Hey fellow HarvestHER ladies! Summer quickly got away from me, hay season was in full swing, along with working ground to prepare for Plant 2018. Which made me realize, I hadn’t shared a post with you all in a while.

Today, I came home from my full-time “real” job to a farmer ready for his “hired-hand” to show up and help fill the drill to start planting. (If you remember a few posts back, I referenced a farmer’s wife being the number one hired hand—without pay).

So I happily oblige, along with our mini HarvestHER and pull the wheat truck into the field, help line up the auger, connect it to the truck battery and fill the Great Plains planter.

I’m sure all of you can identify seed wheat—however; we often think of what our product is when it’s harvested.  It is essentially the same but it’s been stored over the summer months.

We have our wheat cleaned prior to planting. It’s run through an auger, sifted to remove extra stalks and debris, and sometimes treated with insecticide.

Once it’s time to start sowing wheat, the truck or bins are filled, and the auger is ready to move it into the planter.  The auger transfers it from the wheat truck, into the planter bins, and we pack the compartments to the brim. Lock down the lids, make sure all the chains and pulleys are good and greased, and off Farmer goes in his Big Green Tractor.  

It takes some time to sow all the acres. Some people use a “no-till” method but ours is just a tad different, let me explain:

All of our cropland is “worked” — the top soil is overturned by discing, which allows the nutrients to be brought to the surface. Next, the chisel is run across to knock out the large clods of earth and. finally. the harrow is pulled around to smooth it all out to a beautiful, clean finish. The tilling method allows the previous year’s crop residues to be broken down and kill weeds.

The planter, or “drill” as we call it, then has the rate programmed into it to drop just the right amount into the rows that it “tills” while driving along.  The seeds are then placed in the soil, at a specific depth for the variety of seed you’re planting. The pressure wheels then roll over it to ensure it’s covered and in the row.  With tilling, the producers will sow winter wheat, even if the ground is dry, but pray for rain so the seed will then germinate.

That is a very happy feeling, when you wake up one morning and the dew is sparkling off the little green sprouts in perfect rows. Stay tuned for that post!

Hope you can enjoy these images to understand a little bit about how our operation works! As always, questions and comments are welcomed.
Happy harvesting!