2005-10-29
As of noon today, we're done with harvest 2005. We had a great fall and very few break downs. The combines got blown off this afternoon and will be put to bed in the next few days. However, there is still plenty of field work yet to do this fall. The weather is still pretty warm for this time of the year and we've only had a couple nights where it got below freezing.
2005-10-23
2005-10-16
We finished up the last 20 acres of soybeans earlier today and both combines are now on corn. We have some corn between 15 and 16% moisture, so it is going into bins or directly to town.
We did have one minor break down today on the newer combine. We somehow broke the ready-rod spring tensioner that engages the belt that drives the header. We had to weld up the ready-rod to get it strong enough to not break again. FYI, ready-rod is good for pulling, but you cannot push on it too hard or it will bend and eventually break. It's just a poor design.
2005-10-15
2005-10-13
Yesterday morning it was so humid and overcast, we didn't think the soybeans would ever get dry enough. We switched both combines back to corn and started filling a drying bin here at my place. The corn is between 16 to 18% moisture coming out of the field, depending on hybrid.
2005-10-12
2005-10-11
We've been running on soybeans the past three days and aside from the heavy dew every morning, things are going smoothly.
2005-10-2
Yesterday we switched our other combine over to soybeans and we've been running "the team" steady since then. The field we were on tonight is on average 60 bu/ac at 10% moisture, but many of the stems are still green. It is taking a lot of horsepower to get across the field because of that. It isn't too noticeable when they hit the rotor, but when the stems get back to the straw chopper, you know it. The forecast shows two more good days on soybeans before some rain moves in, with nearly record high temps tomorrow.