Summer raced full speed through the last two or three weeks. Temperatures continue to be above normal, pushing these crops to grow. Corn is pollinating. Soybeans are in full bloom.
Unfortunately, rains have been spotty. Some fields are at zero precipitation for the last 7 days. Some drank up more than an inch. We're really hoping the system coming through this weekend gives us more general coverage. We have some happy crops and some stressed crops. Where available, we started irrigating last week.
The good news is enough rain fell on the double-crop soybeans to get those plants out of the ground and off to a good start. We planted them last Friday and Saturday. They were up when I checked on Tuesday.
Wheat yields in the area were generally good, I've heard mostly from 100 to 120 bushels per acre. There were also a couple reports in the 80 bpa range. We sold straw off our fields. We harvested nearly 2 tons per acre, even though we didn't shave it terribly close to the ground.
Respraying weeds
In the last week, I also had to respray nearly every soybean field for weed escapes. Even though conditions were good, weeds just didn't die the first time. This is concerning, and I hope it isn't a trend. We hit them harder this time. Knock on wood: They appear to be unalive.
I left yesterday with the two oldest to go to their softball tournament. I asked the local cooperative to scout two fields I didn't get done. Hopefully, there's a clean report headed my way! Plant health products have also arrived on site. Applications to corn will begin this next week.