Farm Week in Pictures is in full post-harvest swing. As the weeks go on there won’t be as many pictures of big, green equipment which everyone likes to see, but people always want to know what farmers do in the winter. Stay tuned to see what we do between now and spring!
Cleaning Our Combine
Getting ready to blow as much dirt and debris off the combine before we get it wet with the power washer. We’ll do a quick blow out from time to time when we stop by the shop during harvest. All that fine, dry material makes great kindling. Combines have been know to catch fire now and then.
The corn head gets opened up to be cleaned out. This head is shaped just a bit different in a few places and didn’t harbor near as much dirt as our old head. Here you get a good view of what a corn stalk experiences. Deck plates below the gathering chains snap the ears off the stalk and the chains move the ears to the back of the head. The knife rolls underneath the plates process the stalk and begin the decay process. I’ve got a video of the head on YouTube under “How a Corn Head Works.”
That’s better! After a little maintenance the head will be put in storage and should be ready roll next fall.
The combine is easier to clean when all the shields are pulled off. They get a bath too!
My sister took this shot of me. Claims I look creepy. Cleaning dusty combine is a filthy job, and I prefer the filth to stay outside my eyes, ears, and nose!
Precision Ag Data Analysis
Dad and I dug deeper into some yield maps this week. Here I’ve printed two maps of the same field, but have selected data points from two different areas of the field to compare. We are looking to see if we gained any yield from a test of applying fungicide in strips compared to no application. Seems we gained a few bushels with the fungicide. We didn’t have an fungus problems, but fungicide also has other effects on plant health. Yield maps are fun to print and take a glance at, but you really need to spend some time with them doing an analysis for them to be good decision making tools.
One Man’s Trash…
Our used motor oil goes to our John Deere dealer where they will use it to heat their shop in the winter.
Towing Time
Time to finally have my new Cummins do some real work. Unfortunately I didn’t get to tow anything because something about my truck is locking up the trailer brakes. I have a few things to try, and I hope the fix is the easy one. Because it always works out like that right?
What do you think of what we are up to now?
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I love the real value producers.