It’s over! Harvest is done on this farm. While it was time to be done with all the wet weather and winter showing up early late in the week I always wish there was another acre to work in the field. There are a few more since we have moved on to fall tillage. Follow along with our pictures as we transition out of harvest mode.
Fall Finish
Big yields mean trucks leave the field loaded as quick as they come back empty. Here the sun goes down as a full cart and combine wait on a truck to return from town.
The final acres of corn harvest were wet. We came back to some of the softest ground we encountered all season, and it of course began to rain while we were there. It was a guessing game to see which direction, North or South, would get me through the final passes. I could come one direction on the soft end unloaded and not get very far, but if I came the other way sometimes I could get all the way through with a full load of grain on. Dad was smart and had me finish the last of it with the corn head lowered just enough to get the ears off the stalks. That gave me enough extra horsepower to carry more speed over the soft spots. Not processing so much of the plant material freed up power for pushing forward.
The combine saw some hairy situations, but it never did get stuck! I’m a braver combine operator than I was two months ago.
Duals packed with mud and rain falling as pushed towards the end of corn harvest. Not ideal for gaining traction in the toughest spots, but we got it done!
The final ears of corn harvest getting plucked!
Our final harvest venture was to go after our double crop soybeans. They are called double crop because we are getting two crops off the same ground in one year. Wheat planted in fall of 2013 was harvested in early July. The planter followed right behind the combine planting soybeans. It wasn’t our best double crop, but we are happy with the 23bu/acre crop. Combined with the sale of our very good 100bu wheat crop this ground served us well in 2014.
This is the final full hopper the combine would see this year. After I dumped this load of beans there was just a partial load left to finish out 2014.
Fall Tillage Begins
The chisel plow and the vertical till both went to work this week as we put harvest behind us. I was able to run both machines on Saturday when I was able to get video of both at work.
http://youtu.be/4bG5hBkvmnc?list=UUOxiZ3nuNXYYo-hDs01oQ6w
High speed tillage tool, meet partially frozen frequent travel path of the grain cart. We just pulled the scraper off this blade late Saturday and kept rolling. Half this blade is now in a field somewhere. Maybe we’ll see it in 2015 before it does any damage.
Farm Drainage
We called our tile man who has done good work for us the last two years. A smaller project this time, but it will help another field stay drier and grow more crop. Ought to keep the grain cart from getting stuck in that spot again too!
This tractor is equipped with a trencher that will also lay down the drainage lines as it travels across the field. The rig on the front end carries the spool of tile.
So harvest is over, but it’s not time to go on vacation just yet! We’ve got a lot of work to do in the coming weeks. Keep coming back to check on us!
