Yield monitor of 80 acres
William checking on a bin of corn as we dump into it.
Eating pizza in the field
Harvest Summary Video
November 25, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Harvest Summary Video
harvesting corn, beans; raking the last hay for the season; using a backhoe; finishing a field talking about yield mapping in combine; newborn calf & cow; putting the corn head in shed; attaching the inline ripper to tractor; inline ripper at work in bean stubble
Harvest Hustle
October 2, 2013 by Leave a Comment
This is what is called spotting on a bin. Z is waiting for me to back the auger up and he will give directions to put the grain auger exactly where it should be.
We use a 600 bushel wagon as a “catch” “bin” when we put corn in the drying bins. Corn goes from combine (generally on the go in the field) to wagon to auger to bin.
Getting later in the day, corn all around. It is becoming more and more a “corn” world around here.
This will probably be our worse field of soybeans. I thought it would push it to make 25 to 30 bushels per acre. Actual across the scales at the elevator was 44.7. That means that Judi has done a good job calibrating the yield monitor on the combine. See the red those ares are called sand hills. Purple is “blow” sand.
Field south of the house. Purple area and also red area in middle of the field point out where drainage tile is needed. Before yield monitors we kinda new about how bad these areas are, but yield monitors really show how bad they really are.
Part of a field east of parents house. It has been partially tiled in 1983 besides old clay tile put in around the turn of the century (1900). It still has issues as shown by the yield map. Corn is still much better than I thought it would be with all the late summer dryness we had. We are in drought 2 category according to the U.S. drought monitor. Wonder what 4 inches of rain in August and 2 inches of rain the first week of September would have done for the corn yields, not to mention soybean yields?
Harvest Hustle
So far we have been performing the harvest hustle. Switching the combine back and forth between corn and beans when a field is too wet. Moving the auger between drying bins and then filling the regular bins once the corn is dried down. And back to dumping into the drying bins.
Harvest Arrives
September 18, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Harvest has arrived and is on hold already. We finished our first corn field (80a). It tested 21% and avg 194 bu/a. That’s pretty good considering this field avg 20 bu/a last year. If we would have had rain these last two months, this field would have made over 200.
A seed dealer showed up just as I was opening the field up. He rode along and watched as I took out the end rows. Lucky me.
The weather was beautiful. After we finished here we opened up another field. It tested 26%. So we decided to wait on it.
Took this shot with a panorama app.
William disked the stalks before we got .5″ rain.
If you happen to be on twitter follow #Harvest13. You see everyone in North America talking about their harvest.
You can also follow me @farmnwife Send me a tweet to say Hi.
How Yield Maps Are Made
September 24, 2012 by 4 Comments
While driving the combine, I show how yield maps are made. The sensor in the combine measures the volume of corn entering the grain tank then assigns it to a spot on the map.
Harvest 11 Day Complete
October 30, 2011 by Leave a Comment
We finished harvesting the 21st of October. Actually one of the earlier finishes for us. Only two real breakdowns with the combine and they were small ones. One of the hose clamps on the air inlet pipe on the turbocharger broke. The other was a drive chain on the corn head. Semi’s were a problem early on, but the old 99 International once it was running ran great.
Oh by the way, this is Judi’s lessor half posting this, she is still trying to get caught up from being part of ” #occupycombine in #harvest11 “. She also has been helping me with fieldwork for next year’s crop. We did get one of our new wells hooked up to the house. Great to have “enough” water. We also added to the kids show string of heifers this last weekend, more on those girls later. [Read more…]
Vintage Tractors
October 16, 2011 by 2 Comments
Antique Tractor Club
Jack called William to ask if we had a field where the Vintage Ag Assoc. could run their old tractors and plows. The group’s members look for a place every fall to give their equipment a work-out. Just to show every group has its tensions. Some antique tractor members say that other member’s tractors aren’t old enough. I wonder when the cut off date is? Here are some of the pictures I took and a quick video.
Massey Ferguson
FARMALL B
Minneapolis-Moline
Massey Harris
Oliver
[youtube]G4SNNJidySM[/youtube]
What are you wearin’ ?
October 11, 2011 by 2 Comments
Some would think that when a husband asks this question to his wife over the phone, he’s being frisky and hoping to get lucky later. Nope. During harvest when a farmer asks his wife that question it means: How fast can you come out to the field to run the combine while he runs to do ______. (fill in the blank) Farmer is thinking: How long will it take her to change into her jeans & tshirt? not I wonder if she is wearing something slinky and see-through.
That is the call I got tonight. When he asked What are you wearing, I smiled and said “Why do you want to know?” William said, “Because I want you to come out while I run the truck back to the bins.” Smile gone.
So goes the farm life of a frustrated farm wife.
Harvest 11 Day Good One
October 4, 2011 by Leave a Comment
William’s goal this week is to do 50 acres a day to be finished with corn by Saturday. The elevator was only open Sunday Noon to 5 but we did take in 30 acres that day. Yesterday, we changed the fuel and air filters. One should always remember to open the shutoff valve on the fuel line after cleaning the water separator bulb. The combine doesn’t go very far without the flow of diesel. I still didn’t have the normal power and it sounded like we suped up the engine. We had the mechanic, Don, come out. He found a hose clamp missing around the pipe for the turbo charger . I’ll take that kind of repair any day. We did manage to get 46 acres shelled despite the delays. The elevator closes at 6:30. I filled the truck and the grain cart after the last load. Fueled the combine up. William cleaned my windows. (such a sweetie) We both had a pony shoe and beer at the Boar’s Nest. Went home to bed.
Harvest 11 Day Whatever
October 2, 2011 by Leave a Comment
I am at the point in harvest where the days are all running together. William keeps talking about “when we get done with this field, we’ll go to that field. Then we’ll switch to beans and haul the bean head to another field.” I hold up my palm and say talk to the hand. (not really) But I did say, “Whoa, stop. It’s going to be a few days before we are done in the current field. A million things could go wrong in that time changing everything. So I’m not listening.” He’s counting loads and acres left. I’m just driving ’til I run out of fields. Different mindsets to the same end.
So the harvest update is fairly redundant. I have lost track of how many days we’ve been in corn. I’m seeing rows of corn plants being shoved into a feeder house in my sleep. I’m not complaining really. As long as the combine and trucks are running, we are getting closer to the prize.
The combine did lose some power today. William thought it may be the fuel filter, since we just used the transfer tank for the first time in awhile. But Russel across the road, who used to be a red IH dealer says the air filters need replaced. He was right. I took out the filter and it was crammed with dust. We’ll replace both sets of filters tomorrow. Tomorrow more corn.
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