Thursday, January 3, 2019

It’s taken me a few days to splice together some video from my phone and do some editing work on it.  Although I’ve done this before using iMovie in our Mac, I essentially had to re-learn it all over again.  Adding some text was hard to figure out.  Then, when it was ‘finalized’, it would not upload directly to YouTube…I kept getting an error message.  So, I exported it to my auxiliary hard drive, and uploaded it on the YouTube site from there.

This is our video record of seeing the new John Deere combine arriving at the farm.  It is always a great day when some new machine gets delivered… somehow it just never gets old.   I guess that’s the ‘kid’ in me.

The new combine brings us some new technology.  Among other improvements, these three are the highlights:

1.  Active Yield.  Automated yield measuring that does not require calibrations.

2.  Combine Advisor.  Automated internal separator adjustments that match settings to the instantaneous conditions, making for better grain samples.

3.  A Gen 4 control/display screen.   More complex than the GS 2630, but also more intuitive to command.

Each of these will require some additional training in order to make proficient use of them.  I have already begun to review the owner’s manual (it is thick as on old Sears catalog) to help me be up-to-speed when harvest time comes.

As the video closes, you’ll see the trade-in leaving the farm.  That S680 has been a very good machine…not flawless, but very, very reliable.   It was a powerful upgrade from the one it replaced, a JD 9770.  If this new 780 turns out to be as good as the 680, we’ll be happy farmers.

We have also upgraded our CIH combine from an 8230 to a new 8250.  We should roll smoothly through the next several harvests, thanks to this big investment in harvesting technology.

The new 8250 in our shop to install the 2-way radio and other accessories

It pretty much fills up the shop

Now the green and red sit side-by-side waiting for the summer wheat harvest

I hope we can get some video of these machines in action next June during wheat harvest…