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100+ Bushel Beans

2K views 14 replies 8 participants last post by  mlappin 
#1 ·
#2 ·
We've had beans break 70 b/a here, but usually lodging becomes a huge problem.

Ordering some crop lifters, longer season beans are going flat as a pancake, think that 13 plus inches of rain in August is playing a part in that.
 
#4 ·
Our beans suck, best field out of 280 acres so far averaged 43, and that was no till Liberty Link beans. Stine 22RD20.

We've been throwing around the idea of quitting beans altogether. Corn, alfalfa, oats, and maybe some peas or something. We just can't get over that 55 bushel hump. Maybe it's cuz we plant 2.2 and under maturity, but that's as late as we can get away with.
 
#7 ·
Definitely a yield drag on beans. I have been farming for almost 30 years and we could raise 60 bpa beans then and corn was about 125 average. Now, corn averages 175-200 depending on the farm and we still hope for 60 bpa beans.
 
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#8 ·
Dad had some CorSoy 69 beans that did 65 bpa 35 years ago on 38" rows. We had a lot of water this year, and beans don't like wet feet. Brother is combining beans now, Asgrow 1733 running 49, so that's a bright spot, but that field has 9 acres drowned out too, so the average is gonna drop cross the scales.
 
#9 ·
Dad had some CorSoy 69 beans that did 65 bpa 35 years ago on 38" rows. We had a lot of water this year, and beans don't like wet feet. Brother is combining beans now, Asgrow 1733 running 49, so that's a bright spot, but that field has 9 acres drowned out too, so the average is gonna drop cross the scales.
I am surprised that you want to give up beans. My neighbors say that about corn. Location^3!
 
#10 ·
Beans are good for us what happened to car drive 25 miles south of our farm where they have deep Limestone soil corn is King they have no need to grow a lot of soy beans there. We see a 80's in full season beans, this year we won't it's a little too hot and dry. Beans are reality for us or later she'll soil does not respond well to Corn after corn. Where beans truly shine is double crop . We can raise a crop of barley or wheat harvest the Grain and the straw plant soybeans and do 50 to 40 bpa. 2 pictures first one beans planet after barley second one being planted after wheat d
 

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#11 ·
Most of the time a person is real lucky to hit 30 b/a here on double crop beans.

Definitely a yield drag on beans. I have been farming for almost 30 years and we could raise 60 bpa beans then and corn was about 125 average. Now, corn averages 175-200 depending on the farm and we still hope for 60 bpa beans.
Beans are a funny thing, most of ours is just getting fit to cut, beans are dry, stalks are green yet. Really could stand a killing frost.
 
#12 ·
Most of the time a person is real lucky to hit 30 b/a here on double crop beans.

Beans are a funny thing, most of ours is just getting fit to cut, beans are dry, stalks are green yet. Really could stand a killing frost.
Done with beans here. Doing custom work for a buddy. He has about 1200 acres of beans to go and my old 2388 CIH is just eating up his brand new JD S670
 
#13 ·
Most of the time a person is real lucky to hit 30 b/a here on double crop beans.

Beans are a funny thing, most of ours is just getting fit to cut, beans are dry, stalks are green yet. Really could stand a killing frost.
Same thing here near St. Louis. Beans are slow coming out. I have cut any yet--stalks are green and tough. Pods are dry/beans look dry but stalks are tough!

Ralph
 
#14 ·
IMHO this comment below is better than the story it was posted about... (above). SO true, but everybody's lost sight of it...

