Feeding America, Day 13 of Harvest 2011

If you read yesterdays blog about farmers having “one of those days”, well sometimes they come in pairs. Yesterday as Farmer Joe was trying to start harvesting, a major breakdown on the other end of the header sent him into the combine dealership in Moscow in the hope they had the parts in stock ….. of which they did not. A breakdown on a combine in the middle of harvest is really bad news especially if the needed parts are not available and have to be ordered. So Farmer Joe headed to another combine dealership about 1 ½ hour away from our Genesee farm as that dealer had a brand new header and they “cannibalized” that header for the replacement parts for ours. Whew! Factor in a 3+ hour round trip to get parts, then get the header fixed meant the farmer didn’t get to start harvest till around 4pm. The weather forecast also had us concerned as it had warnings about a chance of thunderstorms too. Last night was the first night the lights on the combine were used and we harvested in the dark in order to get the 2 semi trucks loaded (the warehouse closes at 8pm, so a common practice is to get the trucks filled the night before so they can be unloaded first thing the next day).


I’m hoping for pictures or videos from Thursday’s harvest that I can share. Farmer Joe is hoping to finish the field around our home, then move the combine to another field 4 or 5 miles away.

As for Farmer Jay down harvesting Spring wheat down at the Tammany farm, all is going well despite a plugged up grain cart.

Stay tuned for more harvest tales. Feel free to email me at  idahofarmwife@gmail.com . All my best, Gayle

Feeding America, Day 6 of Harvest 2011

Well my friends, after moving back down to the Tammany farm, we again got "greened out", which is farmer lingo for wheat that has too high a moisture count for the grain terminals to accept it.  That definitely puts a crimp in our harvest plans for the day.  So Tuesday, August 16 we will not be harvesting and the crew will spray Round-up on weeds, cut thistles and other odd projects while we wait and hope for the grain to ripen a bit more and the moisture count to reach the acceptable level.  Farmer Joe was saying he didn't know who was more frustrated, the farmers or the grain elevator staff, as the farmers want to harvest their crops and the grain terminal staff have the difficult task of holding their ground and not accepting wheat that is above the moisture ceiling level, which is 13%.  At the grain elevators, each truck load is carefully tested for its moisture content and no one wants to return back to the field with a loaded truck because the warehouse will not accept the grain, but that is sometimes the case (but it is rare). (To clarify -  depending on the grain terminal, they usually will accept the grain that is above moisture count, but the farmer will get docked {sort of like a really stiff "discount"}, our combines have the technology to determine the moisture count so we are aware of  the moisture content of the grain).  The reasons why terminals don't want to accept moist grain is to protect their wheat inventory from rotting, bugs or fire as moist grain can mold, or create a bug infestation, as well produce heat and become combustible.  So it was a frustrating and disappointing day for all, but as Scarlett O'Hara says, tomorrow is another day.

From my Twitter account, I just came across a YouTube video of the Urban Wheat Harvest project that we participated in last year in Washington DC. This was to help educate urban America how a wheat plant develops and shows the stages of wheat and how it ends up in products you find in a grocery store, this project was sponsored by WheatWorld, so take a look and enjoy.
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hb9vda1bfo8&feature=player_profilepage

As always, thanks for stopping by and email me at idahofarmwife@gmail.com or post a comment. All my best,  Gayle

Feeding America, Day 5 of Harvest 2011

On Friday we finished the Genesee rim wheat field and we were pleased with the yield of 109 bushels of wheat to the acre.

A view of the combine unloading the wheat from its auger
into the waiting grain cart

The prior and first field harvested (from the Tammany farm) yielded 96 bushels, and that was a record as it is one of our drier fields with less rain fall. These numbers are very welcome as we have had to incur extra expense in either additional fertilizer and/or spraying the crop to stop the Rust disease so it is really nice to see the bigger yields.


So the crew moved back down with our mini parade of farm equipment.  Although I was hoping for some shots on the narrow steep gravel road, it probably would have been too difficult to do that, so Cody our hired-man took a short video clip (below) closer to our Tammany farm.




Farmer Joe's pick-up with the oversize load sign and
pulling the combine header behind

As the combine header is too large (40') it must be removed from the combine each time we move equipment from field to field.  The header is loaded onto a special trailer and pulled behind the pick-up which is the flagging vehicle.

A couple of our semi trucks that will be driven down to the next field

The field that we moved too needed to ripen a bit more, so we were shut down for the week-end.  Typically we don't get week-ends off during harvest, but that is how it worked out.  The crew is hoping to be able to get back on the combines and tractors and harvest more winter wheat first thing Monday morning.

As always, thanks for stopping by and if you have questions or comments, please email me at idahofarmwife@gmail.com or post a comment.  Stay tuned for more on the Anderson harvest.  All my best, Gayle