Life on the Farm

[bjrogg]

We’ll see what tomorrow brings

Bjrogg

[bjrogg]

We started out yesterday morning with a hydraulic line needing to be located, picked up and replaced on our combine.
Also a track that needed to be changed on cart. And a bunch of trucks that needed to be unloaded.

I serviced my son’s combine and he took out trucks. Then I helped my nephew take off old track. We found a cracked idler wheel and my nephew worked at fixing it. I went to town to get combine parts.

Then I took my son’s combine to my grandmas farm and tried the wheat. It was 17.2 moisture so I kept combining.

About a hour later the cart showed up and that speeds things up for the combine. About 1/3 of your time is spent unloading grain from combine. The cart takes my grain on the go right while I’m still combining so it makes me about 30% more efficient time wise.

After about another hour the second combine showed up a things really started to roll. We kept my son very busy hauling wheat to the Coop.

We finished my grandma’s farm. About 100 acres. I don’t know the exact yield yet but it was pretty decent especially considering how dry it has been. Really helped it got off to a good start last fall and the ground wasn’t compacted. Moisture was good and quality of wheat should be very good so far.

We moved combines and cart to my farm. All the trucks are full so I need to take some out this morning before I service combine.

Really hoping we have a big day today.

Will update when I can

Bjrogg

[bjrogg]

Been a busy past few days.

Last Saturday we started out with 530 acres of wheat to harvest.

But first my favorite granddaughters birthday party.

Her mom always makes really cool cakes and they taste good to. This one was a taco theme and it didn’t disappoint.

Bjrogg

[bjrogg]

About 2:00 her father and I said our goodbyes to everyone at the party and headed for his wheat fields. We tried his wheat and it was ready. We took off his 60 acres. It yielded pretty good and quality was excellent.

Sunday started out with one combine down needing a hydraulic line fixed and cart down needing track changed.

I helped in the morning with fixing and running after parts. Then I moved my son’s combine to my grandma’s field. The wheat was ready and I started with one combine and no cart.  After a hour the cart showed up. Then a little later the second coming and we got things clicking. We ended up getting grandma’s finished and combines moved to my farm. We did 100 acres so not bad for how the day started.

Monday we started by my house. There’s 205 acres here in four fields. It wasn’t the greatest combine weather. Was sunny but wind was off the lake and grain didn’t dry very good. It was a little higher in moisture than we would have liked but we kept at it. We had a good day and got about 175 acres harvested. The yield was decent 101 by house and 117 in field next to it. Was a good feeling to clear off as much as we did.

Tuesday morning woke up to the wind blowing hard through the night. That keeps the dew off and let’s us start combining earlier in the day. There was still about 50 acres left at my place but it was a lot of headlands and fence rows with trees that the wheat still was a little moist.

We decided to move to Wruble farm about seven miles away. It’s 114 acres. We moved everything and started combining about 11:00am . We just finished the field and it started raining. The rain was very spotty. We got anywhere from nothing to a 1.25” all of the remaining 105 acres of wheat got rained on.

Wednesday we got some more storms that rolled through. A little more wide spread but still amounts very spotty. One of the beet fields that didn’t get anything Tuesday got a splash and one of the navy bean fields that didn’t get anything on Tuesday still only got a dust settler.

I’m really glad we got as much wheat off as we did. We got enough to cover our contracts. It yielded decent and was excellent quality. I’m thinking some of the stuff that’s left is going to be our best yielding wheat , but I’m not really optimistic that it will still be good quality. Pretty hard to please everyone, but we really needed the rain we did get and feed wheat should be a decent price if that’s what it becomes.

Bjrogg

[bjrogg]

The wind blew last night and I cut some heads of wheat to get a falling numbers test run. The wind really helped. It dried the rain off the heads before they started to sprout and the falling numbers are still good.

We are moving stuff back to my place. Hopefully by later this afternoon we can combine.

The clover cover crop sure liked the rain. It was shriveled right up before the rain

Bjrogg

[chamookman]

I thought of You, with all the wind and rains passing thru. For bout an hour Wednesday, had the Severe Weather warnings on TV and Radio. Glad to hear it didn't affect You ! Bob

[bjrogg]

Thank Bob.

