“Things are way ahead of schedule,” says Johnson Tractor precision specialist Dave Thompson, who can now shift from service to sales mode with the extra time on his hands. “We have customers that are done already and it’s not even November yet. I’ve yet to talk to anybody that’s not happy with their yields.

“I’m happy with what I’ve seen so far,” Tyler Troiola says. “The herbicide savings were as advertised on corn. Soybeans were a little trickier, though.”

Jack Boyer has an engineering background, so he’s not afraid to roll up his sleeves and attack equipment problems that come his way.

According to the latest Crop Progress report from USDA, some 96% of corn was reported emerged, above both the 94% emerged last year and the 90% emerged in the week prior. The 5-year average emergence rate for this week was 91%.