Farmers are pretty classy. They will probably let you ride if you ask. Here are my nephews (city slickers) after their first combine ride.
Heard some coffee shop talk that there were some 80 bu beans harvested in eastern Grundy Co (IA). They did get some timely rains that us to the immediate east of them (western Black Hawk Co) missed. My contention though is that if that same operator was asked about his yields within earshot of a landlord he would have reported that "they sucked".
Bob Devaney (NU coach) did call a time out just before the extra point was to be kicked. Tom Goedjen stood in the same ready to kick position the entire time out.
That seemed to be the going rate during my stint at it also. One farmer we shelled for paid $3 per and always had plenty of help--it was an easy shelling crib and you felt guilty that you didn't have to work very hard to get paid that much. Hard for subsequent generations to fathom, but factory jobs only paid around $3.60 per hour back then. I worked one summer in high school for a neighboring farmer and could make $87.50 a week with overtime. Makes you believe that cowboys on the show "Gunsmoke" worked for "a dollar a day and found". My first pickup truck cost around $4000 and gas was less than 60 cents in 1976. I think I remember buying gas for under 40 cents my first year at ISU (1972)
We had a farm hit 78 (whole field average) in Mitchell County (straight north of Grundy) so far.
Probably (or possibly) but not necessarily. Early group beans were never going to take advantage of a longer season (more sunlight). Yes the reason most operators plant an array of maturities is to spread-out harvest, but history has also taught us that timeliness of rains or temperature fluctuations during the growing season resulted in early maturing varieties equaling or exceeding full season varieties. I have no data to back this up (haven't looked for any) but my guess this would be more so in corn because of the pollination window, but I would think some of this would translate to bean production.
Thank you for initiating this thread!! You made my day and got me all pumped to watch college FB today!! I loved the video of unloading war corn from the crib and shelling corn—the way it was when I grew up in the 1950s near Storm Lake. Things have changed so much with farmsteads being bulldozed, fields being multiple times larger than farms were then, technology & research impacting yields unbelievably. equipment becoming massive and farmers now farming thousands of acres. When you stop to think about what one modern day combine can do in a day versus all the different steps to harvest back in those days, the advancements have been off the chart! Meanwhile, ISU FB has finally become competitive and relevant as well!! Have I already died and gone to heaven?
Theoretically you're correct but there has been very little, if any, yield differentiation between early beans and full season beans the last 5-7 years in my experience. This is why many operators continue to push their beans earlier and earlier so they can have them all out prior to starting corn harvest. IMO early planting is largely responsible because we are extending the growing season on the front end before flowering.
Yes, there are plenty of reasons to harvest a bit earlier that make economic sense, even if you do sacrifice a bushel or two. But as long as the near and above 200 bu./A beans are coming out of GA, AR and SW MO, I'm going with longer season and more sunlight for the win, at either end of the season.
If you're talking about chasing yield records on <5 acres then I agree you absolutely need your growing season to be as long as possible, alongside intensive management practices that aren't practical on a typical farm.
