Combines

Things are getting ready to speed up a lot around our house.  It's almost time for harvest!  I love harvest, everyone gets so excited during this time.  It's almost like Christmas in June!

Well, to get things off to a good start, all the machinery hast to be in good working order.  So we service all the machinery first.  This weekend we worked on the Combines.

For those of you who don't know what a combine is, I'll explaine.

This is a combine.

A combine is used to harvest various crops.  The header ( the long round thing on the front) changes for the different types of crops.  In this case, this header is used to harvest wheat.  As the batt turns it pushes the wheat into the sickle.  The sickle cuts the top of the wheat off and sends it on conveyer chains through the machine.  The conveyer chains pull the wheat through the machine to the roter.  The roter seperates the grain

from the straw.  The grain then travels to a large bin on the back of the combine. 

Once the bin is full, the grain is augared out of the bin and into a grain cart or semi trailer.

 

Even though we service the combines before we start cutting the wheat, we don't always make it through without any delays.  If the combines do breakdown they are usually down for just a few minutes, but sometimes they are down for hours.  We always pray for a year with no breakdowns!

Hope you have left a little more educated on farm life!

Your Farm Friend

Amy