2012 Fall Harvest has began ....

And already it has been interesting.  We've had several things happen that never happened before. We have shelled corn in August before. Many years ago Steve had a sand field that because  of dry weather he and Dad shelled before the Bumpus reunion.  One field. We held off as long as we could stand it and started August 30.

Actually we held off just a little longer.  Our first activity of the day was to go see Lee Bline and buy a used corn head reel from him.  I hoped I never needed one of those, but we decided it was time.  I had ordered one from our local John Deere dealer but their supplier failed to deliver it when they promised it.  Our salesman said "I have a neighbor that wants to sell his.  And I guarantee it has not been abused." It also saved me about $1000.  So we made a quick trip and got it.  But looking at the weather forecast we decided to shell corn if we could. We shelled a little corn near the shop to make sure everything was working like it should

and then headed for some places that will be a problem if we get the 6" of rain they are talking about.  We hope the yield is higher than the moisture.  The elevator ticket for the field he is in is 21.0%.  Well, the ticket for the elevator that unloaded the truck.  It was refused by the first place I took it for aflatoxin.  They use a simple yes/no test strip

What s aflatoxin?  The quick answer is "Aflatoxin, a toxin from a naturally occurring mold" After this year? Mold?

A sample is ground, mixed, the strip is put in the container and in 5 minutes it shows yes or no indicators.  It was kind of humorous until it failed the guy in front of me.  And my load.  Oh, and if the test is negative there is no charge. To add insult to injury if it is positive they refuse your load and charge $20 for the test.

So NOW what do I do?

The guy in front of me and I had the same idea.  We both went on to Annapolis Grain.

View Larger Map
Stacey probed and ground and sampled ... but using a different tester.

The one they use gives a numerical readout.  All we knew with the first one was it was over 20 ppb.  When she ran it on her machine it said exactly how much was there.  Oh, and hers showed 1 ppb on the other guy's load and 2 ppb on mine.

So I unloaded and came back to the field.  As I cam through West Union the truck started to run a bit rough.  So when I got to the field I popped the hood.  It was running rough because a spark plug boot was on fire!

So I changed trucks.

But we got started, nobody got hurt.  nothing major broke down.  I guess it might be considered a good start.  But this is coming.