Finish Line

/

Partners & Friends,

We finished up the last corn field Wednesday, November 3rd, about 9:30pm. On the last day, Oma (Wilma) came to the field to ride with her grandson, and got to help complete harvest on land she and Charles had purchased 58 years ago. It is a good feeling to be done with the combine for the time being. Now on to all the peripheral stuff that involves a lot of details to complete. NH3 application, field mowing, equipment washing, truck maintenance, fall burndown spraying, and tiling projects, to name a few. We are still plenty busy but the late nites have dissipated. We welcome the time change as it gives us more early light to get chores done and projects underway. We are giving thanks for the good yields that held thru the entire harvest season--probably our second or third best corn and bean yields ever. We will need some office time now to get analyses and summaries completed. We are facing parts availability issues on a couple of pieces of equipment, and it does appear there might be some supply problems for fertilizer next spring. We are so glad we did the bin site upgrade this year--the storage and time savings really paid off. We are monitoring the corn/soybean price ratio for this next year's crop to determine profitability for next year’s crop mix. As of now we plan on keeping our 50/50 corn/soybean rotation.

Farmer sentiment is waning as prices are sliding and there is so much uncertainty where the federal government is taking us for taxes and infrastructure. Planning is becoming difficult . Brazil is planting record bean acres at a very good pace. Livestock issues worldwide are causing concern for soybean usage and meal supplies. Ethanol production is at record levels and oil is surging higher. Seems like a perfect storm for something?

Family great! Phyllis is healing after her second retina surgery. Looks like she will have restricted activities for 2-4 more weeks. UChicago Family Weekend was interesting and well attended. Harper gave a great devotional at chapel this week. Getting thanksgiving plans organized--lots to give thanks for!

Prices currently:

Corn 5.48

Soybeans 11.92

Stay safe & keep in touch - appreciate any and all comments!

Steve