OK Becky, You should have your canola "in-the-bin" how was your yield? Inquiring minds want to know!

 

Yup......Let's see if the "pushing" worked.....

 

LOL!! Yes...the canola is in the bin...Finally. Finished Saturday. However, we don't have the final tally for actual yield yet. Brother-in-law hasn't had a chance to sit down with the weight tickets. We're in non-stop harvest right now, so the dust hasn't even begun to settle. But, the preliminary yield estimates are not what we had hoped for. Looks like we'll average around 3000 lbs/acre. The Dekalb rep had thought we'd at least get 4000, so it looks disappointing. He said we had the best looking canola in the country!! Neighbors only got around 2000 lbs., though. The last time we grew canola, which was about 10 years ago, we only got around 1000-1500 lbs.. Guess we should be happy. We got our price for the bulk of the crop, and my spreadsheet estimates using a yield estimate of 3000 lbs with our price put us sitting pretty, so we're in good shape. We had hoped for some gravy profit on that extra 1000 lbs, that we won't get apparently.

As for pushing, it worked great!!! Really great!! The combine just cruised through the field feeding the pushed rows straight into the header without knocking pods around at all. It was a beautiful sight!! We'll use that again for sure. Walking behind the combine, the ground was really clean with hardly a lost seed in sight. And, there were virtually NO green seeds in the semi.

If you are interested, I do have movies of the combining and could post one showing how nicely the pushed rows fed into the combine.
The fields are also clean as a whistle as far as weeds. That was one of our main goals with this canola crop and it worked out beautifully. We'll be putting in at least two circles of canola this fall...maybe a 3rd, since we're very happy with the results overall. With any luck, I'll be able to work on the "Chiefs" this fall and winter to talk them into considering a small crusher/refinery setup to make our own starting next year. Petro prices are still going up and I sure don't see that changing!!

 

Please post the movies of the combining,

Ken H

 

You bet Becky! I loved your last video

 

Okay...Here it is...for your viewing pleasure...

http://earthbourne.hypermart.net/CanolaCombining07.wmv

 

Great video Becky! And once again, I loved the music, what a "gas"! [pun intended]


I don't think my neighbor would be able to "push" his spring canola.......It was only about a foot tall................

 

Pushed canola sure feeds in nice doesn't Don. Did you notice the reel on the combine is lifted all the way up and never touched the canola...unless theres a clump or sprig standing up. It really doesn't move the pods until they are in the header, which is really nice.

The Canadians push their spring canola...that's all they grow for the most part. But, apparently they get tall spring canola most of the time. I wouldn't push 1 ft. tall canola either.

YES!! Biodiesel is the "Classical Gas"

 

I agree with Don, Great Vid, and the best of Music, Thank you for sharing!

Ken H

 

sure looks weird seing the rake that high and the header so low... nothin like the rice fields around here

 

We get as much rainfall in a whole year as you get in a day!