HARVEST HAS STARTED !

Yes, harvest has started in southeast Illinois.

Seed corn harvest, that is.  NTR started picking for Syngenta on us Thursday the 25th.   I'm told it is around 35% moisture.  Stalks are really green.  In fact, I irrigated it earlier this week! 
They are running an Oxbo harvester with a 12 row head.

The chase tractors are Challengers.

They tell me they like the tracks tractors better for crossing irrigation tracks. The corn is picked on the ear with shucks intact.  If possible the chase tractor and cart will run beside them and load directly.

If not, the picker will put it in the cart it pulls and then transfer to a dump cart.  It then goes to the waiting semi tractor/trailer.

 
If you can pick 12 rows at 5 - 6 MPH and rarely stop to unload you can cover a lot of ground quickly.

They started about 8:30 and by dark had finished 166 acres in 3 fields.  That is even more impressive when you consider Syngenta was doing some yield checks on a new seed treatment and had each field divided into blocks that had to be harvested separately

Just playing in the water

I've said before, "the only thing worse than having an irrigator is needing an irrigator." This year may prove that.  I was spraying around the edge of the fields at Gramp's Thursday.  There were a couple little places the beans looked a bit dry, but overall things didn't look too bad all things considered.  A couple days changed things a lot.

I was surprised how quickly things have changed.

By Sunday afternoon the sand streaks were showing up pretty well.  I spent the afternoon messing with irrigators.

 I had to park the Shawler's south system, then move it, then start it.  Then I changed the oil in the Drake Place north system and started it. Then I started up Shawler north. 

If we don't get rain soon things may get ugly in the bean fields.

From the road the corn looks fairly decent.  Out in the field things change.  However, it is too variable to make any predictions as to yield. 

I was using a string trimmer today ..

I was using a string trimmer today (OK, I know most people would call it a Weedeater, but I spent too many years with Xerox getting the difference between a trademark name and a common name beat in my head. it was technically an Echo string trimmer).

And like most times using one I thought of Grandpa Neal.

Why are they so associated in my head?  That may take some "'splainin'" (You need to have seen some old "I Love Lucy" shows to get that)

Gramps was a life-long farmer.  In fact, I don't recall anything ever being said about him doing anything else. He retired about age 65 ... but he was still on the farm.  As a farmer he hated weeds in his bean field.

We were at dad's one day working and kept hearing this noise.  We couldn't figure it out until finally we saw Gramps ... I'm guessing he would have been in his 80's ... out in the middle of a bean field with a Weedeater cutting off hemp dogbane.

So whenever I run one of these blasted things I think of Gramps.

My major accomplishment of the week

It's been one of those spinning your wheels kind of weeks.  I knew starting out it would be a short one, because this is reunion week.  We have a big family reunion every year.  A multi-day travel some distance reunion.  We hold it on the farm my Great-Grandfather's lived on near Mt Vernon, Illinois.

Yes, I know we are unusual.

Getting together for several days with folks you sometimes barely know is sometimes interesting.  And because of it I knew this week we would be pushed to accomplish much.  Monday we caught up with some road mowing.  We've gotten behind on that a bit for several reasons.  The big one has been temperature.  In an air conditioned cab it is really kind of enjoyable. But the blacktop roads have been so hot we felt it was had on the road surface driving tractors around if the need really wasn't urgent.

Monday we got a chance to catch up a little.  Aman mowed the roads on the Prust ground west of Mill Creek.  I mowed the lanes east of Mill Creek and Wilderness road and along the highway and around the Sycamore field with the Allis.   Well, until I broke something. I don't think I have run the Allis and old Bush Hog a full afternoon for years that I didn't break something on it.  Tuesday evening I used the M and the sickle bar to touch up a few places across from the Silver Moon

Tuesday we had some other things to do, changing oil in irrigation engines, things like that.  I had cell phone problems, so I had to go to the phone store.  Since I was going to Casey anyway I decided to look at trading my Mule ...

No, not a floppy eared 4 legged animal. My 2011 Kawasaki Mule XC610

It is a great tool. We really tried it out last Saturday going back to an irrigator pivot after a 4" rain.  I do not think I could have walked to it.  We just turned on the front wheels and drove through the mud and water with no problem. But it is slow.  23 MPH top speed.  Working on irrigators a little more speed would be nice. The John Deere dealer had traded for a 2009 Kawasaki Teryx.  It looks like this only it was blue

Twice the engine mine has, fuel injection instead of a carburetor, bucket seats, fancy wheels, nice ...

When I first started taking to Jerry (the salesman) about it he encouraged me to come drive it.  I said "Aww Jerry, I've got a Mule, I've been around 2, 3, and 4 wheelers for over 40 years.  I don't need to drive it."  He still wanted me to come drive it.  Since I was going to Casey to the phone store, and wanted to take the Ford to a car wash anyway, I loaded my Mule and went to Casey.

