Friday, October 25, 2024
Yesterday afternoon, we completed all of the 2024 harvest. We had to harvest around some acres of replanted corn at the Huey farm, and we went back there to get it. By about noon, we had dropped the last of the corn into the trucks.
The last of the 2024 corn crop goes into the Tony truck.
Of course, it took a few hours to get the trucks unloaded and the machines moved home. But by 3pm, the combines were out in the yard by the silo getting cleaned with air. They are now back in storage, awaiting their day on the wash pad. We must get them cleaned up and looking like new as soon as practical.
As we look back on the fall harvest, we brought in our best-ever corn yield. The DCB were the second-best ever, and the soybeans fell a bit short of our expectations. The fall was a mixed bag of results, reflecting the super-hot-and-dry month of August. But overall, we are very grateful for the crop results. Plus, the month of October brought mostly sunny and dry days, and that facilitated a more timely gathering in of the crops. We have experienced muddy autumns in the past, and a harvesttime like this one is much preferred! PTL!
Our new full-time guy Brandon D has been terrific. He ran the grain cart, which I think is one of our more difficult tasks, without a hiccup. It’s hectic to keep up with 2 12-row corn combines, and he did it well. Not one spill. I think that’s a first for Carnahan & Sons! As we like to say, we prefer accuracy over speed, and he did both. He was quick without being reckless or irresponsible. He has become a valuable member of our team.
Here is a perfectly-loaded trailer of corn. Brandon D fills them full without spilling
Brandon Dreiman
Our part-timers were special too. Larry has been working with our family since 1967, and he planted our wheat crop. He also helped driving the trucks, once the wheat was completed. He can do just about anything. Bob came for many days and drove trucks to help bring in the crop. Bill was also helpful, and there was never a morning too early for him to get started! He is now retired from truck driving, and his work here was greatly appreciated. We also had a young fellow named Brandt who helped with truck driving for one critical day. The team at Carnahan & Sons is highly skilled, cooperative, and pleasant. It is satisfying to work together.
Larry Corn
Bill Berry
Today, the work continues, with deliveries of corn being made to GPC, trying to fill our October contracts. In between loads, Brandon is using his time to air-clean the grain cart tractor. If you clean first with compressed air, then the washing part goes much better.
John ran the demonstrator vertical tillage implement, a 43-foot JD 2660, for parts of a few days over the DCB acres, finishing yesterday evening. That new machine worked great, so now we are making arrangements to add it to our fleet. It will be a good upgrade from our disk. It proved itself to be far superior in incorporating the seed/fertilizer mixture for wheat planting.
Today, John is working in the shop, replacing the starter on the Gator. It’s amazing just how much we rely on that little machine, and when it’s not working, it can be a bit frustrating. But John is good at this kind of stuff and tackles it with his normal enthusiasm.
It was a very extensive task to replace a starter on the Gator, but John tackled it with no hesitation.
In this post-harvest period, the work will change to corn and soybean deliveries, cleaning the equipment, and preparing the books for the end of the fiscal year (11/30). Each one of these tasks requires a lot of work. But you do what you must, and take it one step at a time. These things won’t get done overnight, but they will get done.
Have a wonderful weekend.
