Soybean Harvesting

The soybeans, along the trail I walk, was harvested when I was away this past week -

I’m a bit disappointed, as I was hoping to catch the harvesting in process to see it in action and how it’s done.

And it sure looks different -

There’s another field of soybeans nearby, that was planted later in the summer, that look like they’ll be needing harvesting soon too -

Interesting how it would seem the farmers let the plants die back completely before harvesting. Perhaps, it helps the process when most of the leaves have fallen off on their own before the combine comes rolling through.

The walk is already looking drab with most of the summer greenage all but gone and the blah colors of fall replacing them, alas.

Circle of life I suppose.

Smell-O-Vision, Maybe

Or perhaps, scratch-and-sniff.

If only this was a thing. Someday maybe 🤔 

You need to smell 👃the drying tobacco to appreciate it. Now, don’t get me wrong, it’s not the bestest smell, like say fresh cut hay but it does have a unique somewhat likable odor that has mellowed since its original hanging -

And from my novice perspective, I’d say it’s curing quite nicely!

When it was first hung, it had a smell similar to fresh cut hay. However, after drying for a couple months now, it has a kinda rich, earthy, woody and old weathered barn smell 👃.

I’m not a smoker but just might need to sneak a piece and give it a taste toke…yeah know, the whole when it Rome thing.

Pick Me, Pick Me

That didn’t take long at all.

The field corn 🌽 running along a quarter mile of the walking trail is Tusculum was harvested this past week, only took them a couple days -

I need to do some research to understand the process, as I had assumed that the entire corn stalks; ears of corn, stalks and all of the plant, was processed and used for the silage. However, that doesn’t seem to be the case. Rather, it looked like the corn 🌽 was removed from the cobs and then the cobs and casings were discarded back onto the field, see example below - 

Also, the first pass that the combine made looks like it cut the stalks about one to two feet up from the ground leaving a considerable amount of stalk behind, see below -

When all was said and done, the field is littered with the unused pieces and parts of the stalks and the stalks cut off at ground level. I’m assuming this will all eventually be tilled into the soil and used to feed and enhance the soil for next years crop -

It sure looks different and what an absolutely beautiful day it was yesterday -

I also need to read up on soybean harvesting. The back half of the above pic is a field of soybean, that I’m assuming will be processed soon. It’s interesting, as it looks like they wait for plant to completely die and dry up before picking.

What’s That Rustling

The field corn 🌽 that abuts the trail I’ve been walking the last several months is getting closer to harvest time.

As you can see it’s turning yellow and golden, and drying up quite nicely.

It’s SO peaceful walking along this area in general but especially when the wind is blowing and you can hear the rustling of the dried up stalks!

I’m hopeful to be able to catch the harvesting in action but unfortunately, that is also an indication that fall is not too far off.