A few Wheat Harvest Pictures

Tom OConnor · Jul 26, 2014

Sometimes you just get lucky and get the right amount of nitrogen and the right amount of rain to go with it on the wheat. The elevator pictures are The Andersons Edwin Facility in Toledo, Ohio. It has been a long time since I windrowed any straw but a neighbor needed some so this field got windrowed. I had forgotten what a healthy windrow a thirty foot header makes in good wheat. Thought some of you might enjoy the pictures. Tom

Brendon-KS · Jul 26, 2014

Very nice looking wheat there. It is far better than here in our part of Kansas this year. We had a total of four inches of rain for the year at the start of June and the headers were right on the ground the whole time. Guys were doing good to get 30 bu/acre which is about half of last year. Combined with the 12 inches of rain we had during June and it was a harvest that most folks were glad to be done with!

That's an impressive looking semi trailer, too. Was it out of Michigan? I remember seeing many trailers in that state that had axles from one end to the other. What gross weight would a rig like that run?

samn40 · Jul 26, 2014

I am surprised you guys are only combining now....combines have been working here in Northern Ireland for a couple of weeks now and we are much further North. Nice looking crop and a nice sample in the wagons....hope you do well with the price! Thanks for posting......maybe we will see some harvesting when I visit the States next week.............
Sam

Frank 41 · Jul 26, 2014

Good looking wheat. How many bushels can you haul with all of those axles. Here in IL you can do 80K on 5 axles if you can bridge it. A friend demoed a S660 with a 40' draper in 100 bu wheat going 1.5 mph.

Andersons are in my back yard at Champaign, IL, 25 miles east.

BillOHIO · Jul 26, 2014

Great pictures !

Like the truck. Can't call that one an 18 wheeler.

Calculated the yield yet ? Too late to dual crop with Soybeans ?

Bill

Steve@Advance · Jul 26, 2014

Nice!

Never seen a trailer like that! How does it turn?

Tom OConnor · Jul 26, 2014

Sam,
A great big welcome to our country again. The wheat harvest here in central Michigan is nearly complete but perhaps there will be some a little farther to the North next week. If you could work it in to your schedule The Gilmore Museum in Hickory Corners, Michigan is one of the best kept secrets in the Midwest. If there is anything that I could do to enhance your stay feel free to give me a call at 810-964-4850. My wife and I were in your country last year and are going back in September to the Ploughing Match and to explore North Ireland. I can also be reached at [email protected]

Tom OConor · Jul 26, 2014

Steve,
The six axle trailer in known as a nine quad nine. This all means that there is nine feet between the lead axle and the trailing axle from the four axles in the center. Both spread axles and the lead quad air lift. To turn you have the choice to turn it on three axles or four whichever you choose. And yes you do not want to forget to raise them up to turn. Don't ask me how I know this but it will go straight and push the tractor out from under you if you forget.

gtractorfan · Jul 26, 2014

Michigan truck, right?

Tom OConor · Jul 26, 2014

Frank,
The load that you see sitting in line scaled in at just a few bushels over 1700. A little bit heavy for the six axle but legal on the seven axle. Most of that field was cut at two mile an hour or less with a 9610 John Deere. These newer wheat varieties are really nicer to harvest as all the heads are the same height and you can just take off the top 12 inches or so and get all of the wheat. They also stand a lot better than the older varieties. I have also noticed that a bearded wheat will feed into the combine more even as it all hangs together as in one big mat.

Tom OConnor · Jul 26, 2014

To all that have asked those trailers are made by Titan out of Delphi, Ontario and yes we live in Michigan. The weight laws are similar in both Michigan and Ontario and multi axle and double trailers are very popular here. I don't want to get in the dog fight about how hard they are on the roads but the reasoning behind them is their are a lot of heavy commodities hauled here namely cement, steel, logs, gravel, chips, grain and so on and the thought behind it is it would be worse with twice the number of trucks on the road. Ohio allows us to go in to the port area which is about ten miles from the state line.

