Very muddy harvest video!!!!

[fArMeRkNoWsBeSt]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ve2vL7BflVg

WOW! That looks like absolutely no fun!!!!

Enjoy

[td25c]

No fun at all.Once they get the crop in ,look at all the field repair they have in the spring.Sometimes its unavoidable,bring the dozer when it drys out.

[Steve Frazier]

Did you see the strap snap off the back of the grain wagon? That would have hurt!

[bill onthehill]

They would have been further ahead letting it stand till it froze up and then harvesting. Any crop loss would be small compared to damage to machinery from yanking that hard on it. did you see the 90 degree tug on the combine? It's a wonder they didn't tear the back axle right off it.

[td25c]

They would have been further ahead letting it stand till it froze up and then harvesting. Any crop loss would be small compared to damage to machinery from yanking that hard on it. did you see the 90 degree tug on the combine? It's a wonder they didn't tear the back axle right off it.

We call that cowboying,Yee haa! The 90 degree tug on the combine and broken strap behind the grain cart was pretty bad.That is expensive equipment there jerking around on .Its allways cheaper in the long run to hire professionals to retreve stuck equipment.Or for that matter , hire professionals for what ever needs done.

[Deere9670]

They would have been further ahead letting it stand till it froze up and then harvesting. Any crop loss would be small compared to damage to machinery from yanking that hard on it. did you see the 90 degree tug on the combine? It's a wonder they didn't tear the back axle right off it.

I agree with you bill, that tug on that combine was rough too....lucky they dident snap the axle:eek: I think it must have been a custom outfit, because when they roll through town...its either get the crop out or leave it in the field! Nice find on the video farmer....it was ugly, but fun to watch at the same time. It would suck to be the guy washing all that equipment!

[Deere9670]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTjdz75t8pc

heres another neat video to watch.....this guys from Iowa, and has recently updated most of his equipment to tracks.......still marks up the field, but not nearly as bad as the SD boys!

[td25c]

Sometimes fall harvest is wet and it cant be avoided,but to put it on film and present it to the world like they did says alot about there operation.I would be embarassed.

[Cretebaby]

Sometimes fall harvest is wet and it cant be avoided,but to put it on film and present it to the world like they did says alot about there operation.I would be embarassed.

Whats to be embaressed about?

It is what it is

I would do somethings different like not run the buggies in the feild if it is that wet but maybe they cant make it to the end IDK

You got to remember that there isnt a great deal of weight on the rear axle with a big head on so some of those tugs arn't as bad as they look

Also you never know they night be racing the next rainstorm or need to be at the next place down the road

[RocksnRoses]

When I saw the first video, it looked like an excercise in stupidity, to me. I would have rather doubted that the grain they were harvesting, would pay for the fuel and the potential damage to the machinery. After watching the second video, it seems that this is reasonably common practise in the northern hemisphere. I would like to know, when is the cut off point between harvesting and leaving the crop before winter and can a crop that is left over winter, be harvested after the snow thaws, or does the snow flatten the crop? When they are harvesting the corn, I think it is, in water, doesn't the stalk draw the water up and make everything damp? In Australia, the grain has to harvested below about 13% moisture content before it can be delivered and stored, without out it becoming mouldy or breeding weevils. The grain they are harvesting would have to be much higher in moisture content, so is it dried before storage? I apologise for all the questions, but that is so different to harvesting here, about the only thing that would come near it, would be harvesting rice.

Rn'R.

[Cretebaby]

When I saw the first video, it looked like an excercise in stupidity, to me.

You are right some of it was just plain stupid

I would have rather doubted that the grain they were harvesting, would pay for the fuel and the potential damage to the machinery.

Corn was very valuable last year

After watching the second video, it seems that this is reasonably common practise in the northern hemisphere.

It isnt that common but last year was extremely wet We had 500 year floods here in the midwest making this year much worse than most

I would like to know, when is the cut off point between harvesting and leaving the crop before winter and can a crop that is left over winter, be harvested after the snow thaws, or does the snow flatten the crop?

Feild loss from over winter can be huge making it possibly not worth the harvest at all

When they are harvesting the corn, I think it is, in water, doesn't the stalk draw the water up and make everything damp? In Australia, the grain has to harvested below about 13% moisture content before it can be delivered and stored, without out it becoming mouldy or breeding weevils. The grain they are harvesting would have to be much higher in moisture content, so is it dried before storage?

It is dried before storage but once corn dries down in the feild it doesnt take moisture back on like small grain or soybeans

I apologise for all the questions, but that is so different to harvesting here, about the only thing that would come near it, would be harvesting rice.

Rn'R.

Trust me where we farm wasnt anything like that last year:drinkup

[td25c]

Whats to be embaressed about?

