Amazed at the harvest

W_B

Well-known Member
Our little place is surrounded by a little over 100 acres of crop land. Our 8 acres right in the middle was cut out of that entire thing and sold off years ago, with the old folks keeping the balance of the land for income. They've passed on and left it to their two kids and two of the grandchildren. Thankfully they've decided not to sell and keep the land in the family and rent it out to a local farmer. Half is in corn and half in beans.

They roared in yesterday with a Case IH 7020 and two grain semi trucks and knocked the corn out by about 5:00 pm. He was flying with a 6 row header on it. I doubt I could run as fast as he was moving. One bin load filled the trailer, that was basically one pass down the long section, and a down and back in the shorter section that is behind my property. Continually amazed at how fast and efficient modern harvesting has become. We had an IH combine (I think a model 33?) with a two row head and we thought we were really something back in the early 70s. We used gravity wagons and an old '49 GMC truck to haul the grain.
 
Back in the mid 60's we started 'picking and shelling' the remaining corn that wouldn't fit in the ear corn crib instead of piling ear corn on the ground. A neighbor came with his big to us 45 Deere combine with a two row 40" corn head that he squeezed 38" rows into. We hauled the corn to town seven miles one way with a Deere A and two 150 bushel barge wagons. A round trip took an hour and a half if there was no line at the elevator. We did that until the early 70's. I froze my butt off too many times on that tractor making trips to town in late November but in retrospect it brings back good memories of simpler times.

Today a twelve row head on a combine that is conceivably capable of 5000 bushels per hour (I've never seen it happen) runs those same acres. It's hauled to town with nice warm and comfortable semis 1000 bushels at a time. A round trip takes a half hour if there is no line at the elevator.
 

Humbling isn't it.

It would take months for my dad to do our home farm with his Massey 300 with a 3 row head. The "big hitter" guys who do that farm know roll in with a pile of deere rotary machines, grain carts, and semis line the road. They are are done in 1 day... :roll:
 
My earliest memories involve a Massey Harris self propelled combine with an open operator station and a small cutting platform in soybeans, and a 450 Farmall with a mounted picker for ear corn and a sheller unit for corn. We had a handful of 120 bushel barge boxes and two 220 bushel gravity wagons, all pulled with 55 to 75 horsepower tractors and no cabs. My father was delighted when that Massey Harris combine went down the road and a 545 Oliver self propelled combine with a 15 foot cutting platform for soybeans and a 3 row narrow corn head arrived...................and this combine had a cab with a pressurizer fan and heat, too! The barge boxes went by the wayside as more gravity wagons arrived. The next big step was a 7700 Deere with a 20 foot flexhead and a 6 row narrow corn head. That was the first machine with air conditioning in the cab. Today it is a 9500 Deere and multiple sets of gravity wagons providing a bit over 3000 bushels on wheels, and the tractors have enclosed cabs with heat and air conditioning, just like the combine. The dust and dirt one has to be around and inhale, along with enduring the outside elements of cold, rain, wind, and more often these days of heat are much less than days since past. As others have noted, it takes no time at all to cover a field and remove the crop these days with the machinery that has been built for even the past 20 to 30 years!
 
Yes, it's amazing!

The time difference between the small equipment my husband farmed with... and the big equipment that our renter works with, is incredible.

It's almost unbelievable just how fast they can throw a crop into the ground in spring and pull the harvest off the land in the fall.
 
Checked on line and I think the combine we had was a model 303 with a two row corn head and a 10 foot grain table.
 
(quoted from post at 08:15:42 09/26/16) Back in the mid 60's we started 'picking and shelling' the remaining corn that wouldn't fit in the ear corn crib instead of piling ear corn on the ground. A neighbor came with his big to us 45 Deere combine with a two row 40" corn head that he squeezed 38" rows into. We hauled the corn to town seven miles one way with a Deere A and two 150 bushel barge wagons. A round trip took an hour and a half if there was no line at the elevator. We did that until the early 70's. I froze my butt off too many times on that tractor making trips to town in late November but in retrospect it brings back good memories of simpler times.

Today a twelve row head on a combine that is conceivably capable of 5000 bushels per hour (I've never seen it happen) runs those same acres. It's hauled to town with nice warm and comfortable semis 1000 bushels at a time. A round trip takes a half hour if there is no line at the elevator.

Here is a vid of a combine that was supposed to have done that.... [/url]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QO9qrJeCj0M Rick
 
Locally here there are some fields of wheat. They harvest with a huge combine and do it all really fast. Soon after heavy green strips appear. I think they ought to be more concerned about getting all of the crop rather than how fast they can go.

I have heard more than once about operators that just go fast and everybody seems to know they run a lot of grain back on the ground. I don't understand how they stay in business.

My Dad was always checking for grain going over when he combined. He didn't have any green strips.

Just my observation.

Paul
 
Most small town elevators around here are now owned by BTO's. They can buy them cheaper then they what it cost to put up bens.
 
don't understand it either. one field here last year was completely green after they took wheat off. would have thought they might have seeded it to hay but no, it was all the wheat that passed thru. that was a newer CASEih combine too.

uncle and grandfather always adjusted things to get it all in the bin. Grandfather would walk behind the combine and catch the chaff with his hat and then look thru it for grain then adjust if necessary. I believe it was an old Gleaner E (with D17 motor) with a 10ft header. they only combined a few acres of oats and barley for the dairy cattle so they didn't need much of a combine for 30ish acres of grain. everything else was baled, or picked on the ear or chopped and stuffed up the silo pipe.

then he'd dump it out and put his hat back on his head. >>Need to write that story down too.
 
(quoted from post at 05:08:25 09/27/16) They gotta run extra fast this year to stay ahead of the repo man.

While kinda sad that true! And funny if that isn't you!

Today with mark downs for lite test weights it's more profitable to run the fans a little faster to get the better test weights. My BIL on the other hand runs his fans slow to get as much of the crop as possible. But then most of his grain is turned into milk or meat. Friend who only does grain would rather the lite stuff go back on the ground rather than to get less than the best price possible.

Rick
 

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