Harvest Time Delays

2underage · Oct 5, 2015

I combined some soybeans yesterday and now here I sit waiting for a truck to haul the beans to the elevator. The grain carts are full and the combine is full and my harvesting is at a standstill. Am I alone in this problem or do others have the same thing happen to them?

The truckers promise a truck for tomorrow but that means I can only sit on my hands until then. I had thought about buying another grain cart but the investment of $8,000 to $10,000 seems to much to spend on something I would use for only a few weeks. I have even considered buying my own truck but that would mean that I would be spending several hours hauling instead of harvesting and that would not be much help as I am my only helper.

Well, I guess I will just sit back and wait and be thankful that I have a good crop. Happy farming.

retired farmer · Oct 5, 2015

If it was me, I would buy a good used truck and pay one of your retired neighbors to drive it. Then you wouldn't be waiting for a truck that may or may not show up at the promised time.

Tom OConnor · Oct 5, 2015

You can't have it both ways. It's called management. I work alone and I haul a load every morning to the elevator which is a hundred and ten miles away and am back by 10:00 or 10:30 and leaves me the rest of the day to combine another truck load. The good thing is we live in Michigan and the truck holds 1700 bushels. Have done it this way for several years and feel that I have been as efficient as one person can be.

sleepy1 · Oct 5, 2015

Like the others said see if can find a good used 2.5 ton there is not much call for them anymore that is what we use.I don't know how far that you have to haul the crop I have to only go 4 mile so it is very easy for me with a smaller truck the a semi.

JMS/.MN · Oct 5, 2015

1700 bushels? Legal semi load here is about 900. 80,000 gross.

stonerock · Oct 5, 2015

JMS he said he lives in michigan

2underage · Oct 5, 2015

Thank you all for your good advice and concern. It takes me about 40 minutes to drive to the elevator in my car and I guess a little longer in a loaded truck but if I time it right I could still put in a good day harvesting and that may be the route that I will take. Thanks again. Happy farming.

Brown Swiss · Oct 5, 2015

Need a storage bin, one the semi can get to and load quick!

JMS/.MN · Oct 5, 2015

Yeah, but are load limits that much different in different states? The truck size would almost be double? I think I"ve seen double bottoms in Canada.

Rick Kr · Oct 5, 2015

JMS,
I do not run a truck, so I may not be 100% correct.

In Michigan we have what are commonly called Michigan Specials. 11 axles. I think they can gross somewhere in the neighborhood of 160,000 lbs.

Rick

Rick Kr · Oct 5, 2015

Michigan.gov website:

The maximum gross vehicle weight allowed on a ?federal-weight-law truck? is 80,000 pounds, with four of its five axles carrying 17,000 pounds each and the steering axle carrying 12,000 pounds. The maximum allowable gross vehicle weight on the heaviest ?Michigan-weight-law truck? is 164,000 pounds, which can only be achieved by use of eleven properly-spaced axles. Most of these axles carry only 13,000 pounds each. The alternative to a single Michigan combi-nation carrying 160,000 lbs. on 11 axles is two standard trucks carrying 160,000 lbs. on 10 axles. Pavement research has shown that these two smaller trucks actually cause about 60 per cent more pavement damage than does the single heavier truck, because of their higher axle loadings and the extra weight of an additional tractor at about ten tons.

stonerock · Oct 5, 2015

single axel truck GMC 7000 hauls 475-500 bu, 10 miles to mill , combine holds 220 I don't weight long on truck if any......no grain cart

MN Scott · Oct 5, 2015

Here's a picture of a Michigan truck. Google Michigan trucks for more pics.
Michigan truck

GreenEnvy · Oct 5, 2015

Put up a grain bin.

vscummins · Oct 5, 2015

The most we can haul in Idaho is 105500 unless you go to heavy equipment haulers from cranes and such

gtractorfan · Oct 5, 2015

I've seen them come in to the Anderson's at Toledo. There's a route they're allowed to get there in Ohio. One thing I wonder, how do they get them turned? That's a lot to drag around.

