First bit of harvest

[ManitobanFarmerKid]

Well, we've been running alittle short on rain for the last month. And with temps hitting 40, the grain really dried out quick. So on Friday me and my dad went to our neighbours and got our combine out. (It doesn't fit in our shed)

He is big into tractor restoring and we had to move two of his toys to get ours out.





Checking out his baling set-up.



Getting the combine ready.





Startin' her up! Doesn't she sound perty! (click on pic for vid)


Got it out of the shed without any hassles and took it home.



Started everything up and made sure it worked.




The winter wheat was lookin pretty dry so I fueled up the swather, then the combine after my dad went to cut.




I drove to the field but waited for my dad to finish the first outside round. He likes to set/test the combine himself.






We finished the round, I moved the swather out of the way while my dad went to test moisture.





It came back at 14.2! My grandpa had garunteed me that it wouldn't be below 20. Boy, was he shocked. So it was go time!


Oops!!


Unloading the first binfull of 2011!


The first truck full follows just a little later. I made sure it was a good and full one!


Our corn and canola fields.


Running right behind the swather



Time for a good ole' harvest race!!

And there neck and neck going down the straight away!


The swather pulls out by a header width!


The swather claims glory at the headland!!!



We dropped the straw for a neighbour. Pretty good straw for a twin rotor!


Getting farther...


We finished the field and estimated it gave about 50bu/ac. Yesterday we cut into the second field but it was a little bit wetter, so it will wait till tommorrow or Tuesday. I also helped stack the bales with my neighbor, nearly put my back out doing it as our air ride seat broke and was as hard as a rock!

Anyways, thanks for looking.

[treymo]

Nice Setup. We used to run a swather similar to that.
Trey

[jd3020]

i greased our swather today, well one of them the rest are still all in the shed along with the combines. we had two tr97 before the tx66s
loosing the wheal off the one and not two good of a swath (straw), ended with them geting traded off

well still likley be a couple of weeks before we start swathing
hows the flood been for you guys?

[putsie]

Good pics... That first moisutre test with dry results is always a good feeling isn't it. I see the winter wheat around here almost ready to go, not a lot of it around here though. We could be swathing canola by the end of the week if this hot weather keeps up.

[ManitobanFarmerKid]

jd3020 - the flood was pretty bad in the spring but only lasted till mid June then it started to warm up. Then all of July was in the 30's and the ground is cracking and crusting like never before, thankfully there was enough moisture in the soil to last through the summer! Even the creek was dry, something my grandpa said he had never seen before!

Everything else around here is still a week or two away: the spring wheat is just turning colour and the canola lost it's flowers about a week or two ago.

[magnum 7240]

cool swather never seen one like it before

[Southern]

Looks good, nice to see a NH combine in action. There is still a couple out around here still in action. Can you get some close up pics of that straw. I like to see the length and quality of it. I hadn't saw what a NH can do with it. Looks good from the pics. But I like to see a closer shot.

What is the boot on the auger for?

[ManitobanFarmerKid]

Southern: I'll try to get some more pics in my free time, but as you know... when it's time the combine... well it's time to combine. The spout is just an aftermarket spout that the previous owner put on to help control the flow of grain and keep it from getting blown away from the truck in the wind, it is actually a really nice thing to have.

[Southern]

Ok cool. I know how it is on harvest time.

[HuskerGLEANER]

Nice pictures! I can't believe you guys can combine wheat at 14.2, our elevator docks for anything over 13.5 so we try not to get it above that and very rarely it is here. Also, how come you don't just direct cut your wheat and save running the swather?

[jd3020]

husker

i dont know about these guys but we grow mostly canola wich has to be swathed
so to save money on a straight header just swath everything
and also to protect against frost.

[ManitobanFarmerKid]

husker - we just bought this combine 2-3 years ago and haven't bought a straight head yet, also, like jd3020 said, we have lots of canola and oats that have to be swathed in advance, so if the swather is out and ready we use it.

[ManitobanFarmerKid]

husker - out here dry wheat is considered 14.8%, most guys combine between 15-16 then aerate the bins over the winter to dry it down.

[Southern]

Ours get that wet when we combine. Here is a pic from a John Deere 9550 walker. This was taking about 2 years ago. So even our grain don't get that dry. But we have humidity nearly year around.

Here is ours reading 13.8% moisture.

[ManitobanFarmerKid]

Southern - I found a bit of time to grab a pic of the straw and the neighbor's baling rig.

[Southern]

Many thanks, that is good straw. I thought it would be more chewed up than that. Thanks, I always wondered how the straw did on a New Holland.

[ManitobanFarmerKid]

Your very welcome. Many guys are suprised when they show up to bale.

[raynaud]

Hey so you farm just west of the gravel pit at blumenort?

[ManitobanFarmerKid]

Yeah, my grandpa owns the one 1/2 mile south of Parks Livestock and I live about 100 yards down the road from the pit. Infact those photos were taken on the field inbetween the pit driveway and our yard. But most of our land is in the twin creek area.

[ManitobanFarmerKid]

Where you from raynaud?