A Year in the Life of a Farmer: Working on final preparations for harvest season

AgriNews will follow Chad Bell throughout the entire year. Each month, look for updates about the farmer and the decisions he makes on his farm.

VIOLA, Ill. — Chad Bell is working on the final steps to prepare for harvest as he waits for field conditions to be favorable and his corn to dry to appropriate moisture levels.

“I hand-shelled a corn sample this morning, and it was 26% moisture,” said Bell, who is married to Brittany, and they are the parents of Amelia and Charlie.

“That was 112-day corn, and I sampled it because I knew it would be the wettest,” he said on Sept. 23. “I have a field of 108-day corn, and my next move will be to sample that field.”

Last year, Bell started harvest on his Mercer County farm on Sept. 10.

“We were almost two weeks into harvest at this point,” he noted.

“I was hoping to start harvesting this week, but with the rain I am not excited about muddying things up right out of the gate,” he said. “Now with this corn sample, I am not super excited to harvest anything yet.”

Bell’s soybean fields look like they may be ready to harvest in seven to 10 days.

“I am guessing we might have beans ready before we harvest any corn,” he said. “I would be surprised if we harvest anything before the end of the month because ground conditions have to improve before we do anything.”

In the meantime, Bell is going through his equipment to prepare for harvest.

“We’re putting the sweep augers in the bins where they need to be, making sure the doors are shut and the slides are lubricated,” he said.

The biggest project currently on Bell Family Farms is the grain cart.

“I took the floor auger out to get it reflighted and we don’t have that back yet,” he said. “It was a chore to get out, so it will be an even bigger chore to put back in.”

While working on the grain cart, Bell also found there were several bearings that were out.

“I don’t know how long they would have lasted,” he said. “We replaced those bearings and other parts while we were deep into it, so the grain cart should be like new when we are done.”

Bell has seen some poor stalk quality conditions in his cornfields.

“It is not hard to find and nothing is down yet, but we are one 40 to 50 mph wind away from having some problems,” he said.

Crown rot is a problem for some of the hybrids.

“The corn that was planted in April seems to be having the biggest stalk quality issues, and when you get into the May planting dates, the better it is,” Bell said.

“It is weird when you are walking a field that has susceptibility to crown rot and there will be a few plants with the disease and then a string of plants with perfect health,” he said. “Then another one or two dead plants, so it is sporadic in the field with row-to-row variations.”

Bell also has some tar spot in his fields, but it came in too late to have an effect on yield.

“Southern rust came in late, too, but I think most of it was too late to have any real significant effect,” the farmer said. “It has taken the greenness out of the crop, but I think most of the corn was at black layer.”

“I think this might be one of the better crops I’ve had for corn,” he said. “I have heard quite a few people think their corn crop will be down from last year, but my corn was down pretty hard with tar spot in 2025.”

Bell has storage on his farm for about half of his corn crop and he does not typically store any of his soybeans.

“I feel pretty good about where I am at for marketing of both crops,” the farmer said.

“I am sold up to my crop insurance guarantee on beans and I am not too far behind that on corn,” he said.

Although diesel fuel prices have increased, Bell said, it is a fairly small line item as a percentage of the overall outlay to produce one acre of crop.

“It will be a big expense, but now we have the grain prices to help offset the increase in fuel costs,” he said.

“With an additional $1 on the corn price and $2 on beans, with 200-bushel corn, you have $200 extra to pay for the fuel,” he explained.

The newest group of pigs in Bell’s 2,400-head wean-to-finish barn have transitioned well.

“We’ve had them for just over three weeks now and we really haven’t had any health issues,” the pork producer said. “We’re keeping the feed to them, that’s the main thing.”

There has been plenty of moisture since Bell planted his cover crop mixture at the end of July to get a healthy stand of plants.

“It is waist- to chest-high in places and a handful of sunflowers blooming,” he reported.

“The only thing that is missing now is fence, water and cows,” he said. “Unless somebody is interested in custom grazing, I don’t think we’ll have cows this year.”

Bell’s goal is to add a cow herd to his operation and market grass-fed beef directly to consumers.

“The biggest hurdle is getting started,” he said. “But it is something we want to do to diversify our operation long term.”

The cattle may also be something his kids might be interested in.

“My daughter is in seventh grade this year and she is taking an agricultural class this quarter and she is also part of the FFA,” Bell said. “Maybe she will be interested in raising cattle or maybe she will want to market the beef.”