jm. · Jul 26, 2014

I as a trucker have never quite understood why the federal government lets Michigan get by with the weight laws that the other states have to abide to. We run 80,000 with 4 thousand over on natural resources I don, care if you had 15 axels und it. In fact any axel over 5 tends to cut down on the legal load. I run three what is called HEAVY haulers here to move heavy machinery and have to permit have permits to gross anything over 80,000. We have 4 axels on the tractors and pull 12 axel low boys and can gross close to 200,000 but only on permitted moves. Michigan trucking has always been strange to me,more like what you see in Australia. Liked the photos

fixerupper · Jul 26, 2014

Nice looking field of wheat and standing well too. How much was going out the back? In wheat that heavy there is always some loss out the back no matter what the combine is. Guys who have never harvested high yielding wheat don't understand this. The sample looks nice and clean too. Oh how I remember the 1.5 MPH days when we harvested 100+ bushel wheat with the 2388's with 30 foot headers. How do you spell boring? LOL. When we switched to Lexions we ran 40 foot drapers at up to 3.5 MPH in 100 bu+ Wheat. Fun to run but not fun if you slug one of those monsters. Jim

jennifer408 · Jul 26, 2014

very impressive, impressive crop, impressive field, impressive truck, nice pics, thanks for sharing.

oj · Jul 26, 2014

sam, my spring wheat headed out last week, the winter wheat has been in head for maybe a month now up here (50 degrees north)... bit different climate to Northern Ireland... have a great holiday!!!

Ultradog MN · Jul 26, 2014

Great post, pics, thread.
Thanks

Tom OConnor · Jul 26, 2014

Brendon
I have a friend who farms in Southeastern Colorado and said that it has been very dry in that area also. He is near the Kansas boarder and it has been three years now of a sparse crop.

john in la · Jul 26, 2014

States set weight and length laws. There are a few other states that have over 80,000 lb laws.

Years ago the feds had nothing to do with weight laws. A state could make it as little or big as they wanted. The reason the feds stepped in was to standardize the limits.
The feds FORCED every state to allow at a minimum 80,000 lbs; 53 ft trailers; 102" wide; and doubles. Some protested. The compromise is that the above standards or only good on the federal highway system. States are still free to set their own standards on state and county roads.

When you hear the feds talking about studies being done on triples or higher weights they are not talking "allowing" they are talking "forcing" new minimum limits on states.

37chief · Jul 26, 2014

After all the late snow, and rain glad things worked out for you. Looks good. Sure beats the way Dad did it. One sack at a time, being filled from a stationary machine. Stan

ShadetreeRet · Jul 26, 2014

I have never read or seen much about Michigan agriculture. That is a beautiful wheat field and a very interesting truck. Thanks for the photos.

RodinNS · Jul 27, 2014

The Gulf Stream has a marvelous effect on your weather patterns that would not otherwise exist at your latitude anywhere else. I sit on the 46th parallel and I suspect it would be a week or two yet before we had any winter wheat ready (if there was any around). Barley is probably 2.5-3 weeks away yet and spring wheat will be very late august this year...

Rod

Brendon-KS · Jul 27, 2014

I grew up in SE Colorado and my folks still live there. Like you say, that area has experienced a serious drought for several years now, much worse than what we've seen here in central Kansas. They have gotten some good rains in the last few weeks, though.

RodinNS · Jul 27, 2014

What I don't get is why anyone is or should be limited to 80k... If you want to increase the efficiency of the transportation system the cheapest, easiest most cost effective way to do it is by allowing tridems and self steering quads... or doubles/trains where it's safe. People carp and holler about the speeds that trucks run... if ya want to slow them down put a bunch more load behind them... they'll slow down. I see some guys running tandem trailers around here now because they're not allowed on secondary roads with tridems... so what do they do... load the tandem 6 ton overweight and carry on. That makes a lot of sense... just because the law had to hassle them about traveling a couple of miles on a secondary road to get to a full weight road with the tridem.... so they just play the game and take the occasional fine and carry on.

Rod

Bret4207 · Jul 28, 2014

Back when I was still gainfully employed as a DOT cop I was never big on weights. It just struck me as fundamentally wrong to tell everyone that 80K was what the trucks and trailers were designed for and that it was what was safe and best for the highways and bridges and culverts. That's the way it was advertised. But then if a guy paid the state or county an extra $800.00 bucks he could haul 102 or 107K and there was talk of going even higher when I retired. I won't even get going on the over loaded farm trucks that hadn't seen any brake service since Jimmy Carter was Prez. And no one was supposed to notice the guy running a huge liquid manure tank across a county or state road for 7-8 miles that was running way over 100K, crushing culverts, collapsing roads, etc. all while being run behind a tractor that had no hope of stopping it in an emergency. You just were supposed to look the other way.

To me, it was all a racket. As long as you paid the state the "bribe money" you were good to go. Just struck me as wrong. If the farmer is okay running 120 or 130K down a county or town road, then why wouldn't the guy hauling stone or logs or whatever? I'm all for supporting ag, but I'm also all for supporting loggers, quarries, etc. and the truckers that are trying to make a living.

A few Wheat Harvest Pictures

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