Tuesday, August 12, 2025

The guys have been working on the combines this week, to get them ready for fall harvest.  We have not had the opportunity to clean them up after wheat harvest, but now that is happening.  First, they take them out to the lot by the old silo, along with the ThunderCreek service/fuel trailer with its air compressor.  They blow off all the dry debris from the machine.  Then, it comes inside our shop and they make all the internal and external changes to make them ready for corn/soybean harvest.  (There are some special internal additional parts that are removed for fall harvest).  Then, the outer body of the machines are washed.  They shine like new when done.  The cab must be cleaned, too.

First step: air cleaning

2nd step, internal adjustments and modifications

Last step, the outer panels get a good scrubbing with #AndyClean soap

Even the headers get serviced… the MacDon gets attention here.

The other S780 combine and header will get its attention soon.  Plus, the two corn heads will be inspected and serviced.

After scrutinizing our cost estimates for 2026, we determined that we would be increasing our wheat acres for 2026.  We met with our Nutrien consultant Greg this morning to plan for wheat planting season, which is only about 6 weeks away.  Among all the decisions to address today, we even went so far as to determine which DynaGro varieties to plant in which fields.   It is great to now have a plan in place.  The per acre costs will be going up for next year’s wheat, but it was a relief to know the increase is not as high as we expected it to be.   We will be making some small changes to our management of wheat, testing two new strategies for better yields.  We will test fall weed control, and engage in more tissue sampling through the growing season.

The roadside and riparian strip mowing is ‘caught up’ for now.  I think I’ll return to that the last week of August, for one last time this summer… just ahead of fall harvest.

Last Saturday, we made the trip across southern Indiana to visit my sister and BIL.  It was a wonderful day at Rising Sun, Indiana.

Dennis, Pat, Sheila, and John

Although the ambient temperature is at 89ºF (32C) today, the ‘feels like’ temperature is 103ºF (39C).   It’s not cool in the shop, but at least it’s out of the direct sunshine.  The heat is predicted to stay with us well into next week.  I guess that’s not surprising… it is August in SWIN!