Returned home to SC after a trip to St. Louis to see family. From SC we went to Louisville, KY and crossed the Ohio River, which was not fun since there is road
construction in Louisville. We crossed on the downstream bridge and went across southern IN and IL. Beans looked good. In a few places in the flatter land
there was obviously some flooding out of corn with some beans planted late in the low spots. Those beans were very short and I have my doubts about them paying
to combine. Most corn looked good with ripe tassels. I could not see from the road any ears on the corn. On the way back I saw some corn with ears and dark
silks on a different way back further South in IL. The ears did not from the road look as well filled out as good Midwestern corn usually looks.
A few beans had been notilled after small grain, but it was only 4 or so inches high. For comparison I saw some beans planted in small grain stubble in W SC
which was about 8 inches high. A field of corn nearby is mature with the stalks all brown. It wont produce real well because we had a wet spring which delayed
planting and the dry weather for most of the corn's growing season.
We went back to Nashville, TN to Chattanooga, TN, through Atlanta, GA and on to SC. Corn in Southern TN had big ears with the silks ripe. Soybeans were tall
and dark green. Pastures were in excellent condition. It started raining North of Nashville and continued off and on for most of the trip home, where I
emptied 1 3/4 inches out of the rain gauge. Much appreciated since we were dry. Southern TN has obviously been getting enough rain.
I 75 from Chattanooga to Atlanta had thick traffic. We had 3 lanes and the right 2 were bumper to bumper trucks, the left one bumper to bumper cars. Cars were
thicker on the beltway around Atlanta and sometimes they would do the change 3 lanes at once trick. Generally drivers were helpful if you needed to change
lanes. Truckers were uniformally helpful and professional on the whole trip.
KEH
