me. They are of the "corn picking" vernacular.

No matter how you say it, we started corn harvest yesterday. (I think my "corn harvest" semantics will please all "cutting" and "picking" camps.)

Our combine has an eight-row header. (In the photo below, you can't see all eight rows.)

I think they look a little like missiles as they move down between the rows. The corn ears are pulled off the corn stalk and are dragged into the combine with rollers. Inside the combine, the corn kernels are separated from the husks and cobs.

Then the cobs and debris are dispersed out the back of the combine, leaving it on the ground to protect the soil from erosion and return plant matter to the earth. (We may also fence it off and have cattle on corn stalks later this fall.)

Once the combine bin gets full ...

... it's time to dump it into the truck. Many farmers have a grain cart pulled by a tractor to do this step, but we unload from the combine directly into the trucks.

In this photo, you can also see the whole header.

This is the first time we've used our semi for harvest.

 

We had a good first day of cutting ... or picking ... or harvest. Take your pick of terminology.

 

And you can't beat a beautiful sunset to end the day.

Miracles in the Making?

God says, "Leave the miracle part to me. 

I've got the seed, the soil, the sunshine, the rain and the seasons.

I'm God and all this miracles stuff is easy for me. 

I have reserved something very special for you 

and that is to plant the seed."

--Jim Rohn, Author & Motivational Speaker

Two weeks ago, I walked across the road and took photos of Randy planting corn. It was one of those days when the brilliant blue sky dusted with wisps of clouds beautifully offset the brown earth. My farmer was planting seeds.

A farmer believes in miracles. If he didn't, he'd never plant a seed. Last Friday, we walked across the road again, and little green corn sprouts lined up like soldiers down rows of brown earth.

We had gotten 0.40" of rain Wednesday night and early Thursday morning. That little bit of moisture had perked up these tiny, delicate plants. Do we need more rain to make this start a crop? Yes. We didn't get more than a sprinkle over the weekend when some areas in Central Kansas got as much as 1.5 inches of much-needed moisture.

Do we need the wind to die down and quit blowing dirt across Kansas? Absolutely, and that's where the miracle comes in, I suppose.

Wheat is still our primary crop at the County Line. But this is our second year of adding dryland corn to the rotation. In recent years, there has been some dryland corn planted in our area, but wheat is the dominate crop. For most in this immediate area, irrigation is not an option. Our proximity to Quivira National Wildlife Refuge and its salt marshes is not ideal for quality ground water for irrigation.

Corn was a primary crop in this area when it was settled. The 6th Biennial Report of the Kansas State Board of Agriculture of 1888 reported that corn was the main crop for Stafford County, covering 48,030 acres. Oats were grown on 10,849 acres, while the winter wheat crop totaled 8,717 acres. Pasture ground was tallied at 13,446 acres. Other crops in 1888 were millet, spring wheat, rye, Irish and sweet potatoes, sorghum, castor beans, cotton, flax, hemp, tobacco and broom corn. Swine outnumbered cattle in livestock. (Information taken from Stafford County History: 1870-1990.)

The corn across the road was planted on ground where we harvested wheat last year.

We have a no-till planter, so we are planting into the residue left after the wheat was harvested. The multi-fingered blades cut through the wheat straw so that the seed can be deposited into the soil. After the last few days of relentless wind, Randy's investment in buying the no-till planter seems smarter by the minute. With the sky (and we humans) choked by flying dirt, the residue on the surface is helping to keep a fragile hold on the soil in the corn fields as the small plants emerge.

Randy also applies fertilizer to give the seed a boost of energy for germination and early growth.

In some ways, I guess we are returning to Randy's Stafford County farming ancestors' roots by planting corn. However, the corn planted today is much different than the varieties planted 125 years ago.

 

Today, many farmers plant RIB corn (refuge in a bag) - whether it's irrigated or dryland.

