View from the Cab: It's me again!

By Kent Casson

Hello. Remember me?  I’m that guy who occasionally writes ag stuff and I do mean occasionally as of late.

My writing has been sporadic because of life I guess. It was a busy summer for our family as usual and I wouldn’t trade any minute of it.  From attending fairs and taking care of livestock to vacationing, we covered it all the past couple of months.

The family had a nice getaway to the Gulf Coast in early July as we took in the waves and sand of the Gulf Shores area. The place we stayed in overlooked the ocean so it was the perfect getaway during a busy year.

Our dairy calves kept us busy during June, July and August with daily chores. The kids were great caretakers of their 4-H animals by watering, feeding the walking them every day in preparation for the fairs we attend. They had a nice haul of ribbons from the Livingston County Ag Fair and Fairbury Fair.

We started off the summer show season with some of the hottest weather of the summer and ended it with a very pleasant week of temperatures and sunshine at Fairbury in late August.

Since Kenadee’s project was selected for the Illinois State Fair, we were even able to squeeze in a trip to Springfield in mid-August among the monsoon rains. The parking lot may have been a muddy mess on the fairgrounds, but we made it to where we needed to be on Agriculture Day at the State Fair of all days.

The kids said their goodbyes to the calves in late August as we officially put another summer season behind us.

Hard to believe unofficial fall is here as it is September and harvest season has started throughout the area. Expect field activity to pick up in the coming days and weeks so please be on the lookout for large equipment on the roadways.

We will be starting our corn harvest any day now as the soybeans are at least a few weeks away from being ready. I’m hoping those leaves keep turning yellow so the bean harvest can get rolling as we never know what kind of weather may happen when we are trying to get soybeans out.

The corn has really turned rapidly after the early September hot spell which pushed crops right along.

I hope to bring back some harvest information when I report back next time.  Happy almost fall!

The latest ag news, podcasts, midday market updates and more can be found at www.centralillinoisfarmnetwork.com and by following the Central Illinois Farm Network on social media.