DECATUR, Ill. (DTN) -- The sunsets come early in November, but Stuart Sanderson wasn't waiting for daylight to get the rest of the winter wheat drilled this week on Henderson Farms near Madison, Alabama. Sure, he'd like to see higher wheat prices, but there's something about seeding the beginnings of the next crop that fuels his enduring optimism. He finishes the crop year thankful for a better-than-expected crop year overall.

A smidge more than 1,000 miles to the north and west, Ethan Zoerb had 95 acres of custom corn harvest left to complete near Litchfield, Nebraska, on Nov. 6. Strip-till and vertical tillage rigs will soon be working selected acres, followed by more cover-crop seeding on fragile soils. Those operations will give him plenty of time to contemplate the whys behind a crazy weather year that resulted in good, but slightly less than goal yields.

Zoerb and Sanderson have been participating in DTN's View From the Cab series, a feature that follows two farmers from different regions through the growing season. This is the 25th article this year. It is also the 21st year for View From the Cab, a project that aims to give a more intimate look at agronomic and rural issues.

This week, the farmers look back at the season and discuss some of the challenges and surprises. They consider some changes for 2026. They talk about why this time of year can be challenging and what they do to avoid seasonal swings in enthusiasm.

Interested in being a 2026 View from the Cab farmer? Send a note to pamela.smith@dtn.com about your farm and why you'd like to volunteer.

ETHAN ZOERB: LITCHFIELD, NEBRASKA

When asked to describe the 2025 growing season, Zoerb can't help but groan a little.

"Crazy? Funky? Confusing? Interesting? It seems like every time we knew what the season was offering it changed," said Zoerb.

Here on the Plains of central Nebraska, drought is never far from thoughts. Zoerb went into the season fearing the worst as it was extremely dry in early spring. Then, the overhead sky spigots turned on and the situation reversed. A warm, dry spell experienced for a few weeks in August was the only one that seemed "normal."

"Outside of that one stretch, it seemed relatively cool for much of the summer, and we'd have days that were foggy or cloudy for more than half the day. It felt like we just didn't get the sun at the right time of crop development to get that great crop we were hoping for," he said.

DTN Ag Meteorologist John Baranick said the milder pattern might just have seemed cooler because temperatures weren't as consistently hot as previous years.

"This area of central Nebraska got relatively frequent rains and temperatures bounced around quite a bit without any long, hot stretches. It did get hot, but those periods only lasted a few days and were surrounded by more comfortable temperatures," Baranick observed.

June was wet. Rainfall statistics from Kearney, Nebraska, which is about 30 miles away, show the total of 6.32 inches was well above the 3.9 inches normally received in June. The average temperature fell within a degree of normal when combining totals for June, July and August.

"The frequent rainfall, the morning fog and low clouds made it feel like lower sunshine, but growing degree days were actually above normal in the region, though just slightly," Baranick said.

With combines still finishing up, Zoerb hasn't yet tallied final production numbers for the year. However, he estimated the farm's corn crop will average 10% to 15% below last year. Small kernel size and test weight hurt some numbers worse than others, he said.

Disease was a factor this year with southern rust being prevalent and tar spot making its way into the area.

"Our check strips on our second post tassel application broke even at best," he said. But he heard reports from neighbors and friends of 20-plus bushel differences where they accidently left check strips when applying only one fungicide application. Late rains kept the crop alive longer and caused issues with ear molds in some hybrids.

"Everything was still standing well at harvest, but I'm not sure how. There was very little stalk integrity left in the crop, and we were rushing to get done before winds started to pick up," he said.

Soybeans have been a concern all year for the young farmer. He was so perplexed with the growth of the crop that he called on his seed agronomist for consultation and ran extra diagnostics to dig for answers.

But soybeans tend to like to be sneaky like that and Zoerb makes no secret of the fact that he prefers growing corn.

"Beans were a slight improvement from last year, at least for us. A lot of that is because we were harvesting at 12% to 14% moisture this year instead of 8% to 10% as we did in 2024," he said.

Changes for next year have him looking to add more manure when possible as he is seeing good response from the practice. Evaluating fertilizer products by price, nutrient availability and application method is top of mind.

He's also noticing yield hits in high traffic areas such as where the drag hose used to apply manure is manipulated and where grain trucks routinely travel.

"The 8-inch tillage we're getting with strip-till isn't deep enough. We're planning on doing some deeper vertical tillage just in those field margins that are killing us on production where they've come heavily compacted. Disturbed areas will be seeded to a cereal rye cover crop to hold soil," he said.

Staying motivated during the dark days of winter can be a challenge, but this year seems more intense given the government shut down and uncertainties that have come with it. Without the distractions of harvest, he's trying to be more thoughtful about how to stay positive.

Deer season will help. There are farm meetings to attend. Basketball season is also at hand.

"Dad has coached girls' basketball for decades, and I run the shot clock. I find it is important to do some things apart from farming and especially enjoy these community activities," he said.

