Saturday, October 4, 2008

Soybeans Harvested

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Hey.......have you ever climbed a mountain of soybeans?
Me neither.......it would be next to impossible, that's for certain, as round and slippery as soybeans are! I stood on the wagon's ladder to take this photo:


Our miniscule 15-acre soybean field was harvested on Thursday. Above, feast your eyes upon our modern, up-to-date gravity-box wagon, adorned with the latest in rust art designs!
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Below........see our neighbor's BIG Gleaner combine----noisily, dustily chewing its way through the bean field, finishing in less than two hours.

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Poor, old, hard-working Husband gets a few moments of well-deserved sit-down time as he watches the beans flow into the hopper to be conveyed through an auger into the storage bin. The combine's meter showed the average yield to be 51 to 56 bushels per acre. Husband was pleased with that.

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In case you're wondering what the cornfields look like right now in this part of Iowa.......here you go:

I've been admiring the rosy to fuchsia coloring on the cornstalks this year; the corn silks were rosy-colored earlier in the summer, too. I don't know what the reason for the unusual coloring is.......perhaps its a characteristic of the the corn variety, or more likely its due to the adverse weather early in the season. It was said that the heavy rains late last spring washed away much of the nitrogen in the soil before the corn had a chance to use it. I did notice that the green color in the cornfields this year was not as deep and dark as usual.......a lack of nitrogen would cause that, I think. Oddly, enough........many weeds have rosy-colored stalks this year, too!

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Have a great Saturday!

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6 comments:

nonizamboni said...

I have so enjoyed reading your posts about the harvest! And the new machines :O) And your thoughtful take on the debates. Hope your weekend is, umm, restful.
p.s. you've been tagged--feel no pressure to do this, o.k.!

DesertHen said...

I have never seen a soy bean up close just after harvest.....neat!

I love your posts on the harvest. When we lived in Idaho, the place we worked on grew barley and I always enjoyed watching the combines in the field at harvest time.

We have lots of rosy colored weeds around here too this year....some are very pretty, even tho they are weeds.

Have a great weekend.......=)

rhymeswithplague said...

Your photo of the mountain of soybeans looks just like a truckful of Florida oranges to me.

Are you being facetious or do you and your DH own so much land that a 15-acre field is considered miniscule? Perspective is such a good thing. I own less than one-third of an acre today, but I grew up on three acres.

rhymeswithplague said...
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Laura ~Peach~ said...

I have played in the silos before (when very young) its actually really dangerous LOL because you can get coverd by the beans and suffocate but thankfully that never happend to us!
I love the smells after the harvest!
happy weekend!
Laura

Jeannelle said...

Hi, nonizamboni,

Well.....guess what....today was not restful, but it was FUN!

Thank you for the tag, though I've not checked to see what it is yet....but, I will soon!

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Hi, deserthen,

Yes, there are lots of combines at work in soybean fields right now. That puts LOTS of bean dust in the air, too......my nose was itchy and sneezy all day today.

That's interesting that you have rosy-colored weeds this year, too!

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Hi, rhymsie,

Well, here's the deal.....its all a matter of perspective, or its all relative, or whatever. Around these parts.....yah know.....(yah, we talk like Sarah Palin around here, too).....a 15-acre field of any grain crop is considered VERY small! (Of course, a 15-acre vegetable garden would be HUGE.....for a garden!) But, compared to our neighbors who raise hundreds of acres of beans and corn, our 15-acre field is very small....for a soybean field!

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Hi, Laura,

Oh, yes......its very dangerous inside a grain bin or silo. Not a place to be playing around in. Or, in a wagon-full of grain. Every so often we hear of a farmer or a child being suffocated in such situations. Its serious business.