fixerupper · Oct 5, 2015

Somewhere I have a picture of one of those times on the wheat harvest where eight combines and one 1000 bushel grain cart were full sitting in the field waiting for the trucks to get back. It was taken west of Weskan Kansas right on the Kansas Colorado border. Each combine had somewhere around 300 bushels in the tank. If I remember right the main road from the field east to Weskan was 27 miles of gravel.

todd hamilton · Oct 5, 2015

The last ten years we farmed cousin owned all the equipment. We both worked in town, he was the actual farmer I owned 40 acres. He had a 9400 JD combine and a Mack semi 28' wet hoist bed that held about 750 bushels. He took vacation at harvest time and I took some afternoons off. He would truck a load in the morning if I showed up in the afternoon ran a couple more loads while he ran combine. Then if not too tired one more load for next morning. He had grain bins too, it's just a lot of hard work at the mercy of the weather and equipment breakdown. You might check around to see if there's a hillbilly with an old truck that wants to make some extra cash money. Grain can be hauled in dump trucks to seen it done.

2colorgreen · Oct 5, 2015

There is a combination currently used that allows 169,000 lbs. on 11 axles.

notjustair · Oct 5, 2015

I cut all day and fill the two semis, two grain carts, and even the old 58 GMC. I run the trucks in the next morning and auger the wagons into the bins and start over. I remember the days when every farm wife drove anything she needed to during harvest and was ready for anything. It doesn't seem to work that way around here. Mine has never driven anything with a standard transmission and has no interest in learning. I can't image trying to explain how to shift the 10 speed Fuller or split gears on the old GMC to make it up the hill. It makes our wedded bliss last if I just do it and she rides along once a year for fun. She calls this all playing anyway. Anything that makes you happy is playing. I wasn't playing today when the pto quit on the tractor.

JD Seller · Oct 5, 2015

That is why I built grain bins as soon as I could. I hate to miss good weather because I can't move the grain.

Just a few years ago I had beans sold for Third week of Oct. delivery. The beans turned early and I was able to start cutting them The first week of Oct. My one neighbor was puzzled why I would harvest them then and put them in the bin over just waiting the two weeks and hauling them directly to town. Well two weeks alter it rained 7 day straight. The ground and the beans where too wet to cut for almost a month. So I would have defaulted on the contract had I not cut them. My contract was $2 over the cash market too.

So I will harvest and bin it even if it is only in the bins for a few days. Its under roof then.

caterpillar guy · Oct 5, 2015

Like JD said bins. If you go there the elevator is always open and it only takes a few minutes to dump a semi or tandem in a 10 inch auger. The bins will not cost much more than the truck and not DOT nonsense. You can always plan for a load to go out when it rains then and not combining.
We are getting back to the bins as we can't dump at the elevator fast enough to keep up with the combine. With a forty mile haul and no waiting. If we go to Webberville it is a long wait and only a 25 mile haul. Toledo is not much better for a market with the freight in it.

Tom OConnor · Oct 5, 2015

Normally the two lead axles and the two back axles air lift. You can not turn them loaded with all the axles down. They have a tendency to go straight and will push the tractor driver axles out from under you if you try to turn them with all down. The four axle that do not lift are 30,000 pound axles so they are built tough enough to take the turning. They are a touch hard on tires if you do a lot of turning. Important to rotate tires every so often. You also carry the air lifts up when empty.

IowaJohn · Oct 5, 2015

Bins also, I used to harvest 450 acres of corn and beans alone. I felt I didn't need to spend time headed into town or sitting in a lineup. I could easy cut 40 acres of beans a day dumping in my own bins. Corn around 20 acres. Plus a lot less aggravation. I had a crew run the pads and me, my wife and daughters put them up. My wife worked in town then and my daughters were in school. we built them in the summer. Now the girls are on their own. The extra bins make harvest very easy for my wife and I now.

jon f mn · Oct 5, 2015

This is why you never buy a truck out of michigan.

Tom OConnor · Oct 6, 2015

Jon,

They are not really that hard on things. It takes a little longer to get them rolling when you get on an expressway but once you get up to speed they don't seem to pull all that hard.They also stop much faster than a regular tandem trailer. Another thing we have in our favor is there are very few hills in this part of the state. In a hundred and ten miles I have only one hill where I have to drop out of overdrive for a short distance.

Harvest Time Delays

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