Harvest day starts and ends with fire

ROOKS CREEK, Ill. — A combine fire slowed Jay Whalen’s harvest progress, but it could have gone a lot worse.

It all started Monday morning, Oct. 12, when they were moving to a new field and saw a field fire about a half-mile away. That turned out to be the theme of the day.

“At about 2 p.m. Eliza, our auger cart driver, said she smelled something hot. So, we looked and we think, but we don’t know for sure yet, but the rotor bearing got warm on our combine,” Whalen said.

“It ended up being bad enough that we had to call the fire department. We got it out and got it cooled down. We were able to drive the machine to the dealership for repairs. We were very lucky and fortunate.

“The dealership had a rental for us to use by 6:30 p.m. that same day. So, I’m very happy with them. We went back to the field at 7 p.m. and finished the field at 11 p.m.”

The delay seemed unfortunate at the time, but there was a positive as a result.

They were taking the combine head off late Monday night when they noticed a red glow underneath a neighbor’s combine in the adjacent field about 100 feet away.

“He parked the combine at 6:30 that night and we didn’t see flames until 11. Something must have been warm and it just smoldered. We called the fire department as soon as we saw it, but the fire was a lot farther along than ours was. Since it was dark, we didn’t see any smoke, and we didn’t see it until we saw the glowing,” Whalen said.

“Unfortunately, the combine completely burned to the ground.”

Unbeknownst to them at the time, the Whalens’ decision to harvest later into the evening averted what could have been a worse situation.

“We were debating whether to finish the field or not, but I’m kind of glad we did so our field was harvested before the fire came into the field. But also if we wouldn’t have decided to finish, and nobody was there, who knows when the neighbor’s combine fire would have been seen and called in to the fire department,” Jay Whalen said.

It was a long night and short sleep for the Whalens.

“We got home at 1 a.m. and we were back at it at 5 a.m.,” Jay Whalen said.

Yield A Drag

The Whalens started harvest around Sept 26-27.

“We started on corn and then had some soybeans that were ready and did them. We had a rain delay and did a day of corn, then right back into soybeans to try to get them wrapped up,” Jay Whalen said.

“The last hot days, Oct. 12-13, it’s been dry. The soybeans are 8% to 9%, but they’re still yielding well. I’m very, very pleased with the soybeans.

“Soybeans are doing good and they’re right up at where I would say a normal yield.”

Corn yields are different story.

“Corn yields aren’t there. I would say it’s down at least 20%. Like everybody I talked to have said, it’s a lot of variability in the field and, yes, there will be a top of a hill or knob where the yield monitor might jump up to 250 to 260 bushels, but then you get into areas of 100s where the water was or where it wasn’t drained. The field averages just aren’t there like normal,” Whalen said.

He was asked what he believes is attributed to the lower corn yields and normal soybean yields.

“The biggest thing was all the rain in June. The wet June was when that corn needed to be growing and needed to get more root structure. It just didn’t take up nitrogen. It didn’t grow. It was just so wet and saturated that we didn’t get the growth that it needed in June in order to produce a good ear and a good crop,” he said.

“The variability in the ground itself and where the water sat, or not even sat, but where it was saturated for so long, that plant just could not grow and basically get big enough to produce a good ear. The corn crop is just not there.

“The biggest thing that I think helped the soybeans was the dry July. Soybeans don’t mind it wet early. They really didn’t grow or do much then, but it was the dry July that those beans just took off and grew.

“That was when they got most of their growth, but then we did have some rains. August was kind of wet, but that’s when we’re filling pods and producing beans. We had moisture then, and I think that’s why the soybeans are doing well.

“The corn lost all of its potential in June.”

Cover Crops

The last time AgriNews met with Whalen on Sept. 2 he began aerial seeding cover crops.

“We got that done about the second week of September, and it went real well. We got a couple of nice rains after that. It came up and the fields are now a nice solid green. It worked really well and is doing really good,” he said.