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So Monday is the day of the long predicted eclipse. Will it be like the famous comet, Kahoutek, which our physics professor spent hours telling us about how it would light up the sky and set the standards for celestial events? I can’t remember whether we cared or...
The midpoint of the month of August is here and still most growers in the southwest 3/4s of the state are hoping for their first big rain since May or June. Sadly in many areas that damage to the corn is already done and no amount of rain will replace the loss to the...
It’s another week into the grain fill period and for about 75% of the farmers in Iowa the situation gets worse. We and the crops waited and waited and waited hoping for a major front to drop enough moisture on the ground with the 2” wide cracks so that the moisture...
As we and our crops enter the month of August, when the majority of the grain fill is supposed to occur, and in the southwest 75 percent of the state, most of the enthusiasm about the last part of the growing season and the upcoming harvest is gone. Sixty days with...
We are now in the last week of July and still fighting several different battles. Time is precious and working during 90 plus degree heat makes it tougher to get things done. The weeds are still emerging and growing plus a few insects are appearing that may have to be...
Now we, our crops, pastures and countryside get to enter a gauntlet of 90+ degree temps with only a minor chance of rain in the forecast for the next ten days. Will we luck out and have enough popup showers to help or have an unexpected front cross the Midwest and...
It is tough to believe but since we have passed the 4th of July holiday the first half of the summer has been completed. Last year quite a few corn fields were approaching the tasselling phase and were past head high. This year the rainfall interrupted planting season...
It’s July already and I want to wish you a happy 4th of July holiday. Having it fall on a Tuesday means quite a few people will have a five-day weekend. However, those that work for themselves will wake up Monday thinking that they have a million things to do that day...
The month of June soon will be history. In Iowa the prospect of a trend line corn crop is still a possibility. In other parts of the Midwest that does not sound likely in many states as conditions during planting were too wet and/or too cold and planting into less...
In another week we will be into the first part of July and the celebration of this country’s founding. In a season with a very long planting and replanting season the crop advance at a very slow pace. That changed last week as the hot weather pushed the corn into its...