Harvest has finally begun

We had some timely rains and temperatures were cool when the crops were flowering (that helps with the yield).   So, the crops look pretty good.  Because of the cooler temps it has taken longer to get things to ripen and dry in order to harvest.  Patience.

We were finally able to get into the field.  We had about 200 acres of Yellow Peas to combine.  Ours ran about average while our son's ran better.  Guys got that all done.  They moved on to the Winter Wheat.  We are shut down now for a few days as we had some more rain.  It seems like the Winter Wheat is yielding pretty good but we have heard reports that the elevators don't even want to take it due to very poor quality.  I have not taken a sample of ours to the elevator to see how ours is.   The elevator (local business used to market our crop) has special equipment to test the quality of the grain.  Brett can see that there are some kernels with a bit of mold (Vomitoxin and Egret) which hurts the cash value of the crop considerably.

Combining the Winter Wheat

Another problem we have had concern about is the water.   Some of our sloughs (wet areas) have grown over the summer.   Usually they dry up and we then hay them in the fall.  Yes, we had quite a bit of rain this year.  Many of the rural roads are in poor condition due to so much water along them for so long - that softens the road bed.  There are concerns of how to get our equipment to fields and the crop hauled out of the fields.  

We found out just how wet one field was when the combine got stuck.  The operator was working his way back to the trucks to unload the hopper (location on combine to store grain) when he got too close to the edge of a slough.  The water had come up so far that you can't even see the edge as the wheat is standing in water.

 

A couple of looks at the tires in mud.  It doesn't look too bad.  

However, when you realize that there is about 15,000 pounds (abt 250 bushels) of Winter Wheat in the hopper and, since this was on a side hill, that had slid down to the lower side, we have a problem.

So, we got a truck to back up alongside the back of the combine.  We could then unload some of the grain from the hopper.   After doing this twice, we were able to pull the combine out using one of our tractors.

Successful pull

And it was back to harvesting - after eating our dinner which was now cold!  We finished that field and moved on to the next one.   The day ended with a break down on the combine and more rain.

Busy week of deliveries

It was a week of nice deliveries.  I don't mean Christmas gifts either!

Brett purchased a Peterbilt semi about 10 days ago.  He utilized on-line bidding. The auction was taking place in Fargo, ND during a nasty storm.  He purchased it on a Wednesday.  Mark & I were heading that way that weekend so we were able to bring it home to him.  He was pretty excited - until he started to really look it over!  There are just a few things that need repair. 

A couple of looks of the semi tractor.  The second one shows a smiling Brett!

Getting things hooked up.

 

Mark & I purchased a different loader tractor last week.  It was delivered here this week.

We purchased a New Holland T6050.  It isn't brand new so it is just 'new' to us. 

 

Mark is backing up to help pull the 'new' semi that spun on the snow until it was hooked up to a trailer.  It just needed some weight for traction!

Both of my guys were up at the feedlot when they needed the tractor,

so I was asked to drive it up north.  My first time driving it. 

 

So, our last 10 days

Wednesday of last week Brett bought semi. 

Thursday - Mark & I drove to Williston to look at this tractor. 

Friday - Mark & I drove to Fargo to try to get Brett's semi (it was too cold to get it started) so we drove to Valley City were we had meetings and a room to stay. 

Saturday - we drove back to Fargo, purchased some supplies and got the semi to start.  We came home.  Thus starting the deliveries!

 

Well, that is an update of our last couple of weeks.  I got a new camera last week and it was used to take these photos.  So far I like the Panasonic FZ200 camera too.

 

Ranching is a nursery rhyme?

Today I felt like I was part of a nursery rhyme - specifically "There was an old lady who swallowed a Fly".  You know how it goes, right?

Well, here was today's version at NoDak Herefords  (minus the rhyme since I don't have that talent) ...

There was a herd of Herefords who were ready to move to the next pasture...

It was easy to move them.  Mark just had to open the gate and they eagerly moved to this pasture with grass up past their bellies and water almost everywhere!

The trouble was - the fence needed to be repaired to hold them in.  (We don't know why they would need out with all of this grass, but history tells us they will!)  We have had so much rain this spring that we are unable to drive around this pasture with our usual fencing pickup.  We also use our 4 wheeler for that job and have rigged it up to haul a roll of barbed wire along with a basket to hold supplies such as fencing staples and clips.  So, today Mark took off with the 4 wheeler to fence.  Brett used the loader tractor to haul fence posts and installed a few of them.  I was "on call" should they need extra help.

I don't know why he thought he could drive through this area ...  (guess he thought he could float)

Notice how the cows are in the background keeping an eye on him.

 

 So, he called Brett to bring the tractor to pull him out.  Brett in turned called me to bring out chain, rope and other "pulling out" supplies.  I met Brett along a prairie trail to get the supplies to him.  He took off across the field.  I noticed him spinning but he kept going, got on the trail and found a sodded area to travel on.  He got down to his Dad's location and got everything ready to pull when, oops...

guess it was a little wet there too!  Could it be because he was just on the edge of the same slough as his father?!

