Cedar Lodge Farms photo/video thread

[farmerknowsbest]

Originally Posted by stuvecorp

Bar-B-Que!

Warren, you ever do anything like rock raking/windrowing? It's pretty rocky here and am hoping the farmer will plant soybeans this year so next year I could 'harvest' lots of rock.

Yes, we have a 14 ft stone rake and a high dump stone picker. Neither gets used much anymore. We have a LOT of stones in this area, we use a TV-140 with a stone bucket on to pick all of our land each spring.

Warren

[farmerknowsbest]

Originally Posted by Fortress

What are your thoughts on your case? Would you get one again? How's it on fuel?


Share some thoughts, if you don't mind. And what was that dozer blade originally from?

Welcome to Lawnsite Fortress!!!

We've had good luck with the Case. We purchased it used with a lot of hours on it, but it has treated us well so far. I'd buy another CX210. I wouldn't buy this machine again. I'd buy one with a hydraulic thumb next time. I'm rather partial to Case equipment as we can get ag service rates (1/2 regular rate) on it because of the farm. Cat does not offer that in our area.

The rake on the dozer was made by Rockland, it was originally for a wheel/track loader but has been modified to fit our needs. It was free with the dozer so why not. LOL

Warren

[AEL]

Warren I love the thread. I grew up on a farm and it was what i was suposed to be doing, until my parents got a divorce. If i had the money i would do it in a heart beat no questions asked. Farming is a tough life but it is also the most rewarding life. Unfortunetly its way to expensive to start farming now adays

[Jelinek61]

Great thread man, did that rockland root rake used to be for a loader and you guys converted it for the dozer?

[farmerknowsbest]

Hi there,

Well it isn't fully up to date but it is a lot closer than it was! The January to April pages are up and ready for your viewing pleasure. A lot to see so make sure to check out each page and read the descriptions. Please ask any questions or make any comments you like as I'd be happy to respond to them.

Follow this link to the 2010 page directory.
http://www.cedarlodgefarms.com/2010dir.html

Not convinced, well here are a few teasers to get you interested.

January


February


March


April



Thanks for looking, I look forward to reading your comments.

Warren

16830

[Duffster]

That seems like alot of extra work just to load grain. Isn't the quality good enough to just load the truck straight out of the bim?

[farmerknowsbest]

Originally Posted by Duffster

That seems like alot of extra work just to load grain. Isn't the quality good enough to just load the truck straight out of the bim?

Well it isn't much extra work. I assume you mean unloading the bins into the wagons and then putting the grain into the overhead and then loading the truck. The idea is to get the truck loaded in 2 minutes and back in line at the ethanol plant as quickly as possible. It takes 45 minutes to load the truck with an auger. You have to remember, our truck carries 1600bu of corn each trip, many others over 2000bu, not the 850-1000 the US government allows your farmers to carry.

As for quality. No, not at all. We had a very early frost last year. Next to none of the corn black layered, it was a forced brown layer. Our average moisture at the combine was 29%. Highest was 42 and lowest (In February ONLY) 20%. A lot in the low 30's. Quality was all over the place but it did go up drastically in the bin.

Without blending corn out this fall we would have had no grade 2 corn. Once I got good at blending almost 60% of our corn went grade 2 and the rest grade 3. Just one of those years.

Corn was in the ground 2 weeks earlier this year so hopefully the harvest will be shifted that much as well.

Warren

[AEL]

Great pics warren, hows your corn and wheat looking so far this year? Wheat looks excellent in our area, the corn is a little behind due to all the rain this year , but a couple weeks of nice warm sunny weather should help things along.

[farmerknowsbest]

Originally Posted by T_S_S

Great pics warren, hows your corn and wheat looking so far this year? Wheat looks excellent in our area, the corn is a little behind due to all the rain this year , but a couple weeks of nice warm sunny weather should help things along.

Corn is growing. First planted should be tasselling by mid month. I'd imagine spring wheat harvest is about 2 weeks away as well. Beans are hurting a bit from the cold wet start they had but this past week with the warm weather and sun have really shot up a few trifoliates. Our wheat looks excellent, very thick and healthy, we'll see what we get for quality I guess. Would be nice to be able to sell wheat for something other than feed this decade. LOL

Warren

[farmerknowsbest]

Well it was another bad year for wheat. Surprise surprise. Yields were average, quality was excellent and fusarium was HIGH! Oh well, better luck next time I guess.

There was no aspect of harvest that went smoothly this year. Daily rains kept the moisture high, it never got below 18% until the day I said screw it and put it in the bin. I had no choice, heads were starting to sprout.

It didn't come at a great time. Mom and dad were gone on vacation, and I only had one employee to help but we managed. The grain cart came in handy.

We used 2 dump wagons, one on the 8200, and the other on the TS130a



Had the grain cart at the far end of the field as a full round couldn't be made.


To make things more interesting in the rear half of the farm vetch and other broad leafs had escaped.








Got to love that beautiful clean sample an axial flow will give you! If only the straw looked so good.


I like any photo with a downward angle on a tractor.




It's going great its going great...POOF! There is a little too much oil in that tire track for my liking.


Putting the wheat in the dryer bin. Won't dry it here but if worst comes to worst we should be able to hold it from spoiling with the heater.




Day one all the grain was 18-16.5% moisture. No photos from day 2, more of the same, but it started at 15 and ended at 13%. We put all that in the overhead to save handling it twice. Plan is to dry the lower moisture grain then put up the high moisture and dry it down too.

As for the straw, it is wet out of the combine. In bad shape too. To get the wet heads to thresh I had to have the concaves set at 0.9 (anyone with a read combine will know that is TIGHT!), the rotor over 900rpm and the fan at 1200rpm. As a result, lets just say, the straw won't have to be chopped before being fed or bed with. HAHA. The end result was a very dense wet big windrow.

A few days later after reconfiguring the elevator for drying wheat we began. To my astonishment, the dryer started first shot. (this never happens) With wheat you want to use low heat, about 100F and only one burner. A corn dryer has high capacity in wheat. I couldn't have put much dryer grain through without overloading the blower system filling the bins.

Used the 8200 and dump trailer to transfer the wet wheat from the bin we put it in to the overhead.











About 8 hours of drying later it was all done. A lot of work, BUT there is a silver lining. The wheat came off the field with about 7% fusarium. You're allowed 1.5% to make milling grade. I took a few corn samples in the storage bin after the dryer and cleaner. 1.9%!!!! Yes it is still over the limit. But we still have to ship it, handling it that little bit extra and it should make milling grade and big bucks! Like I told dad, even if we have to handle the grain 3 or 4 times recleaning it each time it easily pays for itself when you're facing a 175$/tonne discount for fusarium wheat.

That's it for wheat so far, I'll do another thread on the straw fiasco. Any comments or questions are welcome.

Warren