October 6th 2009 A very late start to corn silage. Finally the corn is the proper maturity, but my oh my are the fields ever wet. To say we're making half loads would be an exaggeration, at most 1/3 full wagons are all the harvester can pull. The tile drained fields are much dryer, but this corn likely won't mature if left. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ October 16th 2009 With a nice stretch of weather ahead of us soybean harvest has begun. A bit later than the last few years but moisture is perfect and yields are high so it doesn't really matter. Wrapped up custom chopping corn silage as well. Corn silage 2009 video Soybean harvest at night video ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ October 17th 2009 Soybean harvest is going very well. The afx rotor impeller that we installed has given us over 2mph faster harvest speeds with this combine. In smooth fields ground speed of 5-5.5mph can be achieved even in the 55bpa beans. The other very beneficial aspect is the ability to harvest late into the night even with heavy dew. Roading the combine video ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ October 18th 2009 We worked all morning working on IP soybeans, but in the afternoon switched to do our Nato beans. This mean fully cleaning out the combine. It took very little time once in the field to get the combine set for the extremely small beans. Yield was exceptional in the natos. 0.9tonnes/ac. Average for this area is under half a tonne so we were very pleased. It was a fight to get them done that night. A very heavy dew set in around 8pm, and by 10pm every 500ft you'd have to get out and unwrap stems from each bat of the reel. The last 2 rounds I only used 15ft of the head as I was just sick of it. Harvesting nato beans at dusk Soybean harvest video 2009 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ October 19th 2009 The dew lingered until almost noon but once the sun fully came out we were back to full speed again in the IP beans. This night was the poplar opposite of the previous. Absolutely no dew. Kept harvesting until 3:30am when only the lack of more trucks and wagons to fill brought harvest to a stop. 147ac and 50km of road work in one day of harvest. By far and away a record for us with a single machine. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ October 21-22nd 2 more days with no dew. Late nights and 7am starts means we are making huge headway. IP beans are all done and a big dent has been put in the crusher beans. The T7060 and 32ft field cultivator are about 5ac behind the combine. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ October 23rd 2009 A new weather front came in and changed our warm sunny days with cool wet ones. With a late harvest in much of eastern Ontario, our manure contractor hasn't been very busy and was able to come right away after being called to do our manure. They used a Caseih 9230 and drag hose to spread our 500,000gallons of manure on 2 fields. Manure pit video 2009 Drageline video 2009 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ October 28th 2009 After probably the best run we've ever had in soybeans, they are all off. The last acre was done in the rain but it is over. Bean head was washed and put away and the corn head brought home to get to work. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ October 30th 2009 Rain has kept us out of the field. The equipment is ready to fill the high moisture corn silo as soon as the rain stops falling. It looks as though we'll be starting grain corn late this year as hand shelled corn is still well over the 30% mark. Stopped by HW Supplies to see the progress on our new skeleton bucket they are building for us. Very excited to get this home and to work, not sure if it will see any time in the dirt this year though. For those of you that don't know, this bucket is designed to sift soil. Rocks and wood are caught by the bars and the top soil stays put. When the dozers first made the 2-3ac fields into 20 acres, they simply pushed EVERYTHING into windrows. Now that it is time to take those last fence lines out to make the 20ac fields into 100ac fields there is a lot of topsoil, stones, stumps and stuff to be sorted through. This bucket will make short work of it. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------