It’s been a short farm work week with Christmas, but we still had a lot going on. Take a look to see what we’ve been up to this week!
Dad checked on our soybean bin and found some rotting beans inside. It’s possible we didn’t aerate them enough in the fall, or got some bad beans in there somehow at harvest. We loaded out a truckload to “core” the bin, and you can see these beans aren’t very uniform and some are off-color. They stunk too. After a while the quality improved. Oddly enough, we didn’t get docked for anything at the elevator and moisture was right on at 13%.
Here’s a shot of those soybeans being loaded.
The 4630 has some of the rear end taken apart to replace a shaft, some bushings, and leaky seals. While the drawbar hitch and 3 point hitch are off and in pieces we’ll get them all painted up nicely!
Earlier this year I painted both front wheels on the 4630 while they were off the tractor. I also painted one rear wheel while it was off. This wheel was never removed, so I painted the inside while the hitch was out of the way.
To finish the week, I serviced Dad’s truck this morning. Oil change, greased the front end, added some coolant, filled the washer fluid, and checked the air in the tires.
It amazes me to see all of the things that you have to do and know about to run a farm. Thanks for educating the rest of us about modern farming.
I hope that soybean problem isn’t some endemic fungus. All my cousin’s and my beans are in the bins waiting on a call from the Ohio River port at Newburgh for a barge to be loaded. We’re getting a $1.80 premium for our beans down there; but if they start docking us that will be gone soon.
Paint jobs look good.
Looks like your soybeans were suffering from purple seed stain and Phomopsis pod and stem blight. Both are problems when rains come later in the season.
Doug Jardine
Plant pathologist, Kansas State University
Thanks, Doug. We’ll check on the bin again soon. Pretty rare for us to have a storage problem with soybeans.
Look like you have been keeping busy.
@Doug is there any way to help prevent that from happening?
@Brian what would have been the benefit of aerating more?
It’s mostly about moisture control. Although we certainly didn’t have wet soybeans this. Normally you worry about being too dry with beans. Sometimes if you wait for a rain, you can make money selling water in your soybeans.
http://www.extension.umn.edu/distribution/cropsystems/dc1327.html
Thanks for the replay Brian. I am, always keen to learn more.
Also, great link you provided there.
What are your thoughts on some of the new silo technology ?
I’d like to get something like an Intelliair system started with our grain storage.
What is going to be the benefit of that in compared to what you have?
It’s smarter than us flipping a switch when we think the time is right. Of course putting it in the bin properly is most important.
For sure. Isn’t it always best to do it right the first time. What is the saying? Measure twice cut once.
How many silos do you have on your farm ?
If I’m being accurate we have two silos, and 12 grain bins including the dryer. About 150k bushels of storage.
Dear
Hi Brian,
Just came across your blog, and you’re doing a great job. As far as aeration goes I’ve been using sentry pacs for 30 years and they’ve taken care of my problems. Well worth the money to get some type of controller on the bins.