2015 Is History

As I look back on 2015, it was quite a year. As with most years there were some good things that happened and also some disappointments. There are four things I will always remember about 2015. Late in January, Louise's brother Richard died suddenly. He never married and had no children. Louise was appointed personal representative and was responsible for settling the estate, which was a new experience for us. Then in October my dad died right during harvest. I am thankful that Dad and Mom had their estate plan all organized and laid out. There were no questions about what was going to happen with Dad and Mom's assets and land. Being there are seven children, there could have been disagreements and hard feelings. In our case everyone had a copy of the estate plan and knew what was going to happen.

On the positive side, the third thing I will always remember about 2015 is the great growing season and the best crop I have ever grown. It was the exact opposite of 2013 and 2014. It was a struggle to get the 2014 crop planted because it was so wet. Remember 2013 was even wetter and that was the year of all the prevented plant acres. In 2015 it was a perfect low-stress spring, summer and fall. We had very timely rains and no multiple inch events to cause drowned-out areas. The great weather continued through harvest drying the corn naturally in the field. Very little propane was needed for corn drying. The fourth thing I will remember about 2015 is the big drop in corn and bean prices. Ending 2014, March corn was at $3.97 and 2015 at $3.58. January beans ended 2014 at $10.19 and 2015 at $8.71. I have unpriced corn and beans in the bin hoping for a rally and I suspect a lot of other farmers are in the same situation.