The green-colored seeds have a different genetic make-up and are treated with a different insecticide than the pink-colored seeds. The pink seeds are a refuge for several different insects in a field, giving them a habitat to satisfy EPA rules. Before RIB technology was available, farmers had to plant so many acres in a field to a corn that wasn't resistant to the bugs and the rest of the field could be resistant. With RIB technology, farmers can plant it all at the same time, without changing seed and figuring acreage requirements. 

Our planter was set at 18,800 corn seeds per acre. Each $260 bag had 80,000 seeds and plants 4.3 acres. One bag of certified wheat seed costs $15 and plants a little more than 1/2 an acre. A bag of milo seed costs $100 and plants 14 acres.

Prior to last year, we planted milo as our row crop. Corn offers a potential for higher yields (or so my Farmer says. I don't think he is just justifying the purchase of a corn header for the combine). There is more drought tolerance built into dryland corn seeds than previously available. 

Additionally, corn is Round-Up ready, and milo is not. We have been having trouble controlling weeds in milo. If there are weeds and grasses in the corn, we can spray with Round-Up without harming the growing plants.

As with any crop, there is a great deal of time between planting and harvest. We will need rain to fall and hail to stay away and the wind to quit blowing in 50 MPH gusts. But, my always optimistic farmer is hopeful. That's just the way he's built, though I must say the unrelenting wind is cracking his armor of optimism just a bit. 

I know for certain that miracles happen,

but only for those who hang on to hope.

--Nick Vujicic

Life Without Limits: Inspiration for a Ridiculously Good Life 

I walked across the road last night near sunset, and the little plants looked like they'd been in a nine-round prize fight against a heavyweight champion. They have. They've been beaten by the unrelenting Kansas wind for the past three days. And the forecast today won't give the tender plants a breather in the neutral corner either. Randy says the corn can come back from this beat-down. I think they will have to be champion prize fighters to do it!

Corn Kernels

The combine has gulped its last "bite" of our dryland corn crop, and we're moving on to the next crop -  planting wheat for harvest in the summer of 2014. 

Photo through the dirty combine window, but you can see the corn cobs coming into the combine.

This was our first time ever to raise dryland corn. We planted it as our row crop instead of milo this year. Randy picked the right year to try it. After the past two summers of extreme drought, we received some timely rains this summer.

Wheat is our primary crop, and that won't change anytime soon. But Randy was pleased with the overall average yield of 57 bushels per acre for our debut as corn farmers.

View from the combine cab during harvest

We had a low yield of 18 bushels per acre. That ground isn't as fertile with any crop, and pollination of the corn crop occurred during the hottest and driest days of the summer, further dropping yields. Our highest yield was a field that brought in 78 bushels per acre.

Harvest time is like seeing miracles happen. It's pretty amazing to think that this small plant I photographed in May ...

May 2013

... then throughout the summer ...

August 2013

... yielded its grain in September.

On the left is the corn cob after the grain has been removed by the combine.

 Randy has already placed his order for next year's corn seed. And the adventure continues ...

Ballet for the Bovines

Click on the photo for a closer look at the "choreography."

It might not be Swan Lake, but there's some fancy choreography in this Ballet for the Bovines. A bright morning sun lit the scene instead of a stage's spotlights. Rather than tiny, light-footed ballerinas in a choreographed dance, three mammoth tractors lumbered in pirouetting perfection. Two rainbows of gold provided the special effects. The audience included several thousand bovines who just might have been licking their lips in anticipation of a visit to the "concession stand" at intermission.

Last week, we hauled several loads of higher-moisture corn to the Haw Ranch Feedlot near Turon. While traditional co-op elevators want moisture content at around 16 or below, the feedlot wanted grain at 24 to 32 percent moisture.

In fact, if the corn was too dry, you got docked. If the moisture dropped below 24 percent, there was a 1.2 percent per point dockage. If it was too wet (above 32), the shrinkage was 1.5 percent per point.

The feedlot is around 15 miles from our farm. When we got to the feedlot, Randy unrolled the tarp covering the truck bed. 

