Production Blog

MASON, Ohio (DTN) -- Weather whiplash continued for Dan Lakey this week. After wishing for rain all summer, the Soda Springs, Idaho, farmer finally received measurable precipitation, only to have it delay harvest and cause drying concerns.

"We don't have grain drying in this part of the country," said Lakey, who farms in the southeastern part of Idaho. "The silver lining is this rainfall is helping our winter crop seedings."

In central Kentucky, Quint Pottinger has been experiencing the big dry. Increasingly droughty conditions have caused many crops to age quickly. Concerns over soybean shattering have the farmer hustling to prioritize fields that need harvest and hoping rain will come to salvage double-crop plantings.

Pottinger and Lakey have been reporting on their crops and other rural topics as part of DTN's View From the Cab series. This week the two farmers offer harvest updates and talk about the importance of service trucks. Those long hours behind the wheel get easier with a good podcast or energizing music. Read on to learn what these farmers are listening to these days.

QUINT POTTINGER: NEW HAVEN, KENTUCKY

No matter how much time is spent preparing for it, harvest always seems to arrive in a hurry. Like many farms across the Midwest, weather-related stress has sped up drydown on Pottinger's Affinity Farms in central Kentucky.

"Dry conditions have hastened defoliation of soybeans. We plan to start full-season soybean harvest on Monday (Sept. 23)," Pottinger said. "I chatted with a neighbor today (Sept. 19) whose beans were 12.9% and shattering."

At the same time, Pottinger said he has corn at black layer that hasn't dropped much in moisture and was still holding above 30%.

"We need a rain to keep our double-crop beans growing, to our full-season beans from shattering and, as silly as it sounds, to help our matured corn continue to dry on down to harvest," he said. His thought, and that of his agronomist, is a shot of rain should let the plant continue to mature and devote its remaining resources to preserving yield rather than fighting to live.

He also needs to plant rye and would like to do that next week but needs moisture to proceed.

DTN Ag Meteorologist John Baranick noted that it has been tough to get rain into Kentucky during the last two months. "They should get a good shot this week (Sept. 22-28) with a system moving through the Ohio Valley. A lot of the rain is currently forecast to go north of the Ohio River, but probably drags through a good portion of Kentucky as well," Baranick said.

"It may not be overly heavy, but some embedded thunderstorms could bring in better amounts. The most likely days are Monday and Tuesday with the rainfall, but we could see some rain lingering longer in the week too. Temperatures were awfully warm last week, but the system will bring in some milder air in the 70s, rather than the 80s or lower 90s we saw last week."

Barring unforeseen delays -- breakdowns, storage issues or hurricanes -- Pottinger expects to be finished harvesting before the end of October.

Key to hastening that progress are the farm's service trucks. This unsung hero of the machinery fleet, the farm service truck becomes especially important when fields are spread across the miles.

Pottinger came to understand this at an early age when he helped his brother and father engineer a flatbed on a 1987 Chevy Silverado.

"It was about 1996 when our farm service truck was born. I always remember my dad speaking about the importance of having tools when you need them. Probably the reason building a big shop for equipment was never an important capital allocation," he recalled.

"Because we are spread out it is important to have the tools when you need them and where you need them. And that is not to discount the need for a shop for repairs. We have two shops at the farm, one with machining and fabrication and one ... (building) to work on equipment in the winter. But neither were built with the idea of daily servicing of equipment. The service trucks are built with that in mind."

Today a couple of heavy-duty Ram and Chevy Silverado trucks are outfitted with the tools and necessities to make field repairs. Those service trucks also tie into an overall farm philosophy about "fixing."

Pottinger's first engine overhaul was a 1984 John Deere 8630 with a JD 619 engine. "I was disking ground that spring and the cam shaft broke. It was the first 'on this farm, if you break it, you fix it' memory I have," he said.

"That summer my dad taught me how to overhaul an engine. I remember him splitting JD 4020s and pulling 466s out of 8430 Deeres. I remember fetching wrenches and moving oil pans, but the 619 was my first overhaul. The 'you break it, you fix it stuck'," Pottinger said.

The playlist is long for Pottinger and he prefers audiobooks that make him think. "I've been relistening to "The Order of Time" by Carlo Rovelli -- such a great mind," Pottinger said of the Italian physicist and author. He's revisiting the "Incerto" series by Nassim Taleb, which he said is a "great way to wake up the mind in the morning."

"There was a great interview that Ian Bremmer did with author and historian, Yuval Harari, earlier this year that I've put on again recently -- again, great thinkers. With ag being such a global industry and much of the world's security dependent on America's ag production or America's Navy to secure shipments from other food producers to the developed world, it is nice to unplug from the day-to-day production, scratch the brain and think about where we are going and how we should be evolving (food production) systems.

"Sometimes though, you just want a distraction. "The new "Twister" movie soundtrack is fire. It's fun to crank it up in the evenings while scouting crops," he said.

