Modern combine pics.

[RAB__AR]

Hello all. I just thought I'd share some pics I took on our farm. I recently traded combines and managed to get the delivery and swap on film. I traded my 9 year old Case IH 2388 on a slightly used John Deere 9760. I know this doesn't really fit with the predominately hay/smaller tractor topics on the board but I thought you guys might be interested to see the combines we use for large scale grain farming. I grow rice, corn, wheat, soybeans and cotton in Arkansas.

Russell

The "new" combine arriving.

Swapping them in the shed.

The old one leaving.

The 9760 safely out of the weather. My shop area is 40' long but the front of the feeder house is only 4' from the back door while the end of the unloading auger is slightly over 1' from the front.

 

[redlevel]

Wow.

Those are a little bit bigger than the K Gleaner I used to own.
How many acres/bushels a day with one of those? Do you do custom work too, or just your own crops?

Thanks for posting the pictures.

 

[RobS]

Yeah, a tiny bit bigger than my little JD! Thanks for the pics though, I'm always fascinated by the big stuff. If you get really bored, how about a photo essay on how that monster works? I'll bet a few of us would be interested in that.

 

[scott_vt]

Mornin RAB,
Wow those are huge !

I will be willin to bet that the truck operator measured the height of that combo before traveling any distance ! I know I would !

Thanks for the great pics, and as Rob stated, a tutorial on operation would be great !

 

[RAB__AR]

These big machines essentially operate the same as the smaller ones. Take the crop off with the header, thrash it with the rotor/cylinder, and seperate the grain from the chaff with the seives. This combine has a max of 370 horsepower and holds 300 bu in the grain tank. I'm going to be running a 30' bean header, 25' corn head and 24' Shelbourne stripper head for rice.

The acres/bu per day will vary with the crop we're cutting and the ground conditions. In good conditions in soybeans its possible to get over 200 acres/day but you can't average that normally. In rice 80 acres would be a good day but 100 would be excellent.

I also have a CIH 2188 combine that I'm keeping around as a helper in the rice, the Deere will get the rest of the crop. This year I'll have 300 acres of wheat, 750 corn, 2000 rice, 850 soybeans, and 1800 cotton which I pick with a 9986 Deere picker (pic below). I don't hire out very often but will custom cut 200 acres of rice for a good neighbor who's nearing retirement and doesn't want to invest in another combine.

 

[jimg]

Rab
A question about your rice. Do you grow in flooded fields which are drained prior to harvest? I really dont know much about it.

 

[RAB__AR]

You're exactly right. We plant the fields in April when they're dry. After the rice gets about 6-8" tall we apply a flood. Shortly before harvest the water is drained and hopefully the fields will dry before we have to get into them. If we get an untimely rain or miscalculate the draining date we'll cut in the mud. Thats the reason for the big R2 rubber on most of our equipment.

 

[Fredex]

Hi Russell: I'm one who grew up in the "small farm" post WWII era, then moved to the city for 40 years. Since I moved back rural I have been told a story that, because of my unfamiliarity with modern, large machinery, I can't be sure if it is truth or "farm fable" - similar to urban legend. Goes like this: Regional farmer has a big JD combine with a 12 row corn head (narrow rows). Stated that he runs with a truck driving alongside with the unload augur dumping into the truck but eventually has to stop because the sheller is filling the hopper faster than the augur can unload it. Is that plausible?? I suspect the story because my neighbor has a machine with a 200 bu hopper which he unloads in something like 3 minutes. BTW I got the story second, third hand so who knows.

Possible or fable??
Fred

 

[Egon]

Thanks for the pictures Russell. Nice machines. Any more "Farming pictures" to share.

Could you elaborate on why the trade in and choice of combines?

Thanks

 

[jimg]

Rab,
Thanx. So you wind up flooding 2000acs! Wow, thats a huge area. To what depth is it flooded and where do you find that much fresh water to keep it underwater for so long? How do you move that much water in/out of your fields and how long does it take? Also how do you plant it, w/ 'spriggs' or seeds?

 

[RAB__AR]

Fredex someone is telling you a tale. If a combine won't unload faster than it cuts something is terribly wrong. Even if the crop was that good, the elevator that brings the grain up to the storage tank will not outpace the unloader. Faster unloading is something all manufacturers are working towards. Look at the difference in the diameter of the unloading augers on the 2 combines I posted. The Deere will supposedly unload 3.3 bu/second while the older CIH is a little over half that.


