Harvesting corn...

Once again this week, the fall corn harvest was interrupted by rain, but finally, we are well on our way to finishing up!

During the big rain storm that we had about two weeks ago, some of the corn that Jim hadn't chopped for silage went down due to the heavy rain and high winds.  This can present difficulty in combining or picking the dry corn. 

The combine has "snouts" on the front (my layman's term!) that go between the rows of standing corn and strip the ears of corn from the stalk, sending them into the combine for shelling. In a similar fashion, the corn picker removes the ear and sends it up an elevator into the wagon behind.  When the corn is "down", it is very difficult to harvest, and a lot of corn can be left laying in the field, wasted.

We had a full day of rain on Thursday.  The forecast was calling for more high winds, with gusts up to 35 miles per hour.  This could have been disastrous for the standing corn, but thankfully no more damage was done, and the combining went relatively smoothly.

On Friday evening, the combining began, and they finished up on Saturday morning. 

Here are a few pictures of the combine running through the fields...

On the picture to the left, you can see the reel at the front of the combine.  This is put on when the corn has gone down.  It rotates, pulling the corn up and into the combine, eliminating waste.

The shelled corn is transferred from the combine into this grain cart (below) and then dumped into the grain truck for transport. 



Most of our corn is sent to a local company that dries and toasts the corn, and stores it for us in a "grain bank".  Then throughout the year, they deliver it back to the farm as we need it to fill our bins and feed the cows. 

The rest of the corn is left for picking.  The whole ear is picked and stored in a corn crib, where it dries, and is ground into "cob chop", which we feed to our dry cows and bred heifers. 

 Jim picking corn on Saturday afternoon

Jim and Jenna unloading a bin wagon onto the elevator on Saturday evening

This is one part that the kids love...as the wagon gets empty, someone needs to stand inside and push the corn down to the opening

There it goes, up the elevator into the corn crib.  The crib won't be full this year; Jim chose to shell more and pick less, but we'll still have some to grind as we need it.

The yields this year weren't fantastic, due to the dry summer we had, but we have plenty for what we need.

It's such a satisfying feeling to see the harvest well under way.    There's still lots to do, but the end is in sight. The soybeans will be combined next; there is still some corn to pick, and then lots of corn fodder to bale.  That could go well into November.   I'll keep you posted!