Sunk axle deep and spinning.  They had to call me again to bring a bigger tractor. 

I don't have a photo of the set up with the bigger tractor so I will explain.   The cattle are still watching this operation!  The 4 wheeler is tied to the loader tractor.  The loader tractor is tied to the big tractor.  Mark was stranded on the 4 wheeler (since he was surrounded by water).  I drove the loader tractor and Brett pulled all of us out with the big tractor.  What a sight!

 

SO, we drove the big tractor to pull the loader tractor to pull the 4 wheeler.  I don't know why the 4 wheeler thought it could get through the water.

 

 

Rolling Feed

Our eldest son, Christopher, was able to purchase oats cleanout from a neighbor.  Cleanout (or Screenings as some call it) is the 'stuff' that is removed when we clean our grain to get most of the weed seeds, and other foreign matter, removed before planting.  The grain goes through a machine that shakes the seeds across various sized screens so, hopefully, only the pure seeds remains.  The rest is cleanout.    The oats cleanout that Christopher was able to purchase is great for feed to our cattle and those in the feedlot. 

Before we feed this we like to run it through a roller mill.  The roller mill cracks the grain making it more digestible for the animal.  We have also done this same process with corn and barley for the same reason.



The whole set up for rolling our feed

 We auger the cleanout (aka grain) from the bluish-grey building (grain bin). 

It goes into the roller mill. 

 

 

 There are two roller mills in my photo.  Yesterday the men tried the red one on legs.  Today, they are using the (formerly red) one that is hooked up to the tractor.  Both of the roller mills do the same job but it was decided that the one on the tractor was doing a better job of cracking the oats.  The one on legs runs with electricity.  The one on the tractor is run by the tractor's PTO (Power Take Off). 

 

Oats Cleanout

 Here is a fairly close photo of the Oats cleanout.  The long, narrow, oval shape is the oats seed.  There is also some straw (the dried stem of the grain plant) and other random seed.  This is what it looks like before it goes through the roller mill. 

 

 The top of this photo shows the grain going into the roller mill.  The bottom left hand corner is the rolled product getting augered away to the little white hopper bin (see top photo) for storage.  Just above the auger in the bottom corner is the rolled grain coming out of the roller mill. 

This is a closer look. Toward the upper right corner the rolled oats are coming out of the roller mill. The auger in the bottom left is taking it to the hopper bin.

 This is what the grain looks like after it goes through the roller mill. 

You can see how the grain is cracked open.  

Here is a photo of the tractor that makes the roller mill work.  Brett is sitting in the tractor making sure there are no problems.  Sometimes the top hopper (holding area) of the roller mill gets too full so he has to stop the grain from augering until there is room for more grain.  Yesterday he said he had to stop the auger every two seconds and wait for two minutes before there was room for more.  I guess it was better today!

 

Sharing with Farm Photo Friday

Spring seeding

We are at the half way mark with seeding/planting here.  Brett does the seeding.  He has all of our canola and barley done.  He started the wheat today.  He has also fertilized the corn ground.  We still have all of our wheat (& possibly flax) to seed.  Also, we have corn to plant.

Here the guys are filling the air seeder cart with barley seed (one is watching the grain cart and one is on the ground to shut things down when it is full).  The semi has the barley seed which is augered up into the cart (yellow thing).  This cart has two compartments - one for seed and one for dry fertilizer.  The white tank here has Anhydrous Ammonia (NH3).  NH3 is nitrogen (fertilizer) for the soil .  I take these tanks into town to have them filled many times a season!  The John Deere (green) tractor runs the jump auger.  We use the jump auger to move the grain from the semi trailer to the auger that fills the grain cart. 

Brett is turning on the NH3 (Anhydrous Ammonia) tank as he prepares to start seeding.

Here he goes!  The implement in front of the grain cart is the part that actually puts the seed and fertilizer into the ground.  There are many hoses and tubes used to move the seed & fert to their proper locations in the soil.  We have had our soil tested so we know how much dry fertilizer and NH3 to add to it so it should be able to produce the best crop yield possible.

The above photos were taken a few days ago.  I just have not had time to post until this evening.  Here is why I now have time:

This evening around 6 pm the rain started.  Around 6:30 it started to hail.  Here is a sampling of what we got.  There is a teaspoon there to help see the size of the hail.  This could wreck havoc with the crops that  have started to grow.  We don't think it will hurt any of our crops, but our neighbors have some really nice winter wheat that could be damaged.   We also received a little over 1 inch of rain in about 1 hour.  So, we will not be in the field for a few days.  However, our neighbors who live about 2 miles south of us only got .25 inch of rain.  So, we hope we can seed our land near their place quicker than the stuff here at home.

Linking to Farm Photo Friday