Yes those Kemper style heads can pick up a lot of down, broken, bent corn. We were about 5-7 weeks later than normal in planting but we are probably 3-4 weeks behind normal for much of the later corn, so we have made up quite a bit of the days we lost. We got a lot of heat units in July and early August. If we get the over 50 degree nights or 60 degree nights until mid-September we will salvage an OK crop. If that happens then quality will be normal and just lower yields so it won't be a double whammy. Right now the corn market has lost almost a dollar in the last 3-4 weeks. The USDA estimate went from 13.6 to 13.9 billion bushels with a national average of 169 instead of June projection of 165. Harvested acres of 82 million is the same as earlier with 90 million estimated to be planted. If this holds it indicates some limited exporting and usage levels if 300 million bushels drops the price 50-75 cents per bushel. Ethanol use is declining, exports look flat with the world economy slowing and the dollar high and domestic usage is up in the air as to where our economy is going over the next marketing year.

Bryce

You all work hard and deserve good returns for all you do. Farmers, ranchers, honeybees make the world go 'round. Complaining is justified !

God will let you know what you deserve most of the time, its alot less than you might think.

The lower Ark valley got it backside wiped last night, granada to syracuse. The corn and milo looked good too.

Now not so much. Good deal for the green chop boys.

Tomorrow is meant to be 100. it will stink to high heaven.

Yes Bob we do. We run Claas 960 chopper with 10 row head. It will eat the downed corn. Since the corn is tangled it doesn’t feed as smooth and some corn will come in sideways. When it enters the knife drum sideways it’s not chopped uniformly. Makes ugly silage. The worst part about it is operator fatigue. It really messes with your head as you travel through the field. After a 12-14 hour day I’m ready to be off of it. Silage harvesting is my most stressful time of the year. Lots of things going on in the cab, and lots of heavy trucks on long runs to the pile. Combined my drivers will haul 1,200-1,500 loads and travel about 12,000 miles in a 3 week time. 90% of the time on narrow dirt/sand roads. Truck drivers just got my speech last week. No rolling stops at stop signs, Slow to 35mph when meeting any vehicle on dirt roads, Yield to the loaded truck, and stay off the dang phone!! I pray every morning for a safe day, and give thanks every night when The last truck is parked.

I see my share of rolling stops of 18 wheelers. I hope you have a safe harvest.

We have 6 2-5000 cow dairies within 10 miles of my house. When corn silage season comes in earnest there are about 6-8 of those 10 row or a couple 12 row choppers running the fields. The number of packing tractors, semis, dump wagons (if wet) is amazing. Traffic routes are impacted considerably and we have a lot of rural non farm residents in our area. Our field size is increasing but we don't have the landscape as some areas do with huge fields and we have a lot of rolling terrain that makes working with all the larger equipment more of a challenge. Most dairy rations here are heavy corn silage as it is the lower cost forage per ton of dry matter to feed so these 6 dairies that feed the norm would harvest about 12,000 acres of corn silage in about 7 to 10 days which in a normal year would be about 250,000 tons. Add alfalfa and grain and water and one can see how many gallons of liquid manure that is each year as well. Late fall before freeze up is the busiest time now on our farms field wise with corn silage, planting winter wheat, corn grain, late cutting alfalfa and hauling manure.

Bryce

The worst thing is when those drivers are running their adrenaline gets going so they start to push the limits, done this myself before, and a guy just has to hope nothing happens. Also you know if you had a Krone it would cut better.

One of the largest farms I know of is quite some distance from us but when I was working as an Ag Agent we were helping recruit trucks for this farm. In one two day stretch they had 125 semis working on the farm with 75 for corn silage and 50 for hauling liquid manure. They milk 8000 and all cows are in one climate controlled barn. They are getting better about spilling at intersections which can be a huge problem as these areas can get slippery and vehicles can slide right through the intersection. Most of the larger farms now equip small trucks with water tanks, hoses, brooms and scrapers and clean up spills and the mud from field entrances. Goes along way toward community relations.

Bryce

Howd you fair thru the storm brad?

We had a real banger 2 nites ago, it hailed again, and missed our milo by a half mile. We did get 3" of rain, so we might get a crop yet.