Harvesting Corn :) - Part 2

So to continue the super long tutorial, which started here:

Harvesting Corn Part 1

It was discussed in the above link how the corn with the help of a combine, is harvested, chaffed, thrashed whatever, in the end all that is left are kernels. Isnt that awesome !!! i think it really is, because I have seen back home in India where everything is done manually, it takes forever. Well, its good in a country where so many people need to find vocation too.

Lets continue , the combine is pretty awesome lol for the umpteenth time :) . What was really fascinating about the combine, is the fact that it had a display in the cab, which monitors the corn real-time. It tells what is the moisture content of the corn, the yield per bushel, quality (grade) of corn etc etc. It generates charts displaying the yield per acre in fact per row which was really precise. So heres how the display looked like:



After the combine has collected enough yield, which of course is known by the load in the above mentioned display, its time to dump the yield into a tractor. Not exactly a tractor but more like a hauler. Like this:




In one of the pic, you will observe that the tractor follows the combine. The tractor dumps the corn (just the kernels) into a truck which then transports it to the storage facility. Lol I am sure you have seen trucks, but wth this is how a truck looks like lol..



Now the kernel rich in moisture, needs to be stored and duh !!! needs to be dried. Yes Genius !!! it needs to be shifted to a dryer. I am sure most you have seen this high-tower building in middle of corn-fields and never knew what it was. But your ignorance ends here lol, thats how I felt :) ...So the kernels are dumped into this underground bunker like ditch:





From here with the help of this conveyor belt that are moved to a high temperature dryers, where the moisture is removed and kept for storage. The moisture is constantly monitored to make sure the kernels don't rot. here is the conveyor belt:



The kernels through the conveyor belts are transferred to these huge dryers:



And we got the chance to climb to the top of the dryer. It was awesome a real exercise. If I was a farmer, I probably would have never had to work out. Few of the views from the top:

Harvesting Corn :)

This post might give you a brief idea of how technology has played such an important role in Corn harvesting. Technology in farming is definitely a purposive use of technology, unlike this Toilet Paper News-Feeder lol :)

Sorry for the digression from the main topic, I guess this is something which will never change when I write. Okay coming back to the subject, Last Saturday, I had a once in a lifetime opportunity to go harvesting on a friends farm in Raonoke, IL. Best of luck trying to pronounce Raonoke :). Well It was a real learning experience, reminded me of Modern Marvel show on History Channel. Lol just shows how much I watch that show and beat this coincidence, I am watching it at the moment too, the show is about cold-cuts, lol I wouldnt want to go into more details as it would definitely upset my vegan readers :)

So coming back to harvesting corn, for this post we will assume that the corn is all grown, and ready to be harvested. Duh !!! the topic says harvesting too :P

This is how a fully-ripe-corn-ready-to-be-plucked looks like:



Once ready to be plucked, the field which was uniformly seeded may look like this:



You can see in the pic above, how the farm is uniformly seeded, its perfectly aligned for a combine to work its magic. Yes a Combine, i would consider it to be a Mechanical Engineering marvel for real. It works like a charm, it thrashes, removes the husk , the chafe, separates the kernels from the corn. What you have in the end are just kernels :). Here is a brief youtube video on how a Combine works.



And here is a pic of the combine, I rode in. Actually I got a chance to drive it too, And also, I rode it in on the highway. You must have imagined by now the front part of the combine i think its called the thrasher is definitely removed. Lol otherwise you might end up thrashing the road sign posts, other cars etc etc on the road. This was the view from atop a combine:



This is how our combine looked like:



Here is how a field looked like before we cleared it with a combine:



After running the combine:



To be Continued ....I am tired of writing and even more sick of my slow internet connection......but hold on there is more ...

Continued here:

Harvesting Corn Part 2