Above 1200 Sq/FT Out on Quaker Road

[jblnut]

Don't you hate it when that happens lol?

Good tires are hard to find.

These 445's are hard to find in good shape without being brand new. New ones are very expensive for the application. Flat tires don't do any good either though .... This one has definite sidewall damage mist likely from hitting a curb in its previous life and then taking a beating from corn stalks.

Great Pics! How do you move the grain to market? Are you pulling the wagons to the elevator or custom trucking? Are you done with beans?

We hire all the beans to be trucked because they go quite a ways away. The corn we haul to market with the Brent boxes. We take about 1,000bu per trip so it doesn't take long.

We are about 3/4 done with beans. It's been cloudy and wet the last while so they're not drying out enough to combine. We've got another three days of rain ahead of us with almost 3" total forecast

How do you set the brakes on the box when it's unhitched and full? Or do you chock the wheels?

When the box is in the field on mostly level ground it is heavy enough that it sinks in a little and doesn't move. If parked on a slope or on harder ground we chock them with some 6x6 chunks of wood.

 

[oldironfarmer]

That new tread showing through on the smaller trailer is what I call it's second wind...

 

[C_F]

Man, that's a whole lotta corn! I'm glad those gloomy skies didn't turn to rain between getting the corn from the fields & into the bins.

Sounds like you are now getting the storm we had a few days ago. We ended up getting more rain during three days last week, than we have had in the previous three months!

Love the great photos and narration!

 

[jblnut]

That new tread showing through on the smaller trailer is what I call it's second wind...

"It ain't flat until you can see the air inside the tire!" - Grandpa said that nonstop. "There's only 2ply showing, you've got 10 left! Most car tires are 6ply and they're fine!" - Another one from Grandpa. I guess we'll keep running it for awhile yet

Man, that's a whole lotta corn! I'm glad those gloomy skies didn't turn to rain between getting the corn from the fields & into the bins.

Sounds like you are now getting the storm we had a few days ago. We ended up getting more rain during three days last week, than we have had in the previous three months!

Love the great photos and narration!

Yeah, it's been miserable and crappy here since Sunday night. The rain total backed down from almost 3" at one point to a little over 2" total but it still ***** to sit inside and watch it rain with everything still to do outside !!

The pictures will keep coming until I get bored or lose interest or both

 

[jblnut]

A new 12.5lx15 implement tire is $120ish. A 16x8 implement rim is $75 and the 265/75-16's are FREE if you know someone so we're going to give a few of these a try and see what happens. Although it looks much larger in the picture there is only maybe 2" height difference.


I finally got the new pipes up in the shop and gave them a good burn in tonight. Open the garage door and watch em' smoke !!

 

[Farmall450]

No tire holds up like an old truck tire. You always have a matched spare on hand, too!

Ironically, I have those tires on my truck. Really, really good.

 

[oldironfarmer]

"It ain't flat until you can see the air inside the tire!" - Grandpa said that nonstop. "There's only 2ply showing, you've got 10 left! Most car tires are 6ply and they're fine!" - Another one from Grandpa. I guess we'll keep running it for awhile yet

In high school I worked in a filling station and one of my primary jobs was fixing flats and mounting tires. Boss would give me any tires to slick to sell. So I got used to driving on bald tires. I was watching a four ply on the left front that was showing a couple of plies. One morning I looked and saw what looked like four plies with a grey spot in the middle. Poked it with my finger, it was the tube and had some wear on it. Got full life out of that one.

 

[welder57]

A friend I know, found that some use airplane tires work well on those type wagon, if you can find that size.

 

[Stuart in MN]

When I was a kid, the local elevator was just down the street from our house. I still remember how every fall the neighborhood was dominated by the smell of drying corn and the sounds of the drier blower and burner.

 

[Sifan]

I was the kid sleeping in his car with the alarm clock set to get up, empty and reload the batch dryer. Not bad money but sometimes creepy as all get out. Loud, dark and you think you're the only fool up at that time of night and some hobo walks up on you wanting coffee

 

[Farmall450]

You boys must be running hard up there!

