Farming in the shade

The $450 operators manual we recently purchased for the combine that we’ve owned for 8 years has paid off already. We were able to find the problem and get the grain head hydraulics to work again. The first of the small grains are in the bin. This year we are harvesting four small grains--einkorn (an old variety of wheat), oats, barley, and rye. Much of the field drowned out in the Monsoon of Fall 2018 or the Monsoon of Spring 2019. But it looks like we will be able to harvest some of each of what we planted, and we're grateful for that.  For more on our combine woes through the years, search “combine”. It’ll make you feel better about your life, I promise. 

The problem du jour is nothing new. If you can’t afford new farm equipment (and really, who can?!), you buy what you can afford. And fix it when it breaks. Some of it is pretty specialized equipment which is only used once or twice a year. We try to maintain and care for the equipment after each use and before we fire it up for the next go-around. But we do have a saying for this part of farming: “Stuff only breaks when you use it.” Equipment can look good, start well, and run smoothly, but when it’s time to actually do the work, some little thing will go wrong. Right now it’s the wiring on relay switches in the combine. Right at wheat harvest, of course. With oats and rye waiting their turn. Yes, we have had our share of problems with this combine. The former owner used it hard, and it shows. Some have asked us why we don’t just buy a different combine. The answer is near the top of this post—go ahead, scroll up. I’ll wait. YouTube is good, provided the person making the video actu...

Winter is a time for us to rest a little, to catch up on paperwork, to plan, and to fix/improve things. But this winter our to-do list of projects is two pages long. The projects on those two pages may be six months' worth of work, and I'm sure we haven't thought of everything.  The Farmer's current project is a gravity table we bought as a pile of parts. We already use a fanning mill to remove sticks and weed seeds and other unwanted debris from the beans. The gravity table will help us to remove more of the not-quite-perfect beans, and cut down on our hand sorting.  The gravity table (above right) needs a large industrial fan to operate. The fan was not included in the pile of parts. For months we stalked Craigslist, until we found a fan large enough to do the job and inexpensive enough for us to afford. It involved a road trip to a factory district in Chicago, and we are grateful for our friend Glenn's help with getting the fan (above left) home. The...

This makes me happy.  This fall was full of regular, abundant rain, which made harvesting difficult to impossible. Besides the weather difficulties, we dealt with regular break-downs with the combine. We would fire it up, begin to harvest, and it would immediately break. We would spend a week of nice weather fixing it, and just before we finished fixing it, it would rain like crazy. Then we would have to wait for the ground to dry up, and once it was dry, we'd try to harvest again, and the combine would break. Repeat, ad nauseum.  I could go on about how stinky this fall has been. I have tried to have a Habakkuk 3 mindset (though the fig tree does not bud, and there are no grapes on the vine... yet I will trust...), but honestly, it's been hard.  But this--THIS. The combine is working, and has been for over an hour. The corn is dry, and the ground is only a little bit muddy. It looks like we might get a harvest after all. Thanks be to God!

There's nothing like spring on the farm. It's a love/hate relationship, to be sure. In this photo, The Farmer had just brought a bale of hay to the cattle--something he has done successfully and without incident, all winter long. This time was different, though. A couple of days of very warm (50s!) temperatures melted all the snow, and turned the solid ground into something much less than solid. Of course, it was just before we needed to go somewhere. He texted me, and asked me to meet him at the pasture gate--he was going to get the tractor, after removing the snowblower that was mounted on it. I don't think I've ever driven this tractor--it's the new Kubota--and, after a 15 second lesson and the application of some log chain, I was in charge of pulling the skidsteer out of the mud. Fortunately, I didn't muck it up too badly, though there were some tense seconds. Never a dull moment.

