So far today we have had slightly over 2 inches of rain, putting me in the same boat many of you were now with regard to harvest. I was fairly close to being done with soybeans, had it not been for that blasted wobble box I would have been. How long this does us in for will be determined by how much more rain we get, and how warm it gets. We were dry enough that the rain we have so far wouldn't have slowed us down much, but we are getting to the time of the year where it can stay cloudy and not dry at all during the day. It appears our threat of hail is over for the day, that had been what we were watching for, but since the sun never came out the heat didn't build which is generally what gives us hail and tornadoes, hot humid days. We have been lucky in this spot, missing the heavy rains around us this last weekend and getting just 2 tenths Saturday and 4 tenths Monday.
Saturday is the day I need to be off 485 acres of my rented grass, which means in a way it isn't so bad we won't be able to combine the rest of this week. The flip side is it isn't great weather to wean calves in, we don't have the buildings like you have in the UK(it would be nice in wet weather to house the cattle, just not profitable). The unfortunate thing about raising cattle and crops in this particular area is the work all comes at once, corn planting coincides with going to grass, wheat harvest coincides with haying, putting up the first cutting of alfalfa competes with planting soybeans, and then in the fall soybean, milo and corn harvest conflicts with wheat planting and coming back off of grass. When you get into Iowa and Illinois you tend to have farmers who just farm arable, or at least more that do, whereas in our area we raise both crops and livestock.
280 acres of land was sold in our community at auction last night, 200 acres of good haymeadow brought $1030 per acre, 80 acres of rough pasture brought $790. Got an email from Lincolnshire that some farmland brought 10000 pounds over there. Tomorrow night they are selling a 3180 acre tract of grass 10 miles west of me, it will be interesting to see what it brings.