1600 bushel grain cart

[TOM4CWB]

More guys are moving away from bagging here. It was a big thing 5 yrs ago, but after the harvest from hell and other issues, guys want it in a bin in the yard now. We have had neighbors have big losses to spoilage and damage from wildlife skidoos etc. At $20 canola, nobody wants that out there they cant watch it and handle it quickly.

Chances of someone helping themselves to a bin are pretty rare. Nothing like that has happened here but if not sure, haul it home after harvest. Usually lots of time for that.

I watch those farm vids from europe. Everything carted home with a CVT tractor and end dumped into to a automated pit.

Security is a concern... at $50K per S-bee... then how to replace that pre contracted grain... not like we have it made in the shade... zero sum game... we leave this planet with exactly what we arrived with... nothing!!!

Cheers....

[shtferbrains]

Found a 2nd hired guy that was awesome this spring. Gave him $30/hour. He stayed until fall and got offered $40/hour driving truck up north. Left right before harvest. Never replaced him as there was only half a crop. But next year might be different. And anybody I have found doesn’t have their class 1.

On the labour thing you always have to consider it ongoing. It never ends.
The days of the liftime worker are long gone and the whole world is going through one of the worst times right now.
But you need people unless you plan on doing it all yourself.

I look at labour like a hockey team you have 1st 2nd 3rd and 4th line.
The superstars carry a lot of baggage and won't be there long. If you get a journeyman mechanic or welder you know that somethings screwy.
If your running with seniors players you better be looking for some replacements because they will only want short shift soon.
But when it's time to play you need people that are committed and have a good work ethic.
When one tells you they can never seem to make it for the week ends change them out Asap.
And beware of wives that call the shots.

Never stop looking even if they are on someone else's team.

[flea beetle]

On the labour thing you always have to consider it ongoing. It never ends.
The days of the liftime worker are long gone and the whole world is going through one of the worst times right now.
But you need people unless you plan on doing it all yourself.

I look at labour like a hockey team you have 1st 2nd 3rd and 4th line.
The superstars carry a lot of baggage and won't be there long. If you get a journeyman mechanic or welder you know that somethings screwy.
If your running with seniors players you better be looking for some replacements because they will only want short shift soon.
But when it's time to play you need people that are committed and have a good work ethic.
When one tells you they can never seem to make it for the week ends change them out Asap.
And beware of wives that call the shots.

Never stop looking even if they are on someone else's team.

Good way of looking at things. But sure doesn’t make my life any easier!

[megrizzly]

Harvest starts in the spring. If your neighbours are going, why are you sitting for a week? If ground conditions allow, put it in the ground as you will gain days earlier in the fall when the weather is better.

The dryer is cheap to run in august when the weather is nice and you can maintain top grain quality. You can't makeup days, so take any and all opportunities possible.

Crop choices can also spread out harvest. Is it possible to add some pulses that can be harvested earlier or some flax on the other end?

Sometimes its best just to accept a little downtime. Tell the combine guys to stop and take 20 minutes for supper. Run into far more $#&^ups and injuries when trying to run your balls off. There is such a thing as being too efficient and lots of the farms that have spent considerable capital trying to improve efficiency are on shaky ground when a blip happens.

[blackpowder]

How long does 20% moisture grain keep on air? Don’t have any, but my experience without is you have less than a week to get at it.

I can see freezing it if it is that late in the season, but it won’t keep if 10-15 Celsius even on air will it?

Drying grain with aeration can be a real misnomer. For a plethora of reasons.
However, I wouldn't dream of building any bin whatsoever without air.

[flea beetle]

Harvest starts in the spring. If your neighbours are going, why are you sitting for a week? If ground conditions allow, put it in the ground as you will gain days earlier in the fall when the weather is better.

The dryer is cheap to run in august when the weather is nice and you can maintain top grain quality. You can't makeup days, so take any and all opportunities possible.

