From the Fields: Eye on the market

I wanted to start off this week with wishing everyone a happy late Father’s Day. I know last Sunday was a special one for me because it was my very first one with my son. I’m lucky that I still have my dad and I have a great father-in-law that we can all share in the meaning of what being a father really means. Hope everyone was able to enjoy it with family and loved ones.

We are ready! We got the combine in the shop this week and went through the routine of checking things off the list and doing routine maintenance before it hits the wheat fields. The tractors are hooked up to the grain cart and bean planter so we can begin planting double crops as soon as the straw comes off. Now we just wait for Mother Nature to cooperate. A few local guys tried some wheat a couple days ago and we heard a variance from 30% to 18% moisture. We don’t think ours would fall in that 18% to 20% range yet, so we decided to wait and see what the weekend brings weather-wise.

We usually run our wheat wet and dry it to try and save as much test weight as possible while also preserve the grain quality. This is crucial since we intend to haul it all to the mills. This also helps avoid issues with aflatoxin, which has become a really big player in the last few years especially. We like to run wheat as soon as we can so the straw crews can come in and bale behind us as we move from field to field, weather permitting. Some people leave the straw on the ground for organic matter to put back in the ground, but we feel we get a much better stand of beans taking the straw off and it always dries faster, too, if we get some rain showers during this time of year.

We usually shoot for around 225,000 to 230,000 plants when we sow our double-crop beans. We treat the majority of our double crops for added protection. We know diseases and pests can thrive in moist cool soils, as well as warm, dry soils. They don’t care what conditions are like. They will rob our yields no matter what. This is another part of our management strategy that we feel helps give us extra chances at attaining high yields.

We had to clean a corn bin out to make room for wheat so we will be ready to get started. We have a new-to-us ethanol plant owned by Poet in Shelbyville. They were paying .15 over, so we decided that made it worth trucking it up the highway instead of the local elevator. It was my first trip and I was very impressed with the nice facility. The commodity prices are at extremely tight levels, and we are really feeling the pressure after this week’s sell-off in the corn market. We are starting to notice -.25 basis already for fall at the elevators and some closed today under $3 cash price. Ouch!

We forward sell some grain, so we do have some new crop already locked in, but not nearly enough to make up for $3 corn this fall or even scarier sub-$3. I think we all need to pay close attention and try and lock in profit anytime we can. Even though it might not feel good to sell this low, if we can make a little bit, it’s better than waiting and hoping. Let’s hope China comes through in the trade agreement later this year and buys more commodities to give us a rally.

Scout, scout, scout! With crops all over the board this year, we are still adjusting our sprayer passes and chemicals to the crops condition and growth stages. We got all the corn sprayed, so we feel comfortable with the remainder of the season, but beans are a different story. Some are canopied and sprayed before the dicamba deadline, but the others that we had to wait on are now due to spray. We have to adjust and find other products we feel confident in to take the place of our planned dicamba pass. No disease pressure yet in corn or beans, so we are sitting on a great looking and growing crop at the moment. We received an inch or more of rain across all our farms this week, so that really perked everything back up and made it look “normal” again.

Let’s hope for some good weather the next coming weeks to get this wheat crop done and get our double-crop beans planted in a timely manner. Hope everyone is doing well and staying safe around the farm. That’s all for this weeks report.

Hope, Ind.