As harvest rolls across Latham Country, it’s easy to get caught up in the push to finish. But safety has to come first. Take a few extra seconds to look around and slow down. I remind myself of this every year as I watch our five boys pitch in on the farm. The hustle of harvest makes it tempting to rush, but those extra precautions matter most.
Prioritize Your Harvest Plan
This season has brought a mix of diseases — from Southern Rust to Fusarium, Anthracnose, Goss’s Wilt, Tar Spot and Northern Corn Leaf Blight. With so much pressure, prioritize hybrids with weaker stalk scores or lower disease tolerance for early harvest.
Use the Performance Ratings Chart in the seed guide (pages 14–15) as a resource. You can also do quick “push tests” in your fields: push the stalks with your forearm until the tops lean into neighboring rows. Count how many break within 1/1,000th of an acre to gauge standability. Compare across hybrids to determine which fields need to come out first.
Turn Harvest into a Sales Conversation
Harvest is also a great time to connect with customers. Send a quick Snapchat, text or phone call to share how products are performing. Ask what they’re seeing in their fields. These conversations naturally lead into seed placement discussions for next spring:
- Which products handled disease pressure best?
- Which hybrids excelled in high-management, manure-heavy acres?
- Which performed on lighter, sandier soils?
Use the Stoplight Chart to frame those discussions around management strategies like corn-on-corn options, response to fungicide, and response to population.
Share the Story Behind the Data
Yield numbers tell part of the story, but context matters. Share details about planting conditions, weather challenges and management decisions that influenced results. The more you tie product performance back to real-world conditions, the more valuable your recommendations become.
Looking Ahead
We’ll continue sharing real-time yield results as they come in. Watch for updates!
In the meantime, stay safe, stay visible and stay connected. Remember: harvest is about more than bushels — it’s about building trust acre by acre.