I was finally able to talk with my brother about this years crops, the conversation went something like this:
me: How were the overall yields?
brother: The corn was 20 BPA better than we ever raised and the beans did about average?
me: Thats great considering the weather, have you had a chance to talk with any of the neighbors?
brother: Just one, he said his corn did better than expected and it was still the worst crop he has ever produced!
me: Wow, so what are you doing different?
brother: If I could figure that out I would do it every year.
me: Did you get the cover crops in?
brother: Yep, all bean ground planted to rye and growing. You should see all the tillage and black dirt around here, these guys have been over their ground more times since harvest than we go over ours all year.
We do all no-till and the neighbor he talked to does conventional tillage. Lots of guys planted early before the cold spell last spring so that probably didn't help anything. The neighbors are probably going to have a lot of corn on corn next year, doing no till we stick with mostly a corn/bean rotation. Going to let 20 acres of rye go to seed next year so we can grow our own seed for the fall cover crops. Will see how that works!
Happy Thanksgiving everyone.