 

[jblnut]

In high school I worked in a filling station and one of my primary jobs was fixing flats and mounting tires. Boss would give me any tires to slick to sell. So I got used to driving on bald tires. I was watching a four ply on the left front that was showing a couple of plies. One morning I looked and saw what looked like four plies with a grey spot in the middle. Poked it with my finger, it was the tube and had some wear on it. Got full life out of that one.

That tube would have went a while I bet

A friend I know, found that some use airplane tires work well on those type wagon, if you can find that size.

I did some looking and found 445's in an airplane size but they are very expensive and a slightly different size so we'd have to do a minimum of 2 at a time. Not sure yet but it's always good to have options.

When I was a kid, the local elevator was just down the street from our house. I still remember how every fall the neighborhood was dominated by the smell of drying corn and the sounds of the drier blower and burner.

There is nothing like the smell of burning propane and drying corn

I was the kid sleeping in his car with the alarm clock set to get up, empty and reload the batch dryer. Not bad money but sometimes creepy as all get out. Loud, dark and you think you're the only fool up at that time of night and some hobo walks up on you wanting coffee

Yeah, I'd **** myself if that happened !!

You boys must be running hard up there!

It rained for 4 days off and on and we ended up getting 3.5" or so last week. We fired back up yesterday and although the fields were quite squishy we didn't get stuck or break anything .... yet

 

[jblnut]

The old 1Tb surveillance drive pooped out in my PC so Alyssa and Leo helped me put in a new 3Tb Seagate Skyhawk. It's an older Lenove ThinkStation with dual Xeon E5620's and 32Gb of RAM

While it was rainy and crappy outside I got some more truck tires mounted onto implement rims.

I started removing the tires from the wheels my BIL gave me from his derby car. They're going to go on the ranger as the ones on there are just a tad bit bald. They're not Andy Martin bald, but it's time

See .... not much mud slinging ability here anymore ...

We mounted the tire changer on a pallet so it could be mobile if needed. It is nice and mobile but likes to wander around while using it. I usually put the pallet forks on the skiddy to hold it down but decided to try it without today. Bad idea. It was like dancing with myself while removing tires

Saturday around 11am we started combining again. Dad couldn't make a round in this field. The corn was averaging 205bu/a at around 19% moisture. No complaints with that !!

I was questioning Dad's ability to get it full enough but not to run it over and he took the challenge. I guess he win's this round.

On the road again !!

Boy oh boy I thought I was close the other day but this is cutting it as close as it gets

High tech cockpit. BlueParrott headphones make things WAY easier whilst piloting this beauty !!

18.6% coming out of the field. Everything works very well from combining to hauling and drying when the corn is 18-20% so this is perfect !!

Just a touch dry coming out of the dryer but it'll work.

We were going to get another 1,000gal tank a few years back because AmeriGas flat out refused to come out on Sundays and there was a $250 charge to deliver on Saturdays because it was considered an emergency if they had to go out on the weekend. Screw that. Wenner will come out 24x7 if needed for less per gallon than AmeriGas ever was. We call in when we start combining and tell them to keep it full until we call in again and say we're done. We haven't had a single issue with running out since. The 1,000gal tank makes it about 23hrs when the dryer is running full tilt so they are here often.

These truck tires are holding up very well. The 11l 15's on the front are warm when I get home with a full load and the truck tires are as cold as the steel on the wagon. We'll be replacing all these implement tires with truck tires as they wear out.

Another project crossed off of the to-do-on-a-rainy-day list was to put lights on the smaller boxes. I got some cheap LED's off Amazon and wow, they sure are bright !!

Harvest season is "grind out of a gravity box" season which requires a bit of skill to line it all up but we manage to make it work. I guess we're good at stuff

 

[oldironfarmer]

Oh the tube was OK. I just put it in another junk tire.

 

[Farmall450]

Oh the tube was OK. I just put it in another junk tire.

What's the record for tube re-uses?

 

[Sifan]

With or without patches? LOL

 

[oldironfarmer]

What's the record for tube re-uses?

How do you keep track? Most of my tubes go bad from being stuck to rust. Otherwise they last a very long time.

With or without patches? LOL

What do you mean? Tubes with out patches, don't guess I've ever seen any.

Great harvest pictures, by the way. Ameri-Gas didn't know they were in a farming area? That's how big companies operate.

