Tuesday, September 23, 2014
Yesterday afternoon, we began with soybean harvest. We went first to the Evans farm. It was my first experience with the new 640FD header in soybeans. It was pretty easy to get started. But only 30 minutes into harvesting, I hit a snag when one of the little hydraulic cylinders that regulates the ground pressure of the cutterbar blew apart! I was stopped for about 3 hours while the JD service folks located and replaced the little cylinder.
Ray from Wright-Stemle (soon to be Hutson Ag) prepares the little hydraulic cylinder for installation on the 640FD header.
By evening, I got going alongside Ross and it seemed to be going well. I’ll have some professional help today to get the header and combine ‘fine tuned’ and fully calibrated, for Jason is coming from the dealership to assist this ‘start-up’. Ross seemed to get along pretty well for the day.
Here, Ross cuts soybeans with his CIH 8230 at the Evans farm, and Rhoda heads to meet him with the JD 9360R and Demco 1350 grain cart.
We ended the night at the Roberson farm when we ran out of trucks to fill about 930 pm. Soybean yields are overall pretty good. It is predictable: the good soils are producing very well, and the small spots where the soil is thinner on steep hillsides show yields a tick under average. So far, we’re encouraged!
The repair project at the big unload pit is making progress. Jake and his crew from Montgomery Welding were able to get the conveyor pulled up to the surface yesterday, and have tracked down the replacement parts that are needed.
Here’s a view of the ‘wreckage’ of the pit conveyor. We are confident that it will be ready again by the time we get back to harvesting corn.
Parts should arrive here tomorrow, and in a day or so, Jake will have this unload pit humming along again! Now that we understand the life span of this conveyor, (it was installed in 1998), we can practice periodic preventive maintenance in the off-season to (hopefully) eliminate a down time during a future harvest.
We are fortunate that we can harvest soybeans in this time period when the pit is down. We have fall contracts to fill and we can deliver the beans directly from the field to market! An added benefit of this extended period of days of soybean harvesting is that the corn is also drying in the field, reducing our cost of using our dryer!
It’s a pretty happy time here at Carnahan & Sons, for cutting beans is my favorite farm task of all!
Yesterday’s 10- day forecast is superb! We should be able to harvest soybeans in each of these beautiful days our Maker is providing!
May your week be a good one, too…
