Harvest Is Nearing Completion

Nov 02, 2015

By Paul Kassel Field Agronomist in NW Iowa

Soybean harvest has been complete in northwest/north central Iowa for a couple of weeks.

Corn harvest is wrapping up also. I would guess that there is about 15% of the corn that is yet to be harvested.

We have experienced a very warm and dry harvest season. I checked the mesonet and found that we were about 115 Growing Degree Days (GDDs) above normal for September. Most of that surplus occurred in late September – which was very timely since a lot of corn was mature by mid September.

October has also been real nice in terms of weather. A check of GDDs for October show that we were only about 20 GDDs ahead of schedule for October.

Growing Degree Days can be used to estimate corn grain dry down. It takes about 30 to 45 GDDs for corn grain to dry one point in the field. Obviously there are other factors also – including sun, wind, and humidity - that affect field dry down of corn grain. And we had all of those factors helping us out this year.

Many farmers are turning their efforts to fall tillage, soil sampling and drainage tile installation. I would expect see fall ammonia application to begin next week.

Source: iastate.edu

Video: A chain harrow is a game changer

Utilizing a rotational grazing method on our farmstead with our sheep helps to let the pasture/paddocks rest. We also just invested in a chain harrow to allow us to drag the paddocks our sheep just left to break up and spread their manure around, dethatch thicker grass areas, and to rough up bare dirt areas to all for a better seed to soil contact if we overseed that paddock. This was our first time really using the chain harrow besides initially testing it out. We are very impressed with the work it did and how and area that was majority dirt, could be roughed up before reseeding.

Did you know we also operate a small business on the homestead. We make homemade, handcrafted soaps, shampoo bars, hair and beard products in addition to offering our pasture raised pork, lamb, and 100% raw honey. You can find out more about our products and ingredients by visiting our website at www.mimiandpoppysplace.com. There you can shop our products and sign up for our monthly newsletter that highlights a soap or ingredient, gives monthly updates about the homestead, and also lists the markets, festivals, and events we’ll be attending that month.