Well, we did the setup for the FPS field demos this afternoon and evening.

Corn here in central ILL does not look at all like it usually does this time of year and this is the heart of the US cornbelt.

Combine test runs today reported corn moisture anywhere from mid 30's and up, someplaces way up.  If you want to compare combines in wet corn this should be the year and place to do it!

As far as strip till setup, we were running basically behind the combines at first in some mostly green corn residue. I thought our strip actually looked pretty good for a "fall" strip. And this was a fairly reprersentative condition of trying to maker strips behind a very high moisture corn harvest.

Then we went over to where the strip till demos are actually to be held and conditions were totally different. 

Ground appears like it was driven over multiple times. Corn stalks have been shredded close to the ground. From the tire traffic, the ground was so hard that I could hardly drive wooden marker stakes into it with a 5 lb sledge.  We made a decent strip but is this really representative of either fall or spring central corn belt strip till conditions? Probably not.

It also amazes me at how many people have little or no regard for the effects of traffic from grain carts, semi trucks, shredder, on the soil.

Should be a good show however. Very good display areas - lots of equipment and it looks like the weather is supposed to be perfect/comfortable for the next few days.

The corn harvesting combine demo should provide a VERY good idea of how the different combine designs on the market compare in 35% (and up) moisture corn.

As this plot was planted from the beginning to be "early" for the show, I don't think this is a good sign for the likely maturity and moisture at harvest  for the rest of the mainstream corn crop here in the breadbasket.

A very good show coming up!

Jim at Dawn