View from the Cab: Full harvest mode

By: Kent Casson

The wheels are turning and we are well into our 2022 harvest season.

It’s always good to have that first week under our belts to get the bugs out of the equipment and electronics. We were blessed with ideal fall weather last week and the outlook for October doesn’t look bad for getting those crops out of the field.

Corn yields have exceeded expectations in many locations. Good to excellent is an adequate description of what we have been finding out there with the combine. We did come across some corn that was down from a previous wind storm but the yields hung in there.

As of this writing, we have not ventured out to cut soybeans just yet but I am hearing decent soybean reports coming in from around the neighborhood. It sounds like moisture levels have been ranging from 10 to 12 percent. A few growers have been battling green stems, making the plants harder to combine.

My office view this time of year consists of corn stalks, a blue sky and equipment traveling up and down the field and I wouldn’t have it any other way. When I physically can’t be in my office during the fall, I take the office to the tractor – and sometimes the studio. Occasionally, you may see two people in the tractor cab as I interview guests who ride along in the buddy seat.

Being the true news reporter I am, the microphone and notepad are never far away. You’ll often find them tucked away in the tractor armrest just in case a story breaks and I need to be there to cover it. I do need to find a camera holder for the tractor cab as I am a bit shaky and look a little silly holding up a selfie stick when recording someone.

We were deeply saddened and concerned to learn that many area growers were theft victims as someone apparently stole GPS receivers and display screens right from parked tractors. We aren’t talking crime in the big city – we are talking Fairbury, Chenoa and Pontiac. Just when you think it cannot happen around here, it does.

Farmers are being encouraged to lock everything up at night and remove any valuables from the combine and tractor cabs, including hardware used to assist with farming operations like autosteer systems. Something as simple as an iPad should be removed as well, because these thieves will reportedly take anything they feel is worth money.

Harvest really picked up early last week when everyone seemed to hit the fields at once and they all arrived with their loads at the grain elevator at about the same time. Please continue to be safe out there.