What a Summer

Corn being harvested

On August 6, our whole Central Illinois Practical Farm Research Facility team traveled on Beck's private Learjet down to Moody, Texas to observe corn harvest. Riding on the Learjet was a very neat experience. We left from the airport in Pontiac, Illinois and got to the airport in Temple, Texas in just under an hour and a half. It was crazy traveled at speeds up to 550 miles per hour.

The Jet was really cool, but what we went do to observe was the Texas Corn Harvest. This wasn't your typical corn harvest though, as this corn being harvested was the first commercial corn that was planted using a multi-hybrid planter. The multi-hybrid planter allows for a farmer to change hybrids and population throughout the field as soil type changes. This planter when it becomes more available in future years will really help farmers maximize profits by getting the most out of their fields by allowing them to use plant aggressive hybrids on productive soils and defensive hybrids on less productive soil. It was also really neat seeing how different the corn grows in Texas, than Illinois. Their corn is a lot smaller and the grasshoppers are so bad that there were hardly any leaves left on the stalk. It was also very different seeing a lot of cotton and sorghum. 

Cotton Field

Corn About to be harvested

After we returned from Texas, our Central Illinois Field day came very quickly. We worked extremely long hours in preparation for field day On August 14, we hosted over 1,050 farmers. It was a crazy day there people everywhere. My job for the day was to mainly help people find tours to take around the farm. We had seven tours that featured topics on corn hybrids, soybeans hybrids, herbicides, pesticides, nitrogen, and agricultural technology. I also, got to talk to people out my independent project and that was very rewarding because they really appreciated all the work that went into planting and maintaining the population wheels. I also meet and talk briefly to the president of Beck's Sonny Beck which was a really cool experience.

Watering Corn Population Wheel

Working for Beck's hybrids was a great experience and I learned a lot agronomic information. It was a great summer and I'm really glad I worked for Beck's.