LANGDON, Mo. (DTN) -- As the 2010 growing season draws to a close, both farmers featured in this year's View From the Cab look forward to cooler temperatures. It's been hot this summer all the way from Frank Zweber's farm near Hoven, S.D., down to Wilson, Ark., where Becton Bell's farm is located. While intermittent precipitation has favored Becton, rain clouds stopped smiling down on Frank a long time ago.

"Last week was the same as the last three or four," Frank told DTN on Monday. "Not much change. A lot of heat, a lot of wind." Temperatures at the farm hit 106 degrees Fahrenheit last Friday, combined with 40-mile-per-hour winds and 16 percent humidity. "I had one field of early maturity beans that were green at 8 a.m. By 8 p.m., they were yellow."

While Friday was the hottest day, the rest of the week was almost as bad for Frank's moisture-starved fields. Earlier-planted soybeans not into pod fill are staying greener for now, as heat and stress speed maturity of the earliest planted fields.

Not even irrigation is a match for hot wind combined with low humidity. "A pivot of soybeans where there is no shortage of moisture -- I could make a mud ball from soil in the field -- turned brown across the top. Low humidity was just sucking the moisture out," Frank said.

Pastures around Hoven are "totally brown." But, according to Frank, weather hasn't altered grazing patterns, because in central South Dakota, most pasture growth occurs in the spring. Farmers and ranchers there don't count on much regrowth during the summer season.

In spite of poor growing conditions locally, new-crop corn basis continues to widen in anticipation of a big crop nationwide. With offers off the combine of 84 cents under the December contract, Frank sees an opportunity to roll his hedge-to-arrive contracts to January where he can make basis gains to the tune of at least 20 cents. That may get even better in his immediate area once the extent of lower planted acreage and reduced yields is realized.

With the majority of his crops hurt by a difficult growing season, Frank doesn't expect much from his crop insurance. That's because yields may still be greater than 75 percent (the level he chose to insure) of his 10-year APH (actual production history). He's concerned that USDA budget cuts, along with funding for programs like SURE and ACRE, could have negative results for crop insurance. "Just making all risk more affordable would have been so much better," he said.

It's a different set of circumstances for Becton, because while it's been hotter than normal in the Arkansas Delta, periodic rainfall has helped keep crops on the right track. DTN asked Becton what effect the ad-hoc disaster bill offered by Senator Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas will have on his operation.

"The disaster bill is a big deal down here," Becton said. With only a 5-percent loss triggering eligibility, Becton notes that "it's hard to draw the line between farms that need it and those who could get along without it. A lot of farms in the South are in deep trouble because of crop loss due to the wet field conditions of last year." He said damaged soybeans harvested east of his farm last fall looked more like Cocoa Puffs breakfast cereal than oilseeds.

Irrigation on group 5 soybeans will continue a little longer, but the growing season is fast drawing to a close for Becton. With the calendar changing to September, it's almost time to turn off the irrigation pumps for fear the fields will become overly wet from September rains.

With the first fields of rice cut, harvest will continue this week on about 200 acres as soybean harvest begins on 130 dryland acres. Part of the cotton crop will be defoliated soon, probably next week. That crop looks good.

The corn turned out well, over 200 bushels per acre, but heat this summer nipped rice yields. Green yields he expected to be about 200 bpa have been closer to 180 bpa, shrinking down to 160 once the grain is dry. Rice yields tend to suffer from excessive heat stress during the latter stages of growth, from pollination to grain fill. That's the way it's been this year. With planting of the crop staggered and temperatures starting to cool, Becton wonders if rule-of-thumb "earliest planted is best" will hold true this year.

This time of year, hurricanes present the biggest risk for abrupt climate change in Arkansas. Mid-South temperatures have been running in the upper 80s for daytime highs while nighttime lows have been in the 60s. Meanwhile, in South Dakota, the only place in the nation as hot as Frank Zweber's fields last week was the desert southwest. You just never know.

"It's been known to get pretty warm in September, but it might freeze," Frank said. "This is South Dakota. Anything is possible."

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

(AG/CZ)

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