Meanwhile, cowboys had herded some cattle onto the scales, weighing them to determine weight gains after a few weeks of dining on crabgrass pastures. Cowboys and cattle aren't usually part of the scenery when we take a trip to the co-op elevator.

After a moisture test at the scale house, Randy dumped the corn right on to a cement pad. Almost as soon as it was dumped, a big front loader came and pushed the corn into a pile.

Then, they used another front loader to scoop corn into the grinders.

There, the corn was broken down into cattle feed. Augers shot the ground corn into the silo, where the three big John Deere tractors pushed and packed it tight. 

I was glad I went along for the ride when I did because we didn't have to wait very long. Later in the day, Randy was in a line with 30 trucks, mostly semis, waiting to dump. We don't have a semi, so he decided we would quit hauling to the feedlot because of the distance and the downtime.

The big equipment and crew travel from feedlot to feedlot during corn harvest, putting up the corn into silos. The Haw Ranch Feedlot planned to take in approximately 800,000 bushels of higher-moisture corn in about one week's time. In addition, some area farmers sold corn silage to the feedlot. All will be used to feed cattle there at the feedlot, which has a 50,000-head capacity.

 

Ours was not a starring role in the Ballet for the Bovines, but everyone knows that those "bit parts" are important to the overall big picture.

View From the Combine Cab

"Thumping" is not usually a sound a Kansas wheat farmer wants to hear in the combine cab. Too often, it signals a malfunction of the mammoth machine that will likely result in costly repairs and downtime.

But, we Kansas wheat farmers on the County Line are discovering that corn harvest is a bit different. The thump, thump, thump as corn cobs enter the machine is just business as usual.

The quality of this photo isn't the best. It's not easy to take a photo of moving parts. Still, maybe it can give you the idea of what's happening!

This is the first time we've raised corn in our 32 years of farming together. In recent years, there has been some dryland corn planted in our area, but wheat is still the dominate crop around here. For most in this immediate area, irrigation is not an option. Our proximity to Quivira National Wildlife Refuge and its salt marshes is not ideal for quality ground water for irrigation.

This year, instead of planting milo as our row crop, we planted corn. There's a potential for higher yields, and there is more drought tolerance built into dryland corn seeds than previously available.  Additionally, corn is Round-Up ready, and milo is not. We have been having trouble controlling weeds in milo. If there are weeds and grasses in the corn, we can spray with Round-Up without harming the growing plants. 

Generous summer rains have helped us find some measure of success in our maiden voyage as corn farmers. However, extreme heat during pollination has reduced yields in some fields.

There is a learning curve for we new corn farmers. Randy is getting used to running our new corn head, which looks kind of like it has eight missiles attached to the front. He runs each missile-shaped attachment between the rows. The combine strips the corn cobs from the corn stalk, then the cobs are run through the machine.

Randy's reflection in the back window of the combine cab, with corn being deposited in the grain bin on the combine.

The cobs and stalks end up behind the machine. And the golden corn is augered up into the bin.

 Then, Randy offloads it into the grain truck, so that it can be hauled to market.

 

That's the process - theoretically, anyway. However, cutting a different crop means some tinkering with the combine to make sure the grain is getting separated from the stalk and cob, so Randy checks what's left behind the combine and makes adjustments as needed.

Last week, we cut higher moisture corn to take to the Haw Ranch Feedlot near Turon. They want the corn with a moisture percentage between 24 to 32 percent. They then grind the corn into cattle feed. (More on that process tomorrow.)

 

Our local cooperative elevator wanted moisture percentages at 16 or lower.  We hauled several loads to the Turon feed lot Tuesday and Wednesday. However, last Wednesday afternoon, Randy sat in a line of more than 30 trucks, waiting to dump. Since we don't have a semi truck for hauling, he decided that it was no longer worth the time or money to haul 20 miles away and have that much downtime.

On Monday, it had dried down enough to haul to Zenith, so Randy & Jake are back in business and cutting corn. 

Tomorrow - Hauling corn to the feedlot - a new adventure!