Curt Mueller is allergic to exaggeration, but when talk of this year’s corn crop comes up his mild-mannered disposition tends to melt — “It’s nice to have a year when corn matures naturally, and doesn’t die in August” from the throes of dry weather and heat.
“The early corn looks good,” the crop planted in the sandwich of weeks of late March and early April. Rain came at opportune times and when pollination began daily temperatures had yet to settle into the 90s much less toy with triple digits. “That’s the most critical stage for corn, when it is pollinating,” which determines if ears will set on in good shape and fill with an ample number of kernels.
If there was disadvantage, it was rain heavy enough to cause nitrogen to leach from the soil, rather than nourish plants. Evidence was corn with a yellowish tint, but “most of it came out of that,” Mueller observed.
While early corn may have higher yields, much of that planted later also is doing well.
A field not far from where Mueller and wife Alisha live east of Humboldt was nearing harvest late this week. Stalks were of the familiar tan that soon will envelope every field, the signal it’s time to pull combines from sheds; ears were hanging over, another telltale sign of maturity. Only sporadic splotches of green had Mueller predict the harvest will start midweek.
“Look here,” Mueller said, pointing to a stalk sprouting two ears. “That doesn’t happen too often,” because weather conditions seldom are conducive enough for a stalk to have the wherewithal.
Another encouraging sign: He peeled back husks on a handful of ears filled top to bottom with golden kernels.
As with most Allen County farmers, Mueller and son Blake also have soybeans in their fall harvest inventory.
“They (beans) really look good,” he said. “They have good height and good color. The temperature hasn’t been extreme. There’s still a long way to go, but they’re about as good as they could be for now.” If there is a concern, it is that some of the Muellers’ beans were blooming when a hot spell hit the area. Even so, “beans are tough. They just hang in there” until rain falls to give them a growth spurt.
THE MUELLERS are diversified, with a cow-calf operation to complement their grain, some of which goes to feed cattle.
“Dad (Merle Mueller) always said not to put all your eggs in one basket,” Mueller recalled. “Cattle prices are really good right now, but grain (price) is down,” which it appears at this stage of the game will be buffered by above-average yields.
“We’re getting a little bit of corn,” Ken Smail, Piqua Co-op elevator manager, said on Friday. He expects the harvest to break open in a week or so. The price Friday was $3.31 a bushel with a downward trend, which is common on the cusp of harvest and a very good crop expected over a wide area.
After calves are weaned, they are kept on the farm for backgrounding, or feeding them to gain to the 900-pound range before they’re sold to feeders. “We have the feeding floor from our dairy,” Mueller said, which facilitates post-wean weight gain, but the farm isn’t set up to take cattle on to market weight. That occurs in commercial lots with intensive feeding.
Hay — grass and alfalfa — are an important part of a livestock enterprise, and, as it has been with grain, this year’s hay crop is exceptional. “We probably have two years’ worth of hay, but I’m not complaining,” he said, with the only downside being prices have dropped — good hay crops have been common. Rather than sell excess hay, “we’ll probably hang onto it for a while,” Mueller said, knowing that if winter weather comes early and is severe, cows will consume an inordinate amount and prices will rise.
Hay being a direct source of revenue isn’t as significant as grain or cattle, but the Muellers do find buyers and truck it within an hour or two of home.
“It’s also nice to see ponds full and streams running in the middle of August,” Mueller continued, turning to another huge part of a cattle operation’s cycle. Remarkably, he said, a recent three-inch rain, while topping off ponds, didn’t run off as much as it usually does. A part of their land is along Coal Creek, which is crossed by a low-water bridge on an extension of Humboldt’s Pine Street. “I was surprised the creek didn’t get over the bridge. With a rain like that it always does.”
Again, no complaints. The generous rain raised the moisture profile in crop fields — pastures, too — to give soybeans and later-planted corn a little insurance.
BLAKE, 28, and a graduate of Kansas State University, lives about a mile from his parents, with wife Cathy and two sons, Mason, soon to be 3, and Maxton, 1. That is important to Curt and Alisha Mueller — in more ways than having grandchildren close by for doting grandparents.
Mueller, 56, earned a degree in animal science from K-State in 1981, and came home to join his father and uncle, Irvin Mueller, to operate their dairy where 70 cows, give or take a few, were milked twice a day — every day, “24/7, 365 days a year.”
Thirty years later, he had had enough. “We had reached the point we needed to get bigger and update or get out.”
On Jan. 4, 2011, with Blake on board and more focused on beef cattle, the Mueller Dairy closed. “I don’t regret or miss the dairy,” he said. Although, “it was good to us. We had some good help from high school kids. The four Riebel boys and three Dunn kids were real good workers and dependable,” which gave the Muellers a chance to get away for a few days now and then. If he had kept the dairy operation and expanded, it would have meant hiring full-time help. “I never wanted to manage people instead of cows,” Mueller said in his typical matter-of-fact fashion.
Having Blake in the fold is important to Mueller and better than having a hired hand. “It’s a blessing to have your child want to come back and farm with you,” he said. “It makes it so much more fun.”
And then there are the grandsons, close by and always eager to ride a tractor, climb aboard a combine or just join granddad in his truck.
Many things are right on the farm this year, and the Mueller families are enjoying every minute of it.
