All that straw

There was a mountain of straw to deal with after harvest, much more than I expected.  We came back with the baler the same day we finished harvesting and made about 80 bales.  I was anxious to begin so I could get a feel for the scale of the project.  Brian loaned me his hay rake and I actually did the first two passes with my minivan!  Enough to run the baler for an 30 minutes and make 80 bales.  Raking and baling go very fast.  I was never able to get a clean time due to breakdowns (the knotting mechanism failed maybe 4 times today), but with clean running we were making 40 bales in less than 15 minutes I would say.

Here is my view on the wagon.  Straw is easy to stack, so light!  The field was variable and we tried to separate the pure straw bales from the bales with clover, which I want to feed to my animals this winter.  In some patches, the clover was thick and made very nice forage bales.

I got so dirty and sweaty on that wagon!  Ron was very steady running the tractor and baler, and never betrayed a hint of frustration during the breakdowns.  I really enjoyed working with him.

Here is the side of the field where the clover was very thick.  You can see all the clover in the windrows.  I stacked bales from these two rows right into my barn the same day for my goats and donkeys to eat this winter.

Second & Third Day

We went back to work on Thursday, July 23, just waiting until the day was warm and dry enough to get all the moisture evaporated.  The weather was perfect--low 80's, low humidity, and a light breeze.  Now that the field was opened up, I was anxious to get a close look at the knocked down spot.  It actually was filled with very heavy, full heads.  They were well off the ground, and as it turned out we did not have trouble getting it harvested.

It also became apparent that the wheat drilled into the oat ground did not grow as well as the wheat drilled into bean ground.  The difference was subtle, but you can see bigger heads on the bean ground...

versus the oat ground.

I stuck one of the grain aerators into the hopper wagon, which was plugged in when we put it in the shed that night.  Moisture by the end of the day was as low as 12.6%.

The hopper was filled this high by the end of the day.

The day ended unexpectedly when the discharge auger stopped turning.  Ron towed the combine back to the shop with about 6 passes remaining in the field.  Lucky the weather was just perfect and we could take the extra time!

The auger fix was messy but straightforward, and Ron was back in the field by 11:00 am on Friday.  The second hopper was about 1/3 full a couple hours later, and the field was now harvested.  Yeah!

Harvest Begins!

There has been good drying weather the past few days and I tested the moisture level in the field twice yesterday.  The wheat was testing from 14.4% to 16.4%, the dryer test coming later in the day.  As you can see from this pic taken on 7/20, the wheat was drying off well.

So we decided to do a test harvest starting today at 2:00.  Ron got the field broke open and made around 4 passes.  The wheat was threshing well and the wheat was thicker than expected, especially on the bean ground.

My hand tester was showing moisture from 14.4% to above 16%.  This was OK, but a tad higher than I want.  I was hoping the moisture would drop once we finished cutting around the edges where we were picking up a lot of weeds, but it didn't seem to.  I put the dryer tube into the growing pile (so it can be dried in the shed), but also decided that we should stop cutting and try again tomorrow afternoon.  We have a clear forecast until Saturday morning, so it makes sense to let it stand in the sun a little and dry down more.  My friend Brian ran a sample over to the elevator and basically confirmed my readings: 14.4% and a 60.6 test weight.  I was happy to see my hand meter was guessing a tad high, so at least it won't steer me into trouble.  I am using the John Deere SW08120 moisture tester, commonly available on the Internet.

Close to harvest

The Spring Street field is getting close to harvest.  Most of the heads are in the soft dough stage and the berries look outstanding.  No idea what the yield will be but it sure looks good.  Can't wait to get it out of the field and see what we've got!