What problems happen during harvesting?

[FutureFarmer]

Arable is not something I'm familiar with so hoping to learn off people from here.

Youtube videos make it look very seemless - combine cuts, straight into a trailer and then dumped into a grain store. But what can go wrong during harvest? What are the common difficulties you come across, other than the weather?!

 

[FutureFarmer]

Do combines clog up with wheat/barley etc?

 

[Pan mixer]

Welker farms video today.

Mike Mitchell combine fire last autumn.

For example

 

[FutureFarmer]

I've now seen the Mike Mitchell video - scary stuff.

 

[Flat 10]

Punctures, fires, breakdowns, laid crops, ignorant motorists and the WEATHER!

 

[B'o'B]

Punctures, fires, breakdowns, laid crops, ignorant motorists and the WEATHER!

Stones, old bikes and other rubbish trying to get eaten by the combine. Oh and more weather.

 

[teslacoils]

Service everything.
Wait for the one good day that passes as summer.
Cut headland - record crop.
Watch incredibly expensive, very infrequently used machine "shyte itself" and only get the part once it started raining again.

 

[Pan mixer]

Watch Harrys Farm about the failed oilseed rape harvest.

 

[teslacoils]

Oh, after the combine has puked it's own guts out, there's a six in ten chance some old boy will say "August was never the harvest month in my day / August is the wettest month". And the local huge-cock will drive by, having cut his during the rain, while the stubble was bright green, doing 5t/AC and all sold at £200/t. Didn't need drying either.

 

[teslacoils]

Oh, your wife will remind you of her distant cousins wedding on bank holiday weekend, which she did tell you about six months ago. Your mumblings about harvest will result in her having a massive sulk. You convince yourself it will be only one day. The weatherman will say you've bags of time. The old man will say it's not properly fit anyway. You go, secretly checking Facebook to see everyone nearby going hell for leather. As you drive back, the rain starts. Mrs says something like "so we could have stayed to the evening do after all".

 

[teslacoils]

Mrs teslacoils has just informed me of the funeral; boating session; campanology and various other things she has booked for next week.

This is a direct response to my daring to suggest I might like to harvest my crop on Tuesday.

 

[Adeptandy]

I would have needed a film crew last 3 years

 

[AndrewB]

Lost 30 ac of w barley last week, spark from combine header we think. Luckily wind wasn’t from the south or would of lost all 120 ac field.

 

[teslacoils]

Student will put the wrong shim in on a cultivator, leaving one wing an extra inch deep. This will show up all bloody year. The field will be on the side of the main road.

 

[DrWazzock]

Chopper belt has torn a lump out of itself for some reason tonight. You can hear it bump as that bit runs over the pulley. Won’t be long before it shreds itself. 6.3 m belt so will be expensive. Wobble box knocking a bit as well. I have had weeks of changing tractor clutch, reroofing grain store and other harvest preparations and as usual collapse exhausted into the combine seat for the start of harvest. I always reckon the preparations and anticipation is harder work than the harvest itself. Once you get in that seat you can at least sit back for a while hopefully. Anyway my brother is driving it this year and I’m on carting and the dryer and maybe drilling some rape. On the old boys job now. Next stop retirement.

 

[Wigeon]

Oh, your wife will remind you of her distant cousins wedding on bank holiday weekend, which she did tell you about six months ago. Your mumblings about harvest will result in her having a massive sulk. You convince yourself it will be only one day. The weatherman will say you've bags of time. The old man will say it's not properly fit anyway. You go, secretly checking Facebook to see everyone nearby going hell for leather. As you drive back, the rain starts. Mrs says something like "so we could have stayed to the evening do after all".

As it turns out this will be exactly me on Saturday.

Just as the wheat is fit, and the sun is shining.

And I cant stand the bloke.

 

[FutureFarmer]

Interesting to read the replies. My biggest concern would be machinery breaking down during the limited time window to get the harvest in. I'm never going to be a mechanic so would be reliant on other people. I accept there are bigger things that can go wrong, that could put people in danger!

 

[Will 1594]

Oh, after the combine has puked it's own guts out, there's a six in ten chance some old boy will say "August was never the harvest month in my day / August is the wettest month". And the local huge-cock will drive by, having cut his during the rain, while the stubble was bright green, doing 5t/AC and all sold at £200/t. Didn't need drying either.

Can take a guess at who

 

[teslacoils]

Can take a guess at who

I think every area has one. But I wasn't being specific. I don't really talk to other people in real life.

 

[curlietailz]

Driving on roads with tractors and trailers and a combine
Idiots who seem to want to go everywhere at 90mph and insist on overtaking just as your about to turn into a field gate

weather.... rain ruining the crop, hail shedding all the OSR onto the floor, wind twizzelling the ripe barley heads off onto the floor Wasted

combine breaking and not being able to get parts for it because of Brexit or Covid or mail backlog or import tax or whatever

eating all your Days food before lunch time and being on a tractor in a field miles away from a shop to buy more !

stress mostly brought on by weather and other people !!!