LANGDON, Mo. (DTN) -- The word "variable" doesn't quite do justice to this year's View From the Cab growing conditions. Both Frank Zweber of Hoven, S.D., and Becton Bell of Wilson, Ark., have seen their share of wet and dry weather in 2010. But it's the heat they've experienced on their farms that may define both crops and prices into next year.

Frank finally got the rain he wanted two or three weeks ago when his corn and soybeans needed it most. With amounts under a half an inch, Frank says it's too little, too late after hot, dry winds knocked the sap out of his crops. When DTN spoke to Frank early on Monday, overcast skies were poised to deliver more rain to stressed fields.

Last week, Frank tried out the combine on some pivot corners planted to soybeans. What he found were beans that were still too green to harvest, but not for long. "Soybeans are turning pretty rapidly now," he said. "Harvest will be on the early side." Frank expects dryland yields in the 30s. At the beginning of spring, he was shooting for 50 bushels per acre. As disappointing as it is, Frank notes that it's better than a friend of his near Java, S.D., who had to bale a failed field of soybeans for hay.

In spite of everything, including gall bladder surgery a few weeks ago, it's been a fairly easy year for Frank since he sold the cows. If he'd kept them, calving would be starting just about the same time as harvest. And while irrigation has gone on most of the summer, the irrigators have been mostly trouble free. Now, just ahead of harvest, Frank's wife and helper, Carol, will have surgery of her own to replace a worn hip joint. That could complicate the first part of harvest by making it harder to move machinery from field to field. It'll be a couple of weeks following surgery before Carol can drive; she normally helps shuttle Frank and his helpers back and forth on machinery moves.

Cooking chores may be on Frank's plate for awhile as Carol recovers. Frank says that's no problem for him, partly because he got the chance to cook for his grandsons during a recent visit. All they wanted were a well-known brand of hotdogs, "'til I told them what was in 'em," Frank said. "They couldn't wait to get back to Seattle to tell their dad." In the meantime, a trip to a Mobridge butcher shop for a locally made product showed the boys how good their favorite food could be. "The older I get, the more skeptical (about food) I get. I don't even want to eat an egg anymore" Frank added.

Though some fields are damaged, Frank's irrigated corn may be a little better than average. "The key to the whole thing is variability" he said, referring to growing conditions seen across South Dakota and the entire Midwestern Corn Belt this year.

That coincides with what Becton has seen across his fields so far this year, both with his own yields, and his neighbors' yields.

"The whole area is disappointed in their rice yields," Becton told DTN. He reports dry yields of 150 to 165 bpa. That's about 10 percent below what was expected. Excessive summer heat is mostly to blame for lower test weights. While rain wasn't a factor, overcast skies during flowering and fill also nipped yields. His soybeans and corn, on the other hand, have been a pleasant surprise, even though neighboring fields to the north of him have suffered both from heat and lack of rain.

In the coming week, more rice harvest will take place, along with soybean cutting. Two fields of beans Becton has already cut yielded in the 50s and 60s. The herbicide paraquat has been flown onto green patches of soybeans to speed harvest in those fields.

Becton said his cotton looks good. Harvest is about two weeks away, now that one application of boll opener has been made by an aerial applicator. One more will be needed this week, and then it's a week of waiting for plants to dry before the pickers can roll.

Yards in Becton's town of Wilson are browning. "Every yard on every street has the sprinklers turned on," he said. About an hour to the north, cattle producers are feeding hay, and pastures look "horrible" even though row crops there don't look too bad, he said. Becton's fields have turned dusty during harvest, and the combines are barely leaving a track. Dust is OK with him, because last year's harvest saw combine ruts from mid-thigh to knee-deep.

With crop sizes in doubt and better-than-average basis, the rally in futures has been an unexpected price bonus. Becton compares it to 2007 when adequate on-farm storage paid off by allowing the Bells to store new-crop oilseeds on the farm to take advantage of a strong price rally lasting well into 2008. "We saw basis go from minus 60 cents to minus 70 cents all the way up to 30 over as bean futures rallied into the teens. We were holding for better basis, but the market went up too. We got the benefit of both."

Richard Oswald can be reached at richard.oswald@telventdtn.com

(AG/SK)

© Copyright 2010 DTN/The Progressive Farmer, A Telvent Brand. All rights reserved.