DECATUR, Ill. (DTN) -- This week Chris Weaver got to see his children collect multiple awards for livestock and crop exhibits at the Carroll County Fair. They brought home honors for showmanship, too.

As Weaver watched, snapped pictures and beamed from the stands, co-workers were applying fungicide back at the home farm near Finksburg, Maryland.

"There's a reason I try to always say 'we' when it comes to anything to do with the farm. We work as a team and they are the reason I can relax and enjoy a day like this," he said.

In Minnesota, Tyler Rath is also living the "it takes a village" lesson. His parents have baled the entire hay crop so far this year. His father and two neighboring teens have rebuilt a lot of the farm's fencing this summer. He has a long list of friends, neighbors and relatives who do everything from trucking grain to picking up children.

"All this helps allow me to irrigate and do all the other things," said Rath, who juggles multiple crops, both conventional and organic and a cattle enterprise.

This week Rath and Weaver continue to tend crops as they hustle toward harvest. The farmers have been participating in DTN's View From the Cab series since May and weather has thrown more than a few production curveballs. This week, the farmer's observations on hold additional interest as DTN's Digital Yield Tour makes early season estimates debut and the August USDA World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE) report is due Aug. 12.

Read on to learn more about what Rath and Weaver are concentrating on this week. There are insights into kidney bean production, thoughts on drone usage and more details about how they motivate employees to get all the jobs done.

TYLER RATH: BELGRADE, MINNESOTA

Some farmers will joke that they are always a week away from drought, but Rath lives it. That's almost exactly how long the rain he received at the end of July lasted before he was back to irrigating again.

One thing about the sometime tedious aspects of tending pivots is it puts him in the field. Waterhemp and other weeds that wave at him get a personal visit and a good tug. It's also an opportunity to pull a few corn ears to check on potential.

"Early in my career, I used to pick cobs and kept spreadsheets of our estimated yield. I never felt I found a great way of doing it consistently," Rath admitted. "Now, when I'm out irrigating, I give fields a quick check to see how things look as I do some other scouting."

So far this year, he's found isolated pollination issues -- a few kernel skips and some kernel tip back that he deemed from stress, rather than being related to population.

A drive to North Dakota this past week gave Rath a good opportunity to eye crop conditions of his western neighbors.

"I saw some really nice-looking soybeans. I'm not sure if it was the rain we had early, but they were well canopied and clean. We had some hot days to spray Liberty (glufosinate), maybe that helped with control," he noted.

Teresa Wells, DTN weather risk communicator, said mostly dry conditions have persisted across central Minnesota so far in August. Temperatures have cooled though with several cold fronts helping bring temperatures close to average. Model guidance shows some spotty showers could be possible in the coming week.

"Overall, it's looking like the heaviest rainfall will remain south and east of Minnesota next week, and Belgrade could only see a few tenths of an inch of rain throughout the rest of the week," she said.

The 1.3 inches of rain received July 31 helped overall crop conditions, but Rath noted that kidney beans seem to be turning fast. He estimated that desiccation could begin on some fields in the area as early as next week, depending on weather. He raises light red, dark red and white kidney beans.

Because kidney bean pods hang close to the ground, Rath uses a Pickett One-Step Rod Cutter that lifts, undercuts and windrows the plant in one process. A Twin Master edible bean combine threshes the beans. He aims for 18% moisture to reduce cracking and seed damage.

Kidney beans are direct delivered to the processor. Graders are watch closely for cracks in the bean seed coat, also referred to as skin checks. Rath said contracts are negotiated up front, but in general under 5% skin check results in a premium.

"They want high quality beans. Meeting that standard can be a challenge because kidney beans dry really fast -- they can dry four or more points in an afternoon, depending on how hot and windy it is," he said.

These kinds of specialty commodities take time and patience. The fact that he can juggle many different enterprises has everything to do with surrounding himself with a crew that is made up of family and trusted friends, Rath believes.

"Dad (Dennis) works here every day. He was born to farm and I'm super thankful that he is like he is. It's not necessarily the hours we work, but the fact that we work until the job is done. Not everyone is willing or able to do that," Rath said.

Rath's mother, Mary, runs the hay rake and the grain cart. "Mom picking up the kids and getting them around is the biggest help there is some days," he said.

