Like every year anymore, 2018 proved to be an interesting one. We had some rain this spring that held us up for a bit. This summer turned hot, stayed hot most of the time and brought a dry spell for us towards the later part of the growing season. What seemed like an early fall coming due to the rapid maturity of the crop was quickly slowed due to the long periods of wet weather. We were pleased with yields, with our corn making 250-plus bushel averages and soybeans mostly hugged the 65 …

Winter weather came in this week with some snow and the coldest temperatures so far this fall. A lot of farmers are getting wrapped up with harvest in the area. Temperatures in the teens this week put ammonia rigs to a halt. Our focus right now is to get calves weaned and cows to their winter pastures. We hope for another break in the weather to get the rest of the fieldwork finished.

Snow and winter temperatures have arrived in the Northwest. Farmers are putting on ammonia where it is dry enough, but this week I expect a lot more to be applied, including on our farm. This week we will be getting our winter pastures ready and will be weaning and vaccinating our stock in the coming weeks.

All our crops are out, but there still is a decent amount left in fields in this area. Between scattered rains, we have done some fall tillage and applied fertilizer as well as trying to finish up a dry dam project we've been working. We are almost ready to start putting on some ammonia this week if the weather holds out for us.

Another busy week for us in the Northwest. We have 25 acres of beans left to cut and we'll be done with harvest 2018. Soybean yields hugged the 70-bushel mark for us with a couple farms that went close to 80. Fall tillage and fall NH3 will be on the agenda in the coming week here in lower Rock Island County.

Full steam ahead is what we are looking at for this week thanks to Mother Nature. Finished with corn, we now are cutting beans for the first time this year. So far yields are in the mid to upper 70s and doing well. Our dry fertilizer prescriptions have been made and we will be spreading soon. Good fall weather ahead — perfect for making progress this week.

Wet has been the story of this week. The combine sat idle this week due to rain. We are almost done with corn and have yet to cut any of our beans. The coming week looks promising for machines to start going again and get caught up after our longer than normal rain delay.

We’re sitting today and not sure when we’ll get back at it. More rain is forecasted. We haven’t cut any beans yet; the weather has been holding us up. We were one field away from finishing corn before the rain arrived. We’re starting to get fertilizer recommendations going so we can spread fertilizer in the near future. We’ll try to get our calves weaned this month too.