A Year in the Life of a Farmer: Dry, hot conditions impacting corn moisture levels

AgriNews will follow the Rahn family throughout the entire year. Each month, look for updates about the farmers and the decisions they make on their farm.

MOUNT CARROLL, Ill. — Corn harvest started on the Rahn farm at the middle of September, which is typical for them.

“We start harvesting corn first to try to take advantage of the early delivery corn to the ethanol plant,” said Elmer Rahn, who farms with his wife, Annette, and their sons, Correy and Mitchel, and their families.

“We plant some earlier corn to be able to do that,” Annette said.

“Last year, the best price was at fall, but hopefully this year it will be the low,” Elmer said. “You never know because every year is different.”

The 104- and 105-day corn was planted the last week of April.

“The corn is standing good and it’s at 25% moisture,” Elmer said. “One of the varieties is at 235 bushels and the second one is a little better at 239 bushels.”

“Corn is coming on too fast to finish on the fuller season corn,” Correy said. “You want a slow finish, so I think this hot weather will impact test weight.”

So far, Elmer has not seen tar spot in his cornfields.

“We sprayed fungicide twice on everything,” he said. “We do that for plant health, which makes harvest go better, and I’d like to think it also improves yield.”

If it doesn’t rain over the weekend, Elmer said on Sept. 19, he plans to switch to soybean harvest the following week.

“Our beans have some green patches, but even if they’ve got leaves on them, they’re dry,” Elmer said.

“This is a new combine and Auto Path is new for me this year,” he said. “Before when I went to cut through a new lane, I would have to count the rows, but now the lines on the monitor tell me right where to go.”

Auto Path is especially helpful when crossing waterways.

“I can follow the line so I don’t jump over a row accidentally,” Elmer said. “And Correy can use the same lines when he is spraying so he doesn’t have to wonder where he is.”

Elmer is the main operator of the combine.

“This is my spot. I try to get relief in the evenings, but they keep telling me they’re too busy so I keep driving,” he said. “I love harvest. It’s my favorite time of the year.”

“I take the lead on drying the corn and keeping an eye on it throughout the day, but everybody helps to monitor and check the dryer,” Correy said. “Mitchel takes care of the daily servicing of the combine in the morning and getting the grain carts ready.”

Annette; Kellie, Correy’s wife; and Samantha, Mitchel’s wife, work together to provide a meal every night for the harvest crew.

“Everyone in the field gets a hot meal,” Kellie said.

“We split up what we make,” she said. “Samantha put together a spread sheet so we all know what we’re making a week in advance.”

The Rahn family has added a new member with the birth of Mitchel and Samantha’s second daughter, Kennedy Grace, who was born on Aug. 26.

After harvesting five hay cuttings this year, as well as baling the waterways, Mitchel has serviced the round baler and tractor in preparation for making cornstalk bales.

“I will definitely start doing bales tomorrow,” he said. “We’re going to try to make 2,500 cornstalk bales this year.”

“We used to make silage, but we don’t now,” Elmer said. “We found between making cornstalk bales and baling our waterways, it’s a lot cheaper than cutting corn silage, although we do have to put more corn in the ration for our cattle.”

Along with harvesting, the Rahns shipped out 300 head of cattle to the JBS plant in Souderton, Pennsylvania.

“We have about half of the calves bought to fill that lot and by next week the yard will be full again,” Elmer said.

Kellie will be doing soil testing on 25% of the farm acres with a hydraulic probe, which she used for the first time last year.

“We should have had the hydraulic probe the first year I started doing soil sampling,” Kellie said.

“Annette and I used the manual probe and the kids help because they like to bag the soil,” she said. “With the hydraulic probe, it is more efficient because it takes one person and the time is cut in half.”

Working together with Pearl City Elevator, Correy is focusing on improving efficiencies for spreading fertilizer this year.

“They are going to drop a trailer at our field when it works best for them,” he said. “I will load the fertilizer myself so the truck driver doesn’t have to wait.”

The Rahns can move the trailer to a different field as they need to.

“So, instead of spreading one or two hours every day, I can spread for a half a day, every three days,” Correy said. “I think it will work better for us, and then when we’re done, the trailer will go to another customer.”

As a Pioneer sales representative, Kellie will be helping her customers with yield checks and monitor calibrations.

“I’ve been pulling signs, which I try to get done before the combines run,” she said. “I’ll also do combine rides and we have two bean test plots and four corn test plots to take out.”

The Rahns utilize a 6620 test plot combine that has a six-row head and a 15-foot bean platform.

“That allows the farm combine to keep rolling,” Kellie said.

“That’s how I learned how to combine with the test plot combine,” Correy said. “It’s all mechanical, so it’s a way for the kids to learn and understand the safety components of the machine because sometimes I think safety gets overlooked now.”

It is easier for the kids to operate the test plot combine at the slower 2 mph speed.

“They learn how to unload the grain and I have the most fun teaching the kids,” Correy said.

Kellie also received wheat seed and has delivered some to customers.

“It depends on the year, but I have about a half dozen wheat customers,” she said. “Typically guys seed wheat behind beans or if they’ve chopped silage.”

If there’s a nice rain, Kellie said, farmers will probably start seeding wheat after the Hessian fly-free date.

“It’s OK to have a couple of rains in the fall,” Correy said. “It settles the dust and we all have stuff that breaks.”