Wheat harvest has arrived earlier than normal for our part
of the country. The mild winter and
spring really pushed the wheat ahead of schedule. Most of our wheat was planted last fall in
September and October. The wheat comes
up out of the ground and grows until winter sets in and then it goes dormant
while it is really cold; however, this year that dormant stage wasn’t very
long.
Farmers wait patiently until the fields turn entirely golden
and the moisture of the kernels is somewhere around 13%. If the wheat is too high in moisture the
grain buyers discount the grain quite a bit.
If the grain gets too dry, the kernels weigh less and that means you are
selling less to the elevator than you could be.
Wheat is priced to sell by the bushel.
A bushel of wheat weighs 60 pounds.
The more weight you sell the better your profit.
Our wheat is also checked to see how much “foreign material”
is contains. This could be weed seeds or
chaff that the combine didn’t get cleaned out because I didn’t quite have it
set quite right. If it has too much FM,
the wheat is also discounted.
Here is wheat in the grain tank on the back of the combine. I really should wash my windows before I take pictures again. |
We cut wheat with this combine and header attachment. The Farmer has been looking to get a bigger
header and combine, but the last 5 years have not been overly friendly to us
weather wise, which means we have not produced a lot of crops or had an abundance of extra money floating around to buy a new combine. A combine is a HUGE
investment; in fact, most combines cost more than a lot of houses in this area, so we will make this set up work for at
least this year.
It appears that wheat harvest this year will be interrupted
by several activities for the kids, especially the 4-H’er. We have a junior cattle show and a geology
trip planned. The Farmer says he will
let me off work so I can be mom those weekends.
I also have some tremendous babysitters that are all farm girls which
means they are all involved in FFA.
Wheat harvest during State FFA Convention means that the boys spent time in the combine and with the grandparents. Last week, my parents took the kids. Mom is teaching them to sew. The 6 year old is the most excited about
sewing-he was singing about going to grandma’s sewing camp.
This weekend we went to the cattle show. I was dragging my feet about going since we had wheat that could be cut, but my awesome brother in law and nephew were in town and helped out so I could leave with the boys and the heifer. We left the wheat field at 4:00 and made it to the show 30 minutes before entries closed. We camped in the trailer that night until a thunderstorm came through and then we slept in the truck. I am so tired from the past few weeks that I slept fine. :) Rosie, the heifer, gets tired of waiting to go in the show ring and likes to throw her head around, so we are going to try a new approach this week and see how things go.
The 4-H’er and I have been trying to figure out his recipes
to bake for the fair this year. We have
settled on a couple of recipes, a theme for a gift basket and what he wants to
decorate. I sure am glad he is becoming
a self- starter, finally! Usually, we
need to have everything planned out before wheat harvest, because harvest usually
goes straight into putting up prairie hay which takes us into the fair season. We will have to see what happens with the
rest of this harvest. The weather can
always change things rapidly. He and
grandma found an awesome cookie recipe last week, so that is now settled.
We did have a break in the harvest with a little bit of
rain. The corn, soybeans and pastures
were needing a little bit of moisture.
Wheat has to be completely dry to harvest; we even have to wait for the
dew to burn off in the morning before we can start cutting. At the beginning of harvest, the air was so
dry that we could start cutting around 8:30 in the morning.
The boys did help with harvest some this week. They are finally old enough that they enjoy
the time with mom and dad and know what to expect. I know that I need to pack A LOT of extra
food in my lunch box, because they always run out of snacks and raid my
stash. Not that I don’t need to lose a
few pounds, but eating helps keep me alert.
I do run the combine most of the time. I learned how when I was pregnant. I absolutely could not stand the heat and the
combine was air conditioned. The job is
not physically exhausting, but it is mentally tiring. You are constantly listening to the machine,
making sure you are cutting high enough, but not too high, making sure your
reel (the black thing that goes round and round) is low enough, but not so low
that it throws wheat heads out and making sure that you are going to fast
enough that the combine is running full, but not too fast that it doesn’t have
time to get the grain separated from the straw and you are throwing grain on
the ground.
I know I do a better job
when the kids don’t ride with me, but I love having them and their commentary
of the days events.
It is thundering outside right now. Looks like I will be checking cows in the morning to make sure we didn't have any more hit by lightning. We also have a group of heifers that are having a pink eye epidemic of sorts. Hopefully, we can get them re-vaccinated and treated with some antibiotic before they go completely blind.
Have a wonderful week everyone! -A Kansas Farm Mom
I love that you learned to drive the combine to beat the heat while you were pregnant. That is awesome!
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