What We Learned

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Partners & Friends,

We just had our annual meeting with our crop consultants—the people we rely on to scout our crops, do soil sampling, make agronomic recommendations, analyze our planting and yield data, and help us decide what adjustments to make to our crop operation. The more we realize we cannot complete all tasks with the resources we have, the more people like them become an integral part of our business. The Hess Family Farm has been collecting data for over 30 years. However, only in the last 10 years have we truly been able to use and apply all the information we have amassed. Our lessons from 2023 are as follows:

  • Beans planted early yield as well as later maturity beans

  • Residue management for beans is critical

  • We must add sulfur to our total fertility program placed in the correct location

  • Goose-necking corn due to the derecho caused substantial yield loss in some fields

  • Higher fertility is paying dividends

  • The sweet spot for corn populations is around 35,000 plants per acre

In addition to staying warm in the office, we are attending farm business meetings—a summary report will be posted soon. Another goat was born this past week. Keeping the waterers thawed has proved to be a bit of a challenge. Commodity prices continue to drift lower, and we are beginning to wonder where the bottom will be. The cold weather has put a halt on our tiling projects. Bean seeds will be delivered once the weather warms soon.

A USDA report last week revealed that this past harvest had record corn and bean yields, despite all the weather challenges. There is hope for a new farm bill in Washington. South America is proving to be a bigger competitor now than ever, with so much potential to expand. Weather forecasting remains more of an art than a science.

Our grandchildren are all enjoying the snow, although the 16 inches in Wisconsin are far more than the 5 inches we have here. January is a busy month full of birthdays in our family. Florida seems like a good alternative on days like these. 😅

Fall Prices:

Corn—4.50

Soybeans—11.59

Stay warm and think of spring and sunshine!

Steve

New Year

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Partners & Friends,

We are making our way into 2024 after a wonderful holiday season celebrating the birth of our Savior and enjoying time with family and friends. Along with that is a lot of year-end office time and bookkeeping frenzy. We have finalized our corn and soybean seed orders for the next crop season after studying our own field research and consulting with our crop consultants. Our fertilizer needs are mostly booked and applied. The only missing link is our spring side dress NH3 application. We have pre-paid for chemicals and fungicide. When we make our plans, we are preparing for a robust crop with all the inputs needed for top yields. It is encouraging that input costs are mostly lower, except for seed. Commodity prices are certainly lower than year ago. There’ll be some event along the way that will provide marketing opportunities. 

The Hess Family Farm team is putting more tile in the ground whenever the weather allows. Plans are for another 200 acres this year, although the weather forecast does not look good after this week. We have emptied all the corn bins. This is the first time all bins are empty this early, but we took advantage of some early delivery offers that have turned out well. We are now in the midst of year-end bookkeeping tasks, turning out 1099s and W-2s, and preparing for tax filings. There are a few meetings to attend to help with continuing education and business strategy updates.

The current world events are always black swans for our planning. The Middle East conflict is putting energy prices on a roller coaster almost daily. We have booked almost half of our needs for 2024. The situation with the war in Ukraine is jerking commodity prices around daily. Weather in South America is of extreme importance in the midst of their critical growing season. Interest rates are another area we pay constant attention to. Operating interest is almost 2x what rates were 1 year ago.

Our family is doing well. This season of gatherings has shown us just how thankful we are for our friends and family. The support and prayers our family received over the past year of great highs and lows means so much—thank you! We are looking forward to a great New Year with much time for relationships. May you all take time for the ones in your lives.

Fall Prices:

Corn—4.72

Soybeans—11.93

Steve

Christmas Tree Season

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Partners & Friends,

Things are busy and going well here on the farm as we celebrate the birth of Jesus.

We have finished fall tillage. The fall fertilizer, both anhydrous and dry, is on the fields. We have hauled over 400,000 bushels of corn to take advantage of basis opportunities. We have also celebrated the success of Toppling Goliath (aka Navigator), at least for now. The barns and manure piles are cleaned up. Many tile holes have been dug up and repaired. Equipment has been cleaned and stored. Tiling projects have begun. We hauled over 200 loads of municipal sludge. Goats have been shown. And it snowed. 😐

Crude oil prices are softer as of now, even with the ongoing wars in the Middle East and Ukraine. The one year extension of the Farm Bill has been passed. South America crops are doing adequately overall. Corn and beans have gone into their usual seasonal doldrums. The used equipment market seems to be softer on most types of farm equipment. The Iowa caucuses are about 2 months away. Farmers are standing up for property rights. At the Illinois Farm Bureau annual meeting in Chicago, resolutions were passed by the delegates opposing Eminent Domain for all renewable energy projects, including CO2 pipelines.🙂 That happened thanks to the effort of a many people doing what they can, or as I like to say: throwing stones at the giant! 👏🏻

Our family is doing well, with school, sports, work, music activities, and goat care filling up schedules. Phyllis and I attended the Illinois Farm Bureau (IFB) meeting in Chicago last weekend, and it was wonderful to see friends and family there involved in grassroots decisions. It was a very gratifying delegate session after a year of meetings, calls, signs, and postcards. 

Fall 2024 Prices:

Corn—4.89

Soybeans—12.41

Remember to celebrate the True Meaning of this Christmas season!

