Everything in the ground for Aberle

Randy Aberle shown at a winter meeting in early 2020 at his farm / CIFN file photo.

GIBSON CITY – It may have been a struggle at times with on and off rain showers and cold temperatures, but Ford County farmer Randy Aberle did get everything in the ground this spring.

“The weather kind of forced us into multiple planting dates but that’s not all bad,” Aberle told The Central Illinois Farm Network last week.

Aberle reports his soybeans are all up and two-thirds of his corn has emerged as of last week. Fortunately, he did not have to replant anything. Aberle’s corn planting began May 13 as he took his time starting due to the cooler weather this season. He finished corn last Tuesday night and already had the soybeans finished the first week of May.

“It was cooler and a little bit wetter in a few spots but we didn’t have hardly anything up around that Mother’s Day time period when it got cold,” noted Aberle.

While some growers had to replant from frost damage, Aberle did not have to so he was lucky there.

Aberle owns RA Seeding Solutions, a full line Precision Planting dealer which offers other products from Martin, Yetter and 360 Yield Center. Spring is a busy time for the business not only keeping their own equipment running but customer equipment as well. Aberle is also an owner of Flying Ag which sells drones. Those sales have been strong also.

“Everybody loves it when it works right. When it doesn’t, it’s, ‘how fast can you get me going again?’”

During the first part of April when RA Seeding Solutions was finishing equipment installs, it was tough to get parts in due to the COVID shortages but they were eventually able to get everything they needed.

“It is going to be an ongoing thing,” warns Aberle. “Even looking to this coming year, the microchip issue that is affecting about everything worldwide impacts all of our monitors, modules and stuff that goes on the planter.”

According to Aberle, Precision Planting is doing a good job of figuring out how to mitigate this, but it is definitely an issue.

For more information, visit www.raseedingsolutions.com or call 217-417-3730.