It's been a while since I needed a set of pontoons on my combine to get harvest done. I've been running my grain dryer at one location just drying soybeans.

Corn isn't any better as most numbers are routinely testing 30% moisture and more. Yields have been very good with soybeans running in the 50s for an average. We have had a few fields averaging in the 60s which is unusual for our area, so I'm happy about that, but with the weather, we are having a heck of a time getting them done. Corn yields appear to be good as well, but not a lot has been run because of the moisture levels.

Test weights will suffer

It appears that test weights on corn are going to suffer some as I have heard of them being as low as 49. Some fields in the area are infected with diplodia and although it appears to be a few isolated fields, it's still another headache to deal with. I haven't seen it in any of our fields, but we have just gotten started on corn.

Prices have been holding up better than anyone would have believed. A combination of a weakening dollar, rebounding commodities prices, and weather has strengthened prices during harvest. This has been a year where producers have been rewarded for not contracting ahead. 

With the exception of a few contracts that I made at higher levels when the market was crazy in the summer of 2008, I would have been better off not selling anything else ahead.

There are so many changes happening so fast that you can't out guess the market and in fact many times you are penalized for trying to do a good job of forward pricing.

We'll keep plugging away (not the combine I hope) until we get the job done. Hopefully, the weather will end up giving us a break somewhere along the way.