There are farmers who long to hire someone with a commercial driver's license (CDL). Rath has a professional in his uncle, Donnie Olmscheid, who retired from the job and now drives for the farm. His high school friend, Darren Braegelman, also drives a semi or operates grain carts. Jim Nelson does all the odd jobs, delivers machinery, picks rocks with the rock picker and keeps field edges mowed. Retired farmer, Jim Gable, drives the 4WD tractor and puts 95% of the hours on that implement. His wife, Velma, is a champion hay raker.

This summer, Rath flexed his continued interest in high school wrestling and hired Jace Mueller and Noah DeRoo as young interns. There's no better workout or prep for the ring than mowing, building fence and doing other random farm tasks.

"We are beyond fortunate to have people who show up when we need them and are usually asking what else can they do," he said. "It all works because everyone has previously been a farmer or a farm kid and they have the mentality and skills it takes to get the job done. I can't imagine trying to go out and find this kind of help on the open market."

CHRIS WEAVER: FINKSBURG, MARYLAND

Chemistry is something Weaver talks about a lot. The reference often has to do with boron or sulfur or one of the many other ingredients he uses to keep crops healthy.

But it's chemistry among the farm crew that really make Hickory Hollow Farms and Weaver Seed Service successful. Weaver's father, Richard (Dick), helps manage the day-to-day farm operations. His uncle, Tom Walsh steers much of the farm's agronomic progress.

"Dad and Uncle Tom give me guidance and tell me when I'm wrong -- which is pretty much every day," Weaver said, noting that the family tree is well rooted in sarcasm. Also on the team is Ed Stanfield, whose years in the vegetable crops has been instrumental in applying similar principles to corn and soybeans.

At age 20, Matthew Thompson keeps them all young. "I've known Matthew his whole life and he's been working here since he turned 16 -- long enough that he's kicked me out of the sprayer and taken over other field responsibilities," he said.

Part of the secret to keeping people motivated is to surround yourself with self-motivated people, Weaver maintained.

"The good thing about our team is we want to succeed," he said. "If someone needs help, we just go help them. Everyone cares about the farm and making sure it is profitable and successful.

"At the same time, we aren't robots. We have a lot of moving parts to what we do. Sometimes that means we can't do what everyone wants to do that day," he added.

Thompson cut his teeth at the farm as a drone pilot. "He's got that 'walking, chewing gum and texting on his cell phone while not looking at it' thing that's needed," Weaver said.

That skill set came in handy this week as the farm got enough rainfall to keep the high-clearance sprayer out of the field. Corn is at the brown silk stage and the last pass of fungicide was being completed -- along with some final applications of potassium and some micronutrients.

"Our preference is using the sprayer because it can apply 20 gallons per acre," he said. "But the drone is a nice option when the soil is moist and we want to avoid compaction, but still need to get work done." The drone is also good for wiggling into smaller fields, especially if those on rough terrain. Farm acreages range from 7 acres to 60 acres.

The area remains in a D2 (severe drought), according to the U.S. Drought Monitor, but enough rain has recently fallen to make Weaver optimistic about his crop. This season he's used the Picketa System, a tissue sampling program that delivers results in real time -- no more waiting for lab results to determine if the crop is deficient in something.

"Doing this testing in house with accuracy is helping us be much more efficient in getting the crop what it needs and when it needs it," Weaver said. "That's been especially evident this year after having dry conditions most of the year, followed by some recent rain events. We can resample, immediately know where we are at and get those nutrients to the crop without waiting for results and possibly missing an important window of opportunity."

Weaver said cover crop mix planted behind barley has emerged nicely. Next week, cover crops will be drilled where rye has been harvested.

The priority right now is to make sure the crop everything it needs to finish. Disease pressure has been light. Stress has been mitigated with nutrients. But it will need more moisture to finish strong, Weaver said.

DTN's Wells said rain chances will remain steady with pop-up showers and storms expected Thursday through Aug. 8.

"Some of these storms could be on the stronger side with damaging wind gusts being the primary threat. Heavier rain would help curb some of the effects of the moderate and severe drought that extends across north-central Maryland, but rainfall totals Thursday through Saturday will likely approach 0.5 inches with higher totals near 0.75 inches. This may not be enough rain to help with the drought, but it won't be the only stretch of rain in the forecast. A few cold fronts will continue to move through the Mid-Atlantic next week as well, leading to spotty showers and storms," Wells said.

Pamela Smith can be reached at pamela.smith@dtn.com

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