It is what it is

I would do somethings different like not run the buggies in the feild if it is that wet but maybe they cant make it to the end IDK

You got to remember that there isnt a great deal of weight on the rear axle with a big head on so some of those tugs arn't as bad as they look

Also you never know they night be racing the next rainstorm or need to be at the next place down the road

It is what it is for sure,Its there job and there equipment.I would not jerk around on my equipment like that,lett alone put in on youtube.

[Steve Frazier]

did you see the 90 degree tug on the combine? It's a wonder they didn't tear the back axle right off it.
I was more concerned how the cutter head whipped around, I thought for sure it was going to be smashed, it nearly dug in on the moving end. There was no call to pull so hard, that thing would have come loose pulling slow too.

[fireman050]

look at about 1:55


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpfd-nS59Us

[RocksnRoses]

Thank you for the reply, Cretebaby, that explains it very well.

Rn'R.

[Awhelan]

What I'd like to know is where they got those straps and what there worth they seem to handle a huge shock load!

[fArMeRkNoWsBeSt]

I'm going to answer some of your questions.

They are a custom crew.

Those ropes are not just ropes. They are bungee straps. The same thing that you jump off a bridge with but much heavier. They are the thing to have to pull your own equipment out. They will even outpull logger chains. The idea is you back up as close as you can and then take a run at it in the highest gear you can shift into. The risk of damaging the equipment is quite minimal.

Also, I'm sure they have, like we have on our combine, but a shock absorbing tow point to the center pivot of the axle. We have a "hitch" on our combine that is bolted by 8 grade 8 bolts to the main frame of the combine that we can pull on all we like with no risk of ripping the machine apart.

We had a terribly muddy fall this year too in Eastern Ontario, we mudded out several hundred acres of corn. It isn't the end of the world. You have to remember it gets very cold up here and the ground freezes fairly deep. It helps with busting out the compaction.

Now, for the third time, I'm going to post my rant on why you DON"T want to leave corn out in the snow over the winter. it is not a good feeling.

Warren

[fArMeRkNoWsBeSt]

You are not understanding the power snow has on corn! I just wrote this up on pirate island but I'll do it here too for kicks.

Tough call. It is not a very good feeling to still have hundreds of acres of corn out in the field at the new year. We've experienced this many times and it is just no fun. If you are going to keep corn out all winter, you have to be very smart about it, you have to aggressively scout your fields to find the varieties that are standing very well. If the stalks are breaking before the snow flies you are going to end up using a bean head in the spring to harvest moldy mud covered corn.

This is from 2006 in February. As you can see there is a tremendous amount of damage to the corn and the yield loss was close to 20%.
http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e287/farmerknowsbest/Combine%20Stuck/DSCN1122.jpg

It can be very spotty though,
http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e287/farmerknowsbest/Combine%20Stuck/DSCN1120.jpg

I don't have any pics before I sprayed the beans, but there was a lot of volunteer corn in the beans the following year. Fortunately it was Roundup ready beans and not roundup ready corn!

Also, just because you think the ground is frozen, doesn't mean it is frozen enough.
http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e287/farmerknowsbest/Combine%20Stuck/DSCN1067.jpg

My personal opinion is that it is better to mud off the crop, ESPECIALLY soybeans, and deal with the aftermath of the mud instead of wrecking your equipment in the winter. Not only do you get stuck in the snow and icy crap in the winter, threshing frozen grain is like running gravel through your machine, you do excess wear to everything.

Ok, lets say you don't get done and you leave excellent standing corn out in the field and it snows a LOT.

http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e287/farmerknowsbest/Combine%20Stuck/DSCN1053.jpg

Notice where the cobs are, right at snow level. The loss from small animals is astronomical! The geese just walk up and down the rows eating at will. Same with the deer. Same with the coons.

Not only that, all that snow when it begins to melt, melts from the top down, but also the bottom up. So you end up with caves. Eventually the ice pack falls, and it takes the corn frozen in the middle of it down with it.

Trust me, as bad as those ruts might look, you are going to make the same ruts in the spring getting half the crop.

Just a different point of view for you to think about.

Warren

[RocksnRoses]

Now, for the third time, I'm going to post my rant on why you DON"T want to leave corn out in the snow over the winter. it is not a good feeling.

Warren

Thanks for the explanation, Warren. You have to understand, that here in South Australia, grain, that is wheat ,barley and legumes, have to be harvested below 13% moisture content, so all harvesting operations are conducted in hot, dry and dusty conditions. There was only one harvest in 1992, where we had a very wet spring and summer, where some headers became bogged in soft patches in the paddocks, but they certainly weren't harvesting through water. Watching that first video, seemed like a total abuse of equipment, to me, but now that you have explained the reasons for being there and the problems associated with leaving the corn in the field over winter, I have a better understanding of why they were harvesting in those conditions, because up until now, I had never seen anything like that before, although I do think they were pretty hard on their equipment.

