From the Fields: Eyes on finish line

We didn’t do much “farming” this week. My in-laws have always taken their family to stay in a cabin down in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. They used to take the girls down when they were all little along with a couple who are more like family than friends. It’s always fun to go up in the mountains and stay in a cabin with everyone and enjoy the views that the Smoky Mountains give you. The trip has changed drastically over the years, especially this year, as there were 10 adults and 4 children who were all under age of 4. It was such a treat to watch our son enjoy his first trip. We didn’t have many plans other than to get away and relax for a few days before we get busy with harvesting. We had a good time, but it sure feels good to be back home.

I didn’t have great service at the cabin, so I was not able to get into the report that came out. I did read that they lowered the corn yield and saw where the markets had responded to the news. I think we could see a lot of volatility in the market depending on your area and what the weather does between now and harvest. Everyone has dealt with a lot of weather-related issues this year, especially the farmers out west. We will definitely see the effects from the abundance of rain we experienced early spring and summer that will drag averages down fast in some fields.

It’s going to be interesting to watch the local basis move depending on what the local and national crop starts to look like as we fall into harvesting at the end of next month. We had a local hog producer looking for corn to carry them to end of September because there just isn’t any around locally. Most farmers have cleaned out all the bins with all the attractive prices we got all summer long and now no one has anything left. The livestock guys are starting to scramble to find a source to get some corn in hopes they can scrape by until harvest. Ethanol price is still really strong as well which helps keep local buyers pretty honest if they want to get anything before harvest.

We caught some more rains this past week. We averaged about six-tenths out of two storms for us which is definitely a blessing this time of year. We depend so heavily on these August rains as it is the difference between a good bean crop and a great one. I’ve seen beans have huge potential going into August and then the rains stall out and the beans can’t finish and they just go backwards so fast. We will continue to pray for a few more good soakers to finish us off, but I think we are sitting in a good position leading up to harvest.

I’m excited about our plots for our field day. They were planted early and with these rains they should look great which will showcase what great products NexJen has to offer. Aug. 30 can’t come soon enough. That’s all I have for this week. I hope I’ll have some more action to fill everyone in on next week. I hope everyone can take some time like we did to relax and enjoy the ones around you before we all get in the harvest grind. Everyone, stay safe out there!