Still waiting on harvest, but it’s getting closer and closer. Some fields around us have been harvested, but things really won’t be going around here until about October 1.
September 25, 2020 Update:
Soybeans (156 days)
See how much change there is in the leaves and stems this week? Still plenty of green out there, but headed in the right direction.
Most grain crop plants die towards the end of the season. It’s just a natural process for an annual plant – it grows, produces seed for the next generation, then dies as winter comes.
The soybeans and their pods are changing color, too. See how these beans are now yellow instead of green, like they were earlier in the season? The soybeans are also starting to lose moisture – you can tell based on the shape of the bean (more of a sphere rather than a lima bean shape) and based on the extra space now in the pod as the bean shrinks a little in size. They still have quite a ways to go to reach the 13 percent moisture content we want to harvest at, but it shouldn’t be too long now.
Corn (136 days)
Visually, the corn doesn’t look much different than last week, other than the field is a little more brown. This field hasn’t quite reached black layer, which is the point where the kernels will seal themselves off from the ear. Right now, each kernel is connected to the cob in the center of each ear. Each kernel has drawn nutrients from the plant through this connection over the last several weeks. After the kernel forms the black layer (which is literally a small black plug at the bottom of the kernel), they’ll continue to dry down until they reach about 22-24 percent moisture or less, which is the moisture content level we like to harvest corn at. After harvest, it’ll be dried to make sure it’s at least down to 15 percent moisture, which is standard for corn and good for storage. These kernels should form their black layer in the next few days.
Not sure if I’ll have another update next week or not, depending when we start harvest. But be sure to follow my social media pages (search @farmkidblog on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter) for the latest harvest updates as the season kicks off. Our farm is hoping to begin harvest towards the end of next week, but we’ll spend this weekend and early next week continuing to prepare equipment and start doing some field checks to see which fields will be ready to harvest first.