At some point in the harvesting process we need to determine the moisture content of the beans. If they are too "wet" (high in moisture), they will spoil in storage. We often test as we are harvesting, in an effort to determine if we should continue harvesting, or wait for another day.  This blog post shows a post-harvest test. We already ran these Hidatsa Red beans over the fanning mill to remove most of the non-bean debris.  This is a tool that tests the moisture of common grains. There is a setting for corn, wheat, soybeans and more. But there is no setting for Hidatsa Red beans. Since they are close in size to soybeans, we use that setting. These beans test at 17.1% moisture. Slightly higher than we'd like, but beans that are slightly high in moisture will finish drying out in the storage bin in a matter of a few days. For beans that are not similar in size and shape to soybeans, we test the moisture level in the oven. We also doublecheck our fanc...

We use an antique fanning mill or seed cleaner to take out most of the non-bean stuff that is harvested along with the beans: stems, bits of bean pods, stones, split beans, and weed seeds. We remove the beans from the combine in buckets and then pour them one by one into the fanning mill hopper.  The beans move along two screens with different sized holes. These screens shake back and forth to both move the beans along and allow some of the debris to fall through the holes. Different beans require screens with different sized holes. The junk comes out the side of the fanning mill. And the beans come up a small conveyor and into a large wooden box. While there is still some cleaning to do, this process takes out much of the unwanted stuff. These Hidatsa Red Beans are now ready for the next step.

Here we are at the final step of harvesting the beans. We've pulled them, shaken the dirt off and put them in nice long windrows, and left them to dry for several days. Now it's time to actually harvest them. The special edible bean head that attaches to the combine lifts the beans up and pulls them into the machine, where the plants and the beans are separated. Everything except the bean is ejected out of the back of the combine.  It's such an important job that close supervision is needed from our sheepdog, Brinkley. She's watching for any wildlife that may be flushed out of the field during harvest. Here's a short video showing the actual harvesting process.  More on the cleaning process soon.

After the beans are pulled (mechanically!), we hook up to the windrower/shaker and drive over the field one more time. This has to be done with heavy dew, or the dry pods shatter and the beans fall out. Early morning is best for this part, as with the pulling.  The windrower picks up each individual row (which is actually two rows piled together) and shakes them a bit. This dislodges some of the dirt attached to the roots of the bean plant. The bean plants are carried up and over the top of the windrower. The same thing is happening on the other side, so we are actually shaking and windrowing two combined rows at the same time. Once the beans travel up and over the top, they are carried to one side by a conveyor belt and deposited in a single row in on the right side, behind the windrower/shaker. Here they are left to dry for a few days, until they are ready to combine. Again, so much easier than pulling by hand and carrying them to a haywagon.

These first few pictures were taken the very first time we used our new bean puller. If it doesn't look brand spanking new, just keep in mind that when I use the term "new" it mostly means "new-to-us". The bean puller pulls four rows at a time, laying the two center rows together into one, and laying the outside two rows further outward. When you make another pass going the other direction, those two outside rows merge with other outside rows. So each time you make a pass, you're pulling four rows and ending up with two windrows. Here's a closeup of the equipment. Yes, there are some weeds. I don't know how that happens. Here are two rows laying together after being pulled. And this is another field on another day. The green is mostly weeds, but you can see the dry bean pods laying neatly with the weeds in rows. The bean pulling must be done early in the morning, while there is still heavy dew. Otherwise the dry bean pods shat...

The past few years we've pulled the heirloom dry beans by hand. Last year, when the harvest was thin but the work was still just as hard, we agreed that there had to be a better way. So all year we've been watching for specialized edible bean harvesting equipment. Earlier this year we found an edible bean head that fits on our existing combine.  The other bits of needed equipment seemed more difficult to find. We'd find a bean puller, but it was designed to mount to a John Deere tractor, and not a Massey Ferguson or Kubota. Or we'd find one that was ridiculously overpriced or completely falling apart.  Finally, just as we feared we'd be hand-pulling again, we found a puller on the other side of the state. Our friend (and soil consultant) Joe went to look at it and purchase it for us. He then delivered it to us, along with his own bean shaker/windrower, which he is loaning to us. So grateful for his help and experience and generosity. This is eq...

