We’re starting harvest slow. We’re double-checking performance on machines that we worked on this year. And we’re wondering whether we need more insurance on our ancillary equipment.

That’s a lot for a day when we’re waiting for the ground to dry. And for a time when we feel like everything is going slower than we want.

Completing the grain bin projects took until midday Wednesday. There were just a lot of odds and ends to wrap up.

So far, we only harvested about 40 acres of corn around home to get started. One complete field of 28 acres came in about 12 bushels per acre less than our approved APH yield for crop insurance. I’ll admit, that’s a little disappointing. Guess time will tell how our crops performed as we move into other fields.

The next fields that will be ready are about 10 miles from home, rather than start those today or Saturday, we will plan to start there on Monday.

As the grain bin project drug out, we started talking about insurance. Sure, the big-ticket items such as the grain legs, bins, dryer, etc. are all insured. If something were to happen and we lost them, we know they would be replaced.

Is the auger insured?

The question is: What are we covered for on all the ancillary equipment? You know, the stuff you don’t always see or think about initially: the augers, the electric, the automation systems, connections, the safety systems. We put a lot of time and money into those. I’m fairly confident we would be covered, but we will be doing some double checking. Who knows, with the way inflation has gone (and the way insurance tries to depreciate items), maybe we’re not covered much at all!

Double-check the combine

Harvest startup was slow as well. Though we used the combine for wheat this summer, we still had to make some adjustments as we began.

After we started across the field, we did a hot shut off and pulled the panels off the machine to see just how well we were getting grain threshed.

This machine has automation and once we get it working how we like it, we will set parameters and let it go into automatic. The machine will make adjustments to maintain optimal grain sample and minimize losses.

Top off the fuel and we should be good to go on Monday!