Combine Therapy - Part 2

Combine Therapy went well yesterday, and I share some of the details.

Yesterday, I rode a combine in the morning with my cousin who was harvesting wheat just east of Walla Walla, Washington. The photo above shows us cutting across a slope that was about 45% or a little greater. The Case IH Hillside 8250 combine has a monitor on it that shows the slope and our highest reading as went across the field was 49% but we were not totally perpendicular to the slope, so the actual slope was a little higher. The good news is that the dirt was a little soft, so we got to slide down the hill a bit. That is when it is the most fun.

For those that are interested, I did post a Facebook live video of about 20 seconds going across the field. You can hear my cousin and I discussing how steep it was.

Although this was close to a 50 percent slope, it is by far not the steepest ground my cousins will cut this summer. There is a slope on a field about two miles up from where I grew up that easily exceeds 60 percent. Even I am happy not to ride on that one!

The final yield for this field was likely a little north of 150 bushels per acre. It was interesting looking at the density of the wheat. I would of thought the actual yield was in the 120 range since you could see through the wheat a bit.

However, the heads were extremely dense with 5 mesh (5 kernels across) and up to 11 or more rows high. Likely having a little extra sunlight allowed the wheat to fill out more than normal.

I then drove over to my field that is a little further east near Dixie, Washington. Looking at the wheat in this field I would have guessed it would yield even more than the wheat we cut in the morning, however, this wheat had not filled out as much as the other wheat. Still good yields of likely close to 140, just not as good as the other wheat.

We were harvesting wheat on about a 400 field with a fair amount of elevation change. However, I did not get the privilege of riding combine on the steepest part of the field. I think we maxed out at about 40 percent slopes on this field, so that was a little disappointing.

If you ever want to ride combines on steep slopes, just reach out to me and I can arrange that for you. It is worth the ride.