Harvest - Epilogue

A little closing information on the wheat harvest pictures that were posted earlier.

The field being harvested yielded 57.7 bushels/acre, which is a great result for this field. Average test weight was just slightly under 60 lbs/bu, average moisture 12.4, and average protein 10.4. The test weight and moisture are right on hard red winter wheat. The protein is a little low, but to be expected with the high yield.

Harvest - Day 4

The last task at the farm of turning seed into grain is moving the harvest to town. It is from here that, combined with the yields of numerous other farms, the grain moves to the miller domestically or overseas.

Here is the wheat coming from the combine harvester in the field to the trucks. This year the fields are soft and trucks can get stuck. This wagon can carry enough grain to nearly fill both trucks at once. With one driver on the wagon and one shuttling trucks to town the crew can keep up with the combine better than two truck drivers without a wagon.
Here is Travis, driving to town to deliver grain. Travis is a seminary student in Denver. He comes out to work on the ranch during his breaks from school. He is a college friend of several family members.
Here is a truckload of grain being unloaded at the grain elevator. At this point the grain is delivered. The farmer's bookkeeping with the grain dealer is all in terms of the delivered amount and quality. This truckload was about 480 bushels / 28,800 lbs of grain

Harvest - Day 3

Day three woke up gray and humid. When the humidity is high, you can't harvest the wheat because it raises the moisture of the grain, and the threshing is much more difficult. The humidity and the clouds kept harvest shut down for the day

Harvest Has Started!

At 7:40 PM Wednesday evening wheat harvest began on Grosbach Farms. Joel and Travis arrived with the combine early this evening and after a few adjustments cut a few acres to test the quality and the readiness of the wheat. Things look good. If the weather holds warm and dry they will be harvesting at full speed tomorrow.

Here is the combine making the first pass through the field

Here is the first grain being unloaded from the combine for delivery to town.