Dry September provides opportunity for soybean harvest, tillage, fertilizer application

ASHTON, Ill. — Seed corn harvest is complete and soybean harvest is almost finished at the Henert farm in north-central Illinois.

“They started harvesting the seed fields the first week of September and we started soybeans on Sept. 17, so we’ve been harvesting something for the whole month of September,” said William Henert, who farms together with his wife, Lea, and his parents, Nolan and Linda Henert.

The family grows about 1,000 acres of seed corn for Wyffels Hybrids.

“All our seed corn is out and I think the company is planning on being done this week,” said William Henert on Sept. 30.

“They try to harvest the corn around 30% and I’m pretty sure most of ours was within two or three points of that,” he said. “Usually that is the struggle with seed harvest — it dries down too fast.”

Henert likes to chisel plow the seed corn fields soon after they are harvested.

“This warm weather gets the volunteer corn going,” he said.

With about 400 acres of soybeans remaining to be harvested, Henert expected to finish them by Oct. 3.

“The beans are better than last year by 4 to 5 bushels,” he said. “I don’t know what the whole farm average will be, but it is looking like it will be a record, which I didn’t expect. I expected average, at best.”

The Lee County farmer had few problems with soybean diseases this year.

“I think that is where the extra bushels of soybeans are coming from,” Henert said. “There was sudden death in the middle of August, that we thought would turn into something, but they are really clean disease-wise fields.”

“I don’t know that it was the fungicide,” he said. “I think it was the environment this year that soybeans diseases never showed up.”

The family members store all their soybeans on-farm, to try to capture the basis.

“We try to sell them between November and the first of the year,” Henert said. “We can usually get 10 over basis so that makes it worth all the work of putting them in the bins.”

Corn harvest for the family is expected to begin on Oct. 6.

“The corn has really changed, I thought it was going to hold the green a little more, but this weather has really sucked the life out of the plants,” Henert said.

“Dad tested some corn and it was from 23% to 27% moisture,” he said. “It should be about perfect, maybe a touch too dry.”

Henert prefers the corn to be from 18% to 22% moisture at harvest.

“It looks like this year we will be able to start harvesting about anywhere, since we planted everything as early as we did,” he said.

The cornfields, Henert said, are changing fast.

“I walked out in the field across from the shop and you can push the cornstalks over pretty easily,” he said. “The wind usually starts blowing in October.”

However, Henert does not think he will have to use a reel to get through the field that was damaged by a wind and hailstorm in July.

“We are trying to decide if we’ll do that field towards the front end or wait until last,” the farmer said. “I know a couple of guys locally that who are putting a reel on to start.”

“I’m excited to harvest corn, it’s when it all comes together to see how you did,” he said.

In addition to harvesting this month, the family is also spreading fertilizer and lime.

“We do a variety of straight spreading and variable rate based on soil test maps that we do on a four-year rotation,” Henert said. “The year after a soil test we’ll variable rate and spread lime and then straight spread the other three years.”

Harvest and fall work was going pretty good at the Henert farm until William had a problem with the fertilizer spreader.

“I spread lime and a load of potash and didn’t have any problems and then I put this product in and it didn’t work,” Henert said.

“It blew out the endgate, I think, and hopefully it’s not something else,” the farmer said. “I’m going to try a different form of phosphate because my conclusion is it was too fine.”

“Unless there is something else wrong with the spreader — it could be the chain is going bad or a motor,” he said. “I still have to spread fertilizer on about two-thirds of the soybean acres, so I’m behind, but the weather is nice.”