From the field reports in Kansas and North Dakota

Cameron Peirce: I think, yeah, so the wheat was already in the ground. At that point, I think maybe we were deciding if we were going to go between cotton and sunflowers and soybeans, kind of what our mix was going to be. And we ended up doing a mix of cotton, sunflowers of us, soybeans and some dryland corn. So we got pretty good diversity this year. So we got some, hopefully we've got our risk mitigated. Right now it's turning hot and dry again. So I'm kind of glad we got the cotton in rotation.

Paul Yeager: How are you doing on moisture?

Cameron Peirce: We had, believe it or not, we had before, like, our wheat crop was just super dry. All winter, all spring, at the end of May, we had 10 and a half inches over two weeks, two and a half weeks. You know, a lot of our crops thought they were back, you know, where you are in Iowa or Indiana or, you know, thought these growing conditions were as great and they were not working on a root system whatsoever. And then as typical the Kansas heat in the Kansas wind hit them. And it was rough on some, some places, I mean, the corners turning yellow, it didn't have a root system, it couldn't get to the water, it just looked like it was just looked like a major drought. But even though like you know, four inches down, there was all the moisture it needed and just hadn't written down into it yet. And but I mean, you know, it's, it's, it's doing better now. So we got harvests through we didn't have a rain during harvest, we had a sprinkle, I think but outside of that we got all the way through harvests without any any breakdowns. We didn't get any hail or bad weather. So we got all of our wheat out. It was not that great. I mean, you know, better than what we expected, probably because I kind of had my expectations set pretty low. So but it was it was it was average or or just a little under. So you know. But yeah, so we're working on getting some double crop sunflowers put in right now. All the full season stuff is is completely in.

Paul Yeager: How's the crop look?

Paul Thomas: Variable?

Paul Yeager: That's not what you're supposed to say you're supposed to say good everywhere. Where's that optimism?

Paul Thomas: Well, the optimism would be there's no poor crop. Variable more from stage of planting. We, you know, had that snowstorm and, and then we received significant precipitation throughout the rest of April and into the middle part of May, that really delayed drills and planters and everyone's field work significantly throughout our whole state. From our standpoint, we really thought around Memorial Day weekend that we were going to have at least 25% of our farm and prevent plant that there was just no way we were going to get into it. We missed a major system that went through just about 20 miles to the east that started raining. And we miss that. And really was pretty fortunate for our farm. We ended up getting close to 95% planted and seeded one of the, you know, challenges with you know, seeding into those overly wet conditions that that occurs as you put it in in less than ideal conditions. So there was some furloughs not getting close, there was, you know, some certainly compaction issues that that we've seen, you know, in those tire tracks and Coulter's, and, you know, so it wasn't a perfect stand out perfect emergence, but we've stayed fairly moist, and the crop has seemed to compensate for it quite well. And I but in general, a, you know, the crop looks pretty good. corn and soybeans, there's, you know, certainly got to feel optimistic about the potential. But you also are really concerned about how late this crop is and how small it is. And, you know, certainly going to need a very warm July and August with, you know, sufficient preset and then a late fall,

Paul Yeager: and you're gonna probably need the heat units.

Paul Thomas: we are significantly behind where we should be.

Paul Yeager: Is there an ideal temp for you 87, 90, 92 that is best for growing in your area?

Paul Thomas: You know, we, we have such long days. So, you know, obviously, we don't like seeing that temperature go much above 85 degrees, but in our long LinkedIn days, it's typical in the month of July and into August that you know, you have four or five hours that are in the 90s.

Paul Yeager: I seem to remember in our earlier conversation, it was in in the pictures that we showed you had things hooked up, ready to go and seed and you were like, Well, I'm not really sure if we should. At the time, it was like Yeah, we're good. Our window. Was there anybody Did that actually put something in on that one afternoon in April where it was good to go? And how does that look?

Paul Thomas: So I would say there was probably two afternoons and literally two afternoons that some land did get seated. And it was spring wheat, the fields that I've seen that it gets seated in that little window, and they actually look phenomenal. Yeah, they're the best looking crops around. And sometimes that isn't the case. You know, when you lay under snow for 10 days, and then you just, you know, that cool wet conditions and all that but no, the crop came through that, you know, really, really well. So whenever you drive by the neighbor's fields that did do that. It you certainly wish they would have pulled the trigger, at least on a few acres on that.

Paul Yeager: The full discussion with Paul Thomas and Cameron Pierce is available now on our YouTube channel as the MT om podcast. New episodes come out each Tuesday.

Contact: Paul.Yeager@iowapbs.org