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.

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.

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 ...

Hot Brakes, Cool Heads

"It's not just a job, it's an adventure."

The slogan was first used for a Navy commercial, but it was an apt response from a fellow farm wife to this post on my Facebook page last Friday afternoon:

It's not a good thing when your trip to the elevator involves a fire extinguisher. However, cool heads prevail over hot brakes.

People will sometimes say they are "putting out fires" at work. I don't think there are supposed to be actual flames. We seem to be the exception to that rule. 
 
It started as an attempt to document another aspect of corn harvest. Earlier, I'd ridden along as we took a load of high-moisture corn to the Haw Ranch Feedlot near Turon.  We haul the majority of our grain to the Zenith and Stafford branches of the Kanza Co-op, so I wanted to give some equal time to our friends there. 

It started innocently enough. I rode along on the combine as Randy cut corn. When the truck was full, we took off for Zenith. On the way, we heard an unusual squeak, but we couldn't figure out the source of the noise, even after peering into the rearview mirrors.

But, when we turned the corner into the Zenith Co-op's drive, a billow of smoke came up. The smoke and the smell followed us all the way to the office, where we parked to have the grain tested and the truck weighed.

In the excitement of Randy grabbing the fire extinguisher from the cab, I missed getting a photo of the smoke billowing out from the right side of the truck, where were actual flames (though small) or of Randy as firefighter. Thankfully, the fire extinguisher did the job. So much for my play-by-play captions of dumping grain at the elevator!

You can see the orange probe hovering over the truck. The operator inside the office uses the probe to get a sample of the corn. One of the tests is for moisture. While the feedlot wanted the grain between 24 to 35 percent moisture for grinding, the co-op prefers it at 16 or under. The load is docked if it is above 16 because the co-op then has to dry the grain.

The corn is also tested for foreign material and bugs. If the grain has too much of either of those things, there's also a dockage charge.

Since we have a smaller truck, we many times dump inside the elevator. However, when we rolled onto the scales with flames, the executive decision was made for us to dump into the pit outside the elevator. Good idea, guys!

A co-op worker opens the slides on the back of the truck, then signals Randy to begin raising the truck bed. As the driver, you watch in your rearview mirror and watch for hand signals from the co-op worker. Sometimes, they want you to pause so the grain doesn't pile up.

The bed is fully raised in the photo below. Once the truck is empty, Randy put down the truck bed and we went back to weigh onto the scale empty.

This particular load was 14.0 moisture, with a test weight of 60 and a No. 1 grade. We dumped 31,500 pounds or 562.50 bushels with that load. The corn is stored at the co-op until we are ready to sell it. (Usually, the price goes up after we sell. It's the law of grain marketing. Just kidding!)

The farmer or landlord pays a storage fee based on the amount of time the grain was stored before being sold. Then, it belongs to the co-op. They sell it to entities like feedlots or ethanol plants. Most of it is trucked out of the elevator to the buyer. (In the past, rail travel helped move a lot of grain, too, but most of it is trucked these days, at least in this area.)

Now, back to the brake issue: We parked the truck at the co-op and Jake came and rescued us. Naturally, things like this always seem to happen at inconvenient times. It was late Friday afternoon, and we couldn't get ahold of a mechanic until Monday morning.

I followed Randy to town yesterday morning. Best news? We made it to town without using a fire extinguisher, though it definitely smelled hot as he parked it at the mechanic's shop.

We don't know the verdict yet. Thankfully, we are now done cutting corn, but this is the truck we use for holding seed wheat, and we are starting to drill wheat today. We have an auger that attaches to the truck, making it easier to get the wheat from the truck to the drill. 

Wheat drilling - 2011

We have another truck we can use to hold seed wheat, but the auger doesn't fit onto it. Until we get the bigger truck back, the guys will have to go "old-school" when transferring the wheat to the drill. They'll have to use a scoop. They (and their backs!) are hoping there's a quick solution for the other truck.

More on corn harvest and wheat drilling to come!

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.