We have come a long way

[fixerupper]

I thought about posting this in the combine forum but talk gets more traffic.

The combines were rolling in my fields the other day. I do not own a combine anymore, it is custom done by a very good and reliable farmer so the only items owned by me in the field was my side by side and cell phone. In fact I don't drive a combine any more.

When I was following this combine my thoughts went back about 60 years to the first time I was a steering wheel holder on a tractor pulling a combine. I was about ten years old and a neighbor was combining our oats for us with a A6 Case combine pulled by a Deere 60. The combine had a hitch to pull a wagon alongside the combine on the unloading auger side. The neighbor running the combine wanted to unload on the go and I was standing there watching so he called me over, had me climb up on the tractor seat to steer the tractor while he crawled into the wagon and leveled oats with the combine unloading into the wagon. The unloading auger barely made it over the top of the wagon so some shoveling was needed to level off the oats.

There is no need to explain anything about what is happening in this picture. The entire Deere 60 and case combine could almost fit in this grain cart alone. The grain tank on the Case combine held maybe 40 bushels and the wagon held 150 bushels of corn. This grain cart holds 1100 bushels of corn. On a rough guess I think this combine could fill two or three of those 150 bushel wagons in a minute.

 

[Loosehandle]

What are the custom harvest rates?

 

[fixerupper]

Going by the Iowa state average combing beans is $35 per acre. I pay them for the combines, grain cart, trucking and the men involved. I make it so my farm is easy for the big machines to maneuver and my field approaches are easy for the long trucks. They charge me a fair rate in return. It's a two way street.

 

[SVcummins]

Combining is probably my most favorite job in the world . My
machine isnt very new or big but I still love it

 

[pete 23]

We never unloaded hopper on the go but I drove the H Farmall and
Dad ran the header up and down with a crank while standing on
the drawbar. Two rows of soybeans into a IH 62 combine. Sixty
acres was a good sized field then.

That would have been 1953 or 54. I think hopper held 20 or 25
bushels. Big old Continental Y69A powering the machine. At least
it could not tear things up in rough going.

 

[flying belgian]

It really is quite amazing watching the bto's harvest. I, like many of you long for the good ole days with the A-6 Case and the Mn. wagon gears with 90 bushel nu-built flare boxes. Convey them up into the
wooden granary with the Kewanee flight elevator. 700 Case on the combine, haul with the 50 JD. and the JD-B on the elevator. That's all real nice but the reality is we need to be where we are today.

 

[Charlie M]

I guess this beats my AC66 combine for small grain and 1-PR picker for corn but I'm probably having more fun for less money. LOL

 

[Al Baker(pumpman)]

Sad part is 60 years ago that pull type combine might have been harvesting a crop that was profitable. Today these big BTOs only
survive on government programs, which 60 years ago would have been called welfare.

 

[SVcummins]

And commodity prices arent much more than they were then and fuel wasnt there dollars and a barrel of was less than a five gallon pail is now