But when he's checking the dryer in the evenings, the fav song on the playlist is "Dancing in the Kitchen" by LANY. It hits all the feels and touches the memories of dancing in the kitchen with his wife, Leah, while making dinner at home to thoughts of traveling the world together.

"Those memories give me fuel to finish the day," Pottinger said.

DAN LAKEY: SODA SPRINGS, IDAHO

Lakey made a sacrifice this past week and farmed on Sunday. He doesn't like to do it and can count on one hand the number of times he's made that decision. But the forecast held chances of rain for 10 days straight, and ripe durum doesn't weather well.

"Dad grew up on a farm where he worked seven days a week, 365 days a year. They wouldn't even take Christmas off. He really made a point of it during his life to not have us do that type of a routine," he recalled.

But the stress of storms coming in and the need to get grain harvested led to a discussion with the farm crew and a decision to get it done. It also meant missing his own birthday party -- an oops that he'll try to make up to his wife, Marie, eventually.

"We pushed through and got the durum harvested before rain started on Monday," he said. The inch of rain to 1.5 inches that fell might not seem a lot to farmers in some regions, but with temperatures ranging from highs of 50s and lows in the 30s Fahrenheit, it's going to take a while for the grain to dry out before combines roll again.

"We're about 75% complete on harvest," said Lakey. "We've got just under 1,000 acres left of spring wheat before we move on to the remaining 1,400 acres of malt barley that will finish harvest," he said.

DTN's Baranick said deep troughs have been digging into the region. "While showers haven't been as frequent as the pattern might suggest, it has brought in some cold air at times," he said.

"Another one of these troughs dove in over the weekend (Sept. 21), but pushed farther south, into California. That may be able to grab some more moisture from the Pacific than previous ones and bring some rain through the area for the front half of the week," he added. "I wouldn't be completely surprised by a few showers at the end of the week either. That's a colder trough and temperatures likely stay in the 50s in the afternoon with risks of frost at night, especially when skies are likely to clear out more later in the week."

Lakey priced electric and gas grain drying systems last winter but didn't pull the trigger. He still thinks it would be a wise investment but yield-challenged years like this don't support those kinds of purchases. He doesn't know of a grain dryer within hundreds of miles of his area.

"It's just not a practice anyone does here. Not even the elevators," he said. A local elevator did purchase some drying equipment in the '80s in a move that made it look like the Midwest came to southeast Idaho. "They sat and rusted solid," Lakey said.

Still, he can't help but yearn for the opportunity to start a few weeks early when the grain is still at high moisture -- not to mention the ability to dry down late wet grain during late harvests. Drying would help with that.

As it stands today, the farm will store wheat at 15% or a little higher if it is early August. "If we have full air floors in the bin, we can dry down two to three points pretty easily in a few weeks. As the season gets colder, and we get into fall, it becomes much harder to dry down anything. As we get into October, pretty much anything we put in the bin we cannot dry down and it will just stay at that moisture until springtime," he said.

While harvest may be bogged down temporarily, the winter canola is up and flourishing because of the received moisture. He has about 700 acres of winter wheat planted, but the drill needed a fix before continuing.

"Now that we have moisture, we will definitely plant about 1,500 acres more winter wheat and, if time allows, maybe another 500 acres on top of that," Lakey said. Additional winter plantings are all dependent on weather and time.

When those machinery meltdowns happen, it is a 2006 Ford F550 crew cab that comes to the rescue. On board is a 600-gallon diesel tank, welder, torch, air compressor and all the tools to do infield repairs.

Don't get Lakey started on the 6.0 Power Stroke engine. "Sometimes I think the truck gets more service than it gives, but being spread out as we are, a good, equipped service truck is a must. One run to town for repairs from our outlying fields can shut us down for most of a day. We try to equip it the best we can to make repairs instantly, if possible," he said.

Two other service trucks serve as understudies -- they are well equipped, but not like the main truck. Upgrading the main truck is another item on the wish list.

"We've had this one for close to a decade and are looking to upgrade. A crew cab is a must, so we can get everyone home at night," he said.

The Lakey playlist almost always includes soil health and other ag-related podcasts. Lately he's been taking in Barn Talk, a weekly podcast by father-son duo Sawyer and Tork Whisler, that he considers both informational and entertaining.

Lakey is also a big fan of anything from motivational speaker Jim Rohn's library. E-books he's listened to lately include "The Richest Man in Babylon" by George S. Clason and two Simon Sinek books: "Start With Why" and "Leaders Eat Last." He added that "Dirt" by David R. Montgomery is one of his favorite books.

"About the last 3,000 acres of harvest are in areas where I don't have any cell coverage. Since I listen to podcasts and SiriusXM on my phone app, those acres are spent listening to local AM radio stations or in compete silence.

"By this point in harvest, the silence is usually welcome," he said.

Pamela Smith can be reached by Pamela.Smith@dtn.com

Follow her on social platform X @PamSmithDTN

(c) Copyright 2024 DTN, LLC. All rights reserved.