It’s almost time to reap what we’ve sown on the farm this year.  But not quite.  We’ll start harvesting next week at least a little bit if not all out.  This past week we’ve checked on the maturing crop, sealed up grain bins, and prepped our equipment.  Take a look!

Corn from Above

I always make sure to take some pictures when I climb about 75′ up to the top of the grain leg.  You can see the corn is much greener in one part of this field.  If one were to determine if this field was ready for harvest just by driving down the road you would think it was ready to go, but the ears of corn in that green section aren’t going to be dried down for harvest quite yet.

This is a pretty awesome ear of corn.  That small dime-sized cob allows for some nice, deep kernels.  This ear is in that green section of the field in the previous picture.  Not very scientific without taking several more counts, but based on the number of kernels on this ear and counting how many ears we have in this row over a length of 17.5′ (1/1000th of an acre) we calculate a yield of almost 220 bushels per acre!  That’d be fantastic, but we’ll know what’s really going on soon enough as we harvest the entire field in the coming weeks.

Getting Ready for Harvest

Another shot from above shows our fall tillage equipment getting ready for the season.  The brand new 8360R is hooked up to our vertical tillage tool over by the shop, and the 9320 is pulling the chisel plow and getting a full tank of fuel.  We have lots of tires to check for air among other things.  There’s not a great deal to do though because we generally put equipment away at the end of a season so it is pretty much ready to go next time we need it.

The 8420 will be on grain cart duty this fall.  The cart offers a place for the combine to unload on the go so the operator (me) won’t have to stop harvesting in order to drive across the field to unload on a truck.  If you consider the trade difference between your combine and the one you are purchasing at $200/engine hour then you can see why keeping the combine harvesting vs driving around is worthwhile.

The chisel plow got a new set of points this week.  These can be turned over once during their useful life.  As you can see, there is quite a bit of metal worn off the old points!

Grain Storage Maintenance

Our grain handling and storage needs to be checked over thoroughly before harvest.  Here were are replacing a bad bearing on the auger that unloads our drying bin into the grain leg.  Inside the leg is a long belt with many small buckets attached.  The buckets carry grain to the top and dump grain as they turn over to come back down.  A valve at the top directs grain to the bin we want to fill.

The electric motor that powers the dump where we unload trucks of corn and soybeans gets uncovered each year so it can be greased and the belts can be checked for wear.  We also clean out the pit and spray for bugs.

Some of our bins have overhead augers to move grain to bins further away from the leg.  Every year I get on top to grease the motors and bearings.  When I check the belts that drive the pulleys I always find bird nests behind the shields.  Imagine how easily a fire could start with the shield closed and that pulley spinning for long periods of time.

The inner door of this bin is closed up until the bin is filled and emptied again over the next year.  When this occurs that means we’ve gone back in and done a final sweep of the floor and treated the inside of the bin for pests.  With grain being stored for up to a year you don’t want bugs hanging out in there doing damage.  Having grain at the correct moisture is very important as well for proper storage.

Cover Cropping

Too tiny to see in the photo, but this crop duster is spreading annual ryegrass cover crop seed into one of our soybean fields.  We started using cover crops last year and we are doubling up on cover acres this year.  Keeping live plants on our soils during the winter months will scavenge nutrients, build soil structure, increase organic matter (which is good for pretty much anything you can think of), suppress weeds, and reduce erosion.  You’ll definitely being seeing more about cover crops!

Here we have a tiny radish sprout.  The radishes you’ll find on our farm aren’t the type you’d find on your salad plate.  Cover crop radishes are bred specifically for their large taproots that scavenge a lot of soil nutrients.  They can also penetrate compacted soils which will help our future crops roots find their way deeper into the soil where they will benefit from the increased soil to root contact that provides water and nutrients.  Radishes can actually show you where the compacted layers of your soil.  If you dig a soil pit around radishes you might find a place where the taproot stops and the finer roots take off at a right angle until they can find another way down.  Now you know how deep your compaction starts!

Are you ready for harvest photos?  I am ready to get out there very soon to find out just how our crops did this year.  I’m pretty certain you will see the combine in action in next week’s installment of farm pictures.

What was your favorite photo?  Do you have questions about any of them I can answer?  If so please leave a comment!

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