This week you’re actually getting two weeks of farm pics. You might not know that if I hadn’t mentioned it, but I know some of you really like to keep up with us through Farm Week in Pictures! We worked on corn part of last week, and then we switched to soybeans. Rain kept us out of the field for a few days, but now soybeans are all but done. The only field of beans that remains are the double crops that were planted after wheat harvest right after July 4th.
Bounty of Corn
Loading up a truck with waxy corn. Waxy has a different starch content than normal field corn, and it commands a price premium over market price. Our waxy has performed very well this year with a few fields averaging over 200 bushels per acre, and the others not far behind.
AgNerd Stuff!
I spend a good deal of time looking at this screen on the armrest in the cab. I can change settings and calibrate various systems through here. The screen pictured shows my current moisture and yield, rotor RPM, rotor clearance, cleaning fan speed, sieve spacings, engine hours, and separator hours. One thing it is not doing would be displaying the correct time. I keep meaning to change it, but I also keep forgetting. Oh well. I have another screen, a radio, and an iPad hanging in the window to tell me what time it is.
This is the other monitor which is the same one we use for planting our crops. Normally I’m on a screen showing me current yield, average yield, acres/hr, and so on, but I wanted to show readers the thin, black lines on this page. Remember the drainage tile we installed last year? It is represented by those black lines. We have 11 more miles of 4″ tile lines to add to this system after harvest is over. We’ll use GPS to keep track of them as well. Since this was mostly a wet year it will be interesting to compare this and future yield maps to years past. I already know we have spots that normally drown out that grew a crop this year because of the drainage system.
My little cartoon combine is painting a blue swath of everywhere it has harvested. The white line is the current auto steer line it is tracking via GPS while steering itself. The blue lines represent more tracks parallel to the current track.
Soybeans Getting Done
Soybeans being loaded!
Hydraulics and Headaches
On the left are the hydraulic and electric connections for the draper head we cut soybeans and wheat with. On the right is where they plug into the combine. Once seated, you pull the lever down until it clicks in place. This lever also engages a set of pins that secure the head to the combine.
Speaking of hydraulics. We had a hydraulic pump fail this week. After being out of the field for two days we were moving along quite nicely when I noticed the head was picking up dirt. Upon finding I could not pick the head up, I knew we had a problem. It was sundown by then, so the combine sat in the middle of a field all night. I was hoping just the switch in the control stick inside the cab went out, but we ended up needing a pump instead. Our Deere dealer was out before 8am the next morning after being called just after 7am.
Keeping the Sickle Sharp
The sections and guards on the leading edge of the draper lead a tough life at ground level, but they are very durable. Here you can see I’ve replaced two partially broken sections with brand new ones. The pointed guards sometimes break too, but this year I’ve only replaced 3 or 4 which is good because I’ve recently learned they cost over $30 each!
Rainy Day Projects
While rained out we took some time clean up our trucks and trailers.
I performed an oil change on my new truck. Everyone asks about the lift when they see it. They really aren’t that expensive, and since I rebuilt the front end of my old truck, redid the front brakes, put on new shocks, and pulled the transfer case once the lift has probably already paid for itself in labor costs.
Farm Views
I spotted this fella or lady while walking the edge of a field. This week I’ve seen the usual rabbits and hawks hanging around, but I’ve also had close encounters with deer, coyotes, and pheasants!
The sun has really been putting on some good shows morning and night this month! I’ve got several of them up on Instagram.
These are the late planted double crop soybeans. They lost all their leaves this week with our first heavy frost. I think they look really good for double crops, but I haven’t stopped to open any pods either. The combine will tell us the yield soon enough.
What have you been up to? Leave a comment below and please ask questions!
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It’s good to see farmers getting back in the fields. I know so many have been rained out, snowed out, or both. I like the morning sky picture as well, but what is that old saying? Red sky in the morning, sailor’s first warning? Hopefully that didn’t turn out to be the case!
Hope not because they look like that everyday for a few minutes!
Hi, I really love each aspect of agriculture. From it,s Invention to the latest technology. This 1 sector provides trusted survival values for human beings . The rest is all fake speculation. I also love the real value producers. Thank you all real value producers.