Here at last

Parker cleaning up some trash in the wheat before it is cut.

Sorry about no post last week. We took a family trip for the benefit of the kids play time and our mental health. At least the kids played so hard they wore themselves out. Jenn and I were too tired to care after keeping up with them. We saw the Calumet elevator open but not receiving any loads of wheat.

Now for this week's post:

Well I think its official - Wheat Harvest '09 has started. Farmers in our area began cutting last Monday afternoon then followed a few rainy days. On Friday, we even started cutting with a test sample that showed 14% moisture. After cutting a truck load we were told "let's not cut anymore 'til next week" by Mark Sweeney (assistant elevator manager). The truckload of wheat Mikey and I brought in went for 15.7% moisture and got a moisture dock. Thankfully they took that one load and we were able to call ahead and stop Daddy & Mike from cutting anymore.

On this first load of wheat that we hauled in, the test weight managed to be OK at 57. If this is all greek to you, the moisture is the easy thing. It's like taking a measurement of the wheat's humidity and temperature together. The elevator can usually safely store wheat that has a moisture percentage below 13.5%. Especially if they have some drier wheat to blend it with. Now on to the test weight of the wheat which is its density. Our load came in at 57 lbs per cubic foot. Normally we like to see wheat weigh at least 60 lbs test weight (per cubic foot) which would be a perfect.

I'm sure you've all heard of farmers talk about how many bushels per acre their wheat made. Now you can imagine if you hear a farmer say his wheat made 40 bushels per acre, then in actuality it made 40 cubic feet of wheat per acre if his wheat's density was a perfect 60 lbs/sq ft.

To tie in the issue of the test weight to the real world, if our wheat yielded 40 cubic feet of wheat per acre and its test weight was only 57 lbs per cubic foot, it actually only made (40x57)/60 = 38 "bushels" per acre. This in essence is a wheat quality issue - being that it was less dense than the standard 60 lbs per cubic foot. A bushel by the way weighs 60 pounds regardless of its density. Bushels are simply a measurement of weight. Therefore, this bushels per acre measurement has the density quality built in to the equation. Sometimes as is the case, but probably not this year because of the stress the wheat was under (drought, hail, freeze), the wheat can even be more dense or heavier than 60 pounds test weight. I've even seen 1 load a couple years ago that went for 64 pounds test weight! You could feel that it was heavier than normal just by putting your fingers into it.

Some what relatedly, in some parts of the world, farmers have stopped using bushels to measure yield since they are such small units of measurement and have gone to using tons per acre. Times they are a changing.

To sum this wheat quality info all up, we had our wheat graded at grade 3. This is not great, but the test weight significantly affects the grading scale and moisture significantly affects the test weight. Anything 57 and below is grade 3 or worse and 58-59 is grade 2 and grade 1 is anything above 60 test weight. Now you know what we had. We expect the test weight on this particular field to increase since we are waiting for the moisture to go down before harvesting the wheat.

I am sure that someone noticed. Yes the truck was significantly over weight. However, being new to the grain cart, I'll get that weight issue figured out. Our crew is somewhat changed up: It includes Daddy on #1 Combine, Mike on #2, Willie on Trucks (Willie's mom passed last Thursday evening, so he's not able to be here til the middle of this week. Please pray for Willie and family.) Myself on Grain Cart (I've heard I've been called "hell-on-wheels" already, but I'm not sure why). Miko aka Mike Taylor bro-in-law at Grain Bins. Mikey & Konner as go-fers and assistants to all where needed as they learn the business.

While waiting for the wheat to dry out, we've worked on cleaning the sheds, putting up wrenches, sorting bolts and working cattle. A farmers work is never done, but we keep trying to get caught up.

Above: Mikey taking a break after cleaning the north shed.

This morning, (as I am trying to recover from a riduculously bad cold) I think the weather is showing signs of change. There was a lot less dew than we've been getting and the breeze feels more like harvesting weather. Forecast is for hot and dry for the next 2 weeks. Glory be. Watch out wheat, here we come :))

I would also like to introduce you guys to a new blog that we've found. We always take a look at is at lunch time since we've been around the house here lately. All the farm hands always want to "hear the update from the harvest blog." Our new frinds and bloggers are named Jenna

and Jada. They are blogging about wheat harvest from Texas to Canada. You can follow them along too. Right now Jenna and her family are in Seiling, OK cutting wheat and Jada and her crew are moving from Olney, TX to up north around Kiowa, KS Blog site: http://www.allaboardharvest.com/ You can subscribe to receive their blog entries by email by entering your email on the top right corner of their site. Also, check out the "What am I doing ..." box on the left side of the blog. It shows lots of interesting trivia.

Well until next week, keep the dust at your back and the breeze to your face and keep the wheels turning.

r