Cooling Canola

I combined this canola almost a month ago, testing dry, but I was concerned it might not be cooling down safely. Decided to take a load out today to get a better look and temperature test. Turned out to be ok. It was a nice day compared to some we have had although the temp never got above 15F.

Some Harvest Progress

Its been a busy week with finally getting into the field to harvest some wheat. Not dry by any means but I think it will be safe enough to store in the bin for a while. Hope the grain buyers will take it at 17%+ moisture. It just refuses to dry down any lower and I can't take the chance of getting more drying weather this late in the season. Possible, but a slim chance.
Only been stuck once with the combine so far and it was not too dramatic or time consuming getting pulled out. Had a neighbour wanting to bale my hailed oat crop so that saved me 60 acres of combining plus will make a little cash on the bales.
Only 65 acres wheat left to go now so there is still hope. Even though it is freezing and trying to sleet/snow this morning.
Biggest problem has been the wheat, and oats, laying flat on the ground for most of the field making it necessary to scrape the ground with the combine header to get most of the crop. That would be fine if we didn't have moles and badgers leaving hidden mounds of dirt for the header to scoop up. Many trips up and down the combine ladder to shovel wet dirt out of the header. One morning the stone trap was even froze up with dirt from the night before.
Dryers and propane trucks are running day and night as those who have dryers are pushing it to the limit. Hard to have to spend more money drying a crop that has already down graded to feed quality in some cases.
I'm lucky to have my support crew keeping me going in this stressful time.
Youtube videos to follow when I've got time to catch up on editing.

Slight Harvest Delay

If I had actually got started harvesting this year this would be considered a delay. In reality it just pushes the start date further towards winter since I never got started yet. We got away lucky compared to SW Sask. where there are literally snow drifts and deep snow from what I hear. This snow can't make the grain any wetter as it was already thoroughly soaked but it will add a little water to the already dangerously muddy ground. Stuck combines and swathers will be the norm, unless the ground freezes up first! Grain quality suffers a little with every rain on ripe crop. At this point I wish I'd had 100% hail damage in that last big storm.
This morning's view out the window.

On The Positive Side

Well, last night's storm created a bit more bin space as some humorous farmer used to say. My oat field has hardly any oats left in the heads. Most threshed out on the ground by the heavy rain and hail. So there will be less trucking to do through the mud. Less dusty oats to handle.
Canola? Not sure if theres any positives in that. There will be less grain but the same amount of straw to handle. By some miracle the swaths did not blow apart in the strong wind that flattened all the grass.
 Wheat? Again, the only positive there is that the crop was not beaten into the ground. A bad hail storm can do that. Most of mine will still be able to be cut and go through the combine. Reduced yield of course and we won't even talk about quality. It was suffering already before this last big rain and will likely downgrade to feed now. (Less than $5 a bushel).
No broken windows which is almost a miracle the way it was hammering on the glass.
Could always be worse. We could get frost to further downgrade the grain quality. Or snow to lay it flat on the ground so as to be impossible to pick up. Guess it is a good year to have some kind of crop insurance.
More rain in the forecast so the combines staying in the shed.