Corn harvest

Steve Ash

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Michigan
The two things I miss the most about farming is spring planting and fall harvest, corn harvest being at the top of my list.

Gary (the guy that farms my little chunk of paradise) showed up today to combine the corn and he let me ride in the cab with him, Wow things have sure changed from the way we used to do it. In his cab is a GPS, monitor, all the goodies. At the time I rode with him the monitor was reading yields in the 160-180 bushels per acre range with some parts of the field going 225 B.P.A. and 17 - 17.8 % moisture.

I snapped some pictures of him while running the corn, and his equiptment....John Deere, my favorite brand.


As some of you remember we put in a corn furnace to heat our home...looks like I'm gonna be warm. There will be enough to heat my home and enough to sell to help pay the taxes.
 

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Reminds me of my teenage years. I went on wheat harvest two years in a row, with farmer neighbors in Oklahoma, that ran 6 Gleaner combines during the summer.
Those were the days.:thumb:
 
My last farm memories are from almost 40 years ago. I spent a couple of weeks each summer at a relatives farm around Merrill, MI. They were mostly growing soy beans which aren't very glamorous. I always seemed to get stuck on the mucking-out-the-stall duty with my cousin. I couldn't prove it but suspected they saved that particular honor for visiting relatives. But I did get to harvest some corn not too long ago - fresh out of Aisle 2 in the produce section. I think my yield was something like 12 ears per bag.:D
 
I used to get "farmed out" to my Tenn relatives from MA to help with the harvest...it was so much fun I couldn't sleep until dawn and would meet the crew every morning. I'd ride along leaning on the wheel guard...while my uncle told me stories about how things used to be. Man...those where the days...

My Dad just gave up baling hay...at 84 he can't keep up!!!!!
 
Why would you need a GPS in the cab of a Combine!?!? :huh:
Uneducated city boy talkin' here, but I'd suspect the yield data can be linked and tracked to the specific location in the field where it came from. I'd also guess it can also be used to track land speed as well as the amount of acreage covered.
 
Uneducated city boy talkin' here, but I'd suspect the yield data can be linked and tracked to the specific location in the field where it came from. I'd also guess it can also be used to track land speed as well as the amount of acreage covered.

For a city boy, you nailed it. In fact he also uses the data the next time he plants the field to corn. He will plug in the data to the corn planter which will automatically plant more seeds in the areas that produce better and go back to the normal plants per acre in the normal area. He can also use the data to adjust for fertilizer amounts...whole lot different than the way we used to do it.:huh:
 
For a city boy, you nailed it...
Blonde, but not (always) dumb. :D :p

I saw a piece on TV recently about the JD Combine assembly line. It amazes me how that machine can harvest corn like that (or any other grain, for that matter). Somebody stayed up REAL late nights tofigure that stuff out. :thumb:
 
Steve I really enjoyed your post,I come from a family of farmers,grandfather, father and one of my brothers infact I myself farmed in my younger days until I had to give it up. I continued to help out when I could and still do yet today
though I'm supposed to be retired.

I understand your partiality to the JD line, my family has always been for the most part JD users.Our very first SP combine was a MF but it wasnt around long and from then on it was JD. Our present combine (JD 9510) doesnt have GPS but just about everything else. The comfort in operating and the technology of the machines of today are mind boggling.......sure is a diffrent game than in the old days.

I still live in a farming community but not sure how much longer it will stay that way one subdivision after another going up. Its supposed to be progress but if the acreage loss continues at this rate where's our food goig to come from? :huh:

Thanks for the post and the pic's.:)
 
Art, the other reason for the GPS is, have you ever tried to fly an ILS back course in a combine? GPS is the way to go. Gets you to the landing strip and back to the machine shed in the densest fog. :D

Actually, I wonder how they deal with variations in GPS accuracy or does it matter?
 
Steve I really enjoyed your post,I come from a family of farmers,grandfather, father and one of my brothers infact I myself farmed in my younger days until I had to give it up. I continued to help out when I could and still do yet today
though I'm supposed to be retired.

I understand your partiality to the JD line, my family has always been for the most part JD users.Our very first SP combine was a MF but it wasnt around long and from then on it was JD. Our present combine (JD 9510) doesnt have GPS but just about everything else. The comfort in operating and the technology of the machines of today are mind boggling.......sure is a diffrent game than in the old days.

I still live in a farming community but not sure how much longer it will stay that way one subdivision after another going up. Its supposed to be progress but if the acreage loss continues at this rate where's our food goig to come from? :huh:

Thanks for the post and the pic's.:)

I can understand completely Bob, my family farming goes back in this county to 1867 when Great-great grandpa mustered out of the civil war and settled on 80 acres about 5 miles from where I live now. That farming heritage sadly stopped with me, when I chose to leave the family farm in 1989 and pursue the home building business. After 2 years of drought and one year of persistant rains and losing our crops, I told dad I just couldn't financially ever be able to follow in his footsteps. It broke his heart and I've always felt bad for it. We farmed 1640 acres of owned land and rented an additional 400 acres with 300 head of brood cows in the mix as well as I and my wife were farrowing 24 sows/to finish small hog operation.

We were partial to the JD line as well our first SP combine was a JD 45 with a two row corn head, no cab. Dad sat right out in every element nature would throw at him. Today I still "dabble" in farming with just 30 acres I farm on shares. I have a 1944 John Deere "B" that dad gave me when he retired and I just bought a JD 3020 so I can use it on the jobsite (pic added). Even though I am a builder I am in total agreement with you on gobbling up the land for houses, I've seen entire farms made into subdivisions.

Probably a too long winded post folks....sorry.
 

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Actually, I wonder how they deal with variations in GPS accuracy or does it matter?

Dave I'm not sure I can answer the question since I'd never seen the type of GPS system he had, but it was a complete layout of the field right down to a rockpile or a tree which would show a "voided" type area. It must be accurate because Gary said he needed to do something that would adjust the acreage for the headlands which is at the end of the field and basically you are travelling on that area of ground twice. The recalibration he will do to that will give a exact acreage size as well as a exact yield....kinda cool.
 
WAS GPS gets you real close these days and if you want nats backside?
A differential will put you on the money.
Very impressive equipment out there.
I like mine wet.
Feed the GPS into a lap top or Plotter and it will tell you more than you ever wanted to know about depth, tides, moon, speed and direction.
Great stuff.
City kid moving to the country.
 
My Garmin GPS with WAS is very accurate. It says 10 feet but in actual testing I have found it to be spot on. If it says 200 feet to the next turn it's realy 200 feet. In one instance while driving through Indo near palm springs it said the elevation was "0" feet above sea level and the sign on the freeway said sea level. on the same trip I was driving though New Mexico and the sign aong the road said 5341 Feet elevation and again the GPS agreed. They are very accurate.
 
...Probably a too long winded post folks....sorry.
Long or short, don't ever feel a need to apologize for telling a good story. ;) Must have been tough deciding to get out of farming, but you had to do what would take care of your family the best. Since there is farmland turning into housing, you might as well make a living from the housing.
 
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