Harvest Check-in 2022: Josh Parcel, Farmer, Southern Illinois

Speaker 1 (00:02):
This is The Water Table.

Speaker 2 (00:05):
A chance to hear the agricultural side of these issues.

Speaker 1 (00:09):
A place for people to go find information and education.

Speaker 3 (00:13):
Water management is just going to become even more critical into the future.

Speaker 4 (00:19):
How misunderstood what we do is.

Speaker 2 (00:19):
I would encourage people open their minds and listen to this dialogue.

Jamie (00:38):
Welcome back to weekly series on Harvest Reports here for the Water Table podcast. Today I have Josh Parcel with me from Martinsville, Illinois. Martinsville is just across the Illinois Indiana border from Terre Haute, and wanted to get a little report from that part of the country. So Josh, welcome to the podcast.

Josh (00:58):
Yeah, hey Jamie. How’s things going? Things are going well here.

Jamie (01:01):
Going well, you’re actually the last report I’m going to get in. I’ve gotten some reports, a couple from Minnesota and one from Iowa, and thought I would talk to you out in Illinois, and similar results so far. So I’m curious to see how harvest is going over there in eastern Illinois.

Josh (01:23):
Things are going pretty well. We’ve had a really good run here for the start of harvest. A lot of guys started that third week there in September and we got going, and really there hasn’t been much stop here. We haven’t had much rain and it’s been a three week run here and guys are that 40, 50% as far as done, as far as the crops go, and we could really use a little rain. We got a little shower Wednesday of this week. We got 4/10s, but that was the first measurable rain that we’ve had all harvest. Things are going well and we could use a little shower right now, just to be honest with you.

Jamie (02:15):
I think that’s pretty similar. It’s dry across the Midwest. I’m assuming you’re done with soybean harvest and into corn now?

Josh (02:25):
Yeah, getting close to finishing up soybean harvest and going to start corn here. I went back and forth this year. We planted the corn first here this spring, and I had some corn fields that were ready to be picked, so we picked those first. And I go back into soybeans and I’ve been on soybeans for, oh, probably 10 days right now. But no, yields are good and things have been going pretty well here, this part of the state.

Jamie (03:01):
As I talked to others in both Minnesota and Iowa, yields weren’t that consistent just due to moisture. And there was spotty showers throughout the growing season, and so they had a lot of variability, especially on soybeans. And are you seeing that or is your variability more consistent?

Josh (03:23):
So we’re pretty consistent here. The growing season started out, we got started planting in April, that third week in April, and we got a little window there. We planted five or six days there, and then we got rain and then we were held out till about that second week in May. And we had a little window there and we got going, and got a little rain after that. And then the rest we finished up the first week in June. So we had three runs there in the spring and it was decent. Things went in all right.

(04:01):
June was really dry and we thought for sure we were going to have a drought. And June, I think I got 4/10s of an inch of rain in June, the whole month of June, and it was hot here, really hot in June. And then July come around, and it started raining and we probably averaged inch to an inch and a half a week all through July and all through August. And the crops here are pretty good this year. Anywhere from 60, 70 bushel beans, a lot of 70 bushel beans, to corns running that 230 to 260 range.

Jamie (04:40):
Yeah, you guys are doing well.

Josh (04:41):
Pretty good deals for this part of the country.

Jamie (04:45):
And with commodity prices and where things are at, it’s a good year for you guys, so happy to hear that. What’s on your mind here as the year is kind of made here? Unless something drastic happens, you’re going to get through your rest of your crop and get equipment cleaned up and put away here in the next 30 to 45 days. And what are you thinking about for next year? Or just what are you excited about and what are you concerned about in agriculture?

Josh (05:15):
Oh, the interest rates. I think everyone’s nervous about the interest rates, with the feds raising the interest rates here and then the whole inflation thing going on. I think there’s a lot of concern there with farmers with interest rates and inflation, and then just the price of everything. Prices have really skyrocketed and I know the price of grain is good right now, but the price of grain can drop pretty quick. So I don’t know, I think there’s a lot of anxiety over the interest rates and the inflation and then of course the price of grain and how it fluctuates these days.

Jamie (05:59):
With inputs going up so much, if grain comes down, it’s not the same as it was pretty consistently for a long time there. So it changes quickly, but…

Josh (06:11):
You can get yourself in trouble really quick with the price of grain fluctuating like it does today,

Jamie (06:17):
What’s happening over in Illinois and eastern Illinois when it comes to farm ground and land prices?

Josh (06:26):
Prices are pretty steady. Anywhere from 9 to 9,000 an acre all the way up to 12, 14,000 an acre. Where we’re sitting here in Illinois, we’re south of the rich, dark black dirt here. Our top soil is about eight inches deep where we sit. Now you go 20 miles north of us and start getting into better soil, you get into that two foot to three foot deep top soil. So the ground’s not quite as productive as say, Central Illinois, but if we get the rain here, we can produce a pretty good crop. But prices are staying pretty steady really right now. So I think interest rates have a lot to do with that and the price of grain. But with the Feds and everyone hiking the rates, it’s going to put a hurt on the land prices, I think.

Jamie (07:28):
And some areas, I know I’ve heard, the investors have left the market just with interest rates being higher. They’re going to places where they can make more money, so that always takes the top off from it. Well I appreciate the time here on The Water Table and you’ve given us the update on what’s happening out there. And Josh, make sure that you guys stay safe and have a safe rest of 2022 harvest.

Josh (07:58):
We will, and thanks for inviting me to the podcast.

Jamie (08:04):
Thanks for joining us today on The Water Table. You can find us at Watertable.ag. Find us on Facebook, you can find us on Twitter, and you can also find the podcast on any of your favorite podcast platforms.