“We are running a new Claas 8700 combine and a Claas 780 machine this year.”

“It was good to get started early after last years late spring. Field conditions were good and we were able to get a couple of good days in before rains shut us down.”

“We have started tillage work behind the combines. With a short harvest window, we are trying to move as fast as possible before winter sets in. We had our first frost on Saturday morning.”

“We raced three loaded grain carts over a 1-mile course to see which tractor performed better. It was a tight race between the Challenger 1050 wheel tractor and the Challenger 865B.”

“New this year, we are using AgLeader's Display Cast and AgFiniti service which allows data to be shared between the machines in real time. This allows us to share coverage maps, seeding prescriptions, and guidance lines.”

“Yields continue to be very good. Our progress has slowed up some as our storage facilities have filled up and we are now needing to haul grain back out to other sites. Running out of storage space is a good problem.”

“Needless to say, we are ready to be done with soybeans for the year. We have harvested more beans this year than we ever have. At least yields have been very good.”

“There continues to be a lot of variability in the fields due to excessive water throughout the growing season. Yields are off sharply where any water stood during the year.”

“We spent the week cleaning out ditches and fixing washed-out areas from all the rain. This is the second time this spring we have had to repair major washed-out areas in some of the fields.”

“We continue to find highly variable yields. Within the same field (and even the same row), we have seen yield variations of up to 180 bushels per acre.”

“Many low areas of the fields have good stands of corn, but the corn lacked good root development because of the excessive spring rains.”

“This is the earliest we have ever finished harvest. What a difference a year makes.”

“This has been a challenging growing season from the planting delays in the spring due to wet weather through the wet harvest and finally snow covered harvest.”

“Corn harvest took a total of 67 days from our start date of September 29th until December 5th. We were ready for it to be over after logging in about 500 hours in the combine seat.”

“Despite the dry conditions in the early summer, July and August rains provided enough moisture for excellent yields on most of our fields.”