 

[Farmall450]

How do you keep track? Most of my tubes go bad from being stuck to rust. Otherwise they last a very long time.

You guess!

 

[jblnut]

Oh the tube was OK. I just put it in another junk tire.

I'd be interested in hearing if you have a solution for repairing a valve stem leak.

What's the record for tube re-uses?

We have a few Route 66 brand tubes in tires. I wonder how old they are

With or without patches? LOL

Patches on a tube are like scars on your hands ... They all have a story tied to them

Most of my tubes go bad from being stuck to rust.

Great harvest pictures, by the way. Ameri-Gas didn't know they were in a farming area? That's how big companies operate.

I throw some baby powder in when putting in a tube. Dunno if it helps but they seem to come out nice and dry.

Ameri-Gas has been local for a long time but it's just been recently that their service has gone in the toilet. At least up here ...

You guess!

I've pulled tubes out with dates on them and some are 40+ years old. Probably only been in a few tires by then though depending on what they were in.

 

[XJSuperman]

You aren't the only one with Amerigas problems. My family in Ohio has been the subject of their games as well.

 

[jblnut]

We sent a steer off to get turned into yummy eatables and I picked it up on Monday. These steaks are MASSIVE !!


I got to the farm in the morning and the dryer was chugging along drying corn and making steam.


Back at it again !!


High teens for moisture and over 200bu/acre for average yield in this field !!


There was about a hopper full too much so Dad dumped it in the wagon while I was unloading.


Monday evening we transferred corn from one bin .....


To another !! We usually use this bin for soybeans but used a different one so corn goes in this one this year.


Ended up with some other neat pictures during the transfer ...




The soybean stalks were finally dry so I raked them up to bale them for bedding.



We won't have enough bedding with just the soybean straw so I headed out with the stalk chopper to grind up some corn stalks. The stalk chopper puts a decent load on the 7630 and it uses around 8gal/hr of fuel so it needed to be filled before I started.


Can't get much more in than this !!


The stalk chopper pretty much takes up the whole road ....


I stopped to make sure everything was working correctly .... and to check out a tree at the edge of the field ....


Looks good to me !!!


While I had the stalk chopper hooked up I mowed down the grass and weeds in the ditches to make it all look nice for winter.


Soybean straw is dry so I headed out to start baleing.


I literally made it 500' and broke something in the knotters.


These pieces are all suppose to be attached to each other.


The new parts are golden colored and fit perfectly. Whoo Hoo !!


The moisture content of the straw is nice and low !!! Anything under 16% will keep nicely and not heat while in storage.

 

[Finallygotit]

You have been a busy guy!

 

[jblnut]

You have been a busy guy!

Well yeah but to be fair there are three days worth of stuff in that last post. I've been getting done on the farm, coming home and going to be because, well, I'm tired !!!

I took the week off, and probably next week as well, to stay home and do stuff so here we go !!!

 

[red]

Well yeah but to be fair there are three days worth of stuff in that last post. I've been getting done on the farm, coming home and going to be because, well, I'm tired !!!

I took the week off, and probably next week as well, to stay home and do stuff so here we go !!!

My kind of vacation . . . doing the things we enjoy!
Or as the better half would call it a "working" vacation.

One year my boss tried to buy back a week of vacation.
Poor man was insulted cause told him it wasn't enough dough to give up a week of fun, where I also got my sanity back.

 

[welder57]

I going to make a suggestion on here for a hand cleaner that I use when I grease my equipment, works great, even my BIL uses it now, Monk Mechanics Towels. No water needed, wept's your hand clean. Just wanted to share what I found that works.

 

[oldironfarmer]

Cool posts! That corn yield is something else!

Thanks for taking the time to take pictures.

Those steaks look like you could get a square meal.

And the stalk chopper is a real road hog as well as a fuel hog.

Non-farmers would be interested in knowing how much the knotter parts cost.

 

[C_F]

Non-farmers would be interested in knowing how much the knotter parts cost.

Judging from the gold plating, I bet it's a lot!

Love the "approaching sunset" photos. I see what appears to be three more fields of corn to cut in the photos, is that the last of them, or do you have more to go?