The wind really helped keep our wheat from gaining moisture and trying to sprout. That’s what causes the starches to change in the kernel and the quality to drop. The heads I cut for falling numbers test were trashed and tested. They passed the test so we moved everything back to my place again.

We started combining about 2:00 and moisture was good. Sent load to town and it passed all the test. Happy Happy as Phil would say. Our goal was to finish the 53 acres by my place. We got that done about 5:45 and moved to our last field. It was a good drying day and our last field was ready now to so we kept going. We finished just before dark and filled every truck we could beg, borrow or steal.

I’m so happy to have our wheat harvest completed. I really enjoy the harvest part, but the constant worry about getting it off and keeping it’s quality and covering contracts is really bad on my nerves.

Now I can take a deep breath knowing that we have our most perishable crop harvested. The rest are at least slightly less perishable.lol

Not going to worry about harvesting them yet .

Well there’s still straw to harvest yet but I’m ready for more rain. That wind and heat really saved our wheat harvest but everything else is suffering. Even the fields that did get a rain are withering up and there’s still cracks in the ground.

We are supposed to be hot today yet , but then cool down some and possibly of showers Saturday and Sunday.

We hope the pump is primed now and we can get some more wide spread and soaking rains, but we are very thankful for what we did get.


Gotta go lots of trucks to unload and I need to start spraying beans today.

Will try to post a few pictures when I get a chance

Bjrogg

[bjrogg]

The last field

Bjrogg

[bjrogg]

Beans are blossoming and it’s time for thier first white mold protection.

Huge difference between where they got a rain and where they didn’t.

We did get a shower this morning. I had .5” in my gauge and it’s still sprinkling. It’s not enough yet but it’s still very much appreciated.

Bjrogg

[Pappy]

Glad you are getting by BJ, we got a little rain here but very spotty also, some got a lot and some got none, went by several corn fields today and they looked very sad, dry and twisted in the field. The beans on my place has got just enough to get by and seems to be doing pretty well now. They are calling for rain every day this week and we could sure use it, creeks and ponds are very low and pastures are brown, the dry is bad enough but it has been in the mid to high 90's for almost a month here and that is unusually for us in July. I am headed north next Sunday for Elm Hall, hope to get into a little cooler weather for a few days. Hope to see you there.
 Pappy

[bjrogg]

Hope you get some more rain to Pappy. We have been lucky here by the big lake. It’s been keeping us pretty decent temperature anyway. Lot  cooler here than a few miles inland.

Yesterday my wife and I had a nice day together. First we went to church and meet our new priest. Very nice mass.

Then we went to the China King to eat. Just the two of us. I honestly can’t remember the last time we did that. Was very nice.

Then we went to the nursing home and I visited my dad while she visited her mother.

Then on the way home we visited our brother in law who has ALS. It was nice to see him again even though I can see how much he has slipped since the last time I saw him.

Then back home. That took most of the day and we took a little nap. Boy did that feel good.

Today I am taking my wife to the eye specialist in the city. Then we are going to meet our daughter, son in law and grandson at the campgrounds on way home.

Bjrogg

[Buckskinner]

Those are some wide row beans!  We got another good rain Saturday night things are really greening up now. 

Glad you are able to take some R&R, little as it may be.  Do you bail/sell the straw?

[bjrogg]

Those are some wide row beans!  We got another good rain Saturday night things are really greening up now. 

Glad you are able to take some R&R, little as it may be.  Do you bail/sell the straw?

Yes we are still in 30” row spacing. These are edible beans too. Black Beans and Navy Beans. A lot of guys have switched to 22” or even narrower. We have tried test plots in narrow rows, but we find we get to much white mold this close to the lake. It can be absolutely devastating. We try to do as much as we can to prevent it and there’s only so much we can do. Wider row spacing is one of them.

We have several neighbors who buy our straw. They have most of it baled now.

Bjrogg

[bjrogg]

This baler was making big square bales as fast as we were making windrows with two big combines

Bjrogg

[Buckskinner]

Ah those big bails are no fun...  Now thousands of small bails, that's a what I'm talking about!