Finishing Up Corn Harvest 2018...

Apparently Phoebe found something interesting to watch...

(and yes, she's looking a little rough.  She's being treated for allergies...a farm dog allergic to things on the farm. Hmmmmmmm....)

But more importantly, here's what she was watching...

Yesterday and today we had our corn shelled out and sold, except for what Jim used to fill the crib.  It looks like we averaged close to 180 bushels per acre, which we are pleased with, considering  the weather challenges we had this year!  Although the wet weather definitely affected the crops, we didn't have some of the problems that we anticipated.

We're very thankful for this stretch of beautiful dry fall weather to get in the fields.  Everyone and their brother is either combining, picking corn, baling corn fodder or seeding cover crops.

Next up are the beans...hopefully this weekend, before the rain returns!

Corn Harvest 2017...

It's been a terrific growing season for the corn this year...plenty of rain just when necessary, and just about the right amount of heat.  Some would say the corn could've used a bit more heat, but the humans are happy with what we had (or didn't!!)...

This was my view from upstairs last night around 9 pm, as the truck arrived and soon after, the combine...

They ran for an hour or so, until the truck was full, and then quit for the night. 

The combine and full grain cart were waiting in the field this morning.  When the truck arrived, the driver emptied the full cart, preparing it for the next load...

This is one huge machine! 

...a twelve row corn head...

...and no, it's not ours!

Jim and I rode in the combine for the last field.  What a fun view!

Looking behind the driver's seat, into the hopper, which is filling with shelled corn...

There was a little bit of downed corn along the edge of this field that plugged up the head for just a little, but it was no problem to get going again...

These machines are fascinating to me...sensors, cameras and computers are everywhere!  When this beacon light above the cab begins to flash, it indicates to the grain cart driver that the hopper is almost full...

...and he shows up just in time, driving along side the combine as we continue through the field, emptying our load into his cart...

Here's a shot of the computer in the cab which shows the yield, the moisture, the area of the field (the colors indicate the yields in different parts of the field), the weight and the bushels...

All the corn is now shelled, except for a few acres that Jim plans to pick to fill the corn crib again this year.  The corn here at home was still a little high in moisture.  We're docked (or not) according to those numbers, so by picking and filling the crib, we can wait until next to sell it, when it's dried out completely.

We're very happy with the corn yields this year...over 200 bushels per acre is great!  Some fields were close to 250 bpa, and we're thrilled with that! 

Next is the soybeans...

When Jim and I hopped out of the combine this morning on that last field, the plan was to switch to the grain header and begin on them.  That will take a little while...they'll show up here at home in a few hours and then I'll have an idea how they're yielding. 

The word from the combine driver is that they've been doing will this year.  We'll see!

Beginning Corn Harvest 2015...

Boy oh boy, has the weather sure changed in the past few days!

Last week we were shrouded in gray clouds, with soaking rain.  We weren't sure what would happen with Joaquin.  I didn't realize just how much my mood is affected by the weather, but over the weekend I was feeling a little bit depressed.  Too much gray and rain, I guess.

Thankfully, the hurricane went out to sea, and on Sunday afternoon the rain stopped, and the sun came out!  We've had beautiful blue skies, and milder temps yesterday and today. Flannel shirt weather, yes, but it's so much nicer than shivering under blankets.

Last night our corn harvest began.  After evening milking, the combine started shelling corn at the other farm.  When Jenna and I came home from her violin lesson later in the evening, they had moved to Esbenshades.  I settled in on the sofa with my kindle and Monday night football...and before long I heard the equipment moving in here.  I only got one picture from last night...from an upstairs bedroom window, because I was too lazy to go outside and walk down the road to where the action was.

Don't get too excited...you can't see much, but the lights on the left are on the combine...the ones in the middle are from the tractor and grain cart...and the grain truck is parked along the road on the right.  There's no missing him...

This field is where they stopped around 10:00 last night. We shell our corn and send it away to be dried, toasted and stored until we need it.  If the moisture in the corn is too high, we are charged a fee for drying. As it turned out, the moisture of the corn in the fields here at home was too high to make it worth continuing for now.  We'll let it dry a bit longer before finishing up. The yields were great, though.  One field at Esbenshade's showed a yield of 230 bushels per acre!

