Started wheat Thursday. This is one of the better fields so far & it's nothing to get excited about (±40 BPA).

(harvest (1).jpg)

(harvest (2).jpg)

(harvest (3).jpg)

harvest (1).jpg (94KB - 264 downloads)

harvest (2).jpg (73KB - 273 downloads)

harvest (3).jpg (79KB - 277 downloads)

At first I didn't think the wheat looked too bad then realized those heads are not goose-necked over and they are the wrong color of yellow. Looks like you did all you could - good stand, good weed control, etc. Kind of up to mother nature after that and she has been kind of fickle this year.

Good luck with harvest. We should start picking corn next week. Some have been going for a week around here with some of the shorter season corn and some of the areas that didn't get as much rain. 

John 

Yes, It always helps if a man can get some rain during the later part of the growing season. Of course we're used to dry so we just settle for temps under 90 and no wind. Got very hot and dry during fill, so there went the yield. Actually got into some stuff that looked like 60 pound T.W. today and that field may have run 50 bpa. Sometimes good heavy ground can surprise a guy with just what it can do.

Don't let the color of the ripe wheat mislead you. This variety is called McNiel, it's characteristic color is a dark copper when it is ripe. One of it's other characteristics is a few heads mixed in, that are the usual yellow color of ripe wheat. You can probably pick out the odd-balls in the pictures.

We used to plant a hard winter variety called Newton that had about that color.

John 

York, My variable costs for growing a crop of wheat are very modest. Especially compared to what yours must be.

One of my guidelines is to be able to show a profit growing 25 BPA wheat and selling it for $2.50 / bu. This year's yield may be a bit better than 25 and I was able to lock in a much better price than $2.50 for this year's crop. That will be enough return to encourage me to try for much better "Next Year"

The GPS antenna is clearly visible in all of the pictures and you can see the steering motor in one of them, so there no doubt he has it installed.

Working may be another question....tracks in the background don't look all that straight.

Here's a pic of some tracks on a longer field. It works, but I haven't fooled with it and Wane had just started messing with it on this field. We got tangled up chasing a leak in the AC and by the time we beat that beast into submission it became a question of whether to cut wheat or mess with the EZ, so we went cutting without having things tweaked as good as they could be. One thing to say about the system though; when he uses it, it's like having auto-steer in the Cat while unloading. The natural tendency of a track machine to go in a straight line, leaves me with not much to do as far as steering as he unloads onto my trailer.

The pic with the crooked tracks is taken on a headland pass and the field was small enough that I don't think he even used the EZ on that one.

(tracks.jpg)

tracks.jpg (76KB - 145 downloads)

Antenna mount was a length of 2" square tubing mounted to the two bolts on the front of the cab top. I welded an 18" length of 3/16" X 4" strap to the underside of the tubing before I bolted it to the cab roof.

For the EZ-motor mount, I removed the plastic shrouding from the top of the steering column until I found a short length of steel tube that I could clamp to. I split a short length of 2" pipe, lengthwise and spread it ever so slightly so it just saddled the Gleaner column. I then welded ears to it, for some 1/4" bolts to create a clamp. Once I had the column clamp made, I used 3/16" X 4" strap to fashion the motor mount bracket. I came perpendicular to the clamp, far enough to clear the instrument box, bent it to follow the box for about 4" and then bent it at a ninety to form the shelf to mount the motor to. This piece was welded to one of the clamp halves. I was able to get the bracket to closely match the top of the instrument box and re-attach the plastic shroud by merely cutting a slot for the bracket to emerge. The motor is mounted at the 12 O'Clock position and the steering wheel is nearly fully collapsed when the motor is being used. Telescoping the column outward makes for a more comfortable manual steering and also moves the wheel away from the EZ, so you are in no danger of rapping your knuckles on it when driving manually.

Me to Ham.I would take 2.6 t/ha any year as an average.Good year for us would see yields around 3.5-4 t/ha but there are the years that go in between that are the problem.Our breakeven on wheat is around 0.8t/ha.

Mike.

I thought you folks were due for a decent crop. Weather still not cooperating?

I don't like the sound of that .8t/ha breakeven though. Looks like I'm needing to sharpen my pencil and trim somewhere. I've always thought that raising a commodity is a lot like elk hunting in Grizzly Bear country. When a bear gets after you, it's impossible but also un-important that you be able to out run him. The important thing is to be able to run faster than your hunting buddy

Hi Matts, How is your father doing? I'm sure that many others who come here share my concern and well wishes for him.

I bought the EZ-Guide and EZ-Steer from two different local dealers. Paid $2650 for the Guide and $3100 for the Steer with one mounting bracket. Knowing what I now know, I could have saved a few hundred by shopping the Internet.

I took some movies of the combine yesterday but the camera I was using makes them in Apple Quicktime format. I spent over an hour downloading and installing the bloated piece of junk that Apple is distributing to look at the movies. Once I had that loaded, I then found a way to convert the file to a more standard format, but I'm disappointed with the result. I think I should take the movie camera when I want movies and only use the still camera for regular pictures.

I downloaded the install file directly from Apple's site.

If you have Quicktime installed on your computer, you have installed spyware with it. It's part of the deal. Bring up Task Manager and check running processes. Notice Qttask.exe? That is Apple supplied spyware, my friend. It's job is to phone home to Apple every time you play a media file of some sort and let them know about it. Quicktime runs OK without it, so I normally use Hijack This to remove it.

Edited: Something has evidently changed. When last I read about Qttask, the Hijack This folks pronounced it spyware. I see that has now been changed to an unnecessary program, but not spyware. Sorry for any confusion.

It is also a moot point, as I completely un-installed the bloat-ware Quicktime from this computer.