A varied week of farm activity and inactivity. Got some good days of harvest in, and then it rained a few inches putting us out of commission until it’s dry enough to venture out on the soil again.
Passed Out
You spend enough time as a passenger in a tractor or combine and you’ll pass out too. Sometimes it only takes a few minutes.
Location, Location, Location
Looks like Dad and I could have picked a different spot to put the head on the combine such as the grass ditch bank on the opposite side of the field I’m headed for. Snatching it off the trailer down the road a bit proved trying to stay off the neighbors soybeans on the West side of the road while avoiding our pine tree to the East was a bit tight. Dad went in the canopy to lift a few limbs, and ended up hacking a few out with a saw.
Harvest Halted
https://storify.com/thefarmerslife/october-rain
Chances of rain are forecasted early next week as well. Keep up on facebook and twitter to see when we can get back to work!
During our rain delay I ventured out into the last corn field we planted. This field was done on May 7 and hand tested this day a 28.5% moisture. Wetter than the stuff we quit harvesting last week. Cool temps and gray skies since the rain came aren’t making it any drier. It’ll be ready when it’s ready. We can harvest at that grain moisture, but we’d rather be under 25%. We’ve got to take a fair amount of truckloads to town because we can’t store the entire crop, and we aren’t in the business of hauling water much like grain elevators aren’t in the business of buying it! There are often drying discounts this time of year as harvest begins so that helps get some wetter corn off early.
Winter Wheat
Our wheat crop was planted this week on two soybean fields we harvested last week. We hire out this job as we don’t have a drill for planting wheat. The neighbor we hire just bought this 2003 John Deere 1590 drill, and they actually used it for the first time on us. They hooked it up to the cool, old case 4490 to do the job.
Pumpkin Patch
The weekend was nice with both Purdue and the Colts winning. We capped off Sunday by picking out our pumpkins from Kent’s Cucurbits. I figure a lot of you readers would enjoy the 4230 putting in a good days work still.
Hopefully dry days are coming! See you next week!
Nice video. And. You skipped the wet hole on the wheat?
Yes. No way you could drive through that right now. That little patch of soybeans might not get harvested this year.
Nice rock on the Mrs.’s hand there….