September 13, 2013

View of the day-Precision Ag brings us supper in the field and the flatbed on the pickup makes a great table.

Today we moved five miles north of the yard to work on more canola. Al and Kim took the semi and tandem up to the field and Marilyn picked them up after stopping for a few groceries. We went back to the farm to bring the combines and the pickup...just in case...to the field, then it was time to crank it up.

Al was able to keep up with the semi, until the bin filled up, then he got behind and the combines had to wait for a bit...as you can see by the mountain of canola in the hopper. Kim got another driver out for the tandem, which helped get us back on track. Bob was out with his JD combine, so those truckers had no rest.

Day two with the seed saver worked a lot better when Marilyn changed the angle to 20º...there was not one pod on it during the whole day. Even with the dust that collected, you can see what is going on underneath without any problems, and there is still a bit of canola the collects along the ridge on the bottom, but as you can see from the picture, you could almost count them.

This UFC field...Ultimate Field of Canola... was going to be tested by Precision Ag for yield. Several farmers who used the seed would be tested and the one with the highest yield would get a trip to Vegas. Kim had to decide which swath was going to give him the best results...it was a tough one to decide, they all looked good.  Marilyn's monitor was showing almost 65 bu/ac in some places, but by the time you find that out, the swath has already been picked up.

He chose two swaths that ran 2/3 of the way across the half section and waited for the weigh wagon to show up. When it showed up, we all had to stop for supper that they had brought out...A&W chicken...and it hit the spot. 

Once we were done dining, Kim went on one swath and Marilyn went on the other, so we could both calibrate our machines for weight, and see which swath was the best. Marilyn lost. Too bad it wasn't that 65 bu swath, still mid 40's is nothing to sneeze at.

After they dumped the weigh cart into the semi, Kim and Marilyn took on a couple of riders and we worked until we had gotten both trucks full, then called it quits.

Tomorrow we straight cut wheat...