:quality(70)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/shawmedia/SFX5UNQQOVG27EELAZ465T7XG4.jpg)
Greetings from snowy Stephenson County in northern Illinois. About 5 to 6 wonderful inches of that glorious white stuff fell from the sky on Saturday. Yes, I was using my sarcasm font typing that last sentence. It would be so pretty if it were still February. It’s raining today, and a few days ago it was in the 70s. It looks like the 2019 growing season will be as unpredictable as the past two years I have been sharing what I see out the window in our fields and as I travel though the region.
Since this is my first report for 2019, I’ll take a portion of this column to acquaint you with my family, our operation, my community involvement and interests. I am a partner in Meier Grain and Livestock Farms LLC with my parents, Keith and Linda Meier; my aunt, Idamae Meier; and my uncle, Leon Meier. We raise corn, soybeans, wheat, alfalfa and feeder steers to finish. Along with the farming operation we have a custom farming business where we chop, plant, strip till and combine for other operations in the region. We have been a Pioneer seed sales agency for many years and have combined agencies with Jed Kempel of Stateline Seed Solutions for 2019 and into the future.
Beyond the farm, you will find me serving on the Stephenson County Fair Board as vice president and entertainment chair. I’m also a sound technician for Freeport High School’s annual Holiday Pageant and Showtime touring show choir with band, Cannova’s Holiday Show in Freeport and a few tractor pulls in Illinois and Wisconsin. I’m an avid Chicago Blackhawks fan, and in the summer, I can be found with my dad in the stands at many tractor pulls throughout the region, especially if my favorite class, the Badger State ProStocks, are there.
Winter kill of alfalfa and winter wheat was a big deal in northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin. There were a lot of service calls for seed agencies and crop insurance representatives. Most of the new alfalfa is seeded or will be as soon as it dries out again. A fair number of winter wheat fields will either be burnt down or torn up. A nice little warm spell hit this past week and a few planters started to roll.
We ran a lot of acres of strip till anhydrous ammonia last week, but haven’t planted anything. That all came to a screeching halt when the forecast was a certainty for snow on Saturday and rain every day Sunday through Wednesday. They were right about snow on Saturday and rain Sunday. The meteorologist is still calling for more rain the next three days. Prediction is 2 to 3 inches total through Wednesday. If the past week’s rollercoaster weather is any indication for what’s to come, 2019 needs to borrow a sign I’ve seen at a few tracks: Sit down, buckle up and hold on.