like father..like son ?

D7E · Oct 6, 2007

CATMAN said:
D7E, My dad says the beans look as good as they did last year, which the yields were 59.5 bu/acre on 38" rows(old equipment). I seen bean moisture go from 12.5 to 9.5 in a hot, windy day. I haven't seen your numbers before. Around Iowa, we usually can't start combining until 9:30-10:00 am on beans, but that gives you time in the mornings to take the loads you combined (the night before) to the grain elevator. The latest I think I have combined beans was 11:30 PM, moisture starts to set in and the stems get tough and you can hear it in the combine. (usually stop 10:30PM). Dad stops at 7-8 PM, but he gets up at 4-4:30 am to feed cattle. I'm the haul guy until 7-8 PM, then I combine until it gets tough/ or a breakdown, then fill the combine with fuel each night and put it in the shed, then get the tractor and put the 2-4 wagons loads in the shed for the night. I'm kinda second-shift you could say. Dad greases the combine each afternoon before daylight goes away. On beans, as the haul guy, I usually have some "dead time", were I work on other projects between loads. Wash tractor windows, weld sometime that is broke, repack wheel bearings on forage wagons, etc.
We're lucky, the grain elevator is only 2 miles away. I am told my great-granddad bought coal there for their stove years ago because that's were the railroad stopped. They chewwed tobacoo and talked about farming(that was the local hangout in the wintertime).
You definitely have a rougher harvest than we do, I guess you desire a beer or two.

I should've said that these are RR beans seeded in 7 inch rows with air seeder and due to a wet summer and very split germination some were dessicated with reglone ,You may not believe it but the second day combining the moisture changed that much between 10am and 5pm ,because in the morning they go in a dryer bin and in the afternoon they go in 10'000 bushell flat bottoms . What is dead time ...Ha..Ha with 2 combines i keep 2 tandems and a single axle moving ,6 miles to elevator,When doing oats the one tandem pulls a 800 bushel pup trailer and still sometimes i wait for a truck
If the moisture stays below about 14.8 we go till early hours and they do rumble but we have rotaries they are faster than conventionals but start to rumble if the sun goes behind a cloud ,You get used to it .

D7E · Oct 6, 2007

Egon said:
I knew it was the better half driving the grain trucks.

The guys love it in the elevator when a 25 year old woman with a 6 year old co-driver swings in with a Louisville 9000 with a 350 cummins and a 55 year old gray haired lady in a 22ft GMC brigadier with a 300 detroit ,Some times the ford is pulling a 17ft pup too-1550 bushells .

Egon · Oct 6, 2007

Back some years a friend of mine used to haul grain to the elevator!

He was 8 years old, had to stand behind the steering wheel and drove in low gear.

This would never happen today but in yesterday things were slower and quieter.

D7E · Oct 7, 2007

Egon said:
Back some years a friend of mine used to haul grain to the elevator!

He was 8 years old, had to stand behind the steering wheel and drove in low gear.

This would never happen today but in yesterday things were slower and quieter.

Egon ...youre one of the "old school" we've seen and done things that most would call the cops for ..."Dad says" and you do it or your in the service ?

motepoc · Oct 7, 2007

Back when my FIL was still alive, when we were cutting hay, we would let my two sons drive the truck (an old chev, not sure of size, but it had a flat bed on it and was used to haul everything, with sides on it) while picking up the square bales. They wouldn't get to drive to the barn, but just in the open fields, usually sitting on a box or something with the truck in low gear, low range. they had to steer to get close to the bales and they loved to do it. They still talk about it today when we get together for a family event. I think about it everytime I hear that country song about "when daddy let me drive". And now I listen to Kenny Chesney sing "Blink", and think back again.
(Grandpa, Retired, Five kids, Youngest will be forty this year, 12 Grandchildren, and don't want to think of the next blink).