I helped move my youngest son to Phoenix, AZ, over Thanksgiving weekend. We drove the southern route through the Great Plains and saw combines in the field all the way to west Texas.
But I doubt if a late harvest carries the same urgency in the southern plains as it does in North Dakota and South Dakota. Here, we are all watching for the big blizzard that will chase the combines out of the fields till spring.
I met Jim Albrecht, Wimbeldon, N.D., in the Phoenix-Mesa airport on the way home Monday. He was returning to North Dakota after having attended a family wedding. He says they still have corn in the field. It's immature, but weighs 51 pounds per bushel. That's not great, but he's heard of producers who have 46-47 pound test weight corn and can't be sold.
Albrecht, who grows mostly wheat and barley, says he soon will have to decide wehther to plant corn next year.
Three out of the past six years haven’t been good ones for corn, but "next year might be a perfect,” he says.
Nobody's more optimistic than a northern farmer.