 

[jblnut]

My kind of vacation . . . doing the things we enjoy!
Or as the better half would call it a "working" vacation.

One year my boss tried to buy back a week of vacation.
Poor man was insulted cause told him it wasn't enough dough to give up a week of fun, where I also got my sanity back.

And there it is ... A few weeks nonstop in the spring and again in the fall recharge the batteries and get me going again !!

I going to make a suggestion on here for a hand cleaner that I use when I grease my equipment, works great, even my BIL uses it now, Monk Mechanics Towels. No water needed, wept's your hand clean. Just wanted to share what I found that works.

I put it in my wish list and will give it a shot sometime. Thanks for the suggestion !!

Cool posts! That corn yield is something else!

And the stalk chopper is a real road hog as well as a fuel hog.

Non-farmers would be interested in knowing how much the knotter parts cost.

The corn yields up here the last few years boggle my mind. We're grateful to have the high yields to pull us through the low prices.

There are a number of things that take up A TON of the road but at least the stalk chopper is easy to pull and drive into the ditch if needed to let someone pass.

The knotter parts weren't all that expensive really. The shaft with the bill-hook assembly was $65, the roll pin that holds it to the gear was $5 and the gear was $35.

Judging from the gold plating, I bet it's a lot!

Love the "approaching sunset" photos. I see what appears to be three more fields of corn to cut in the photos, is that the last of them, or do you have more to go?

I don't know why it's gold plated but it broke again. Something else is wrong as well.

There are two corn fields and one bean field. The bean field is done as of 3pm today and the corn fields will be some of the last ones done as they're later maturity dates.

 

[oldironfarmer]

Hmmm, bent needle or something. When you're breaking parts you just can't bale hay.

Funny comment you made, high yields pulling you through low prices. The farmer's dilemma.

 

[jblnut]

This is a picture of soybean straw. This entire post will be about soybean straw so if you don't care about soybean straw probably just scroll down .....


I got a lot baled last night but there's still more to do !!


We started the day by picking up 108 of the bales I baled yesterday. Dad ran the skiddy and Miss Lily and I drove the tractor.


After the straw dried out enough again to bale Lily and I started baling. We found a wet spot but didn't get stuck.


While I was cleaning out a knotter that had missed a tie I thought it looked neat.



Lily was all worn out and needed a nap so she laid down on the floor of the tractor and snoozed for about an hour. Lucky kid ... that looks comfy !!


The #1 knotter was miss-tying every 5th or so bale and it was getting annoying so I took a picture of it and it started working. WTF?!


#3 knotter is being a little twerp as well so time to compare things to each other to see what's different. Something has to be different or it'd all be working !!


What's different ?!?!?!?!?


I like pictures of things with lots of moving things so here we go. Pictures of an individual knotter .....




The needles bring the twine from down below and meet up with the twine in the picture. Lot of other things happen very quickly and a pair of knots are made. Boom. Just like that.


AHHHHHH I found the problem !!! This little ball bearing is out of whack from the other three. Going to have to get some more parts tomorrow ....


Sure is nice having these bright lights to work on stuff in the shed when it's dark outside !!


Stupid dirty windshield ruined a nice picture.


I got a new cast iron skillet in the mail today and had to try it out. It works.

 

[dchance]

Glad for the posts. I always like pictures and the captions help since I don't have a clue.

Dwight

 

[C_F]

Hopefully replacing that little bearing will get you fixed up!

 

[ford33]

The work you do is so different from my office desk job and more interesting. Please keep posting updates.

 

[jblnut]

Glad for the posts. I always like pictures and the captions help since I don't have a clue.

Dwight

Most days it feels like I don't have a clue either but I somehow I manage. Thank you for following along !! I like posting what we do but I really enjoy when others enjoy, or are polite enough to pretend they enjoy, what we do as well

Hopefully replacing that little bearing will get you fixed up!

I hope so too. I ended up leaving it as it was and finishing with three knotters instead of four because no one had time to run and get parts. Too much stuff going on and I only had about 100 bales to go so I ran it as it was. It'll get fixed soon though and I'm confident that is what the problem is !!

The work you do is so different from my office desk job and more interesting. Please keep posting updates.

