-Farm News photo by Lori Berglund
Brothers Bill and Joe Geis work together in the spring to get equipment ready for planting.

DUNCOMBE — Brothers Joe and Bill Geis have seen a lot of planting seasons together.

Through late-season snows, early springs, floods and drought, there isn’t much they haven’t worked through in a lifetime of farming in Webster County.

With their late dad Kenneth, the brothers grew up planting corn and soybeans four rows at a time, lugging bags of seed and hoping that the weather would hold to get every field planted on time.

Today, the brothers have separate farming operations but work closely together. Of course, things have changed a little. They plant corn 24 rows at a time, while the soybean planter takes a 16-row swath. Seed tenders have replaced the bags, but they still find themselves hoping every afternoon that the weather will hold so that they can get every field planted on time.

With the spring season arriving, farmers everywhere are talking about much the same things, input prices, and the weather.

“Probably our biggest concern this year is moisture,” said Bill Geis. “It’s abnormally dry. Last year it was dry going into the spring, but this year I think it’s even worse.”

While there have been plentiful snowfalls in the winter season, the moisture that is received just doesn’t get into the soil as needed, he noted.

“It all goes down the river,” Bill Geis said.

While dry, the 2022 season was not a bad one for the Geis brothers.

“Yields last year were average,” Bill Geis said. “They weren’t great, but they were pretty good.”

In 2022, the brothers finished planting both corn and soybeans in the first two weeks of May. This year, they hope to get both crops in the ground a little sooner.

“In a normal year, we like to be done with corn in April, and with beans the first week of May, usually,” Bill Geis said.

While there is a growing trend that sees some farmers planting soybeans before corn, these brothers concentrate on both commodities at the same time. They run two planters, one with corn, one with soybeans, and just keep going from field to field as soil conditions and weather allow.

“Our biggest challenge is finding the help,” said Joe Geis. “We just need enough bodies to do everything.”

Part-time help is used to deliver seed and just help out with any jobs that keep the planters rolling. Their brother, Dave Geis, who is retired from an off-farm job, helps when possible, and they also have a few others that work as needed.

One thing that hasn’t changed is their crop rotation plan. They’ve never been too tempted by the idea of going all-corn, mainly out of concerns for plant health.

“There’s too much risk of disease, root worm and other things like that,” said Joe Geis.

Technology, the brothers agree, is the biggest change they have seen in more than four decades of farming. Such things as auto-steer and seed monitors may seem to make the job easier, but it’s an ever-changing challenge to just keep up.

“The technology is great when it’s working. When it breaks down, you have to call somebody,” Joe Geis said. “We didn’t grow up with it, so we struggle sometimes.”

When it comes to routine farm maintenance, the brothers work together in a spacious shop that is also a bit of a neighborhood gathering place. Early March has seen them busy with maintenance on semi-trailers and getting them ready for hauling water when it comes time to spray. The shop is designed in three separate areas, including an office, equipment maintenance, and cold storage.

The shop is a good place for neighboring farmers to stop in, visit about the weather, inputs and commodity prices.

“No one is happy about prices,” Bill Geis said. “I hope the price we’re paying for things goes down, but we’re used to it at this point and we just have to pencil it into the budget. It’s nothing new.”

“You can’t change it,” Joe Geis agreed.

The brothers also agree on perhaps the biggest advancement they have seen in their decades on the farm. In their farming careers the brothers have seen new tractors that are so much easier to drive, hybrids that perform better than ever, and yet they have a simple answer for what has made life better for farmers.

“Air conditioning,” the brothers readily agree. And for anyone who grew up sweating under a blazing hot sun or stuck in a stuffy cab, it’s easy to say that the comfort of a little cool air on a hot summer day should never be under-estimated.