The soybeans are dry and ready to harvest. The freeze from 3 weeks ago did a thorough job of killing them.
Not very pretty to look at any more...but very good for combining!
I was sitting in the buddy seat but leaned over in front of DH to get a shot from the driver's seat. The header goes around and the ugly, dangerous looking teeth help lift up any crop that is laying down and feed it into the sickle bar that cuts the crop. These soybeans are standing up quite well.
Right behind the seats in the cab is a window so you can see into the hopper where the soybeans stay until they are unloaded.
When the hopper is empty the beans hop and jump as they hit the metal. It's quite a dance!
And this is the little auger that brings the beans from inside the combine and into the hopper.
As the hopper gets full the window gradually gets covered and all you can see back there are the soybeans and the pods that escaped being thrashed out. You can't set the combine to get all the trash out of the beans or it will be too hard on the beans and there will be broken ones and that will affect germination. Almost all of our beans are grown for production and will be cleaned and bagged for seed for next year.
If you step out of the cab there is a little door to open to get a better idea of the job the combine is doing and what your crop is looking like.
This picture has a bit of a green and red tint to it...that is just wrong! They are the usual yellowish/beige color.
When the hopper gets full the grain cart is pulled up close to the combine to unload "on the go". There is very little stopping during the day since we got the grain cart. They unload as they drive and continue to combine.
If you step out of the cab there is a little door to open to get a better idea of the job the combine is doing and what your crop is looking like.
This picture has a bit of a green and red tint to it...that is just wrong! They are the usual yellowish/beige color.
When the hopper gets full the grain cart is pulled up close to the combine to unload "on the go". There is very little stopping during the day since we got the grain cart. They unload as they drive and continue to combine.It takes some talent to drive close enough and not hit the header. And sometimes they even unload while going around the curve of a slough.
The auger on the combine is moved forward hydraulically to unload into the cart and then is moved back along the side of the combine when they are done.
The grain cart unloads into one of the trucks which is then driven to the chosen bin site to unload the beans into a grain bin.
Here is DH going back to work after he dropped me off. There were unforecasted rain clouds that went through. Thankfully they only looked interesting and didn't drop any rain on us!
It was the end of the field day for me but everyone else kept combining until they had finished the field we were on here and moved to another field a few miles away and finished that one too. It was maybe 11:30 p.m. when they quit for the day.
The auger on the combine is moved forward hydraulically to unload into the cart and then is moved back along the side of the combine when they are done.
The grain cart unloads into one of the trucks which is then driven to the chosen bin site to unload the beans into a grain bin.
Here is DH going back to work after he dropped me off. There were unforecasted rain clouds that went through. Thankfully they only looked interesting and didn't drop any rain on us!
It was the end of the field day for me but everyone else kept combining until they had finished the field we were on here and moved to another field a few miles away and finished that one too. It was maybe 11:30 p.m. when they quit for the day.There is rain forecast for this coming weekend and they are hoping to be finished by then.
I'm crossing my fingers!