A desk job eh' ? I'd love to see how they are built sometime so I can build myself a new one. My current desk at home is a piece of plywood and a pair of file cabinets that keep following me from one house to another

EDIT: I hope you build better desks than I do. This one works but lacks a lot of features of the newer models but it gets the job done.

EDIT #2: Good grief it looks way messer in the picture than it does while sitting at the desk ...

 

[jblnut]

Re: Out on Quaker Road - 56k BEWARE

Yet ANOTHER post all about soybeans !! I swear this is almost the last one

My little sister has a fancy camera that she thinks takes better pictures than my phone. You can be the judge.
















































It was at this point that I realized we were part of a photo shoot ...


Ok I really like this one .....

 

[Sifan]

LMAO at the office shoes #1794

 

[Sifan]

Nice clean well maintained equipment!

 

[jblnut]

Yesterday morning I went to the farm and stumbled on the tubes I pumped up a week or so back. They still have air in them so I guess I have 3 new to me good tubes for the Ranger now !! Gosh I haven't been this excited for a long time !!


We started the day off the same way as Thursday, picking up bean bales.


Picked up the 273 bales that were baled already and went to maintenance the baler. There are a few grease fittings that needed grease and the twine had to be refilled. Each side of the baler has room for 8-4,000' rolls of twine. Each bale uses around 22'. The knots are on top of the bale so the twine balls that feed the knotters lasts twice as long as the twine balls that feed the needles down below. Crazy. It seems as if more pictures of the baler may be needed .....


"How close can we get to that wet spot before I starts swearing"
"That close"


Here's a neat trick. I'm in the tractor running the baler and here is this picture. It seems as if even my Mother is getting into the picture taking fad lately.



Look at that cute kid in her sunny hat !!


I thought this was neat. The soybean straw on the left was combined and dropped in a windrow by the combine. The soybean straw on the right was combined and spread into the field and later raked to be baled. The color difference is the amount of extra dirt the straw picked up by being raked into a windrow. Crazy.


The entire hay shed is full except for this 24'x48' area. 196 4'x5' round corn straw bales from last year, 393 big square soybean straw bales and 48 meadow bales. The open space will hold another 300 square bales but I'm not sure I want to put more bedding in the shed. I think I'd rather put machinery in there for the winter. Maybe. Who knows ?? I'm sure it'll change in a week or less anyway.


Since I'm adding onto the steer barn sometime this fall-next spring I think I'll need another 200ish bales of bedding so I called a neighbor to see if he could roll up some corn straw for us today. There were 25mph wind gusts when we started so he said not to rake too far ahead of the baler. I tried to stay about 75' ahead of him until the wind died down and it worked great !!


Once the wind died down it was game on and I got a few rows ahead of him.


When he was done he baled 163 4'x5' round bales of corn straw for us in under 4hrs. He was moving right along !!


We finished baleing around 2:30pm so it was back off to combine some more corn. We're approaching half done with corn !!

 

[jblnut]

LMAO at the office shoes #1794

I found them at a garage sale years ago and they've been sitting in front of that file cabinet, or on my feet, ever since.

Nice clean well maintained equipment!

Thank you !! Clean well maintained machinery lasts longer and is more enjoyable to use. Plus it's all shiny in the sun and makes me smile

 

[oldironfarmer]

Most days it feels like I don't have a clue either but I somehow I manage. Thank you for following along !! I like posting what we do but I really enjoy when others enjoy, or are polite enough to pretend they enjoy, what we do as well

I hope so too. I ended up leaving it as it was and finishing with three knotters instead of four because no one had time to run and get parts. Too much stuff going on and I only had about 100 bales to go so I ran it as it was. It'll get fixed soon though and I'm confident that is what the problem is !!

A desk job eh' ? I'd love to see how they are built sometime so I can build myself a new one. My current desk at home is a piece of plywood and a pair of file cabinets that keep following me from one house to another

EDIT: I hope you build better desks than I do. This one works but lacks a lot of features of the newer models but it gets the job done.

EDIT #2: Good grief it looks way messer in the picture than it does while sitting at the desk ...

Get four drawer file cabinets and you'll have more storage and an avant guarde stand-up desk.