This week Ron Kindred, a soybean farmer and chair of the Illinois Soybean Association Marketing Committee shared that while rain has slowed down his soybean harvest, the yields look very good this year and the supply should be strong for his customers.
Q: What have you been doing in the fields this week?
A: Earlier this week we harvested soybeans. It rained yesterday, so we switched over to harvesting corn instead.
Q: Are there any challenges you’ve experienced this week?
A: Trying to get our soybeans dry enough to harvest has been the biggest challenge this week. Keeping our combine running is always a challenge too. We had an alternator go out this week, so we had to stop a few hours early one night when we were cutting soybeans.
Q: How do you think your harvest from this year will compare to last year?
A: At this point last year we had finished harvesting. It’s been much slower this year. We were nearly a month late getting our crops planted this year. Our crops have been very slow dry too. I have been harvesting a lot of corn at 25-percent moisture, but I usually prefer it to be at 20-percent moisture. Everything has matured slower this year.
Q: What is one thing that you would like your customers to know?
A: Going into harvest we did not know what we would have, but soybean yields have been very good and above average. Our average bushels have run from 59 to 65 bushes per acre. The quality is good as well. Supply should be good and we should be able to handle all of our customers’ needs.
October 4, 2013
This week Kindred shared that the soybeans planted earlier in the season in his area are producing above average yields. He says he’s looking forward to harvesting his soybeans which he planted later in the season.
Q: What have you been doing in the fields this week?
A: We have been harvesting corn this week. On my farm, we do not have any soybeans that are ready for harvest yet. We received rain last night, so today we are not doing much because we are waiting for the ground to settle. The sun is out and the wind is blowing, so hopefully we will be able to continue harvesting the corn fields tomorrow.
Q: Are there any challenges you’ve experienced this week?
A: A current challenge is finding corn that is dry enough to harvest. Another challenge is waiting on our soybeans to mature so we can begin harvest. We have not harvested any soybeans yet and it is looking like it will be the end of next week before we can start.
Q: How do you think your harvest from this year will compare to last year?
A: Harvest this year will be much later. With the drought last year, we were able to start harvest very early, and we finished early. This year, soybean harvest will be about a month late, but it looks like we will be harvesting a very good corn crop. The farmers around this area who planted early soybeans are reporting above-average yields of 60 bushels per acre. I am hoping to get that or maybe a little more on some of my later soybeans.
Q: What is one thing that you would like your customers to know?
A: I would like them to know that the earlier soybean yields are coming in higher than expected, so I am looking forward to harvesting my later soybeans and I think they will be better than expected as well.
August 20, 2013
This week we talked with Ron Kindred, soybean farmer from Atlanta, IL. As an American Soybean Association director, Ron also serves on the Board of Directors for USSEC and as the Illinois Soybean Association Marketing Committee Chair. He shared with us how they are busy finishing spraying their soybeans with insecticide and fungicide and even though the crop is a little behind this year, they still expect to have a quality crop.
Q: What have you been doing in the fields this week?
A: I have been busy spraying the fields this week with insecticide and fungicide. Most of our fields are done, but there are still some in the area left to spray. We are continuing to monitor the soybeans for anything else that may be a challenge such on them like other diseases or weeds.
Q: Are there any challenges you’ve experienced this week?
A: We are busy getting things ready for harvest. There is a lot of maintenance to be done to make sure everything is ready to go come harvest time. Our harvest will be a little later this year due to late planting, but we hope to start harvesting in about a month here in central Illinois.
Q: What is one thing that you would like your customers to know?
A: I’d like them to know that our soybean crop is looking great considering the late planting this year and we are continuously striving to provide a great quality crop for them. It looks like we are going to be able to provide them with a great supply this year.
July 26, 2013
As a American Soybean Association director, Ron also serves on the Board of Directors for USSEC and as the Illinois Soybean Association Marketing Committee Chair. He told us about how they are in the fields spraying for weeds and monitoring for insects as they expect to have an above-average crop this year.
Q: What have you been doing in the fields this week?
A: We’ve just finished spraying herbicides on our soybeans a little over a week ago, so we are monitoring to see that the weed control is going to be sufficient. We are also busy scouting beans to see if there are any insects on them to make the determination if we need to spray insecticide or not. Basically we’re just watching the crop develop. In comparison to last year, we were monitoring the beans for insects heavily a year ago because of the drought-like conditions. We had spider mites because of the extreme weather conditions from the lack of rain. This year we are still scouting, but not quite as intensely. And spider mites are not a problem this year because we have had normal growing conditions with normal rain fall. We are on the look-out for Japanese beetles – they are starting to come into the area.
Q: Are there any challenges you’ve experienced this week?
A: We haven’t had anything significant on the soybean side in the last couple of weeks. We had to get the soybeans sprayed with the post emergence herbicide and luckily we have had good weather to do that. We did have some challenges earlier this spring in the fields where winter annual weeds grew pretty big from all the rain we had. We weren’t able to get into the fields to get them killed off early, so that was a challenge.
Q: What is one thing that you would like your customers to know?
I’d like them to know even though we planted late it appears we are going to have an average to above-average crop this year based on the growing season. Our supply should be good, so I think we will be able to meet their needs.
About Ron Kindred’s Farm: Ron raises corn and soybeans using minimum and no-till practices on his family farm.