flyingfarmer
Nebraska City, NE
10/11/2016 09:48 AM

Great. Maybe we all can raise 100bushel plus beans and then it can be worth $1.47 a bushel. Here is a little marketing 101 for all the farmers out there. If you go to a farmers market with 2 apples and three people want them, you get $10 profit above cost per apple easy. 3 apples $1 an apple 4 apples $.25 40 apples $-.05 So now to counter this, everyone in this industry is suggesting we bring 150 apples to market, you know, make up the losses via volume. So instead of telling us how to flood a flooded market with even more product, would you please take just a minute and explain how this is possibly a good idea. There is not one single industry in the world who subscribes to this failed marketing plan. Not one. Yet. Every single manufacturer of seed/chemicals/fertilizer/whatever is pushing for us to raise yields. Ever think about why that is? It does not make us as farmers any more money. But it does make them money. Our seed costs $300 a bag, our inputs are far beyond any possible justifiable return level. But that keeps the large companies going. And hey. Then we can brag about how many bushels per acre we raised. And that is the important part, isn't it? Now just consider for a moment a different take on corn. 120 bushel an acre average nationwide. Use $150 a bag seed, cut your fertilizer in half, no fancy fungicides. And. Here's the good part. $11 + corn at market. But, but, we are in a world market. Yep. Still works. The CBOT right now is basing its prices off the impact of OUR yield being in the 170s. Pulling a solid profit $900 to $1000 an acre. But, but, how are we going to feed the world that way? Honestly. NOT MY PROBLEM. I am not in this business for some altruistic goal of supplying cheap food all over the world. I am in this business to make money. Safe harvest all.

Basically that's what my seed guy used to say... he was a big farmer, owned fertilizer plants, was a seed/chemical/fertilizer dealer, and he used to comment all the time on the foolishness of the constant chase after big yields-- what he called "beer joint yields", solely for bragging rights at the local watering hole, with no thought given to profitability and return on investment. He's absolutely right.

I've been reading this sort of stuff for decades... I remember reading an article years ago by the cotton guru up at Texas Tech that said there was no physiological reason why cotton couldn't make five bales per acre... and that farmers should be shooting for those sorts of yield levels. I just shook my head, because if you want to spoon-feed and babysit every single acre and beat your brains out on a brick wall trying to make everything "perfect" to get those mega-yields, then I suppose it would be possible. Of course, the problem is that we'd be up to our eyeballs in unsold cotton and it'd be 6 cents a pound instead of 60 cents (which is ridiculous anyway-- we got 60 cents a pound in 1972 when I was still riding standing up on the front seat of Dad's old Chevy pickup... and seed was $10 bucks a bag and fertilizer was $50 bucks a ton-- and farm diesel was 20 cents a gallon... you get the picture).

We grow more than we've ever grown of EVERYTHING, and it's all cheaper than it's nearly ever been... while inputs are sky high and only going up. Plus, you get to "the point of diminishing returns" where all the easy gains in yields have been made, the "low hanging fruit" has all been picked and increasing yields is increasingly harder-- you can't just double fertilizer and get double the yield... every gain tends to take more and more effort and expense and gets you less and less actual improvement... and when the market won't pay for it, WHAT HAVE YOU GAINED??

IMHO this "feed the world" crap is THE biggest load of shite ever sold to the American farmer... it's a mantra designed to make folks feel warm and fuzzy while they're getting screwed, nothing more. Simple truth is, there's plenty of food in the world for everybody to eat, and there will be... the PROBLEM is that a lot of folks simply don't have the money to buy it... and their solution is "we should do it for free". Yeah, right-- that's a winning business strategy.

Oh well, same old story, SSDD...

Later! OL J R :)
 
#15 · (Edited by Moderator)
IMHO this "feed the world" crap is THE biggest load of shite ever sold to the American farmer... it's a mantra designed to make folks feel warm and fuzzy while they're getting screwed, nothing more. Simple truth is, there's plenty of food in the world for everybody to eat, and there will be... the PROBLEM is that a lot of folks simply don't have the money to buy it... and their solution is "we should do it for free". Yeah, right-- that's a winning business strategy.

Oh well, same old story, SSDD...

Later! OL J R :)
Yep, I've said many a time that 100 bushel corn at $6 is much better than 200 bushel corn at $3, much less to haul home, much less to dry and much faster to get done.

Unfortunately the American Farmer excels at overproducing ourselves right out of profitability. But thats the pitfalls of a free market, a neighbor used to say the farmer needs to unionize, prices get low, we go on strike in the spring until prices rise, then we lock em all in for the year and get busy, anybody that breaks the strike gets a sledge hammer to their injection pump in the middle of the night, his words not mine. Cute ideal but the guys further south would be completely screwed by time enough of us up north weren't planting yet to make any difference.

The farmer is the only man in our economy who buys everything at retail, sells everything at wholesale, and pays the freight both ways.
 
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