After some modifications to the new engine, it was time to put it in place. Good thing we have this trusty skid steer. The engine weighs about 1,100 pounds. Heavy duty log chains come in handy, too. This process took quite a while, as the engine had to be level. Quite a few adjustments were made before the final lift began.   This was a slow and careful project. The heavy engine had to be guided into place. Once it was in place, the engine had to be bolted in place. Lots of jostling when you're driving through the fields combining. The engine has to stay put. After the engine was bolted in place all the guards and covers had to be replaced. Once everything was in place, they fired it up, and it started on the first try. Music to our ears! And finally, the old engine was shipped to where we bought the new engine. It will be used for parts, or rebuilt. No loading dock on the farm, but we can manage. I'm happy to report that the combine is wor...

Some of The Farmer's "spare time" (cue laughter track here) was spent working on the combine this summer. During rye harvest, the engine blew . It was a terminal diagnosis. So we looked around, finally found, and ordered a new engine. Let's see if you can tell which is the old and which is the new.  Any guesses? Does it help to see them together? The new engine was actually a tractor engine, just like what came out of the combine. Almost. Kinda. Mostly the same. Close, y'know? There were some modifications needed, of course. Because nothing is ever truly easy. Even when you spend a bunch of money on a new engine. The Farmer has mad wood skills. He is not a natural mechanic (though his brother is!). But after years of working along side my father on all kinds of farm equipment, he has acquired a working knowledge of how to fix things. And out of necessity he has tackled some pretty big jobs. We are grateful for a diesel mechanic friend wh...

Last week we harvested our rye crop. Afterwards, The Farmer headed out to custom combine a couple of very small rye fields for nearby blueberry farmers. This is what the evening ended like: Now that's not a great picture, I'll admit. It was late and it was dark. So I'll explain it to you. The large tractor was towing the combine home. The combine engine blew while The Farmer was custom combining. We knew the engine wasn't good. But we decided to keep using it until it wouldn't go anymore. And that time has come. Three years ago our old combine gave up the ghost during harvest. We scraped together enough money to buy this one . And now it needs a new engine. I explained it this way to a friend--we can only afford to buy the combine equivalent of a 1979 Chevy Nova. Now, I'm not bashing the Nova (much). But when was the last time you saw one on the road? I didn't think so. We have a new engine being shipped to us. One that cost more than half of w...

Last summer we bought a used mower deck. The kind that you can mount on the back of the tractor, and make some serious time as you are mowing down the leftovers in a pasture that has just been vacated by animals. It's a good practice, but one that has been hard for us with just a small brush hog .  Well, as with most equipment that we (can afford to) buy, it was Well-Used. Very broken in. Like more rust than steel, if you know what I mean. The bones of the piece are still good. But the rest of it needed a lot of work.  Elbow grease (and small machine, bearing and sheet metal shops) to the rescue. We are stimulating our local economy in small doses. The parts are ordered and the rusty bits have been scraped off. We are getting close.

In the waiting time, before the fieldwork begins, there are things to get ready. Oil to change, fittings to grease, and today, duals to put on the big tractor.  First, you jack the whole business up.  Then you roll the extra wheels into position. Yes, the wheels are really as big as my father.   Once you have them in position, it's time to tighten the nuts. Almost ready to roll!

In the middle of last summer, when we needed it most, our combine broke. You can read about it here . Since that day, the combine has not moved from where The Farmer parked it. The grass grew up long underneath it the rest of the summer. When we finally found a replacement combine, we used the old one as a "parts barn," harvesting still-good parts from it to replace worn parts on the new (slightly neglected) combine. A few months ago, we contacted a couple of companies who are the equivalent of the auto junkyard, only for larger agricultural equipment. There are still a lot of good parts left in this combine, and after that, the remaining steel can be sold for scrap. Finally, last week, they came to pick it up. The whole process was fascinating. There was no need to fire up the old combine--it was just hooked up and dragged onto the trailer. Yes, I was nervous. Stuff can really go wrong with these processes. Notice our border collie off to the side, sniffing out critters. We ...