Egon I've got lots of farming pictures from the past several years. Just got a new digi camera for Christmas that'll fit in my shirt pocket so I plan on getting lots more. I'll try to post some rice planting pics shortly that will show how we plant, survey levees to hold the water, and pull the levees.

I traded machines because my older one was 9 years old and was starting to give more trouble than we'd like. In my operation I'm pressed for time at harvest and can't afford to be broke down very often. I changed colors because the new higher capacity Case IH combines don't have a very good reputation in rice country while the big Deere's are doing quite well.

Jimg yes we'll have 2000 acres flooded to a depth of 3-6" using a combination of wells for groundwater and relifts for surface water. In addition to that nearly all of our other crops are irrigated as well but they don't get a permanent flood. In some cases we use center pivot sprinklers but mostly its furrow irrigation. We build raised beds with furrows inbetween that run down hill. Put water in the top of the furrow and it runs to the bottom. The water will soak into the beds.

Planting the rice. We plant approximately 100# of seed/acre with a 30' Great Plains drill.

Surveying the levees. We use a laser surveying system to mark the levees every 2 tenths foot of elevation. This allows us to hold a shallow flood on the fields. For lack of a better explanation the levees are like mini-terraces to those of you from the midwest. We used to use a small tractor for the surveying. I built the bracket to hold the receiver on the front and bought the electrically operated plow for the rear.

Pulling the levees. This tractor is actually pulling 2 levee plows that I've got hooked in tandem. He follows the mark made by the truck above. A second similar set of plows with a seeder mounted will follow this one so there will be rice growing on the levees as well. We'll tear these down after the crop is harvested.

Making the irrigation furrows. This is a special tool called a bedder-roller for pulling the irrigation furrows and leaving a smooth seedbed in the process. This one is 39' wide. I had trouble with the markers breaking so I've updated the tractor (John Deere 8400T on 24" rubber tracks) to GPS autosteer now.

 

[Fredex]

Fredex someone is telling you a tale.

Thanks. That was my opinion. Thought I would ask an "unbiased" authority rather than start a useless local debate. Rumors & wild stories get around in these small communities like flu in a kindergarten.

Fred

Thought of the day: The biggest pig always lays down in the trough.

 

[Egon]

Great explanations and pictures. It's always nice to see how things are done.

Thank you again.

 

[jimg]

Hi Rab
Thanx very much for taking the time to write and post pics. Do you grow rice for someone (ie have the crop sold before you plant it) or put it in an elevator and sell as the price dictates? BTW Id very much like to see other pics you have on your operation.

 

[schmism]

i spent a great number of years in memphis and make the trip back there from STL MO quite a few times a year. You can see all three of those crops for endless amounts of feilds off the sides of I-55 through AR.

I helped a friend of a friend harvest rice one year. I couldnt "setup" the combine but it was like driveing a really huge lawn mower.

Yes its common around there to pace the combine with the grain bin and have the operator contuously unload. The grain bin (grain waggon whatevery ou call it) then hauls to the edge of the feild to a waiting semi were its offloaded to it. This greatly reduces the amount of down time but the operation takes quite a few people to run. (which is why i was helping) The combine driveing was the simplest (after it was setup) which is why i drove it. You had to be carefull driveng the 4x4 tractor and grain bin through the feild as the levies are quite the little speed bump in a huge tractor. the (large) operation i helped out with had a crew of 5... 2 combines, one tractor/grain bin and 2 semi's. we covered a LOT of ground in the 4 days i helped.

 

[RAB__AR]

Schmism gave a good description of harvest although I have to disagree when he says the combine is the easiest part. Our farm has a lot more levees than the area he was harvesting in. Crossing numerous levees all the while keeping the header in the rice is daunting at times. I would say driving the trucks are by far easier. Here are some pics of our harvest operation from a couple years ago. Sorry I don't have any field action shots.

 

[schmism]

mmmmmmmmmm big toys....

something about the men and the boys and the size of there toys....

 

[CATMAN]

Thanks RAB__AR for the photos and explainations. I'm grew up on Iowa dairy, hog, cattle farm with corn, soybeans, oats and alfalfa in the fields. It is neat to see how American farmers grow rice. You know when one grows up on a dairy farm there isn't any vacation time. You have a nice looking operation.

 

[RobS]

Great pics RAB, thanks for posting. I love seeing how the "real" equipment is used. Looks like you have a pretty impressive operation there.

 

[Robert_in_NY]

RAB, how does the tracked JD handle the rice fields compared to the rubber tired tractors? Or is it used mostly for the seedbed prep?