Roger’s Ramblings » farming

Arrival of The Birds

Roger — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 21:53:24 +0000

We live in farming country, with our property almost bordering a very large field/paddock. (See http://lisaandroger.com/2009/05/our-farming-neighbours/).

Today as I went by I noticed a flock of large white birds circling over the corn field – turns out they were swans.

A large number of waterbirds on a pond in a corn field near our house.

shows a shot of the nearest pond, with Mallard ducks, Canada geese and the white swans. I’m not sure if they are Tundra Swans or Mute Swans – both are indicated as being present in Michigan.

Corn Harvest

Roger — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 13:44:56 +0000

We live adjacent to a large field that is planted in either corn or soy beans each summer. I don’t know who owns the ground, nor who does the planting and harvesting, but they sure have access to some very large machinery. At the end of November we got an inch of rain over Thanksgiving, which came on top of already very wet and soggy conditions, and it seemed like the corn might have to stand all Winter, or at least well into the Winter until the ground froze enough to let the get on it. But on 30 November a monstrous combine harvester on very large rubber tracks turned up to harvest this corn. And it needed all of that support and drive that the huge rubber tracks and large rear drive wheels could offer to get around the field. It was accompanied by an equally large IH Case tractor with 8 drive wheels pulling a large bin that was on rubber tracks to take the corn from the combine out to waiting semi-truck and trailer that was beside the road.

Here’s one picture, and a gallery shows if you open this post.

John Deere 9770 STS

Our Farming Neighbours

Roger — Mon, 18 May 2009 12:10:19 +0000

We’re lucky enough to live “in the country” and so one of our neighbours (our properties touch corner to corner) is a large field of about 70 acres that is used by a local farmer to grow one of corn, soybeans or wheat each year.

Our Local Neighbourhood

After the corn had been harvested in 2007, a very large tractor turned up to cultivate the ground ready to plant the next crop, which in this year was to be winter wheat.

The large tractor approaches

A very large Case Steiger tractor that is 480 horsepower pulling a quite large gang of discs. Instead of wheels it has a large rubber track at each corner, and steers by hinging in the middle.

Making the turn

For all its size it can turn in a reasonably small space.

Heading off on the next pass

Turn completed, discs lowered back into ground and it’s off for the next 1/2 mile run to the other end of the field. Soon after this the field was planted with what turned out to be wheat, which was harvested in July 2008. (sorry no photos yet of the monster harvester that came). Once the harvest was completed a very large baler came to bale up the wheat straw.

The very large hay baler

This large baler is pulled and driven by an IH MX255 tractor – a little over 200 horsepower I think.

Circling...

Despite its large size this rig can turn in quite a small space too – the 4 wheels on the baler are capable of self steering to make the turns easier.

The large bales

This large baler makes bales that are 3′ x 4′ x 8′ (.9m x 1.2m x 2.5m). A day or so later they were loaded onto trucks by a big loader and hauled away – no hand stacking here!!!!!

A photo gallery of these images that can be viewed at a larger size can be seen here.

Our Farming Neighbours Photo Gallery

Roger — Mon, 18 May 2009 12:08:50 +0000

Some photos of the large tractor and haybaler that worked in the field neighbouring our property in 2007 and 2008. Click the image to open a larger view.