We completed harvest this week! It’s always great to finish in October. Though I haven’t had time to sit down and figure final yield numbers using scale tickets, the combine data has 2025 in the top 5 highest yielding years on our farm.
Although harvest was relatively quick, harvest can also be hard/stressful when there is little downtime. We tried to get guys home at a decent time each evening, especially on Saturdays. If I remember correctly, we only had 2½ days of weather delay. That is way less than an average fall. I guess that happens when you’re in a drought.
We also had the combine go down for a day. Only six weeks out of warranty, the starter went out and drained the battery. It took nearly all day to diagnose, and then the new starter didn’t come until the next morning.
Fall herbicide applications underway
I’ve continued to spray when the opportunity is there. I’m hoping to finish up Friday as I’m down to the last few fields. I hired the local co-op to spray some acres farther from home. I did that from a sheer manpower perspective. I didn’t have anyone to tend me, and I needed to be available to keep harvest operations going just in case we had an issue.
Time to till and fertilize
We are moving into tillage now. I don’t anticipate a lot of ripping or chiseling as we did a lot last year and we didn’t “beat up” fields this year.
We also are preparing to spread chicken litter. Last weekend, I received a text asking if we had a place for 500 tons of litter. I sent maps and Monday morning we scurried around to get the wheel loader where it needed to be to stack the manure. We now have about 700 tons “stockpiled” in fields that we need to get spread.
The clock is ticking when litter is stockpiled. Though we have more manure in storage, timeliness isn’t as important when it’s under roof.
We’re done with harvest. But the to-do list never ends.