Josh Henik farms in Linn County between Mount Vernon and Solon with his wife, Katelyn, and his dad, John, along with guidance from his grandfather, Roland. They have a 700-acre row crop farm split about 50% corn and 50% soybeans. They also tend to a few head of cattle. Josh is an ag professor at Kirkwood Community College and Linn County Farm Bureau president.

It’s going pretty good. It looked like a fair number of people got out in the fields and did some tillage and planting. Those who planted probably got less than 20% of corn and soybeans planted before the 2 inches of rain came, which will slow things down the beginning of this week. We had a few minor repairs come up and finished fertilizer and herbicide application. The first next dry day we get, we’ll be putting seed in the ground.

Last week was not great. Rain slowed things down quite a bit. We did not see much movement in the fields until we noticed some tillage done Saturday and Sunday along with a few planters. There may be more out today with some maybe planting corn before predicted storms hit tonight.

We got some more rain that has slowed us down with planting. We are still a bit behind when we compare our area to other spots in the state, but we should really get going again this week with the weather forecast we have. We should see more crop emergence this week with the warmer weather.

We wrapped up corn planting last week. Just under 200 acres of soybeans will be planted early this week. We were wet early during planting but hotter, dry weather is drying things up in the fields. The stands are going to be there and the weather’s warming up. The corn looks good.

It’s going good. We wrapped up planting beans. We need a little bit of rain today and tomorrow to keep things going. The corn is looking pretty good. Beans are just starting to poke through to be visible. Farmers had to replant in some sections in this area. We’ll see how much rain we get in the next few days to determine when to do nitrogen and herbicide applications.

We got a fair amount of rain so I can’t complain. It totaled 2.5 inches in spurts from Monday through Wednesday. I’m waiting for things to dry out to do the first cut of hay and attend to pastures. It’s still pretty wet. It may be the middle of next week before I can go hard and heavy. No breakdowns with equipment. Crops look good so far.

I still have hay to mow. I’m a little behind. A lot got dropped and baled in this area during the past week. I don’t have a lot of hay. Most of the side-dressing nitrogen is done and I expect to finish today. The second pass of herbicide on corn is done. Corn looks good in our area. Soybeans show a little uneven emergence, but stands are good as it should even out. I’d take a good inch of rain. We don’t have crusting issues with beans.

It’s going pretty good, although I wish we got more rain. I applied second herbicide for weed kills, and I’ll do a second pass on beans later this week. We’re moving forward on hay cutting and baling. We only had about 0.25-0.5 of an inch last week of rain. We really need another shot of rain. Corn is a bit at that ugly stage. It looks good but it’s a little streaky. We just need nitrogen to get down more in the roots. The planter is put away and we’re chipping away at cleaning and putting away other planting equipment.

We’re waiting for a good shot of rain as lately we only got a sprinkle here and there. Things look good. Corn is growing good and greening up. We’re further along than northern Iowa. I have no complaints. Corn is at least knee high. Beans are looking good. I completed half of the second pass of herbicide spraying. Bean growth is evening out and leaves popping out. I would like to get a second pass of herbicide done this week. Timing of it depends on rainfall amounts. The first cutting of hay was done last week.

It’s going good. We caught a little over 2 inches of rain before the heat came on strong last week, which was good timing. We have had a lot of wind, too. We postponed a second pass of herbicide spraying because we need the right conditions. Beans are growing faster and filling out a bit. Rain evened out the corn, which looks gorgeous right now. The Linn County Fair is this week, so we’re going to spend a lot of time up in Central City.

Weather wise, it’s going pretty good. We’re catching good rains of about a half-inch every two to three days. Corn and beans look really good. My second pass of herbicide needs to be done. The first held well, but I may spike up the mix a little more. But I don’t have a jungle out there by any means. For some others, it’s not holding. Of course, it can be hard to get out there with rain every few days. Other areas received severe wind and rains that we missed. The kids had some activities at the fair, so that’s good so far. We’ll see how muddy it is a little later today.

We got a nice shot of rain of about 1.5 inches, with tassels starting to poke in through in a few fields. The second pass of bean spraying is finished up. Things are looking really good. Some in the area put over-the-top nitrogen on which was also good timing with the rain. It looks pretty clean when I’m driving around in the fields. We’ll keep an eye on them for insect damage.

Everything is looking good around the farm. Most fields have tasseled or are beginning to tassel. We picked up about 1-2 inches of rain last week and avoided much of the damaging winds that went just to the north of us. Starting to see some disease in the corn, so we will plan fungicide applications in the coming weeks. Fifteen-inch beans have closed canopy, and weed control seems to be holding well. Pastures and hay are still staying green and look good.

We keep getting some nice showers. It hasn't been too hot. There's some hot weather in the forecast, but nothing too crazy for late July. Corn, we’re just kind of getting to the back end of tasseling. We'll see how this finishes out, but it's looking really good right now.

It’s been warm, and we keep getting showers and humidity. Diseases are becoming more noticeable. Plan fungicide spraying for today or tomorrow. Beans and corn look good. I’m getting started to be ready for fall as it will be a slow week around the farm. I’ll get software updated and replace some parts on combines.

