(NGC) Pictures - harvesting soybeans

[Gliderjohn]

Our share cropping farmer harvested our soybeans today. This field was to the W and S/W of our house. Sorry the pics are not more clear but I was sbooting from about a 1/3 of a mile away. Always an impressive sight.

Getting ready:


Off to a good start:






Getting the grain cart into position.That is his wife wheeling that all around:




Unloading on the move:


GliderJohn

[oldbike54]

 Dang , combines have certainly increased in size .

  Dusty

[Triple Jim]

Having picked a few by hand, it's impressive to see how it's done in a way that's economically successful.  What's the deal you make with the harvester?

[guzzisteve]

Even after almost 30yrs since I gave it up, I still miss it. You can take the boy off the farm but you can't take the farm out of the boy. Thanks

[Gliderjohn]

Quote from Triple Jim:

Having picked a few by hand, it's impressive to see how it's done in a way that's economically successful.  What's the deal you make with the harvester?

The harvester lives just down the road from me. We share crop, meaning that as the land owner I pay the property taxes, 1/3 of herbicide,  fertilizer and insecticide costs. In turn I get 1/3 of the raw crop to market as I see fit.
GliderJohn

[charlie b]

My uncle ran a farm machinery business in the Phoenix area for many years.  He would go out and plant, harvest, etc, etc for quite a few different farms.  My dad was a HS teacher and would spend summers working with the crews.  I remember him coming home at 5 in the morning sore from driving a tractor while keeping his head turned to watch the machinery he was towing (yes, they harvested hay at night due to the intense daytime temps).

[acogoff]

     Looks pretty dry there also. My soybeans were a disappointment this year, Just 18- 20 bu per acre. Short and hard to get into the combine. Just too dry in the month of august which is key to yield in my area. Nice machinery, by the way. My combine is green, but 41 years old now.
I rent out about 80 acres of my 400 to a neighbor, but cash rent is more common in my area. They pay half in the spring(May) and half in the fall(Dec.). Way better this year with the $7.80 price at the local elevator.

[Triple Jim]

Quote from Triple Jim:
The harvester lives just down the road from me. We share crop, meaning that as the land owner I pay the property taxes, 1/3 of herbicide,  fertilizer and insecticide costs. In turn I get 1/3 of the raw crop to market as I see fit.

Interesting, thanks.  Not being a farmer, I rarely hear what the actual deals are. 

[Gliderjohn]

Quote from acogoff:
" Looks pretty dry there also. My soybeans were a disappointment this year, Just 18- 20 bu per acre. Short and hard to get into the combine. Just too dry in the month of august which is key to yield in my area. Nice machinery, by the way."

We have not really been dry but did get minimal rain during the critical flowering period. Expecting around 30-35 bushel an acre. We also own some land in far NW Kansas and cash rent there due to it being much more uncertain on crop success and being a five hour drive to check things out.
Most of the farmers around me are third generation, most with ag degrees. All sharp, multi talented people. The amount of money invested and cash flowed is staggering anymore. One thing they still have in common with older generation farmers is that they still work their butts off and put in a tremendous amount of hours when needed.
GliderJohn

[Chuck in Indiana]

Easy money. 


I remember the day a mechanical 1 row corn picker was pulled into the field. (!) Instead of the backbreaking labor by many for weeks, the corn was being shucked by a machine. What a wonderful invention. 
Now, our (lifetime family friend) farmer brings two 24 (I think, but they are huge) row harvesters in the field, and is gone in less than 2 hours (!!) while I (figuratively) paint my toenails and eat bon bons. 
We farm on the shares. I supply the land, he supplies the machinery. All costs and profits are split 50/50. This was a horrendous year in central Indiana, cold Spring rains never stopped. Our farmer has 120 acres that he never could get planted.
Still, our soybeans made right at 50 bushels per acre. Don't know about the corn, that is what is going into the semi. I'm guessing around 170.

[oldbike54]

 So ... it turns out you high powered genius types are really just a bunch of farmers ... Seriously , I've never met a successful farmer or rancher that wasn't pretty sharp .

  Dusty

[Lannis]

So ... it turns out you high powered genius types are really just a bunch of farmers ... Seriously , I've never met a successful farmer or rancher that wasn't pretty sharp .

  Dusty

We have 40 acres of soybeans in our river bottom field, not QUITE ready to be harvested yet.

I just get "benefits" out of it, no money changes hands.   The grower (a school friend of ours from 40 years back) pays all the costs, does all the work, and sells all the beans.

I get a "land-use" break on the county taxes, the land kept in superb shape, and the fields trimmed and in use, plus I get to shoot the doves and deer that come behind the crop (corn, beans, or wheat) afterwards.   I COULD charge or go on shares, but I really like keeping the land in production and encouraging local family agriculture where I can ....

Lannis

[oldbike54]

We have 40 acres of soybeans in our river bottom field, not QUITE ready to be harvested yet.

I just get "benefits" out of it, no money changes hands.   The grower (a school friend of ours from 40 years back) pays all the costs, does all the work, and sells all the beans.

I get a "land-use" break on the county taxes, the land kept in superb shape, and the fields trimmed and in use, plus I get to shoot the doves and deer that come behind the crop (corn, beans, or wheat) afterwards.   I COULD charge or go on shares, but I really like keeping the land in production and encouraging local family agriculture where I can ....

Lannis

 Yeah , we need more of that type of involvement  Plus , it's really cool to watch the process .

  Dusty

 

[Texas Turnip]

Thanks for posting the pics.

In the "good ole days" we had a binder that cut one row, then you shocked it and later came by with a wagon and loaded the shocks by hand to take in to get the cobs off and stored the cobs in a corn crib That is why you needed a family of 14+.

In Hunter, KS is a mural showing a farmer in the early days planting one acre of wheat by hand in a day.

I think our binder had a 4 or 5 foot header that cut the grain. Then you shocked it and later loaded it on the wagon and hauled to the thresher. You unloaded the wagon with a pitchfork. Always, at least 20 for a threshing crew.

All the women folk put out a spread of food that I still remember and it was almost 60 years ago.  When I was 12 I worked more and ate more in one day than I now do in a week.

Tex

[Chuck in Indiana]

  When I was 12 I worked more and ate more in one day than I now do in a week.

Absolutely. I had zero body fat when I was a kid.  When I first went to college there were some kids lifting weights, grunting and straining to lift 140 lbs over their head.
I could hardly keep a straight face..

[redrider]

Pop hailed from a sharecropper home in Wilson, NC and I remember visiting every summer until Granpa died during one visit.(His Birthday to boot!?). Always a lot of fun and hard work but Granpa would race me to the tractor, a Poppin' John, and it was off to the corner store for a pop and peanuts. Years later I realized just how tight money was for him. The corner store was exactly that-nothing else for miles. Setting at the junction with tobacco and corn fields to the horizon. Mom was the warehouse manager for the old John Deere warehouse in Columbia, SC. The equipment was the full size "Star Wars" toys of the day for me.

I have not thought of those times for quite a while. Misty eyed and choked up but thanks anyway. It's all good.