Wheat Harvest... A Look Back

We had an amazing wheat harvest this year.  One of the best harvests that many can remember.  Take a ride along in the combine with this video and check out pictures of the crew that helps us out. 

Some amazing thoughts shared by my cousin about this year's harvest.

-A Kansas Farm Mom

How Big is our Farm?

A week or so ago on my Facebook page, I asked what you my followers wanted to see a blog post about.  The first response made me a little was uneasy.  After talking to my friend Janice Person, she told me to tell you why it made me feel uneasy. 

Sharon said,  “I'd love to know the size of your farm and your harvest volume. Do you use any of your home-grown wheat and soybeans? Grind your own flour? etc.”

Why would this make anyone uncomfortable?  Because no matter what I answer, I am going to make you jump to conclusions.  Some people might think our farm is really large and others will think it is small.  I look at it as close to average for our area with 2 full time farmers and no off farm jobs.

This is the only picture I can find with the whole family crew in it.  I love it...I am much skinnier in it.  LOL

91% of the ground The Farmer and I care for we do not own, but care for other families.  45% of the ground we farm is owned by our families, and some of this ground we are the 5^th generation to farm.  The balance of the farmable land is rented from other families most of which we are the third generation to take care of this land for them.  Our farm is a business and like any business if it is not growing, it is going backwards.  The Farmer and I are both the 5^th generation to farm and ranch in the same county in Kansas.  

I would never ask my friends who have a business in town what kind of sales they had this year, but I also want you to understand how many acres it takes to justify the large (and expensive) equipment that is needed to plant and harvest timely and to provide a clean wholesome product for you the consumer. Also, please realize that my husband and I work full time on the farm.  We have no other job to provide our insurance, retirement, or other benefits. We also do not get paid vacation...well I guess we do, we pay someone else to watch over things so we can go on vacation.

This year we planted about 1700 acres of soybeans, 700 acres of corn and 1100 acres of wheat.  We have 2500 acres of crop land, but we plant soybeans after the wheat and often let the cattle graze the wheat in the fall.  One thing I have learned about the size an operation needs to be to be sustainable is greatly dependent on where the farm is located and what the average production is for the area.  I know I have friends in the “Corn Belt” that can make a living off of fewer acres, but their soil and climate make their area much more productive than ours.

We also have our cow herd that has been shrinking over the past couple of years due to the drought situation.  If we don’t get rain –mainly water for the cows- it may shrink some more.  Currently, we have about 300 cows.  43 of them calve this fall and the rest should start calving in late January.

We have one high school student that works part time in the summer and after school.  My father in law retired in 2007, but still helps where and when he wants to.  My parents retired from crop farming last year.  They help a lot with child care, taxiing to fields and even go on supply runs for us.

Porcupine Meatballs

We always use our home grown beef that is fed the corn, a few soybeans and oats that we raise.  I have not been as forward thinking with our grains; however, I am going to try grinding my own wheat for whole wheat flour this fall.   I did make my own corn nuts once and they were pretty good. 

Henry Ford Chocolate Chip Soybean Cookies

I am also planning to make some soynuts.  One of the boy’s schools is nut free.  Soynuts are a great tree/peanut substitute and are pretty good in these chocolate chip cookies.

Hope this answers you questions and  I don't lose too many of you for thinking we are too big or too small, but I do want to be open and honest with you.

Now I will go take a deep breath and hope too many of you don't think that our farm is too big to be interesting and unfollow me!

Here is an update on who is working on our farm now...The Crew that keep me Sane.

-A Kansas Farm Mom

Inside the Combine Cab

In last week's post, I talked about how a combine works on the inside.  I promised a tour of the operator's cab to some of my Facebook followers, so here it goes.

Yes, the combine cab is climate controlled.  We have heat and air conditioning!  You would be surprised to know that the warmest time of day in a combine is in the evening when the sun shines in the windows.  I also have a radio that has AM, FM and a weather band.  I do not have the fancy model that has a CD player.

There are a surprising number of light switches in a combine. There are lights for road transportation and working in the field. There are even lights inside the combine if you have to go in to inspect things.

The corner post of the combine has a 3 different screens.  The one I use most is the one in the middle.  It tells me how much crop I am running through the combine and if I am throwing any grain on the ground behind the combine.  The last couple of days we have been having trouble with one of the elevators saying it was full, but really wasn't.  We spend some time doing some calibrations and hope we have it right now.

