Harvest is full swing here in Central Illinois. It's really pretty early for us to be almost done with harvest, but the seasons came pretty early this year due to the weather conditions this summer. On some blogs you will read in-depth farming stuff. Not here baby! I like to keep it simple and light!
This is my brother-in-law in a combine. That's his fall gig. The combine is the first step in harvesting the corn and beans. Here he has on a "corn head." I love that name. We also have a "bean head" when cutting the beans, we put that on the combine. It's the doohicky in the front.
As he goes through the corn, the combine throws the corn into the hopper. Here is the combine getting full. That space on top there is called the "hopper." The hopper only holds roughly 300 bushels of corn. When the hopper gets full he's gotta dump! (hehe) Call the auger wagon!
Say hi to Aaron! He is one heckuva auger wagon operator. That's what he is pulling, not what he is driving! That big wagon is an auger wagon…get it, a wagon with an auger on it, pulled by a tractor. I love it when things are called what they are. The combine dumps into the auger wagon. The number one goal on our farm is DO NOT MAKE THE COMBINE STOP. Not for anything, not for anybody. I'm guessing maybe Cory stops to potty though. Hmmm…? Think if I was the combine operator (which will never happen just for the record,) I'd have to have ALOT of gum, a smart phone, some nail polish, a Rubix Cube or SOMETHING, to sit in that seat for all the hours that these guys do! They are monitoring a lot of stuff from that cab though, which must keep them going hour after hour, day after extremely long 15 hour day.
The combine dumps into the auger wagon "on the go!" Meaning, driving side by side. Here is another job I never want to do with my husband. Can you imagine the "coaching" that would go on on that farm radio? ugh "Too fast," "Slow down," "You're too close," "What are you thinking Monica!" Ya, not going to volunteer for driving the auger wagon ever! The job is safely yours Aaron.
This is the auger. Looks like a dinosaur puppet to me. Must be that 15 years as a speech therapist coming out in me. The guys would say, it looks like an auger. The auger dumps into the semi that is usually parked along the road or in the field.
I wish you could hear this. The coolest sound. It's mesmerizing. Something about moving grain that's hypnotic almost. And LOUD!
Pretty neat huh? If you ever get a chance to watch this process for just 15 minutes you absolutely should. Climb up on that semi and take a peek. Do it when the auger wagon is dumping on it. You won't be sorry.
Now it's off to the drying facility or the elevator. When this semi is full and takes off to dump his load (again, potty humor, really?) another semi that is empty pulls up for the auger wagon to dump into. Again and again and again. Semi after semi load full. It would be fun to see how many cycles it takes for a 40 acre field. Maybe I should ask the guys to tally this on a little notepad for 15 hours. Ya, probably not!
Happy Fall!
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