Combines 2004 Combine and Crop report

[Shane_IN]

Well, after a slow and delayed start it didn't go too bad I guess. My TR86 hyd pump somehow lost an internal spring which ate up the housing pretty bad. Got it rebuilt with some new parts for about $400. Then 3_4 of the way done with beans the lateral tilt started acting up, no time to stop to fix it. Had one of the reel adj. bolts break and the reel hit the auger, broke several plastic bushings and bent some of the diamond shaped holders. Found out our head has been swapped to a CFC (IJ) pipe reel! luckily it rained an hour later and we lost little cutting time. Had to shut off the electronic stone trap cause my feeder house chain kept touching it, to the end of adj and didn't have anytime to take out a link. Was smooth sailing with beans really. Got into corn and had a bearing on the clean grain elevator go out which was letting the rattle clutch slip. Easy fix but every now and then in wetter corn it would slip before completely filling the hopper extension. Probably a good thing though, those gearboxes are salty. Only other problem besides all the rain every third day was on the very last day when I turned on the lights and the lower header lights, grain tank, auger and rear ones all went out. Upper cab and all interior worked fine. Kinda sucks filling a truck having to use a spot light to see it! Any ideas what happened thereIJ Not gonna even start on the problems with our TR95! But our crops were excellent. 797 acres of beans averaged 46 bpa including 100 acres of double crop after barley planted on July 3. Those made 22 bpa. And those would have been near 40 if we didn't get that one early frost. Highest were 65 bpa! Simply the best ever! All dryland too. 750 acres of dryland corn averaged 145 bpa dry. Most came off at under 20%. Highest was 227 bpa. Most of what we farm is sand with a bit of clay and muck.

 

[Ilnewholland]

Good to hear that you had good crops also Shane. looks like with the increased inputs for next year(rust spray, fuel and fertilizer) we will need them. Don't look like your combines did to bad. On your TR86 lights I think I changed the circut breaker back by the engine on a TR96 I had. Not sure but I may have put a size bigger on on itIJ I remember if I just unpluged one light someplace then they would all stay on. Seems like they just pull more than the breaker would let them. Wish you a very Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year! Ilnh

 

[NHD]

Thanks for the summary of your combining costs this season. I hope it brings out some good discussion. I'll comment more later, but to start off you are right on target with the costs. I know from experience that your figures can't generally be matched with most of the other brands. If you subtract your fuel costs you have $70.53_seperator hour. Which is darn good. If you had run say 504 sep. hrs your per hour cost would be only $39.20_sep. hr. a difference of some $31._hr. It seems to me that we are headed in the direction of operating more hours per year as we get more and more expensive combines. Just some thoughts. I do know that dealers are wanting to trade for around $90. a sep. hour which to me is an outrage!!!

 

[Ilnewholland]

That 280 hours was engine hours, so I guess I didn't do as good as you think. I put I think about 200 sep hours on this year. Not sure how I could run more hours on it this year as the weather seems to give a person less time to harvest every yearIJ I guess I don't look at cost per hour as much as cost per acre. My combine cost per acre is less than the cost of seed or fertilizer anymore. The crop inputs cost just keep going up every year. I think when I traded my TR98 for this TR99 last year my cost to trade was around $60 per sep hour. I know to trade to a CR will cost more. I hope not a lot moreIJ Bad thing is that a person has to trade all heads at the same time. Wish you a Merry Christmas Don. Ilnh

 

[pete]

Thanks for the interresting facts. Is the 2000bu_hour of the yield monitor as you going down the field or is that actual bushels trucked awayIJ Also what is the moisture of the cornIJ Do you use a grain buggy in all the cropsIJ Thanks Peter

 

[pete]

I looked into trading this fall too and I was quite amazed at the $$$ they want to trade. I was going up a size however (TR99 to CR960) and your $90_sep hr does not even come close. What does the future look likeIJ I think it will be all customer operators who have to put at least 400-500sep hrs(Corn, Wheat Soy rotation) on a machine per year. In my area guys are averaging 250 to 350 sep hrs per machine now. I think there will be a lot of unhappy customers. Thanks Peter

 

[NHD]

Peter, My crystal ball doesn't see any other way to do it than what you are talking about. It's very hard to get over 300 hrs on a combine in the fall and still be competitive. The last few years as combines get bigger and your neighbors get finished in 3 weeks or so landlords get uncomfortable. Also it is very hard to get a custom harveting operation going in the midwest. Farmers seem to want to have a combine setting on the end waiting for him to say go. Out west it's entirely different. A custom harvestor can build a run by moving up from Tx north to the Dakota's. However not many farmers can get away for 3 months. One alternative solution is Machinery link. They have the right idea and it seems to be catching on.

 

[Brodale]

Thanks for the great numbers. After New Years I'll try and put together numbers on our combine but I'm not sure I have enough information to do as good a job as you did. We shall have to make that a priority for next year. Knowing your costs is getting more important all the time.

 

[Ilnewholland]

The 2000bph was both. We use a grain cart as much as we can, but I was short on help this year as my Dad was sick this fall. We could fill a 1000 bu truck load in a half hour with dumping on the go into the grain cart. We had some 200bpa corn this year so the bushels really added up fast. Most years our normal corn yield is more like 125-150. The moisture was almost all under 20% this year. Cutting corn was most all done on dry ground in Sept but in Oct and Nov it rained every few days so most of bean cutting was done in mud. I had to haul some bean hoppers out of the field up to 1_4 mile to dump as the grain cart could not get there. I put more engine hours on the combine then. We just got done last week on frozen ground before the snow fell. Some neighbors still have crop out in the field around here. How was you harvestIJ Hope you had a Merry ChristmasIJ Ilnh

 

[Ilnewholland]

I like to do numbers like this. My wife tells me I figure to much all the time. Banker tells me I don't figure enough. Must be about rightIJ I would like to see other peoples numbers to see how I do. Thanks, Ilnh