It's a nice diversion from the pressures of hauling grain, which can put him on the road and in the semi multiple days a week during the winter. Currently, there is a big job waiting in the farm shop. The building awaits a deep cleaning to accommodate the "Backyard Barn Christmas Boutique" hosted at the farm each year the weekend after Thanksgiving.

And if he needs further perspective, there were 21 puppies born last week to two of his parent's purebred golden retrievers.

"Being around those pups is a lot like going home every night. When my daughters hear me coming through the door, it's full-on attack that almost always ends up in a dog pile," he said.

STUART SANDERSON: MADISON, ALABAMA

Rain showers during the past few weeks delayed remaining wheat planting slightly, but he planned to finish up this week. Sanderson generally considers Nov. 20 the cutoff date for wheat in this part of north central Alabama. Much of the winter wheat is already up and looking good.

Rains made for good seeding and perfect soil conditions in which to run the strip-till rig, he noted. Typically, strip tillage is reserved for soybean stubble, but next year the farm plans some corn-on-corn acres. In those cases, the shank is being dropped down on top of the existing corn row and to work a 2-inch-wide strip at an 8-inch depth. A dry fertilizer blend is applied, and a rolling basket follows to firm the soil. Next spring, a strip freshener rolls back over the strip to open it up for planting.

The farm's combines are tucked away for the year. But there's still plenty of work to do. Each fall a portion of the farm is vertically tilled to break up the hard pan, generally in fields destined for corn next spring.

As he thinks back over the 2025 production season, Sanderson finds little to complain about. There was a tornado, but it resulted in minimal damage. There was more than typical spring rainfall that caused wheat harvest delays and hurt wheat yields slightly. That also resulted in about 700 acres of prevented planting. But in the end, corn and soybean yields all came in at or above average production history (APH) and the harvest was tidy with no hiccups. Plus, they finished early.

"We got dry in August, but we had good moisture going into it and we were harvesting corn by the time it came. That dry period accelerated the soybean maturity of our double crops (beans) and for the first time ever we were done harvesting them in October," he said.

DTN's Baranick used the Madison airport observing station as a barometer for weather conditions on the farm. May was extremely wet, and approximately 11 inches of rain fell in the month as opposed to just over 5 inches on average. June rains started to tail off a bit but still amounted to normal rainfall.

"Like much of the Southeast, they dried out in July and August, getting less than half of the normal rain in July (1.97 inches versus 4.4 inches on average) and just 1.04 inches in August against the average of 3.32 inches," Baranick said. "It also got hot as July ended up three degrees above normal with highs almost all in the 90s and very rarely below 94 degrees. Outside of a couple of cooler stretches at the beginning and end of August, it was very hot the rest of the month as well," he reported.

The heavy May rain totals may have taken a toll on wheat yields, but the tradeoff was it resulted in a heck of a corn crop, Sanderson reported.

"This isn't the Midwest, but 240 (bpa) dryland corn is a heck of a corn crop for our area," he said, noting that irrigated corn was "really, really good."

Sanderson said decent dryland double crop soybeans yields in this area typically fall into the 25- to 35-bpa range. The farm had some dryland double crop beans go 40 bpa this year.

"Prevented planting acres are obviously not what we want. But that's something we had to deal with and move on," he said. "When I look at how dry August turned out, we were a lot better off taking prevented planting."

As it turned out, approximately 70% of the double-crop soybeans that they planted were able to be placed on irrigated ground and yielded 70 bpa or better, he noted. Full-season irrigated soybeans topped 80 bpa.

Sanderson and his farming partners are shaking up the cropping mix slightly for the coming year. The farm usually seeds about 2,500 acres of wheat. That's about what the harvest window allows.

"I find it hard to get excited about wheat under $6. We've backed down to about 1,500 acres this year and replaced some of it with winter canola. We'll still have about 2,000 acres of small grains. It just won't be all wheat," Sanderson said.

Marketing is Sanderson's jam, and he's hedged some new crop soybeans at levels that will net around $12 per bushel. If he looks far enough out on the calendar, he can find profitable prices for corn that fit his ability to store the crop and capitalize on local markets.

Right now, he's concerned about input prices, especially fertilizer. Henderson Farms has been able to spoon-feed corn to achieve low nitrogen use rates of well-below 1 unit per bushel without yield sacrifices. They have invested in on-farm fertilizer storage to take advantage of volume and cash discounts.

"But fertilizer costs are currently out of balance," Sanderson said. "They are going to be a pain point -- especially for those farmers forced to depend on zero-percent interest deals. Eventually that bill comes due."

Farm stress is something Sanderson has mentioned frequently in View From the Cab. He believes in the importance of keeping physically fit, eating right and having hobbies that help keep life in balance. High on his list of musts is having farmers on speed dial that can provide an ear or fresh perspective when needed. That's especially important as the days grow shorter and the nights get colder, he noted.

"Agriculture is a big world with a lot of variation in it. But the day-to-day grind touches us in similar ways. Talking about those things is as important as anything we do out here in the dirt," he said.

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

Follower her on social platform X @PamSmithDTN

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