Wheat Harvest

We tried four different days over the month of July to get the wheat out.  We were thwarted by wet wheat, muddy ground, and rain.  One of the times, a couple days before our family vacation, we were able to get enough acres out to allow us to bale some small square bales, and then haul some manure to keep the pits from overflowing.
Finally, on the last day of July, we were able to finish harvest.  The wheat did test very high for vomitoxin and had an average of 49 lb. test weight.  The elevator ended up paying us $1.76 per bushel (should have been around $5) with all of our docks!  At least we were able to get rid of it.  There were some farmers that harvested their wheat wet and ended up owing the elevator money!  Not a very profitable year for wheat!
We cut a lot of ruts still at the end of July, and I even had to skip a couple of wet spots for fear of getting stuck.  We also left an acre or two that we just shredded because the weeds were too bad to run through the combine.

After harvest, we were able to get our large round bales made, and this week we got them all hauled home and stacked.

CaseIH has their tillage tool plant in Goodfield (the former DMI plant), and in the summer they are always looking for wheat fields to demonstrate or test new equipment.  This year they called and asked if they could use our field for a photo shoot for some upgraded tillage equipment.  They spent a whole day in our field running, cleaning, and shooting two tools with a professional photographer.  They usually do some free tillage for us as a gratuity.

 Be ye ashamed, O ye husbandmen; howl, O ye vinedressers, for the wheat and for the barley; because the harvest of the field is perished.
Joel 1:11