Matt Herman is originally from Olney but currently lives in Mt. Carmel. He is the owner of Herman Ag Services with an aerial drone mapping and application business partnership with Beck’s Hybrids seed dealership. He is heavily involved with the family farm and conducts various on-farm research studies.

Some beans were planted at the end of March in my area, and they are starting to emerge and look good. Field conditions are very wet, preventing tillage and plowing. Most anhydrous application is completed. In terms of the amount of crops planted, corn is close to 0% and maybe a few percent of beans, but it is very spotty. We have been battling rains.

There’s been an increase in Wabash County of field work completed when it was drier. In Richland County, where my home farm is, there had been very little spraying, tillage and virtually no planting. Hopefully we can get a few things in Wednesday, but I’m not holding my breath. We’re probably more than 80% complete with anhydrous. This is the main thing that has been done. The wheat is ready to be fungicided in my area.

I planted 35 acres of corn in the rain. Conditions were really good, and then we got rain on Saturday night and will be out until Tuesday, but more rain is expected later in the week. Wheat fungicide is basically complete. Earlier-planted corn and beans are emerging and look well.

I’m planting corn, but we have rain coming today. But we’re giving it a go. There’s been some guys trying to do light tillage to help dry this out. A whole lot of planting going on. If we miss the rain this afternoon, people will be pushing it hard to get it in before the next chance of rain. Expecting an inch in our area between Monday afternoon and Tuesday morning this week.

Some guys are running today, but at our farm in Richland County we will not until tomorrow. Overall, it’s pretty slow day today, but I expect activity to pick up tomorrow and Wednesday to try and beat the rain coming on Wednesday.

I’m planting corn today and hopefully this will be my last field. In Richland County, we missed some of the rain and it allowed us to continue to plant, spray and other things. It’s supposed to rain tonight, but so far it has been a productive week, and I look forward to finishing corn. Some farmers are reducing corn acres and planting more beans. Hope to finish up beans this weekend.

We are out for a couple of days due to rain. This past week we had a really good stretch of it. A lot was accomplished, but there is still about 25% to go in our county. There were a lot of corn acres put in the ground before the last rain we had, and it is struggling to emerge. Several acres of earlier plantings have been sprayed.

Wheat is being harvested starting this week. Yields are down over last year, but still good so far. Lots of planting progress with corn and soybeans both. Lots of post application spraying. Our county should come close to wrapping up this week.

Wheat harvest is complete with respectful yields. Have a really good stretch of dry weather, however, forecast doesn’t look too good for rain. Double-crop soybeans are being planted and first-crop soybeans are also being finished up.

We got three-tenths of rain over the weekend. Some of the early-planted corn is tasseling and getting fungicide put on them today. Everyone is finished with planting for the first time. So far everything is starting to get wrapped up, and hopefully we’ll get more rains to get the recently planted stuff up out of the ground.

Fungicide application is happening on soybeans and early-planted corn. In-season nitrogen applications are happening in corn. We are expecting rain this coming week, and hopefully we will get something out of that. Overall conditions of later-planted crops look pretty decent, and early crops some look good and others look uneven and inconsistent.

Some of the early-planted crops are getting fungicide. Some of the very last planted crops are getting their last herbicide pass. They are calling for 1-3 inches of rain here this week.

It’s going to be a hot week around these parts with rain expected on Wednesday. Fungicide on corn and beans continues — probably will until the middle of August due to uneven planting dates.

We are in the stage of pretty much most crops are starting to or have been fungicided. Only the extremely late planted haven’t, but will be ready to by next week. Double crops in our immediate area are struggling with emergence and have severely reduced stands. We could use some rain.

We had about an inch of rain across our home territory. Fungicide application in corn and soybeans both. Early-planted corn in blister growth stage. Waiting on Mother Nature at this point. The last few rains have been good for grain fill.

