Wednesday, September 10, 2014

Today, the JD 612C corn head returned home from some repair at the JD shop in Ireland, Indiana.  We will now perform the routine annual, pre-harvest service.  The gathering chains will be adjusted, and lubricated.  The row-unit gear boxes will have the internal oil checked and oil added if needed.

John inspects the gathering chains on the JD 612C corn head. He adjusts those chains that have too much slack in them.

It’s a cloudy and windy day.  The temperature is in the mid 80sF.  So, it not unpleasant to be outside working on the corn head. Tomorrow, a JD mechanic will arrive to work on the S680 feeder house.  It’s in our shop waiting his arrival.  Having a machine under warranty allows us to call in help for this repair.  If it had been on an older machine, we would have fixed this one on our own!

We sampled some corn yesterday, and it was in the mid- to upper 20s% moisture.  Some was near 30%.  Still needs some sunshine… we are thinking that we’ll try some harvesting late next week.

Monday afternoon, we were visited by Ken Foster, Department Head of Ag Economics at Purdue.  Accompanying Ken was his media specialist Jessica Eise.  Ross, John, and I sat for filmed interviews explaining how Purdue ag education has assisted our careers.  It was a pleasant experience, and we enjoyed our time with Ken and Jessica.   I understand this footage will be edited down and placed in some type of promotional materials that Purdue AgEcon can use in print, or with YouTube or other social media.  If possible, we’ll link to it once Jessica gets it up and running!  We’re proud of our connections to Purdue through the years, and always happy to help out Purdue Ag. As they departed, Ken gave us a gift of some honey from his superb honey ‘crop’ of this summer!