SODA SPRINGS, Idaho (DTN) -- Dan Lakey anxiously eyed a dark cloud to the north as the farm crew pulled combines, headers, grain carts and tandem trucks into a canola field west of Soda Springs, Idaho. They've been hustling all week to harvest wheat, and it is time to put this canola crop to bed, too.
The sooner, the better. A late-season hailstorm earlier this month has already caused some pods to shatter. Further delaying harvest could contribute to additional seed loss and possible pod drop.
After a hot summer spent hoping for rain, it's an ironic twist that Lakey must now wishing it would hold off. Some of his fields have received more moisture during the past week than they have all season.
As one combine makes its first cuts in the spring canola, the brassica tells the tale of those recent rains. Stems are already beginning to green back up. "With a little more time, maybe I could get a second crop," joked Lakey.
In central Kentucky, Quint Pottinger is gearing up for harvest, as well. Early corn could be ready to go by end of August to early September and that means shop time to make sure equipment is ready and the human team is prepared.
Pottinger, who farms near New Haven, has cautiously revised yield estimates as the season has progressed. Wonky weather early in the season did a remarkable flip in July and August to improve prospects, but nearby armyworms are serving up reminders to keep scouting.
Pottinger and Lakey are reporting in during the growing season as part of DTN's View From the Cab series. The weekly installments look at crop conditions and tackle a variety of rural issues.
Read on to learn what they are seeing in their fields this week.
QUINT POTTINGER: NEW HAVEN, KENTUCKY
With one-fourth of Affinity Farms corn acres at black layer, Pottinger hopes to begin shelling next week. "The first field tested 29% yesterday (Aug. 22)," he said.
Earlier in the season, Pottinger thought his strategy might be to avoid drying costs this year. However, as yield prospects have improved, he's been reevaluating.
"We expect to have a 10-day gap late September between the early planted and late-planted corn. If prices improve, we might bite the bullet and buy gas to just dry it from high moisture," he said.
"It also depends on heat and humidity going into October. Drying high moisture corn with lower outside temps in October can get tricky."
Early planted soybeans are starting to drop leaves. Double-crop beans are blooming. But this week, armyworms showed up in the next county -- stripping soybeans down to stems.
"We scouted this week, and our agronomist is also keeping an eye on it. We are continuing to monitor closely," Pottinger said.
Also, on the chore list this week is getting ready for that eventual harvest. "Currently we are replacing unload augers in the grain cart and combines. We are rebuilding the two soybean headers, treating empty bins and moving old crop corn to another bin to make room for new crop," he said.
And yes, other farmers may beg to differ on the terminology, but Pottinger calls his mobile auger-conveyor trailer a "grain cart."
DAN LAKEY: SODA SPRINGS, IDAHO
Chaser bins, bank out wagon, auger wagon -- Lakey has heard all the names. But he, too, depends on a "grain cart" to shuttle harvested crop to awaiting trucks and trailers.
This week all the implements were running hard on Lakey Farms as they tried to grab as much crop as possible before another weather event.
Nothing has come easy this season, it seems. A late-June frost. Drought. Hail in July. Hail in August. Now, rain threatens just as the crop is ready to come off.
It's part of what comes with farming in a region often referred to as the high desert. The amazing geography is a patchwork of canyons, rolling hills and ancient volcanic formations. Fields appear etched on sides of mountains in one spot and splay out in valleys in others. Because elevations range from 5,700 to 6,300 feet, the growing season is short, and Mother Nature often volatile.
"When we do get a crop, these soils can produce," Lakey said. "We had a hard red winter wheat field average 70- to 80-bushel per acre (bpa) dryland. That's not bad considering how little rainfall we've had."
Only a few miles to the east, Lakey finished cutting a hard red spring wheat field this week that received a total of 3/10ths of an inch of rain during the entire growing season. About time it was ready to cut, 2 inches of rain fell. That field also fell victim to a late frost and was hit with hail in early August. So Lakey wasn't totally surprised or disappointed when the field averaged around 25 bpa.
"I think that late frost probably worked in our favor. The plant had to start over and regrow from the crown and was several weeks behind when hail hit. Our neighbors had barley near it that was close to harvest and the same hailstorm all but wiped it out. At least we were left with something," he said.
Switching to canola harvest requires more than a little combine housekeeping and patience. "Canola purchasers are sticklers about wheat contamination," he said. A vacuum and a blower are tools for this job.
Still, the first round of cutting brings a few more green stems into the sample than he would like. "With wheat you can pretty much set the combine and go. With canola, a few little green stems can plug everything up and ruin your day," Lakey said. Harvesting canola is also a lesson in learning how to tweak and adjust a combine. A harvest speed of about 3 mile per hour (mph) also helps reduce losses when direct combining.
Lakey likes to plant winter wheat after canola. These spits of rain may complicate the current harvest, but it's giving him hope for the coming season. He no-till drills wheat into the existing canola stubble and he's already planted more winter canola and winter rapeseed than most years allow. Winter canola can yield 20% to 30% more than spring canola and tends to be harvested earlier in the season.
Harvest has only just begun for Lakey. In his fields at higher elevations, wind whips the beards of malting barley into shimmering waves as it ripens into an ocean of gold.
With scenic views such as this, black clouds don't hang around long.
Pamela Smith can be reached at pamela.smith@dtn.com
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