Your moisture tester has to be wrong ....

I cut beans Friday!

I know, no big deal, right?  I think it was the first beans I cut this year.  In fact, I think it was only the second time I ran the combine.  Aman runs the combine and I haul.  Works out well.   He wasn't feeling too well today, so I told him to rest and haul in a couple loads of beans if he felt up to it.

I should mention the other time I ran the combine a belt broke after one round.

Anyway, I'm cutting the last "big" field of beans.  Big meaning when I finish it we have 30 acres of first crop beans left ... in 6 fields.

 

I start on this last big field.  They're going through good, but boy do they look rough.  Green stems,  green and yellow leaves, really rough looking.  This photo doesn't do it justice.

I put the first hopper in the truck and they looked even worse.

 So I told Aman to run a sample home and check the moisture.  He called me.

"The wet sample was 11.2%"

yep, moisture tester HAS to be broken.

I cut beans until after sundown.  I quit just in time.  Beans quit working good just about sunset.  I made a couple rounds and decided to quit.  I unloaded, cleaned the combine off, and got in to come home when I noticed the left end of the reel wasn't raised.  I hit the button and it raised ... then settled down again.  I got off, checked the left cylinder, no problem.  Walked around to the right end to find hydraulic fluid dripping off it.  Sometime between my cleaning off the end of the head and getting back on the combine I blew the hose.  (I hear someone going "Wait a minute, you said left ..." The left cylinder is a slave off the right side.  The hydraulic oil goes to the right side cylinder and then feeds the left cylinder.)

Remember my comment about the other time I ran the combine this fall?  I may get delegated to permanent truck driver status.  So Saturday in addition to setting an auger, unloading trucks, and normal maintenance I get to replace a hose.  I decided to let it go until morning.

Oh, setting an auger. The elevator is currently out of space for beans.  Fortunately we anticipated this might happen and kept one bin empty just in case we had to have some bean room.

We've made pretty good progress on harvest.  We have 40 acres of corn left.  It was replanted and when I checked moisture Wednesday it was 20%. (that was the elevator's tester by the way) I decided to let nature dry it a bit more and went back to beans.

As I mentioned earlier, when we finish this field (hopefully tomorrow) we'll have 6 fields left of first plant beans totaling 30 acres.  We haven't planted any wheat yet.   Fly free date is October 6, and I don't get too excited until after October 1.

Oh yeah, that's today.

Making progress

We're about half done with corn, we're waiting on beans to dry, still a little early to plant wheat.  Yeah, I know, Dad used to plant wheat any time after the 15th of September.  We're not getting too excited until after the first of October.

Oh, in case you're in Tennessee or Wisconsin or something and forget what it looks like from the combine here are a few shots through the windshield.  5676 is a really trashy corn at times.

We finished corn on Gramp's place today.  Don't have a clue what it made, but my guess is over 180 on the whole field.  Put most of it in the bin, except for some from my part to cover a fall delivery contract.

 Steve and maybe Bob can probably look at that photo and not only tell you where it was taken but what bins we were unloading into.  And because of the bins we were putting it in make a pretty good guess on the moisture.  Sometimes a little knowledge is a dangerous thing.

I left a message on the Beck's rep's voice mail this afternoon.  We knew he was in a meeting in Indy.

I said:

"Durn Beck's corn.  We used to get by with 3 little straight trucks.  Now I have 3 10-wheelers and I'm still having trouble keeping up."

He hasn't called back.

Plot Data

Harvested the corn test plot ...

Company	Variety	Moisture	Test Wt	Dry Yield	Rank
BECKS	EX1007	17.0	62.0	197.1	12
BECKS	5435XR	16.2	61.0	210.1	7
BECKS	5779V3	18.8	58.0	216.2	2
BECKS	6179V3	17.2	60.0	190.4	16
DEKALB	6254V3	19.6	59.0	211.3	5
BECKS	5716A3	18.6	60.0	213.8	3
BECKS	5676XR	16.8	60.0	213.5	4
PIONEER	1395XR	18.2	59.0	210.8	6
BECKS	EX1010	16.0	60.0	192.7	15
BECKS	6903HR	17.8	60.0	199.0	11
BECKS	6733XR	16.8	59.0	196.2	13
BECKS	EX1006	14.4	60.5	219.7	1
BECKS	6288A3	15.6	59.0	208.5	8
BECKS	EX0005	17.2	59.0	206.2	9
BECKS	6464HR	17.8	63.0	194.9	14
BECKS	6363XR	14.6	61.5	200.4	10

Bean harvest has started

"Boy, those sure look drier than they did a couple days ago."  Any farm boy will tell you that sentence is almost GUARANTEED to cause work.  Cut a few beans to get a moisture test and just kept going.  I set up the auger to the bean bin (it IS the "Bean Bin"  You couldn't put corn in it, it might fall over of something).  Experience has taught me to always check for paper wasps when opening the doors and electric boxes on the Prust Farm bins.  Painful experience.    I have also learned to look under the rungs on the bin ladders.  For some reason paper wasps like that spot as well.  Didn't find the first nest this year (so far).  But I was surprised by my little buddy looking up at me

 He was just setting there on the ladder waiting for me.  I almost stepped on him before realizing it was a tree frog setting there and not just a lump of something.

They are a bit wet, but they will be going on the bottom of a bin with an aeration floor and a lot more fan than they need.

We'll probably get them a couple feet deep and then be stopped for a couple weeks.  They'll dry out well by then.  Yield is better than I expected, but then again I have learned not to have great expectations from this field.  These are Liberty Link beans

Our main purpose was control of a specific weed that Roundup is weak on.  It worked well for that purpose, but I think RR beans are easier to keep clean.  We have a little over 100 acres of beans close to ready then we'll probably go back to corn.

Corn harvest has started

I didn't think it was that dry.  And REALLY didn't expect the yields we are seeing.  I just hope it continues.  We've finished 7 fields.  OK, so 5 of them were under 5 acres each.  One was 20 and one was 40.  The 40 was the one outlined in red below

Yields are pretty steady in the 180 range

We had the Beck's DSM bring out his weigh wagon (we've mowed around it all summer) and check a couple places in one field. 189 and 190.  The 40 acres he took the checks in averaged 180.  The 20 acre field went 180.  Been some lines at the elevator already.  We're taking in corn now and saving our bin space anticipating more problems later.

But we could be wrong.  I mean, I'm the guy who went in with the 6 row and spotted in corn in the drowned out spots.

Looked like a good idea at the time.  Little green now.  We've also shelled the end rows off 3-4 fields checking moisture.

Moisture was 18-23%.  If the rain stays away we'll set up an auger or two tomorrow and start going to the bin.

Milo harvest update

We're done with milo!   We got everything on wheels about 3:30 Monday.  All the milo stubble except the 20 east of the Shawler house is worked.

Now please excuse me as I go take a shower

Milo harvest

We made a bit of harvest progress this week.  We combined the milo on the dry corners at the Drake Place, the field and dry corners on Shawler, and started on Nash.  The 2 inches of rain Thursday evening kind of slowed us down

I've gotten a photo of harvesting milo in this field every time it's been in milo for years

Yes, the stacks are close if you are not careful.

First real load in the blue truck.

Milo has been doing OK, yield so far is around 115 bushels per acre.  We've had a drying weekend, so I'm going to try it again Monday.  With the 3 trucks, the grain cart, and wagon we can put close to 2500 bushels on wheels.