I sprayed fungicide last week on corn. The weather has been good, and corn looks really good. I’d suggest area farmers walk their fields and pull corn ears to check for pollination issues. We’ll visit the state fair next week. We’re doing some late summer cleaning and organizing throughout the farm. We’re also working on some new landscaping as we’ll have some guests from Brazil at the end of the month.

Corn and beans look real good from viewing around our area. I’d encourage others not to pencil 188 bu./acre for corn as some are predicting because of lingering factors. Fields in our area have some tar spot, and hot nights are pushing it. Farmers might not get heavy test weights, but it will probably still be above head size.

We made a trip to the State Fair and worked on equipment to get ready for fall. We’re wet but not swamped, as we got about half to 1 inch of rain every two to three days in the last week. It’s humid. Crops are showing some stress from diseases and we’ve sprayed fungicide but when it rains continuously as it has, I notice more southern rust and tar spots. The corn itself still looks good. Beans look pretty good. My fields look pretty clean, but when you look around the nearby area you see some weedy fields. But for so much rain, it’s not too bad. A cool-off forecast soon would be beneficial.

Weather was good and cooled down nicely at the end of the week. Fields are dried out. All that’s taken pressure off crops from heat. I need to get back in the field. Diseases are progressing pretty harsh through some area fields. It’s not a disaster, just more pressure. That effect could be the wild card in what yields will be at the end of the year for both corn and soybeans. The combine is geared up and ready to go. We greased up and made sure bins are working, too. see how weather and markets go and how much we end up getting out of the fields.

We’re getting to the last of the bins. We cleaned the last few loads and took them to ADM and Cargill. We’re getting harvest equipment ready to go. Disease progressed fast in fields. We are maybe starting an earlier harvest than planned. We fixed augers this week. Additionally, I hosted about 30 farmers from Brazil for a couple hours one day this past week as they were checking typical Iowa farms. I’ll be going there myself again in March. I don’t know about how yields will go at harvest. We are trying to get old-crop beans out of bins and make a last cutting of hay in the next week or so.

Corn’s starting to dry down pretty fast in some spots. I drove from here to Ames to the football game this weekend and there are definitely fields that are pretty dry, and that could be from a shortage of nitrogen or southern rust. Corn looks pretty good all things considered on our farm. I was on a research farm south of here last week and they looked at some ears that were that 27% moisture and only half milk line. We mowed our last cutting of hay and now we can move on to fall.

It’s been hot. I checked Thursday with hand shelling. One field is down to 25% moisture. We maybe start combining this or next week. On Wednesday and Thursday we’ll see what the weather does, as there may be rain coming. Beans are turning color this past week. Our last cutting of hay is done and put up for the year. I drove to Muscatine and back on Saturday and noticed fields look similar. There were not many combines going in the fields, just a few.

We got a little bit, but most of the rain missed us. More combines will roll out this week. Some farmers might switch to combining beans, but so far I’ve only seen corn combining. We’ve been sweeping out bins and a few other last-minute chores to get ready to harvest.

We had a warm week and we’re getting another one. We got in the field for corn harvesting at Kirkwood Community College and at home. All equipment is working as it is supposed to do. We’ll start on beans this week — hoping to see decent bean yields. Corn yields show a yield difference of about 40 bushels where fungicide was used. We have 2-4% higher moisture in spots.

It’s sprinkling and I hear more rain is coming today. We are about 70-80% done harvesting beans. Yields are pretty good, ranging 60-80 bu./acre, but most of it closer to 70-80 bu./acre for field averages. By mid-week, we’ll finish beans and switch back over to harvesting corn.

We wrapped up harvesting beans and moved on to corn yesterday (Oct. 12). It’s really dried down a lot — from 24% to 15% in a couple of weeks. We’ll keep plugging away at harvesting corn — maybe 70% left to do. We’re seeing yields of 250 plus for those that got fungicide on it. We may work this week also on some corn stalks for livestock.

We’ll wrap up harvest with corn this week with about 100 acres left to get. It’s good to have so much done A little rain didn’t slow down corn. Yields look good for us with 220 bu./acre on the low side and up to 280 on areas sprayed with fungicide. I might start some fall tillage this week. Getting the last of the corn will be the main goal.

I finished corn and baled some stalks to wrap up harvest 2025. Now we’re preparing for post-harvest tillage and fall fertilizer. Our work with cattle went good, and they’re set to be gone and we’ll start with some new ones.

I started fall tillage and got fertilizer on about half of it. We’re making repairs among after-harvest duties. Beans and corn wrapped up for about a week with a little shower early last week. Still got tillage to do. We have had good yields. The farm average corn yield hit 250 bu./acre. Meanwhile beans averaged 80 bu./acre for some sections and overall 65-70 for the whole farm average. We’ll button things up for winter in the coming weeks.

We finished fall tillage and fall fertilizer applications. We have wrapped up field work. We’re waiting on warm days later this week to wash up equipment and put it away for winter. Overall, it was a year of peaks and valleys. Happy with the early growth and good start, but disappointed in how it looked later. In general, I’m hearing in our area corn was up a bit, and some soybean fields had some numbers up and others had some down. Disease will be the driving factor for looking at this year’s yield and how your varieties handle it.