We have some really awesome weather, which is great for grain fill. Some of the later-planted stuff, corn and soybeans both, are receiving their fungicide applications right now. We could use a shower. We are not terribly dry, but being that crops are in the grain fill period we could use a little extra. I have found some pretty severe tar spot in corn in our area and pretty severe infestations of aphids. Southern rust and tar spot found in Richland County as well.

We could definitely use a rain — we are in a critical time for grain fill for both corn and soybeans. Some of the very latest-planted crops are receiving their fungicide applications this week. Tar spot and southern rust are ramping up in our area in both early- and later-planted corn.

We are in desperate need of a rain shower. All fungicide applications have been made at this point. Crops are starting to show extreme stress. The heat we are predicted to receive this week and dry soil is not a good combination. Smaller kernels and less test weight due to lack of moisture could be possible. A lot of the corn around here was later-planted — not far along enough to tell if that will happen or not.

We are still in desperate need of rain. Corn and beans are starting to dry prematurely. Corn is starting to die from lack of rainfall and excess heat. Some of the really early planted crops are starting to get harvested. Everyone is doing machine maintenance and preparing to start.

Still no rain. Some projected rain for Friday. Harvest has started on early beans and early corn. Beans hit or miss and corn pretty good reports so far. Lot of tar spot in the area. Next week quite a bit of stuff will start getting harvested in the area.

There is corn and soybeans both being harvested in the area. All of the early guys are starting shelling corn and cutting soybeans. The early-planted stuff has pretty good yields, but the later-planted stuff may struggle. Next week there will be a lot of combines in the field around here and the following week will be wide open.

We got some rain, and it has stopped all harvesting. More rain is coming today, so expect harvest will be stopped in our area for a few days. Not sure when we will be able to pick up and start again. Harvest conditions were getting dangerous with possibilities for field fires before we got the much-needed rain. Corn and soybean yields vary greatly. Some have tough yields dependent on when they were planted, and rain was a big factor as well.

In Richland County there were some severe winds from the hurricane that came through and blew down a decent amount of corn. The trials we have done so far, some of it is still able to be harvested. Received a decent amount of rain, but the soil is able to soak up the moisture. Early corn is substantially outperforming later-planted corn. This week I would expect to see a combine every time you turn your head going down the road. The weather looks good the rest of the week, so I would expect a large amount of areas being harvested. I spread cover crop with my drone, and they are already sprouted and up out of the ground looking very good.

Harvest is rampant in the area — many people cutting beans and shelling corn both. Lots of downed corn from Hurricane Helene. Corn yields are relatively decent so far with bean yields below average. I would expect people to start planting fall wheat this week.

Harvest is in full swing, and wheat is being planted. Yields are varying greatly in both corn and soybeans and determinate on what had adequate rainfall and not. Not a lot of consistency in our area.

Harvest in this area is probably close to 80% complete. Corn yields are extremely variable, and bean yields are very average to slightly below average. People are starting to cut double-crop beans with yields ranging from 30 bushels per acre to some in the low 40s. I would expect a complete harvest on our farm within the next three days. A lot of the winter wheat has been planted and is starting to emerge.

Things are slowing down in the area and most people are finishing up with harvest. Lots of fall tillage going on. The people that aren’t still harvesting are fixing tile and doing other fall projects. We’ve had an extremely good fall to do that. Fields with crops in them are very sparse. Most people finished up last week and I would expect the rest of the area to be done this week or really close to it.

We started out extremely wet and were able to get crops in the ground and had slightly below-average emergence scores. In June, we had 10 days to two weeks of extreme temperatures. In July, adequate moisture and good pollination, things looked better than they should have. In August, we had no measurable rain for the entire month. That took away a ton of yield — probably lost us yields on corn and beans. Overall, pretty decent corn crop with beans below average. More disappointment in the beans than the corn. Corn had record highs and lows in the same field — inconsistent due to the weather. A lot of variables, but better than it should have been.