Friday, July 10, 2015

After the wettest June on record, we are entering a similar July…it’s raining again today.   At least it’s cooler than normal, making for a more favorable environment for tasseling/silking/pollination for the corn crop.

The White River is predicted to come back up.  With reports around Indianapolis a couple days ago of rainfall up to 5.5″  (139mm), the Edwardsport gauge forecast shows another flood stage on the weekend.  This time, it’ll be about a foot higher than the June crest levels.  This makes 4 flood crest events in 5 weeks, and this latest one is the highest at 21+ feet.

Here comes another flood event! Edwardsport is upstream from our fields near US 50. So the rising and falling of the water levels on our fields is about one day behind what happens at Edwardsport.

With this flood event, I am fairly certain we will not be able to replant any flooded areas in the White River bottom lands before the 20th of July.

Still, I’m not unhooking the soybean air drill from the tractor until the 20th!

There was a lot of mechanic activity here Thursday.   Rodney from JL Farm Equipment came to put an improvement update on our MacDon header.  Plus, Brandon and Tom from Hutsons came to install what John Deere calls a “PIP” (Product Improvement Program) on our S680 combine.  The MacDon header got some new bearings in the center feeder belt, and the 680 got a new vertical auger in the grain tank, plus a new separator drive belt on the right side.  We appreciate that these companies want to help improve our machines’ reliability.

Rodney worked on the MacDon header, and later did some adjustments on the grain tank extensions of the 8230 combine.

Mechanics Brandon and Tom have the old vertical auger out, and are installing the replacement.

On the right side of the S680, they replaced the long, serpentine belt that drives many parts of the separator. The new belt has Kevlar in it, so I’m told, and should be more durable.

Another step towards Harvest 15, only 9 to 10 weeks away.