As we head into the Thanksgiving holiday, the Vermilion County Farm Bureau’s Tom Fricke says farmers can certainly be thankful for what they received from the 2023 growing season and harvest, especially after a quite challenging weather year.
AUDIO: You remember how dry it was going through May and June, hardly any rain during that time period. And then July was somewhat plentiful. It turned dry again in August; so not knowing how that was going to affect the soybeans particularly. Rain in August is what helps make the soybean yield.
In addition to being thankful that soybeans, for the most part, turned out better than expected, there is also plenty of thankfulness for another good corn year; although Fricke admits expecting another 2022 corn harvest was definitely unrealistic.
AUDIO: Last year we were looking at record yields. We weren’t at 2022 levels by any means; but a very solid, very respectable corn yield this year.
And one final thing to be thankful for, the great November fall weather we’ve had. Fricke says that will hopefully mean even more time for field work; such as fertilizing, and tiling work for drainage needs.