The Command Center is something new in this combine compared to my old one.  I love that I can see what all of my settings are at a glance when I need to adjust something.

Speaking of making adjustments.  I can make almost all of the adjustments needed from the comfort of my air ride seat.  This is also a bit different than the old  combine.  It allows me to change things as I go through the field and the crop changes (gets greener or drier).

This is my oldest son's favorite thing to watch in the combine.  This display reads the yield (usually bushels per acre), the number of acres harvested, etc. and it also runs my auto steer for the combine.  My favorite feature of the new combine.

My youngest son loves to watch the grain fill the tank.  You can watch it fill as you drive through the field through the window behind my driver seat.  We should really clean it if we are going to take pictures and video through it.  Sorry!

As I have advertised on my Facebook page, I do offer free combine rides for kids (old and young).  I really like the passengers that bring me a snack or drink.  If you are in the area and want a ride, be sure to find out where we are harvesting.

As I have said, this is a new combine for us.  Check out the video our family put together celebrating the new addition.  Many of the pictures were taken by our 6 year old son as he helped us this weekend. 

-A Kansas Farm Mom

Up Close with a Combine Harvester

We all know what a combine looks like driving by in our cars, but what about up close and personal?  I tried to take some close up pictures of some of the parts of our combine, so maybe you can start to understand how it all works to get food to you and your family.  No, I am not sending a camera through the combine while it is harvesting, but I did take pictures while we did some maintenance the other day.

The sickle moves back and forth very quickly and is extremely sharp.  It cuts the plants off so we can harvest the seeds.

The black thing is called the reel.  It pushes the cut off plants into the header, so they don't fall onto the ground.  The green thing is called an auger.  It pushes the cut off plants to the center of the header where they enter the...

Feederhouse.  I like to call the feeder house the throat of the combine.  It is what connects the header to the main part of the combine.

Above these grates is a rotating drum, called the "rotor".  The rotor has bars that rub the crop and tines that fluff.  The goal is to get the soybeans to fall through the grates and onto the augers at the bottom that carry the grain further back away from the stems and chaff this completes the threshing portion of the machine.

Now for the separation of the grain After the rotor, the pods, leaf pieces, small stem and seeds must be sorted out over the sieves.  These huge grates shake back and forth forcing the material to travel towards the back of the combine.  Gravity helps us out as the seeds are heavier and the grain will fall through the holes and down to more augers to carry it to the grain tank. More help comes from a large fan that helps blow the lighter material towards the back of the machine.

We can adjust the size of the holes depending on what crop we are harvesting and how easy it is for the combine to separate the soybeans from the pods.

Combines have lots of moving parts, belts, and chains. However the modern hydraulic systems have reduced many of moving parts when compared to earlier models.

Here is the outside of the elevator that takes all the clean grain up to the top of the combine and into the grain tank.  Yes it is very similar to an elevator you would ride in except this one has a chain with rubber paddles that continue to turn and we want the grain to go up only.  There is not a down button on this elevator.

Another view of the sieves from the back of the machine.

These "knives" chop up the plant material as they leave the combine.

These "fins" make sure the chaff and stalks are directed in different angles behind the combine, so the "residue" is spread across the path of the combine.  Since we no-till farm, it is very important that all the plant material is spread out across the field as much as possible.  It is also great food for the earth worms living in our fields.  They break the plant material down into food that our crops can use next year.

The view directly behind the combine.  I never stand behind the combine when it is harvesting.  The dust, bean pods, and stalks come flying out of there at high speed and make a huge cloud of dust.  The residue covers about 30 feet of the 35 feet the combine cuts with each pass through the field.

What comes out the end of the combine is very important.  We spend time looking through the chaff and stems to make sure the combine is collecting all of the grain and not throwing it back on the ground.  As you can see there are lots of pieces to the combine and they can all be adjusted to make sure the combine collects all the grain and we don't waste any.

What else would you like to learn about when we are harvesting?  I will try to put together another post on my views from the combine cab and all the buttons and dials I have to use to get the combine to work properly and maybe even a video.

-A Kansas Farm Mom with special thanks to my Kansas Farmer husband for providing extra details for you all.

School Starts Already?

