Corn Cam Part II

We are entering what I have started to call the CORNTASTROPHE phase of 2012.  There have been some extreme temperatures; one day during harvest it was 115 degrees outside.  We are also about 4 inches behind on moisture for the year.  It was so dry during corn planting season that we didn't plant any dry land corn.  The below pictures were taken on a neighboring farmer's field.  

As you can see this corn isn't going to make it

At this point in time most of the dry land corn in this area is going to be tilled into the ground or cut into silage.  Silage is used to feed livestock and essentially is just chopped up plant material.  The problem with using this corn as silage is it can be high in nitrates that actually kill cattle.  So the dry land corn out here is pretty much a bust. 

We do have a decent amount of irrigated corn and I've got some pictures below.  The corn is about six feet tall and most of it has reached the V15-17 stage of corn growth.  Water is very critical at this stage and we are running our wells as much as possible to keep our corn growing.

The finger looking things coming out of the bottom of the corn plant are called brace roots.  They help to pull nutrients from the top layer of soil as well as you guessed it... brace the plant.

Because the drought that is hitting us is actually hitting the corn belt as well, corn prices have risen dramatically in the last month.  I heard a report that stated that the USDA has dropped expected average corn yield for the United States by 15% in the last week alone.  After driving around North West Kansas I feel like they should have dropped it more than that. 

If anyone reading this is taking orders for rain.  I would like to put in an order for about 4" of rain over the course of the next week, and then have temperatures of less than 90 degrees until the corn is ready to harvest.   Thanks!

-Farmer Ryan

I've been training my whole life for this...

Lately I've been spraying herbicides on the summer fallow fields.  A summer fallow field is when farmers don't plant any crops on the field over the summer.  This allows moisture and nutrients to build up over the course of a season, in this case summer, and give the next crop in the rotation the best conditions for production.  The only way to maintain the moisture and nutrients in the fields is to stop any weeds that starts to grow.

Spraying is probably the most fun and stressful thing I've done since I started on the farm.  When you spray you have to determine which chemicals are needed in order to kill the species of weeds that are growing, then calculate how much of each type of herbicide is needed.  If you mess up your calculations you can cause serious issues that can affect crops for seasons and even years.

Once you have all the chemicals needed you have to load the tank in a very specific order.  Some herbicides don't play well with others and can gel in your tank.  If that happens you get the wonderful job of trying to clean those out. Yikes.

The sprayer I have been using has a 90 foot boom on it that sits about 30 feet back from the tractor.  Here is were some of the stress comes in; imagine trying to get a boom right next to a fence when its 75 feet away from you and not hit the fence.

SWITCHES!

The fun part comes with the spray boom controls.  There are 9 switches and 1 hydraulic lever that I use to control the boom.  These switches control the how the boom moves.  The boom can move up and down, it can tilt on the right and left side, and it can swing open and closed.  The boom needs to be about 3 to 5 feet off the ground depending on the weather conditions and the topology of the field.  There are also 5 switches that allow you to toggle the 5 different spray sections on and off.  This allows you to select only certain parts of the boom to spray at any given time.

 

On the spray tractor there is an Autosteer GPS Guidance system.  This system drives the tractor while I control the spray boom.  It also keeps track of where the tractor has been so that you don't over spray or miss any areas on the field.  

The end goal of summer fallow fields is the below picture.  Nothing is growing and all the moisture and nutrients are being conserved.

A lot of people are surprised when I tell them that I have been the one that is spraying the fields.  I've just been telling them that I've been training my whole life for this.  I would like to thank Nintendo, Sony Playstation, and Xbox for the countless hours of training.  

-Weed Death Engineer Ryan

Wheat Watch: Harvest Edition

We made it through the first week of harvest and we completed about 1200 acres of dry land wheat.  I have been operating a combine for about 10 to 12 hours a day. We have three combines running this year.  The two newer combines we had spent the last couple of weeks getting ready, and an older one that Brent had one of his guys work on as a side project.  We also had one of the four wheel drive tractors pull a grain cart.

Everyday before we get started I spend about 1 to 2 hours greasing all of the bearings on the combines, blowing out the radiators, and fueling up.  In IT we used to say things like "this software has a lot of moving parts..."  Working on a combine everyday kind of makes that sound stupid to me now because there are literally moving parts EVERYWHERE on these combines.  

Brent has gotten a lot of really great pictures of harvest.  Most of these are from his camera:

The grain cart is a pretty awesome to have during harvest.  It allows you to keep cutting wheat while you are unloading the grain that is in your bin.  Every time I unload while I'm cutting it reminds me of the of the jet fighters getting refueled in the air by KC - 135 Stratotankers. Except instead of loading with fuel, I'm unloading grain.

The below picture was taken last night when we had about 10 acres left to cut and the sun was going down.  I am unloading my combine into the grain cart:

This is another perspective of offloading into the grain cart while cutting wheat:

On a side note it was a little hot this week...

- Grease Monkey/Combine Operator Ryan

Don't Tread On Me

On the first day of harvest I was walking out of our garage to start up the combine and I saw something out of the corner of my eye.  After doing a double take I realized that there was a rattle snake right by the door.  A. Rattle. Snake. So after notifying Brent I grabbed a hoe and started swinging.  By the time I was done he was he was diced up like tomato in a late night knife infomercial.  I was little more concerned with not getting bit than getting a picture so all I have is a picture of where it happened.

-Serpent Slayer Ryan

Ok... It was a baby rattle snake but it's still a rattle snake and they can still kill you.

AAANNNND... it just rained...

After not having any rain for about 2 and a half months, it rains after we cut three corners of a field.  So we are going to have to wait until Monday before start harvesting again.

This is the last load before the storm came in:

-Farmer Ryan

Combine Spelunking

The last few days I have been climbing around inside our two combines.  Before every harvest we have to complete a NASA checklist on each combine in order to make sure they are ready for harvest.  I think there are about 50 different places that need grease and about 10 different places that need oil or transmission fluid.  There are also about 100 different pulleys and 10 different chains to check.

Another thing on the checklist is to pull sieve and chaff panels from inside the combine out clean them.  The sieve and chaff panels are what helps to separate the grain from the straw and chaff.  While you are pulling the panels you also check to see if there are any cracks or holes that need to be welded or other issues that need to be addressed.

 

Before I crawled in I got my headlamp and gloves out.  Both of these things are essential to any successful spelunking expedition:

This is the inside of the combine with the panels taken out:

Towards the bottom of the picture you can see the top of the auger.  There are a ton of augers in these things and all of them need to cleaned out before harvest starts:

Now that we've completed the checklists we are greenlight for operation wheat harvest. Now all we need to do is wait for the right weather conditions.  I feel like a horse at the starting gate; I'm ready to run but the race won't start...

-Combine Mechanic Ryan

Wheat Watch VI

The wheat is now gold and is almost ready to harvest.

Here is the head of some wheat that I pulled from a dry land field:

One way to test to see if the wheat is ready to harvest is to put a wheat kernel in your mouth and bite down. If the kernel is hard and crunchy than the wheat is ready and it's time to make some money.

We should start to harvest our wheat this Wednesday, weather permitting, and things are going to get a little crazy.  I'm probably not going to have time to write, but I'll try to take pictures of the wheat harvest and get them posted.

-Farmer Ryan