Rn'R.

[Tom K]

Interesting video, you certainly don't see anything like that in this part of the world. I can only remember us being bogged while reaping once, but it wasn't as bad as any of that.

[bobcatmechanic]

i don't know if thats a family owned farm and equipment or if some one hires them to come in and harvest for them but if they are hired to come in and do it that equipment looks pretty new so they may run in 3 years or so and trade it off for new equipment and just roll it out so it may be just run her hard and dont wory about it yeah it does look like they are really hard on their stuff though i thought that head was going to come off and be in parts

[Cretebaby]

i don't know if thats a family owned farm and equipment or if some one hires them to come in and harvest for them but if they are hired to come in and do it that equipment looks pretty new so they may run in 3 years or so and trade it off for new equipment and just roll it out so it may be just run her hard and dont wory about it yeah it does look like they are really hard on their stuff though i thought that head was going to come off and be in parts

Its a custom harvest company

[fArMeRkNoWsBeSt]

i don't know if thats a family owned farm and equipment or if some one hires them to come in and harvest for them but if they are hired to come in and do it that equipment looks pretty new so they may run in 3 years or so and trade it off for new equipment and just roll it out so it may be just run her hard and dont wory about it yeah it does look like they are really hard on their stuff though i thought that head was going to come off and be in parts

Actually, that is a custom harvester, most of them trade all their combines each year. You got to remember those combines start in the end of May cutting wheat in Texas and don't stop until the corn is off in North Dakota! So the wear and tear on the machines isn't that serious, but still, the video they might be a bit rough on the equipment. However, if you were getting stuck every couple hours you might be a bit rough on the equipment too.

Custom harvesters have the gotta go gotta go gotta go mentality. They are in one spot usually for 2 weeks or so, they cut what they can and when the 2 weeks is up they are gone because like the old saying goes, the wheat harvest marches 10 miles a day north whether it is raining or not! It might not be the best attitude, but it is the only one you can have in that line of work and every crew has it.

I forgot to address something, someone said they shouldn't be pulling out their own equipment, they should be getting a professional with a wrecker. Ok, this is right, the wrecker would get it out and guarantee no damage. How many wrecker drivers do you think would let a farmer hook a 500hp tractor to the front of their truck and drag that truck a mile and a half through mud to pull out a combine in the middle of a 1500ac corn field, then drag the truck back again through the same mud only to come back and do it again in a few hours? Not only that, wreckers are somewhat more expensive than doing it yourself. I'm not ripping on you, just trying to explain why things are done the way they are in agriculture.

Warren

[Deere9670]

Its a custom harvest company

And thats exactly why you seen them in the field under those conditions...with them guys, it's either harvest now or never, because they need to keep moving along to get all of there contracts done...they cant wait for the field to dry out like a normal farmer/landowner can. I feel bad for the landowner, having to deal with those ruts and compaction, but thats what you get when you dont do something yourself:bash

[bigblueox]

They would have been further ahead letting it stand till it froze up and then harvesting. Any crop loss would be small compared to damage to machinery from yanking that hard on it. did you see the 90 degree tug on the combine? It's a wonder they didn't tear the back axle right off it.

I was thinking the same thing. I've seen a case ih 2388 axel come off doing something similiar

[thejdman04]

I see they were unloading on the run, what happens when the combine falls into a sink hole and the unloading auger hits the cart?

[Cretebaby]

I see they were unloading on the run, what happens when the combine falls into a sink hole and the unloading auger hits the cart?

Get a new one;)

[Tacodriver]

They would have been further ahead letting it stand till it froze up and then harvesting. Any crop loss would be small compared to damage to machinery from yanking that hard on it. did you see the 90 degree tug on the combine? It's a wonder they didn't tear the back axle right off it.

Sometimes you have to pull off angle for 2 reasons lack of decent footing directly behind the machine and the other one is when you twist it out like that you are only pulling out one wheel at a time so its not a dead pull.
The rear axle has very little weight on it. I ran a 2188 with a 30 foot Honeybee header one summer and if I stopped too fast or went down a hill with loaded grain tank I would lift the back wheels couple feet off the ground:D. The custom cutter I worked for used the same rope they used to spot railcars with seemed to work ok.

[watglen]

I have to agree with everyone who thinks these must be a bunch blathering idiots! If my father saw me do anything like that he'ld beat me senseless...

I pity the equipment!