Crop choices can also spread out harvest. Is it possible to add some pulses that can be harvested earlier or some flax on the other end?

Sometimes its best just to accept a little downtime. Tell the combine guys to stop and take 20 minutes for supper. Run into far more $#&^ups and injuries when trying to run your balls off. There is such a thing as being too efficient and lots of the farms that have spent considerable capital trying to improve efficiency are on shaky ground when a blip happens.

Starting a week later this year amounted to 20 bushels per acre more on barley, 5 bushels more on canola, 40-90 bushels per acre more on oats as the very early oats crops made an absolute zero, and wheat was close to the same yield. Got paid very well for waiting a week. These are numbers from trusted neighbours that don’t bullshit on yields. And I know for sure I am the lightest on fertility as well in the group.

That is $180/acre on barley, $115/acre on canola, and $420-$945/acre on oats.

Have found in our area, you are better off waiting than not. Seems if the crop comes up and suffers from the cold, it is a laggard all year. Again, a “here” thing.

You pay a little on the tail end with fighting the later fall weather some years, but as you can see, you have to lose big time in fall to bring this years yield differential back to even.

[flea beetle]

Drying grain with aeration can be a real misnomer. For a plethora of reasons.
However, I wouldn't dream of building any bin whatsoever without air.

Do you gain a week, two weeks, two months in storage on 20 moisture grain in a bin before it will heat? I genuinely don’t know. Never aerated.

If 16.5 or dryer it goes in the bin here. If over that it goes in bags or else in the dryer and then binned depending where we are at in harvest. I’m sure you gain a lot of time in that 17-18 range though.

[AlbertaFarmer5]

Do you gain a week, two weeks, two months in storage on 20 moisture grain in a bin before it will heat? I genuinely don’t know. Never aerated.

If 16.5 or dryer it goes in the bin here. If over that it goes in bags or else in the dryer and then binned depending where we are at in harvest. I’m sure you gain a lot of time in that 17-18 range though.

If you have enough fans and power to run them, I would say grain would keep indefinitely above 20% moisture. Even canola ( with the right type of aeration). I've pulled wheat or barely out a year after the it went in at those extreme moistures, and everything was fine. Just need to run the fans occasionally until it gets cold enough to freeze it hard, then its safe till May or June at least. Just don't book any extended holidays because it will need babysat.

[AlbertaFarmer5]

Starting a week later this year amounted to 20 bushels per acre more on barley, 5 bushels more on canola, 40-90 bushels per acre more on oats as the very early oats crops made an absolute zero, and wheat was close to the same yield. Got paid very well for waiting a week. These are numbers from trusted neighbours that don’t bullshit on yields. And I know for sure I am the lightest on fertility as well in the group.

That is $180/acre on barley, $115/acre on canola, and $420-$945/acre on oats.

Have found in our area, you are better off waiting than not. Seems if the crop comes up and suffers from the cold, it is a laggard all year. Again, a “here” thing.

You pay a little on the tail end with fighting the later fall weather some years, but as you can see, you have to lose big time in fall to bring this years yield differential back to even.

I was going to answer for you, because I find the same thing. Later seeded nearly always beats early seeded for me, and it is always a different reason, this year was the heat wave in June and the hail in early September. On a year like this, it was drastic.
I'm consistently the last one to start seeding. I farm a lot of heavy wet ground, and it takes that much longer to be fit to seed, I'm also almost the only one direct seeding, so it takes longer to get enough weed growth and for the soil to warm up, plus the additional frost risk to canola under all the residue.

It definitely makes harvest much more challenging, but I only get one chance per year to grow a crop, and I need to maximize it, I'll take extra $ per acre, over convenience any day.

[jazz]

The late seeding theory is just that. We had a week of -10 temps just before seeding and it didnt make a difference in yields.

After 2019, I would rather lose 5bu an acre than trying to combine in November and May and turn bins in January but thats just me. Piece of mind is priceless in this business.