We left our farm bright and early Friday morning for a 1200 mile crop tour to NY state. The best crops we saw were right here in southwest Ohio, perhaps one of the garden spots of the nation this year.
The earliest corn is chest high in Fayette and Clinton County. As you drive north, it gets smaller and smaller with more denitrification and drowned out spots. The soft red winter wheat all looks good and some is almost ripe but the farther north you get the greener it is as you would expect. Soybeans are not out of the ground to the second trifolitate, the farther south the better.
We scouted fields in Genessee and Niagra County New York and only half the crop is planted. Only the driest fields got planted and they have drowned out spots with yellow corn. We didn't see many soybeans in Pennsylvania or New York this year like we have in the past. It is too late to plant many of those vacant fields we saw but I am sure some will be planted on a huge risk. It all depends on the year.
We are getting ready to harvest my soft red winter wheat here on the farm and immediately plant it to double crop soybeans. We will put the head on tomorrow and adjust the combine and take a swipe each day and go to our local buyers and see what they think of it. Whoever says here is the price and we agree to it we will deliver to.
The price has been floating under $7. We could have sold it all for $9.89 last fall but we only took a little. The last time I did that was 2011 and we had to have others help us fill our contracts. That is a very risky proposition and I don't like to depend on others for my needs. I should be self sufficient. This time I should have sold more than I could raise and helped others with a good price but I didn't know that when I planted this crop.
Posts about wheat have been many this winter and spring and now summer on Crop Talk. There might have been a few more acres of wheat planted here in the east this past fall and farmers have been sharing information about it before it was planted.
We had a very good trip for our 12th wedding anniversary. I have a great partner to share my love of family and farming with. We are very blessed.
Ed Winkle
Monday, 24 June 2013
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