The leaves are changing. The temperature is cooling down. Football is in full motion. It must be fall in Nebraska.
It never ceases to amaze me how a seed can be planted inApril or May and be full grown, mature, and ready to harvest in just 6 to 8 months’time. Such a short life span.
I farm with my husband, son, and my father –in-law nearMeadow Grove, Nebraska. We are livingthe good life. We love what we do on adaily basis. It isn’t a job when you arehappy doing what you enjoy.
As harvest time nears we are quite busy starting our dayswith feeding our pigs and checking waterers and building temperatures, ensuringthey are safe and healthy.
It is also a time when we leave the house in the morningwith our dinner and supper in tow. Fortunately for me my hubby is okay with cold sandwiches and freshfruits and vegetables for every meal for a few months, providing I make himfresh cookies occasionally, and a hot meal when there is no field work needingto be done at meal time.
This fall we are changing a routine of harvestingpractices. Our past has been to have thesemis parked at the end of the field and running the grain cart to and from thecombine with the full semi driven to the bin site for unloading and storinguntil crops get sold and hauled to the cooperatives. While this will be the case from some of ourfields we realize we have bins near our crops and if we work it out right wecan put the auger up to the bin, pull the empty semi over it, and haul thegrain directly to the waiting trailer thus eliminating driving semi loads tothe bin. There is a reason for thischange. We are limited on manpower thisfall and truck driving is becoming a bit of a problem. To make this plan worksuccessfully we have invested in another grain cart so we can keep up with thecombine. Oh and this meant hubby also had to buy another tractor. OK- so thereis an underlying issue here- my job has been to drive the grain cart from thecombine to the truck and last year my father-in-law took hostage of the graincart leaving me without that job so I begged hubby to buy a second grain cartso I can get my job back. Well, at least for half of the hauls.
I wish you a safe harvest season. I hope you see some beautiful sunsets. I hope the yields are plentiful, and theweather cooperates.
Thecombine is harvesting the corn that is mature and ready for harvesting. As the combine grain bin gets full thetractor and grain cart come along beside and the grain in the combine bin isemptied into the grain cart and hauled to a semi-trailer waiting at the end ofthe field.
The tractor operator pulls the grain cart to the semi-truckwaiting at the end of the field and augers the grain into the semi-trailer. Depending on the size of the grain cart, thetrailer can usually hold 2 or 3 cart full before the truck hauls the grain to abin site at the local farmers place to hold the grain until the farmer sellsit, or to a cooperative to sell the grain.
This is the site from the seat of the combine as the farmeris combining (harvesting) soybeans. The head for soybean harvesting has acutter bar that cuts the soybean plant just above the ground. The combine separates the soybean from thechaff. The soybean augers into thecombine bin. The chaff is spit out theback of the combine and will decompose.
The is the site from the driver’s seat of the combine whencorn is being harvested. The corn headhas chains that pull the stalk in and the corn is separated from thechaff. The corn goes into the bin on thecombine and the chaff and stalk are thrown out the back and decomposes overtime.
One can see the corn falling into the grain cart from thecombine bin here.