Preparing for a successful corn and soybean harvest

BREMEN, Ind. — From fighting late-season weeds to unpredictable weather, northern Indiana farmer Clay Geyer has been kept on his toes as he prepares for harvest.

He shared his latest update with AgriNews.

Q: Are you seeing any late-season disease, insect or weed issues in your fields?

A: My soybean fields are fairly clean. I’ve been riding the fence about spot spraying because I didn’t want to jump back and forth between applying foliar and insecticide on my alfalfa fields and then herbicide for soybeans.

I had a drone come in Sept. 10 to touch up some acres with lambsquarters and waterhemp pressure. It is my understanding they cannot spray Enlist with a drone, so we will be using another product to hopefully suppress the weed pressure until harvest arrives.

Q: What are you doing right now to prepare equipment and the farm for harvest?

A: All of the hay equipment, except the round baler, has been washed up and greased until next year, but I might still squeeze a fifth cutting of alfalfa out on some of the fields that I don’t intend to keep in 2027.

Otherwise, our main focus right now is finishing up the grain bin project and turning our attention to the combine, transfer augers and headers.

We would like to downsize three of the four New Idea corn pickers in our fleet, but not many farmers use wide-row corn pickers anymore. Even though we have a few grain bins, we are not ready to totally sideline the option of picking ear corn, because we do have a narrow-row picker so we can pick ear corn which is a great source of roughage when corn and cob is ground up for cattle feed.

We did disassemble two Behlen round ear cribs before Labor Day and I sold my Campbell’s ear corn natural gas dryer on Facebook marketplace that I bought years ago at Parker Seed in Kimmell.

Q: Last month, you were working on your grain bin, wet holding bin and dryer. How is that project coming along?

A: You know what happens when you dig a foundation for a house or a grain bin? Maybe you don’t, but I can attest and tell you that it never fails — it rains every time.

The uncertainty of how the rain system was tracking quickly turned ugly when a monsoon unleashed rain by the multiple buckets full of inches rather than being measured in a few tenths, like predicted by forecasters earlier in the day.

I had just finished seeding my beautiful new stand of alfalfa a couple hours prior, just before it would be pounded day after day with nearly 10 inches of rain and hail. Soon after the lightning had passed, I felt devastated as I made my way out to the grain bin site and looked across my freshly seeded alfalfa fields.

We had just finished forming and strategically placing what felt like miles and miles of rebar inside the forms of the grain bin foundation to be poured soon. After a few minutes, I had multiple pumps pumping water out to save the form from giving away under an unbelievable amount of water that had pooled in the trenches in a short time frame.

This saga went on for a few days, when we had no other choice than play roulette with Mother Nature and do an early morning pour with the help of a few of our subcontractors, but we managed to get the grain bin foundation poured, bull-floated and covered with plastic before the next monsoon arrived shortly thereafter.

Our new-to-us grain bin is almost finished. We still have a small portion of the floor to install, finish up the staircase, install the ladder inside the bin and wire up the fan. Hopefully by the time you read this, the wet holding bin and the dryer will be setting on the new cement pads that was poured at the end of August.

Q: When do you expect harvest to begin, and what will determine which fields you start with?

A: I am in no hurry for harvest. Hopefully, the plant health remains strong and the corn will continue to dry down in the field.

We had plans of running natural gas to our grain setup, but that thought was quickly knocked in the head. Our natural gas supplier of NIPSCO in northern Indiana said the gas line that runs past our farm from two sides is overloaded and it would need to be upgraded to accommodate our small grain dryer.

They quoted us a price tag of $1 million dollars to get us online by harvest — that is a no-brainer, so we will have to convert the dryer over to propane.

Q: What are your biggest concerns heading into harvest this year: weather, crop conditions, prices or something else?

A: There are concerns every year. We can’t let the stresses of farming get us down. We must remain strong and overcome the challenges we face.

We cannot control the weather, but we can watch the long-term forecast and base our management decisions from what might be coming down the pike. Commodity prices seem to be climbing some, but so is the price of fuel.

Whether I’m pumping fuel in the tractor, truck or car — it sure hurts and the war overseas will only keep escalating the prices we are paying at the pump and the grocery stores, too.

Q: Any family, farm or community updates you’d like to share this month?

A: We would like to thank the Independent Order of Odd Fellows Tyner 821 Lodge for the group of men who built a wheelchair ramp. We have had multiple things going on since dad got home from the hospital and had plans of building a ramp, but these gentlemen were able to provide the framework and the manpower needed to improve the mobility in and out of the farmhouse for dad.

The Indiana Corn Husking Association is in full swing with promotions and preparations for the October event as the days slowly grow shorter and closer to contest day. We will be at the Nappanee Power From The Past Antique Tractor and Engine Show over the weekend Sept. 17-19 during the Nappanee Apple Festival.

This year will be Indiana’s 100th anniversary for the state corn husking contest as Indiana was host to its first contest in 1926. Please come celebrate with us in Nappanee at Reed Farms on Oct. 3.