We’ve been ramping up our efforts to prepare for harvest on the farm. Storage is being readied, and equipment is making its way through the shop to for final tweaks. Crops are being watched too, because we have some early maturing soybeans that could be ready fairly soon.
Bin There, Done That.
This is our main grain storage. Between this location at the home farm and four other bins a few miles away we can store 150,000 bushels of our crop. Being able to store the majority of our harvest lets us market our grain over the course of a year while avoiding long harvest lines at local elevators. This week I climbed the grain leg and all the bins that have motors and cross augers to inspect drive belts and grease bearings. I also removed bird nests from behind the shields covering the belts driven by motors on top of four of these bins. We don’t want to risk a fire starting as those belts run for long periods as we fill each bin.
At the top of the grain leg looking down!
Up on top of the grain leg? Might as well snap a photo. I’m not sure how this corn is going to perform. Planting conditions were kind of tough because we had some issues with patchy sod from the ryegrass cover crop. Having the planter dialed in for one end of the field meant it not was ideal for another.
Behind the yard I have 4 different rates of Nitrogen. I put on one pass each at 200lbs/A, 175lbs, 145lbs(what the rest of the field has), and 100 lbs. We’ll weigh these out at harvest to compare yield and cost. From this view they don’t show any difference, but there is surely something happening out there.
Grandpa making some adjustments to a sweep auger after we made some repairs to the aeration fan behind him. Several rivets worked loose from the sheet metal over time allowing air to escape the plenum before reaching the grain. That wasted air means wasted electricty to run the motor powering the aeration fan.
The Business of Farming
The Andersons put on a lunch and marketing meeting this week. It’s pretty interesting to listen to talks like this even if the next year has a bit of a doom and gloom forecast as the United States expects a second year of very good corn and soybean crops. We deal in a global market where Indiana farmers like us have revenues affected by matters like Russia pushing into a major grain producing country like Ukraine.
Trucker Hat
The Freightliners were backed into the shop on Saturday to receive a little sprucing up before harvest. The 2006 on the left is getting a new grill. It can’t be seen well in this picture, but the grill is not as nice and shiny as other parts on the trucks. If you’ve been following me for long you might know we have a bit a of thing about clean equipment. The red 1994 on the right is getting a brand new bumper. Look close for the rust on the lower left corner. The right side looks the same and there is quite a bit of rust on the back side. This truck is put together a little different since the hood is a “Severe Duty” and the motor is a Cummins from the mid-1980s. It took some searching to find a bumper. The first one we priced was $2100!! I’m not too interested in a bumper that costs us $1/acre, and doesn’t make the truck work any better. Thanks to twitter I was able to find a new bumper through Valley Chrome for $400. Much better!
@thefarmerslife That should be our part# CD-2010-04, Or @allianceparts # ABP N31 0CD201004. Any one of our dealers or Alliance TP can get it
— VCP / Wingmaster (@VCPWINGMASTER) August 14, 2014
Please check in with me again next week for Farm Week in Pictures. Some cool things are in store!