[Cretebaby]

I have to agree with everyone who thinks these must be a bunch blathering idiots! If my father saw me do anything like that he'ld beat me senseless...

I pity the equipment!

I did a little research on this custom company

Its kinda idiotic to make that statement without understanding what these guys are dealing with JMO

[Swamp rat]

This was some great videos. Looks like some of our seasons cutting Rice in South Louisiana , trying to beat a Hurricane.

[Hendrik]

There was only one harvest in 1992, where we had a very wet spring and summer, where some headers became bogged in soft patches in the paddocks, but they certainly weren't harvesting through water.
I have had an odd patch of water in a crop but that was in pretty rough country with big sand hills and crab holes. Although I have never got a harvester bogged, trucks and tractors yes.
There is a fair bit of this sort of thing in Queensland where they grow summer crops and they can get a few inches of rain and the ground is still soft when they have to get in there.

[North Texan]

I worked for custom cutters for a while, and we never treated the equipment that poorly. Of course, the equipment was owned, not leased, and it was traded infrequently. There's a difference between using equipment and abusing equipment.

If we had wet spots that would stick or get close to sticking us, we cut around them. If the field was soft, we watched our loads very closely. When the combine bin hit the half-full mark, we unloaded. If that didn't work, we moved to another field to wait until that one dried, or moved on if too much time was passing and the weather just wasn't cooperating.

I have used bungee cords, but I always pull going backwards. Pulling sideways can damage axles and headers, and there isn't any job that will pay for damaging either.

I have no idea what those particular crops were worth, but I never cut a field that would have covered the cost of the damage done to the land and the equipment when it was all said and done.

[LonestarCobra]

I worked for custom cutters for a while, and we never treated the equipment that poorly. Of course, the equipment was owned, not leased, and it was traded infrequently. There's a difference between using equipment and abusing equipment.

If we had wet spots that would stick or get close to sticking us, we cut around them. If the field was soft, we watched our loads very closely. When the combine bin hit the half-full mark, we unloaded. If that didn't work, we moved to another field to wait until that one dried, or moved on if too much time was passing and the weather just wasn't cooperating.

I have used bungee cords, but I always pull going backwards. Pulling sideways can damage axles and headers, and there isn't any job that will pay for damaging either.

I have no idea what those particular crops were worth, but I never cut a field that would have covered the cost of the damage done to the land and the equipment when it was all said and done.


I agree with that. The outfit I worked for would never stand for abusing their equipment. We had a guy hit a power line pole and knocked the header clean off the feeder house. He got a bus ride home later that evening. He had been told to slow down several times.

[BillyB]

look at about 1:55


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpfd-nS59Us


This video makes me appreciate the times I've been stuck. And imagine what the poor guy at about 2:00 thought when he hit that sink hole. I hope that the tractor was parked there without a driver when it happened.

[Brimlo]

if the driver was in that jd i bet he would of needed a new set of pants.

[tmh774]

Anyone know who the harvest crew was?

[Cretebaby]

Anyone know who the harvest crew was?

http://www.rungreen.dk/

[EZ TRBO]

I did a little research on this custom company

Its kinda idiotic to make that statement without understanding what these guys are dealing with JMO

I was kinda thinking the same thing Crete, if a guy thinks about the jerking on the machines to unstuck them and as fast as the slide around I'm thinking that the muddy ground helped slide it around rather than pull back on it. As far as hitch points, they know they are getting into stuff like that so have the machines set up for just that, and have the cables and straps to pull. If the harvest company owner is a all go no quit type he is also the type that will ream your rear for going to fast and breaking things, prob has that go go go, but don't break it attuide.

Nother deal but a few winters ago we had a milk truck stuck in the ditch, facing up hill. Fully loaded quad axle and it took a 6WD grader and a 4x4 Oshkosh to pull him out, and in using the stretch straps jerking him was the only way to do it. The owner of the truck was there and it was HIS straps and he said that was the best way to do it. It worked, somtimes you just have to get a bit rough with things, not always. Just sitting here watching the video doesn't do any justice to what the conditions were really like.

Maybe they are a little rough, but maybe it is the only way to get the job done.

Trbo

[stovepipe699]

Unless you have dry ground for the pulling tractor, jerking the tow strap is the only way to get out a stuck machine. In fact, they're designed to work that way. And while I wouldn't do a 90' pull on a combine, I do have to pull at 45' angle to get my air seeder out. Repeatedly, going on one side, then the other. But judging by the fact they don't even have RWA on their combines, I'm assuming the custom crew on the video don't normally harvest in wet conditions. I do quite often, and would not make much money if I left my crop behind every time it got wet. Thats also why my land is a spider web of drainage, if the water drains off you don't get the quagmire seen on the you tube video.