Before you know it Farm Week in Pictures is going to have a change of scenery. It’s the last day of August which means tomorrow is the first day of September. September is more often than not the month harvest begins. We certainly aren’t ready for harvest yet, but things are going to start changing fast. In fact crops have been changing fast in the last two weeks because the weather has been quite hot and quite dry. Those who have been following along for a while know that 2013 has been a pretty wet year, but now we are doing a bit of a flip-flop. Nothing at all like 2012’s drought, but a rain would be much appreciated right now. On to the pictures!
New (to us) Freightliner
This happened while I was gone last week. We’ve been truck shopping for a while and this was bought at a large auction in Peoria, IL last Thursday. It’s a 2006 Freightliner with a 450hp Mercedes motor. That’s 100hp more than the trucks we have now! The truck is originally from Mississippi and it must not have traveled very far from there because it is really clean. No signs of rust and pitting on the frame at all! We are fixing little things here and there and changing a few items to our liking.
This truck appears to have had some kind of hydraulic controls in the cab at one time based on the oily spot on the floor. I fabricated a metal plate to cover up the holes in the floor of the cab.
The old and busted mud flap hangers got replaced.
Bucket List
Our 7920 loader tractor went to the dealer for some repairs recently and it won’t be returning. We were already contemplating multiple variations of tractor trades, and we ended up trading the 7920 for something new. We don’t have the something new just yet, so you’ll have to wait and see what we got! Here my truck is loaded up with the loader bucket/grapple combo that didn’t go to town with the tractor. We dropped it in my bed and delivered it to our John Deere dealer to be reunited with its buddy.
Extreme Makeover
The house my parents and sister lived in up until right before I was born disappeared this week. We just haven’t had good luck renting it, and it wouldn’t be worth much to sell it. This land will better serve us and corn and soybeans. Ought to make farming this field a bit more efficient too. And since the house is gone the electric company removed all the power lines on our side of the road. Yeah! Now we don’t have to farm around them.
If you didn’t know there was a house there the day before this picture was taken you would never know! We’re keeping the trees though.
One Field, Two Crops
Our neighbor who raises cattle planted about half his wheat field with soybeans after wheat harvest and the other half with some kind of grass. I’m thinking sudan grass, but I don’t know. Anyway, he mowed it this week and I’m assuming it will be baled to feed the cattle.
Our double crop soybeans are really looking great! As far as looks go I’d say they are the best in the neighborhood. They could really use some rain though because their time is running out to make a decent yield. These were planted on July 8th right behind wheat harvest.
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What John Deere tractor will you be getting?
8360R
LOL.That is very close in hp to your 9320.Will it come with front duals?
Yes it is. It will be like our 8420 with front duals and ILS.