Steve

Toppling Goliath

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Partners & Friends,

Navigator—the CO2 pipeline company that had proposed a 5-state pipeline project capturing CO2 from mainly ethanol plants to sequester the product in east central Illinois—announced on October 20th that it is cancelling the project. As most of you are aware, our family has been opposing the project since it was first launched almost 2 years ago. The route of a feeder line to an ethanol plant in Galva would have gone through 5 tracts of farmland that our family grows crops on, mostly patterned tiled fields of very productive soil.

While this project is cancelled, there is still the possibility that another company might pick up the pieces and try again. There are other projects still in the works—mainly Wolf/ADM, which sources CO2 from 2 Iowa ADM ethanol plants to sequester in Macon county. This pipeline would run close to some of my cousins’ and friends’ farmland in Peoria and Tazewell county. There is also a 7 mile pipeline project at the ICC named One Earth Energy, which runs from an ethanol plant in Putnam county to sequester in McLean county with a pipeline sized much larger than is needed for single plant sequestration.

When the McDonough county board first became aware of this project, the States Attorney made the statement that there was nothing the county could do to oppose the project. However, the county board listened to landowners and citizens and twice voted unanimously to intervene, despite the significant cost to the county and tens of thousands of hard-earned taxpayer dollars. Additionally, the county passed a 2-year moratorium on pipelines in McDonough county until new safety rules could be written and implemented. THANK YOU!!

This battle is won but the war is far from over. As long as Eminent Domain is available for private projects like this to confiscate property, our personal property rights—and the land that our ancestors purchased and homesteaded with the intent of improving and making as productive as possible—will always be at risk. The farm Phyllis and I live on has been in her family since 1869. When I plant and harvest these fields, I ponder how much blood, sweat, and tears have been shed over the past 150 years to leave a legacy for this family. At the least, a moratorium could be established until new safety rules are developed by PHMSA, reviewed, and implemented.

As I farm alongside Gen 6 with Gen 7 and watch, learn, and think about their future, I recognize what this effort is truly about. It is about the future. It is about raising crops and animals in a responsible, sustainable way to provide food and shelter for this family, country, and world. It is using the creation that God has provided to prosper and multiply. It is to enjoy the freedom in this God-blessed nation that we do not appreciate enough. It is not to chase some government tax credit so we can be called “carbon neutral.”

Now, time to get off my soapbox.😅 Harvest is almost complete. Fertilizer application and some light fall tillage are planned along with more whole farm tile projects. We truly appreciate all the harvest crew that have been involved! The Hess Family Farm team handled more bushels than ever before, partially due to being heavy on corn acres. We also delivered more bushels at harvest than ever before.

It was officially announced the Panama Canal is reducing traffic by 1/2 due to low rainfall. Mississippi barges are still being light-loaded due to low river levels. Furthermore, world tensions are rising, which usually supports energy prices and causes chaos in commodity markets.

The FFA convention is this week. There are more goat shows in the near future. It is time to get holiday plans and schedules coordinated. Phyllis had a successful eye surgery this week, and more will be known about what the future holds for her vision in a few months.

Current Prices:

Corn—4.59

Soybeans—13.18

Steve

Business and Birthdays

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Partners & Friends,

Last week, Marcus, Phyllis, and I attended the AgView Executive Business Conference in St Pete, Florida. We find it a good strategy to step outside the business, get some external perspectives, review, and plan personal and business goals. There were several speakers who challenged our future personal and business plans. We met some great people at the conference as well.

For full transparency, here are some of the notes and bullets we brought home: 

  • We need to keep better track of our corn and bean break-evens as the year progresses and see different yield scenarios play out 

  • We need to shock test our balance sheets with different black swan scenarios in order to see how our financials react, and how we then should adjust our business to compensate

  • We should take a 2-hour break from technology every day to reduce stress and help maintain our personal perspectives

  • The most important pieces of equipment on the farm are our bodies—we must do our best to maintain physical and mental health

  • Nobody knows where commodity markets are headed

  • Success is measured in money and capital, while significance is measured by what you give back

  • $8 of every $10 we spend in agriculture is related to energy

  • We cannot flip a switch to convert to green energy, it is going to take much time, technology, and funding

  • Cost of labor is not coming back down

  • Soy diesel is the new green fuel star

  • What is DALL.E.2?

  • Life is short—family comes first. Your legacy are the memories you want to leave

The Hess Family Farm team is busy shipping grain, crunching input numbers, ordering chemicals, working on life goals, and relaxing. After stepping back and gathering all this new information, we now need to be diligent about setting new goals, and then find accountability to ensure we actually implement them.  

Brazil is harvesting beans. It appears there is a large crop and an abundance of acres to harvest. There will also be another 3-4% more acreage next year. Brazil surpassed the US in soybean production about 8 years ago, and now their production and exports are more significant than ours. Interest rates, at these levels, have changed several global economic plays. Current rates are far more historically normal, and we must take interest and energy prices into account throughout all of our planning.

January is birthday season, so there are cards to send and celebrations to participate in. We celebrated Marcus and Phyllis' birthdays on January 25th while still in St. Pete. There is nothing miniscule about the wonder and significance of creation and life!

Fall Prices:

Corn—5.66

Soybeans—13.45

Steve