New Moon

We have entered the tenth lunar cycle of this year. A friend asked yesterday, what is going on with the moon? It has been especially dark this week and an easy week to notice the stars. There has been no moon light. It has been especially dark but it has been very clear since it cooled off this week. It's the coolest at night since April.

In two days we start the Autumanl Equinox. Most of us hate to see that cycle come but it's all part of nature, I believe in God's Creation.
"It is the summer's great last heat,
It is the fall's first chill: They meet."

It's been a good cycle for me. My belt is in its last notch and I am wearing my smaller pants I haven't worn in awhile! I walked more the last two days than I have in a long while. I have made a good turn around since my big debacle nearly a year and a half ago. Remember? I did not write this blog for a month, yet you and I are still here!

Harvest has started in southwest Ohio. It's time for me, my first corn has been in the ground over 5 months. It's time to come out. Early harvest reports are all over the board but yesterday's corn ran 16-19% with 59-62 pound test weight! That is high quality corn!

We are blessed compared to those any direction from us. I met a young man selling cover crop seeds yesterday in deep southern Illinois, even farther south than my friend Kelly Roberts near Benton. He said he had corn that would make 100 bushels where others didn't make 20 and he said cover crops made all the difference.

Agricultural Science is in the news today just like Farm Science is this week. Agricultural careers are also in the news. What would you like to be when you grow up?

We are starting harvest here at home and yields are better than my counts thank Goodness. The moisture is 19-22% and test weight 57-58 lbs wet which is excellent. There is no aflatoxin and it is high quality non-GMO corn. I took the same sample to 3 different buyers and got 3 different moisture readings. I tested the same corn myself and got 3 different readings so the variation in kernal moisture is greater than normal.

You can see it in the field with a few green spots, too. A few stalks are still juicy but most are dry. That is pretty common compared to what I have looked at around here. The stalks are fairly even in diameter but not as much as they would be in a better year. This crop got stressed hard at least 3 times, at planting, at belt high and right after silking. All things considered, it's good.

Keep your eyes to the sky and your ears to the ground. There is a lot going on!

Ed