This morning I took a few pictures.  I like this view down the rows of the corn field that you don't usually see...

So happy to see this beautiful blue sky again!

At least this field along the road is finished.  It was hard to see pulling out from the stop sign with the corn still standing.  Next on the list is getting these corn stalks shredded, and baling corn fodder...

We could use a long stretch of dry weather now!

Combining At Sunset...

On Monday afternoon, I posted about how we were anticipating the combine arriving to harvest the soybeans and corn.  The guys rolled in over milking time, and our neighbor captured these pictures, which he was kind enough to share with us!

Here they are, combining the beans... (photo credits...Steve Emerson)

I love those pictures of the combine in the sunset!  Thanks Steve!

By the time they got to the fields at our farm, it was dark.  I snapped this one of Jim and our Amish neighbor man watching them combining behind the barn...

When they were finished with the beans, they switched headers on the combine and started on the corn. They ran until 11:00 on Monday night, and then came back and finished on Tuesday.  The beans yielded great...no official numbers yet on bushels per acre, but we were pleased!

One more thing is checked off the list!

A Day In October...

It's just another beautiful October day...

Murphy has nothing better to do than lay in the yard.  The cats must be hiding...

The cows have been staying inside at night because it's been too cold, but they were out for a while this morning.  Although there wasn't much to eat out there, they enjoyed the freedom of the outdoors...

This will probably be the last day that the fields look like this...

as the combine should be rolling in any time.  The beans will be done first, then the corn...

In fact...I think I hear him coming right now!

I love October!

"C" Day...

"C" Day...

Combining day...Corn day...call it what you want.

This cow is ready...she says..."Get that corn off and send it away to be toasted.  My mouth is watering!"

The farmer says "Yes, it's time!  The corn is definitely dry enough...let's get it off before it goes down with any more rain or wind!"

I like the way it looks along the edge of the field with all of those ears hanging down...a neighbor pointed it out to me the other day...how unique it looked from the road.  (This one's for you, Glenn!)

They started last night, but had a breakdown before they were finished at the other farm.  Hopefully it will be an easy fix this morning and they'll be able to finish in good time.  We're anxious to see what the yield will be!

Signs of Fall...

I love the change of seasons ...when we've just about had enough of whatever season we're in...it changes!

Signs of fall are all around us.  The leaves aren't changing much yet, but that will come soon enough.  This week has been beautiful!  Temps near 70* and low humidity...ahhhh...Just a little chill in the air...enough to pull on a flannel shirt first thing in the morning.

Fields that were once full of lush, green corn  have been chopped for silage.  (Our Amish neighbors have just now finished chopping their corn that went down during Hurricane Irene and Tropical storm Lee.)  Most of the hay has been baled, but not quite.  Next we'll be thinking about combining and picking corn.  After that there's corn fodder to bale...so the work isn't nearly done!

The corn fields that remain standing, mostly look like this...

How do we know when it's the right time to combine? 

Corn with a moisture level of 15% is considered dry.  Any more moisture than that, and we pay a fee to have it dried.  So...this morning my job was to collect a few ears of corn and shell them out.  Then I took them to the feed mill to have them tested.  The result?  Too wet.  We'll probably test it again in about a week.

In the mean time, Jim has been busy disking behind the barn where the corn was chopped for silage.  He hopes to seed barley there as a cover crop, and harvest it late next spring.








Another sign of fall is the appearance of the bean fields.

The field  away from the camera was planted on June 6th.  It's drying down quickly!  The field closest to the camera, also beans, was planted on July 8th.  Look at the difference...

Those late beans have the appearance of being planted much more than a month after the first field, but we checked the dates, and they are correct.  The weather played a huge part in how on behind they are.  Right after the second field was planted, on July 8th, we had several weeks of no rain. 

Thankfully, we had rain just in time, and now they look great!  (When I'm mowing along side the field, I like to take handfuls of green soybeans and munch on them as I go.  They're quite tasty!)

So here we are...harvesting what was planted...again.  The cycle never ends...I think it goes by more quickly every year!

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!