I'm on Twitter

Roosty6 @B110

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Moving Canola July 11.



Heres a little video of what I did yesterday. Known in the industry as "turning grain", I moved some of last years canola from several smaller bins into a bigger hopper bin. It was a good day for it although I made some mistakes with the camera taking interesting pictures of the ground as I walked instead of what I intended. The canola dust bothered me a little but not nearly as much as the grass pollen did today as I sat out in the mosquito-ridden hell that is Saskatchewan outdoors this summer.
The open station IH swather offers no protection from the weather , bugs or grass pollen. I used to laugh at people who talked about "hay fever" until the past few years when I have become much more intolerant of grass pollen.
Its like a bad head cold. Between the sneezing , runny nose, itching eyes and wrists (that could have been mosquito bites) I was about at the limit of my endurance.
This swather does not do well in certain types of grass. The knife builds up with material and begins to hammer out a warning that , if not heeded, could lead to expensive destruction of the knife drive gearbox. Slow down! Although at times I was hardly moving at all. A sitting duck for the hungry mosquitos. It was a good windy day that would normally keep the mosquitos and pollen dispersed and offer some relief. Unfortunately there is so much bush on Nevardland where I was cutting that a lot of the time I hardly knew the wind was blowing.
By 7:30 I had enough and drove up onto the transporter to enter the welcome confines of the cab of the Case tractor and drive home in relative comfort.
There is quite a bit more hay I could cut there but I've already cut more than enough to keep my small herd fed for the winter so I will not be in a hurry to go back and cut the rest.
Easterly winds blowing and clouds in the west hint at rain in the near future. Not a good thing for drying hay but I can't control the weather.

4 comments:

  1. Wow!!! Its an interesting blog on mosquito control system
    ...
    Really too useful...
    Thanks for sharing such information....
    Keep sharing...

    ReplyDelete
  2. I've spent most of my farming life on open station machines. The last five years we have moved solidly into the cab era and I really like it. I've also developed hay allergies, I never used to have them.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Wow!!! Its an interesting blog on mosquito control system ...
    Nice one.
    Thanks for sharing such information....
    Keep sharing...

    ReplyDelete
  4. I still prefer open station but cabs are easier on me. I wouldn't make a very good grain turner, Ralph. I am not sure you could teach me, either.

    ReplyDelete