Pumpkin spice everything, sweaters, mums and boot season is almost here. I am not a fall person. I am a summer person. I hate being cold. Pumpkin pie is the only thing that should have pumpkin spice in it, a sweater to me means three layers of trying to stay warm, mums are simply another plant for me to kill, now the boot part I can get behind.
However, fall is also two of my favorite things.
- Fall calving. Read all about that here.
- Harvest season.
Corn harvest is one of my favorite parts of the farm. I love almost everything about it. We get lots of questions about logistics and how corn harvest is actually done. The easiest way for me to explain it to you is simply to take you through a “typical” day. I put typical in quotation marks because no day is typical on the farm.
Equipment Maintenance/Cow Checking
There are three of us full time on the farm. Nearly every morning, year round, my day starts with checking cows. This time of year, we are having our fall babies so I check those cows at least twice a day. I tag all the new babies and ensure that everybody is doing well. However, that doesn’t mean that I can neglect the other cows that aren’t having babies. While I go to my group of calving cows first thing, I try to check two to three other groups of cows before heading to the field. This depends on when I was there last and how much of a hurry My Forever is for me to get there.
While I check the cows, My Forever is busy preparing the equipment to run another day. This means fueling, greasing and general maintenance. The equipment that gets us through harvest season is very expensive and making sure they are well maintained is a huge part of avoiding costly breakdowns.
Combine, Grain Cart & Trucks
Once the grain has all the dew off it, it’s go time. There are three main jobs while harvesting, on our operation.
Combine
First and foremost, the combine. We have an eight row corn head. Corn is planted in rows. The spacings are different on operations. Our corn is planted on 30″ rows. That means each 30″ there is a new row. An eight row head is fairly obvious, but it means we harvest 8 rows at a time. The corn head has 8 rows that allow the corn to go in. The combine is what takes the corn and strips the one to two ears of corn off the plant. We run the corn head right below the ears on the plant. The combine then separates the kernels of corn from the rest of the plant. The shelled corn (kernels of corn) go into the combine bin. The rest is thrown out the back of the combine back onto the ground. Sometimes the rest of the plant is baled into corn stalk bales to feed to the cattle in the winter.
Grain Cart
Each job is important in the harvest operation, but it takes a special person in order to be a grain cart driver. Corn around our part of the world yields anywhere from 100-200+ bushels per acre. The whole goal of harvest is to keep the combine running. We never want the combine to be stopped until it’s quitting time. The function of the grain cart is to transport the grain from the combine bin to the truck that will carry the corn kernels to the bin or elevator. Trucks usually can’t make it in the fields and need to stay close to the road. The grain cart is the middleman. The grain cart ensures the combine keeps moving by unloading the grain on the move. Then takes it to the truck. On most operations, grain is required to be hauled a fair distance to get to its destination. The truck needs to be kept on the road and not sitting on the side of the road as much as possible. This is accomplished by having a load of grain waiting on the grain cart as soon as the truck gets back to the field.
Truck
These are the trucks that you see all year round on the roads: the semis with trailers or the straight trucks. The trucks function is pretty obvious. It transports the grain to the on farm storage or to the elevator. On our farm, we store a lot of our crops in grain bins. Due to labor and equipment restraints, it’s more convenient, for us, to take the few miles to the farm rather than 25 plus to an elevator. The elevator is always a busy time at harvest season. Some have contracts to deliver crops during harvest season and some farmers simply don’t have on farm storage and have to take straight to the elevator. Either way, there is normally a wait time at the elevators. Again, refer to the combine. It is supposed to be running all day. When the trucks get held up at the elevator in a long line and the grain cart and combine bin is full, the combine has to stop. We don’t like that which is why we’re so thankful to have on farm storage. We can store the crops during the busy harvest season and haul to the elevator when it’s less busy.
Night Time Chores
Again, because we’re having babies at the same time as we’re harvesting, I leave sometime right before dark to go check the cows. The cows always take priority over the crops. If a cow is having trouble having a baby, that has to be addressed over all else.
Once the dew sets in the evening, the corn gets “tough”. The moisture increases and it doesn’t go through the combine very well. If there is a breeze, we can work late. Once the combine is shut down, there is the last load of corn on the trucks to unload before heading for home.
When we arrive home, it’s not quite time to fall into bed just yet. We have our chickens to take care of. Also, we prepare our food for the next day to take with us because we don’t quit to go to the house for meal times. My MIL is amazing at bringing us food when she gets off work, but I like trying to be an adult and taking care of ourselves (sometimes). She is amazing and am blessed to have her in our lives. My Forever survives on Mountain Dew. I need water so get my water jug to grab and take in the morning. If it doesn’t happen the night before, chances are the morning isn’t going to go smooth. By taking a few minutes each evening to prepare food and water for the next day, I ensure that I’m going to feel my best. Harvest is a long season and we need to remain on peak performance. Our sleep schedule is different during harvest so we need to fuel our bodies with good food and water.
Then it’s time to shower and fall into bed to prepare for the next morning.
What questions do you have about corn harvest?
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