Post by 70ds on Nov 10, 2009 22:58:45 GMT -5
They finally have had some good harvesting weather in north central Kansas. They have been able to harvest for 7 days straight. That is quite an achievement after the way the month of October was. If you could get 2 days in a row you were doing good then. Mike did manage to get all of the soybeans harvested and finished drilling the wheat. They tried to pick some corn but they only could find one field that was dry enough. They picked a small 20 acre field and had to quit. The rest of the corn they sampled was 18% and above. The coop doesn't take anything over 17%.
They have since moved to milo. They have 450 acres to do this year and they have cut 425 off. They should finish tomorrow unless something breaks down. We will go back to when they first started late last week. The fields are still pretty soft so they aren't filling the combine all the way up to try to keep from tracking up the fields. Here they are unloading.
Mike got over to the truck to unload the cart and the problems began. He kicked the pto in and opened the slide, but there was no grain. He throttled the tractor up a little more and started to get a trickle of grain but that was all that would come out. The tractor was pulling down like something was wrong, then he started to hear some bad noises coming from the grain cart. He folded the auger up and called Don and told him something was wrong with the cart. He said he was going to run it home so they could work on it in the morning. Of course it was clear full.
The next morning Mike borrowed an auger from Minkler Farms to unload the grain cart with. They fired up the old M Farmall and unloaded the cart onto the truck. It is always nice to have to work on something during milo harvest because it is so itchy.
They got the cart empty and found a bit of an issue. The old cart has moved a lot of grain in it's day so it is pretty worn. The flighting on the bottom auger came loose about 2 feet up and broke. The pressure of the grain trying to move up pushed it up the tube and into a wad. It tore a hole in the tube and bent it in a few places. They are now going to have to replace the augers and patch up the bottom tube on the grain cart. It is going to be down for a while. Now they are in a dilemma of no grain cart which means the combine will be sitting a lot waiting on trucks, because all the milo is going on the ground piles at the local coop so there are lines once in a while.
Don called around to some area dealerships and found a nice Brent 674 that he could rent. So he went and got it while Mike hauled the load of milo from the old cart to town and serviced the combine for the day. When Don got home he put the cart on the 8630 since it was done with drilling duty.
They really like the corner unload on the Brent. They are kicking around the idea of buying it. They are still going to fix the other cart and keep it as well. Sometimes it is handy to have 2 grain carts especially during fall harvest that way the combine doesn't have to sit and wait on the trucks. They are pretty happy with how the milo has been yielding. It has been anywhere from 80 to 120 bushel. The 80 bushel was a field that got hailed and then had freeze damage. It also had a low test weight of about 47. They were glad that it was only 80 acres that way and not all of it. Once the milo is done they hope to move right into the corn but they are afraid it won't be dry. It is supposed to stay warm for a few more days so hopefully some will be dry enough by the time they get to it. That is all for now. Questions and comments welcome.
They have since moved to milo. They have 450 acres to do this year and they have cut 425 off. They should finish tomorrow unless something breaks down. We will go back to when they first started late last week. The fields are still pretty soft so they aren't filling the combine all the way up to try to keep from tracking up the fields. Here they are unloading.
Mike got over to the truck to unload the cart and the problems began. He kicked the pto in and opened the slide, but there was no grain. He throttled the tractor up a little more and started to get a trickle of grain but that was all that would come out. The tractor was pulling down like something was wrong, then he started to hear some bad noises coming from the grain cart. He folded the auger up and called Don and told him something was wrong with the cart. He said he was going to run it home so they could work on it in the morning. Of course it was clear full.
The next morning Mike borrowed an auger from Minkler Farms to unload the grain cart with. They fired up the old M Farmall and unloaded the cart onto the truck. It is always nice to have to work on something during milo harvest because it is so itchy.
They got the cart empty and found a bit of an issue. The old cart has moved a lot of grain in it's day so it is pretty worn. The flighting on the bottom auger came loose about 2 feet up and broke. The pressure of the grain trying to move up pushed it up the tube and into a wad. It tore a hole in the tube and bent it in a few places. They are now going to have to replace the augers and patch up the bottom tube on the grain cart. It is going to be down for a while. Now they are in a dilemma of no grain cart which means the combine will be sitting a lot waiting on trucks, because all the milo is going on the ground piles at the local coop so there are lines once in a while.
Don called around to some area dealerships and found a nice Brent 674 that he could rent. So he went and got it while Mike hauled the load of milo from the old cart to town and serviced the combine for the day. When Don got home he put the cart on the 8630 since it was done with drilling duty.
They really like the corner unload on the Brent. They are kicking around the idea of buying it. They are still going to fix the other cart and keep it as well. Sometimes it is handy to have 2 grain carts especially during fall harvest that way the combine doesn't have to sit and wait on the trucks. They are pretty happy with how the milo has been yielding. It has been anywhere from 80 to 120 bushel. The 80 bushel was a field that got hailed and then had freeze damage. It also had a low test weight of about 47. They were glad that it was only 80 acres that way and not all of it. Once the milo is done they hope to move right into the corn but they are afraid it won't be dry. It is supposed to stay warm for a few more days so hopefully some will be dry enough by the time they get to it. That is all for now. Questions and comments welcome.
