Wheat Harvest 2014

We had a long slow wet spring, and wheat harvest was the same way. The wheat was barely ripe when we started on July 18th, which is pretty late around here. The weather was cool [1] and every morning we had fog and dew. We couldn’t get started until after lunch, and the minute the sun started going down we were done.

Cruising across the field on day one.

Day One
Day One

Lunch time on day two. I tried to run a pass and plugged it up twice [2]. Time for a leisurely lunch.

Day Two
Day Two

The combine’s still looking pretty clean.

Day Two
Day Two

The new ‘little tractor’ cranking the auger.

Unloading Wheat
Unloading Wheat

The piece of junk John Deere on the wagon. Our grain buggy blew a hydraulic cylinder, so we’re doing it old school, pulling gravity wagons around.

Unloading Wheat
Unloading Wheat

The circled area at the top is wheat pouring into the bin.

Unloading Wheat
Unloading Wheat

Jason Holzinger brought his weigh cart out so we could calibrate our yield monitor. By weighing several loads we can configure the yield monitor so we get an accurate map of the yield [3].

Precision Ag
Precision Ag

And the result of this calibration is that we can produce maps like this that show how the field yielded. Red is bad, green is good.

The Accurate Yield Map
The Accurate Yield Map

By day 3 it’s finally getting dry. We’re raising clouds of dust. No more clean combine.

Getting Dry
Getting Dry

And as the end gets near, we’re pushing it harder and harder.

Pushing it
Pushing it

See the circled area? That’s wheat pouring over the edge of the hopper. We couldn’t quite make a round in this field before filling up. But that didn’t stop us [4] from trying!

And the only thing prettier than a wheat field is …

Harvested Field
Harvested Field
Harvested Field
Harvested Field

… a harvested wheat field.

Wheat 2014 is history. It was our best wheat crop ever by over 10%.

In just 2 and a half months we’ll be planting the 2015 wheat crop. Can’t wait!


1. Which was good, because the air conditioner in the combine was barely working. “Waaah, wah, waaah,” you say? You’ve never sat in a glassed-in box on a July afternoon then.

2. Tom was riding with me, and after I plugged it the second time I said, “Ok, time to stop being stupid.” And Tom said, “I wondered when you were going to admit it.”

3. Tom is helping keep Jason’s truck steady so our measurements aren’t compromised.

4. I’m not naming names, but ‘us’ was not ‘me.’ I was busy taking pictures as opposed to actually working.

2 thoughts on “Wheat Harvest 2014

  1. Yeah, the default color scheme is green is good, red is bad, and yellow is in the middle.

    The default is really stupid, because red and green are the far edges of the bell curve, and the middles are crammed together in colors you can’t differentiate

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