Unbelievable Yield

I shared yesterday that my nephew and brother-and-law were going to start harvesting my field.  Before they began, I had to give them a lift to get the grain truck.  Here it comes!

Then the tractor and grain cart arrived.

Finally, Norman got in the combine and we were ready to begin!

I chased him all around the field, but I never could get a picture of him coming towards me.  I did get back to the other side of the field in time to see him unloading the combine from the first partial pass.

He took off again, and Jeremy and I followed in the tractor with the grain cart.  You can see below that the  combine was getting full again.

Norman stopped the combine, and we pulled up and he emptied the combine again.

At that time Norman told us that the combine was telling him the yield was at 200 bushels per acre.  I shared yesterday that the fields they had already combined yielded between 126 and 179 bushels per acre.  Iowa State University reports the 10 year average for my county as 182 bushels per acre.

The seed dealer’s last report said that there were some fields yielding 185, but there weren’t a lot.  Most fields were about 20 bushels per acre down this year.

I really was afraid to hope 200 bushels/acre could really be an accurate measurement, or there might be patches in the field with drastically lower yields bringing the average down.

I had to wait until the next afternoon to find out the final count~200 bushels per acre.  In addition, the elevator owner said it was the best quality corn that he’d seen so far this harvest season.  That is just unbelievable with the horrible drought conditions we had.  There are several reasons my field did well.

The soil type~it has a fair amount of clay, so it holds water better.  We use no-till and contour farming methods to prevent soil erosion, so there’s more retention of organic matter and less evaporation.  It’s only the third year it’s been planted in crops, so it’s not worn out.  The seed is another factor~it’s engineered to do well in adverse conditions.

I truly am thankful to have such a great yield when there are so many across the country that lost all their crops or had severely lower yields due to the drought.

Linking to Alphabe-Thursday where the letter of the week is U.

Linking to A Rural Thursday hosted by Nancy at A Rural Journal and Lisa at Two Bears Farm, Thankful Thursday, This and That Thursday, and Thursday Favorite Things.

Harvest

When I looked to the north yesterday evening, I saw a wonderful sight!  It was the combine!

I went up and took one last look at the field before they began harvesting.

The yield on the first couple of rows is always significantly lower because of the deer.

The combine really is an impressive machine. The corn head has tips that go between the rows.

The cornstalk is cut and the ears are pulled into the head on the little conveyer belt up to the auger where the ears are fed into the combine.

Through some magic of mechanical engineering that I don’t understand, the corn is removed from the cob and fed into the storage hold and the cob is spit out the back end.  The combine is dangerous at times though.  The warning sign is very serious in it’s message.  There’s many a farmer with short fingers that did not heed the warning.

Soon my field will be empty and I’ll know its yield. That’s a bit scary with the drought this year.

So far the fields they’ve done have ranged from 126 – 179 bushels per acre.

Linking to Wordless Wednesday with Project Alicia, Create With Joy, Tina’s Wordless Wednesday, Sarah Halstead, and Live and Love Out Loud.

Fall is in the Air

The weather has cooled, and the days are getting shorter.

When I get home, the goats aren’t waiting on me to feed them.  I head out to pasture to check on them,

and I see the corn is losing its green and turning golden.  I hear the leaves rustling in the breeze as they dry out.

The walnut trees are turning yellow.

These haven’t fallen yet,

but there are many on the ground.

I see MJ grazing.  He’s adjusting to having Maxine off on her date with the bull.

When I get to the top of the hill, I can see the goats in the distance.

They’ll stay out until it’s almost dark, and then I’ll rush to feed them and get my milking done.

We’ve really shifted into fall mode here.

Linking to Friday’s Fences, Thankful Thursday, Thursday Favorite Things, Rural Thursday, and Skywatch Friday.