This sure has turned out to be one of those years that I will tell my grandkids about.  Those years that we all hear over and over again from our grandparents.  Wheat harvest starting in May in Southeast Kansas is unheard of and to have our corn all picked before the kids go back to school, well that’s unbelievable.  It has certainly made this summer really short for me.  I don’t feel like I have spent much time at all with my kids.

School starts on Wednesday and I will be the mother of a fourth grader and an adorable first grader.  (Good luck getting them settled back into a routine teachers.)  Our school does “Back to School Visits” to most of the student’s houses.  We personally have never had one of these visits until this year.  Our third grade teacher from last year contacted me to see if we would be home.  I replied no, but we were picking corn relatively close to town with the boys.  These 2 awesome teachers came out to the corn field to bring our first grader his back to school packet.   

He felt so special and we feel blessed to have these 2 teachers educating our kids.  The Farmer stopped by the house that afternoon to find the Fourth Grade back to school packet on our door.  Wow!   No visits in the past and now 2!  We were sorry we missed the second one.

Since I was running the combine most of the week, my mother in law agreed to go pick up all the enrollment forms for me.  She brought them to the shop one night while we were working on the combine and waited for me to sign everything and then took them back the next day.  I feel pretty lucky to have family that will help us out to keep the machinery going.  The Farmer even cooked supper one night!  Ok, he only stopped and picked it up on his way through town, but at least everyone got to eat before 10:00 pm. 

 

My parents had the not so fun job of watching the boys after the fair.  The week after the fair is always set aside to write thank you notes to all the businesses and individuals that supported you at the fair.  My child HATES to write anything, so getting him to sit down and write 10 Thank You notes is like getting a cat to take a bath.  Somehow my parents accomplished the task and I am very grateful for that.

Corn harvest wrapped up late last week and I spent the rest of the weekend trying to reclaim my kitchen from a pile of dirty dishes and trying to find the bottom of the mountain of laundry that had accumulated over the past 2 very busy weeks.  Our harvest was disappointing, but our corn yields were double the production of last year (remember we were in a drought last year as well).  We are still praying for rain as the soybeans are still holding on to hope somehow.  

 We have a good chance of rain on Thursday-in fact, the best chance we have had in months.  If you are so inclined, you might say a prayer that we might get some rain to help the soybean crop out. 

I did have a dermatologist appointment on Thursday.  I am happy to say that she did not find anything that really concerned her at all.  Thanks for all of your thoughts and prayers as I have dealt with my Basal Cell Cancer scare.   

 The plans for this week are to finish installing a water tank below one of our ponds, so the cows can get to some quality water without getting stuck in the mud.  We are also going to start weaning calves again and pregnancy testing the cows.  Any cows that are not bred or did not produce a good calf this year will have to go to town.  Right now, we are trying to select the less productive cows to cull, so hopefully we will have enough feed for the rest of the herd.

Have a great week everyone!

-A Kansas Farm Mom

Picking Corn

Corn harvest arrived this week.  Just like much of the country we are in a drought and corn harvest is not looking really great.  In a normal year, we would start picking corn the first part of September.  This year it looks like we could be done before the boys go back to school.

The corn we are picking is not sweet corn, but it is called field corn.  It is the corn used to feed livestock, make ethanol, corn oil and lots of other industrial uses.

Most of our corn goes to Arkansas and Missouri to be fed to chickens and turkeys.  If you drive through the back roads of the Ozarks, you will find lots of chicken and turkey barns every few miles.  The birds are usually grown close to a processing facility.
 

Did you notice I call it picking corn not cutting corn?  The corn header for the combine actually pulls the ears off the corn stalk.  When we have good healthy corn plants, the ears are the only thing that goes through the combine.  When drought weakens the plants, the leaves and tops of the plants break easily when the header starts to shake the plants.  This slows the harvesting process quite a lot.  Check out this video of us picking corn today.

As I have said before, this is the second year that our area has been in a drought.  So far, the corn actually looks better than last year.  We have also heard that there possibly isn't as much aflatoxin affecting the quality of the corn this year.  That would be great news to those of us that feed corn to our livestock.

And a few pictures for the men.  Here are some up close pictures of the corn header while it was in the shop being repaired today after I hit something I shouldn't have.

Wheat Harvest has arrived!

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