I now know why Jerry wanted me to drive it first.  Quoting a magazine review of this thing: "I still cannot believe the ability of these units."  It is just a bit scary. 

I think if it were just Aman and I driving it would have been OK.  But about the first time Sue got in it to do some work in the yard, hit the throttle and it ran off in the pond I'd be in trouble.  And Sunday evening after the Church fishing tournament at our pond

I let a couple of my Jr High kids use the Mule to pick up and transport some things.  I would not have let them behind the wheel of the Teryx

Another potential difficulty was engine access. I know it has one, I just never saw it. One review says: "Hood does not open without using screwdriver. Access to engine is a pain. Lots of push pins and screws."

 So I went and got my phone fixed, washed the truck, and came home.

As for farming, the rest of the week has been pretty much a bust.  That's OK, we needed a break.  But I have a feeling we'll pay for it next week.  My ToDo list is already over a page long.  

So my major accomplishment this week was NOT buying a Mule.

Sounds good to me ....

You're doing WHAT ?

Growing seed corn causes one to do unusual things.  For instance, we planted at nearly 40,000 population (that's at least 1/3 more than normal for most folks around here) and put a 13th row on the planter to do it

To plant the desired pattern of 1 pollinator (male) row and 4 seed producing rows (female) with a 12 row planter you have 2 choices.  You can either plant the male rows separately or add a 13th row.  The 13th row is set up to plant half the desired population because when you turn around and come back through the field it is replanting on the row it just planted. It gives a pattern like this:

FMMMMFMMMMFMMMMF

That is great .... except they are not going to harvest the seed with a 4 row picker. So after detasseling is done and pollination is finished a contractor comes through and destroys the male rows.  We used to do it ourselves, but the companies we have been growing for the last few years would rather do it themselves.  So we sold our old Hagie Ag Tractor we used to knock down and destroy the male rows.

It had reached the point it wasn't profitable to use.  With current fuel prices it cost $20 an hour just for fuel.  We just let the seed company take care of it.

Yes, there is a lot of grass in the field. I took this from on top of the irrigator pivot.  There is an area around the pivot you can't plant, and an open spot with plenty of water is a great place for fall panicum and foxtail.  Now I can come in and spot spray some Roundup and clean it up.

So, we planted the half the male corn, then came back a few days later and planted the rest of the male and all the female.  We've cultivated

and ran the aerator through it. 

It's been sprayed

Actually, sprayed several times.

and detasseled

 and the male rows knocked down

And will be harvested around 30% moisture, picked on the ear. .

It is an interesting crop

It's been a ride so far ...

I realized it has been a couple weeks since I posted anything.  What can you do in a couple weeks?You can replace your cell phone because the old one has gotten flaky.  You can finish spraying.

You can enjoy 100 degree days

You can spend a week in VBS. 

Actually you can do the 100 degree thing while doing the others.  You can work down horseweeds taller than the hood of the tractor contract planting wildlife food plots

Talk about bringing back memories of river bottom farming!

And let's not forget irrigators and mowing roads and getting the yard ready for a church fishing tournament / cookout.  Actually, we're kind of waiting to to survey the situation this morning on that one.  We had nearly 3 inches of rain last night and I'm not sure what the pond and back yard will look like by tomorrow.  I have a feeling my plans to burn the brush pile for a weiner roast are going to need changed.  I still have one irrigator running because it is going to require the 4WD Mule to get to it 

 and I chose not to do that in the rain and in the dark with lightning popping all around

Oh, and the big happening since last time is the passing of Aunt Jean.

Yeah, we will be feeling that for a long time.  Even though she has not been an active part of the farm a long time she was and always will be a part of it

I'm Baaaaacccckkk ......

Frontier DSL was a very bad thing to say for a couple weeks around here unless you wanted to be scowled at.  I was a bit hard to get along with.  Sue was so tired of hearing about it you REALLY didn't want to mention it around her.  But they have it fixed and working like it should and life is wonderful and the grass is green and the sky is blue.

So after being unable to post for two weeks what do I start with?

I have thoughts and pictures and ideas ... but I'll start with a temptation.  Something I don't need and won't buy, but at times I wish I had a bit more spare money and was willing to spend it.  A guy in SE Iowa has a tractor listed online for sale.  A 1964 IH 806 diesel with clamshell fenders

If you know our family farming history you know Dad's first "big" tractor was just like this.  A neighbor had decided he wasn't able to continue farming and Dad bought the tractor and some other equipment.  I don't know what happened to it.  My guess is it was traded for a 1456, but I really don't know.  And I imagine if I owned one I would be a lot less sentimental.  But it's kind of like Ivan's M

 or Gramp's 560

 I just kind of wish I had it.  Not quite the same because I really doubt it is The One.  Now if I could find the right 806 and could prove it I'd be a lot more interested.