Harvest Hustle

farm kid on grain bin harvest     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.

filling grain bin with corn by auger wagon

 

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.

combine corn sunset

Getting later in the day, corn all around.  It is becoming more and more a “corn” world around here.

yield map 30 acres soybeans

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.

yield map corn 50 acres

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.

yield map with tile risers flags

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.

Video of Farm Life Ep. 3

Farm Life in 6 second clips

kinze planter on a John Deere tractor going into transport position, filling the planter with seed corn, corn germinating after two days, switching the planter units over to plant soy beans, farm kids bringing in newborn calf so its closer by the barn away from coyotes, putting the planter away in the shed since storm clouds were approaching. One of our many videos of farm life.

Slideshow of Farm Life May 2013


(click arrow to start slideshow)

As last year had historic drought conditions, this spring has had unending waves of rain. This month alone we’ve had over 10″ of rain. We were able to get all the corn planted and 80% of the beans. But we’ve yet to determine how much replant we’ll have to do. We haven’t had the first cutting of hay which really needs to be done. Very glad May is over.

Can the bean save the day?

This little soybean was hanging from a cob web in the combine’s front window. Last year I didn’t have much good to say about beans. Much like most years. But this year has been different. The plants are maturing evenly. The stems are not tough. Plus the yields are pretty good for all the rain we have had. Fortunately, William decided to plant more beans this year. The corn yields are below average. They did not take the wet spring / summer as well as the beans. So hopefully with good yields and a decent price the bean will carry the day. (year)

Beans are a bane not a boon

I hate harvesting beans.  Then you have the very small window of the “right” time to take them out and it has to be before dusk or they choke the combine. And the stems are green while the moisture tests 9%. Do I need to go on?
I must say the John Deere combine (known affectionately as BGC) has impressed me this year. It really chews thru the beans at a good pace. In my red ones I had to go much slower and pray that the wad of beans didn’t plug it up. Also our last bean head drug up constentally on the left side. I would try everything to adjust it. Dang was that aggrevating. BGC’s head has hardly drug up underneath.
We did run into a problem one night last week. It was after dark and we wanted to fill the semi to take it home. The beans got tough and plugged the head. It really jammed the beans tight. The drive chain broke. The next morning ran to Petersburg got a new chain and a few assundry items, drove back to the field. Put the new chain on and started out. Chain broke again. Noticed the feeder house wasn’t going either. It’s chain was broke also. It turned out the slip clutch on the drive shaft wasn’t working. Instead of it slipping it would shove the beans in ’til the chains broke. William had enough links to fix both chains and get it going. We finished the two fields and started another. Then it rained 2.2 inches. Took the grain platform to Petersburg. They called today that it is ready to go. We’ll pick it up when we can start beans again. Take it right to the field from there. Luckily we only had about 180 acres of beans this year. One full day and we will be done. I have to admit the beans are making in the 50s and the price is up around $10/bushel. So it’s not all bad.
Pray for dry weather!