As I write this column, we are caught in a confusing season that feels like high summer. But the calendar and the shortening day length tells us we are well into October. Most aspects of farming involve challenging weather conditions in one way or another and as every farmer will tell you – no two years are the same. 

Harvest always means we are racing against the weather – this year it is not because we are afraid of wet beans, but because the combination of the blazing sun and variable wind is acting like a big blast furnace and causing our soybeans to become too dry. As they dry, they weigh less, which translates to less money for us, but there are also issues associated with grain loss when harvesting, as well as quality issues. 

I have read discussions online as farmers think about what to do to get around this issue. Should we wait until it rains, and hope that the beans take on more moisture and then dry out again? Should we use bin fans to add moisture during more humid night conditions? I even read some folks suggesting adding water with a garden hose as beans are moved through trucks and bins.

 

That sounded risky to me – especially considering the season when the beans were damp that they all stuck together in the combine in a big clump, stubbornly refusing to move.

I would rather take my chances with a dry bean than wait and hope for the perfect conditions to harvest them later. As every day has less daylight moving toward December, there is a shorter window each day to combine beans. Unlike with corn, beans and wheat require the entire plant to be threshed. As the air becomes more humid in the evening, you run this risk of plugging the combine with damp plants that don’t pass through easily. Similarly, you must wait for things to dry in the morning before starting. One year of combining beans in January was enough for me – lesson learned. 

Even with the best preparation, maintenance, and care of machinery, no harvest season is complete without some form of breakdown or machinery issue. I am not mechanically inclined - so figuring these things out has always been a struggle for me.

 

For those of us old enough to remember the Royal Canadian Air Farce show on CBC… think Don Ferguson’s Inept Carpenter character, only applied to mechanics. Unlike Don, I at least have all of my body parts intact. So far. I take lots of pictures, make lots of notes, and try to retain vital pieces of information for each piece of equipment after the rush is over and we put it away for another year. 

Our modern machinery provides us with lots of information to inform us when something goes wrong. Multiple sensors cause alerts in the cab – some allow you to keep going, while others will shut everything down and force you to figure it out. When the race against the weather is on it is tempting to keep going if you can. In my experience, you do this at your peril. While it is true that sensors themselves fail and give false information, ignoring the messages they provide can lead to bigger problems – irreversible damage to equipment, grain loss, and possibly reduction in quality. 

For example, our combine has six “run screens.” These are screens you can toggle through, each one giving multiple pieces of information. We can customize each screen -choosing the information we want to see and grouping it so that it makes the most sense to the operator. The run screen I watch most of the time provides information about grain loss throughout various parts of the machine, which allows me to make adjustments to reduce this. It also provides information on the moisture of the grain, the yield, engine power use, speed… you get the idea. 

Once you are alerted to a problem, you must be able to relate each sensor to the physical part of the machine and diagnose what has gone wrong. I have used sticky notes to label these sensors, taking photos and storing them in an album in my phone so next year when the same issue comes up, I might have a chance of figuring out where to start. 

I can hear what you’re probably saying – “Hey Kate, why don’t you try using the operator’s manual?” Ha ha ha… good one!! Yes – the fifty-pound operators’ manual provides a wealth of information… if only I knew what the thing is called that I need to look up. I cannot tell you how many times I have been excited to actually come up with the correct terminology used in the manual, find the correct page, only to read “call dealer for assistance.” 

With all the high-tech sensors and information we have at our fingertips when operating equipment, we still have old-school tools. A square head hammer that looks like it came from the Flintstone era, pry bars, and a good old metal punch. The whole machine can be shut down by a fuse smaller than a quarter – good luck finding that sucker! And don’t get me started on O-rings! Who knew there could be so many different sizes for those guys – but when you need one, you can’t really substitute one for the other. 

Usually by the end of whatever season we are in, I feel like an expert on the machine – ready to tackle any sensor or problem that comes up and understanding a little more of how it actually works. That’s when I know it is time to clean up, put that machine away, and give those vital pieces of information a whole year to slip through my brain, residing in the outer edges, almost within reach.

Well, back to work. Happy harvest everyone! ◊