A Beanman's Combine

[BeanMan]

Here's a few pictures of the small Volkswagon bug powered combine I use to harvest seed and research plots. It's made by Hege of Germany and it's quite the contraption. I think maybe Han's Hege made cookoo clocks before he settled on combines. It's advantages are that it's easy to pull all over western Colorado and it cleans out 100% between seed lots quickly. Otherwise it's a mechanic's nightmare.

Not too many belts to replace...

Harvesting a Canola for biodiesel trial at Fruita, Colorado

It's only 99 degrees out

beanman

 

[eelgrass]

It looks more Polish than German.

How does OSHA feel about all the exposed belts?

Eel

 

[BeanMan]

OSHA? What's that? To be honest we leave the guards off because we have to mess around with the belts so fricken much that it's a waste of time to keep putting them back on.

Bean

 

[twister]

said the one armed man.

 

[d13r]

LMAO twister.....leaving the guards off is OK for a government job....it's everyone else that has to follow the rules.

JB

 

[bobcatbess]

THAT MAZE OF BELTS IS BETTER KNOWN AS A CLUSTER F#$%!!!

NOT ONLY THAT!!!

LOOKS LIKE AN ALLERGY TRAP TO ME!!!

WHERES THE AIR CONDITIONER BeanMan???



THIS IS MY NEW GUN,YOU MAY NOT LIKE IT,YOU'LL LIKE IT A HELL OF A LOT LESS WHEN IT HITS ITS DESTINATION!!!

THE ONLY bobcat THAT KNOWS ALOT OF YOU HAVE HAD THIS IMAGE IN YOUR PEA BRAIN BUT DUE TO POOR SHOOTING TACTICS I'M STILL KICKIN!!!

 

[NVBighorn]

Looks like a cross between a Toro rototiller and a Ditch Witch Trencher with a man eater on the front. Way cool.

 

[BeanMan]

We always work on the left side of the machine. That's the side with no belts. Allergens, dust, and plant debris. need to head for the hills to cool off this weekend.

BeanMan

 

[ClorideRUS]

How many grease fittings does that sucker have? I've been searching the web for a photo of my 1055 Case swather and can't find a thing. That POS has at least 750 fittings that you can't reach. Friction drive ... if you get too rough with the POS .... hold on for 8 seconds or the bitc*h will toss you right into the header.

RUS

 

[B_F_E]

I think we could swap equipment quite easily.

 

[lve2143]

Fred,
I'm Get'N a Kick out these city boy MORONS
that don't know come here'from sic'um.

Fred, you 'de man on this chit.

Some of these boy's make my ass want to take
a dip of snuff.........

Just me.

lrv

 

[NVBighorn]

Not sure if I'm considered one of the "city boy MORONS" but believe me I have worked with more old junk farm equipment than the average bear. And I still do. I think that's a neat little machine. My newest tractor is a 1978 model. I have an old John Deere that I think was made in 1956 and it's a step way above the stuff I cut my teeth on. And it's an integral part of my operation. My Dad bought a brand new John Deere G back in the 40s along with a Miller rotary scraper and levelled more land 2 1/2 yards at a time than most will ever dream of owning. And the locals thought he was nuts for buying it. He cut his teeth behind a team of horses and a tail-board.

Believe me, I ain't from any city. Might be a moron but I ain't a city boy and I do know the difference between com'ere and sic'um. By the way "com'ere" is one word, not two.

 

[ClorideRUS]

Heh ..Heh ... sounds like we are all trying to out do each other with junk farm equipment. My "new" tractor is a Binder 475 ... probably about 1975 or so. The one I bale with is a "Fergie T035" ... maybe early 60's or so. I hire the swathing 'cause that f'n Case swather hates me. Dad and I did buy a Heston 4550 baler about 10 years ago. Life is good! I don't loose near as much money as I used to!!!! Like my Dad always said "You better LIKE farming 'cause that's all you're going to get out of it."

RUS

 

[kilowatt]

Where's the Green Card workers..........LOL

Brian

 

[ClorideRUS]

LAST EDITED ON Jul-24-08 AT 10:10PM (MST)[p]Kilo ... real men don't hire day labor! They make their wifey's help like Beanman. LOL

RUS

 

[nickman]

You young fellers' probably wouldn't appreciate ranch work with a Holt or a Cletrac.....I never had to do much extra arm work to be ready for football season. I think they were both retro WW1 army tanks.

We also had a Case tractor with steel wheels. The first baler I ever used was a cobbled POS that would wire up about 15 bales and then I would have to crawl inside and untangle the wire mess...WHILE IT WAS RUNNING!!!!

If I had all that old equipment right now, I could sell it and take a safari!

When my dad brought home a 10 year old Massey Ferguson tractor and Heston swather and a Heston baler.....I thought it was Christmas.

You guys farmin' alfalfa....or anything, got all my respect.

 

[d13r]

Makes my neck itch just looking at it....

JB

 

[BeanMan]

Yup an itchy job. I happen to hate haying, I wish I didn't put up four cuttings a year of alfalfa and three of grass. I hate it but it pays bills.

BM

 

[kilbuc]

99 degrees....my dad liked hot weather, grain thrashed better.

from the "Heartland of Wyoming"

 

[lve2143]

Fred,

When I was going to Tarleton State Univesity
back in 1983, or so, I worked one summer as an
intern at
an Ag. research station that was owned, then,
by the Diamond Shamrock Corp. Back then, they
were into agri-chemicals and they owned a BUNCH of
land up and down the Leon river.

We grew tomatoes, wheat, tobacco, garbonzo beans,
and a bunch of other stuff, that I couldn't even
fathom.

When it came time to combine the grain, this chick
came down with a little combine simm. to what you
show, from Nebraska. Had it on a trailer.

I was impressed as hell {with the combine, not the chick)

Made a little razooo, and the next day, she was gone.

Cool stuff sir,

Laro

 

[Cow Tag]

Beanman, back in the 1980's, our area of southern Illinois grew quite a large acreage of canola (as an oil crop). Did not really catch on much but within the last two seasons more and more farmers here are growing it under contract. I believe that canola will redeem itself here and will become a regular in our crop rotation. I am a retired vocational agriculture teacher with 25 years in that area and I spent 10 years as our county's Cooperative Extension Agriculture Adviser sandwiched in between the two high schools where I taught at. I had a couple of canola variety test plots each year and the combine we used was a about the same size and capacity as yours but the University of Illinois combine was very conventional looking but was much, much smaller than a standard size harvester. I enjoyed reading all of the posts about your combine and the work that you do. I was raised on a John Deere model 60 row crop tractor with its two cylinder engine with pistons large as 10 pound lard cans. It made that Famous Johnny Popper noise of course as its exhaust exited from the tractor's muffler. Good Hunting, CowTag from southern Illinois.

 

[Cow Tag]

Bighorn, a John Deere model G was a stout pulling tractor. We owned a G in the middle 1960's and it was a powerful tractor. I always liked the way it looked.....simple, stout, dependable, ready.

 

[BeanMan]

LAST EDITED ON Jul-25-08 AT 09:52PM (MST)[p]Cowtag,

Did your canola get huge infestations of False Chinch Bugs? That's the worst part of harvesting that stuff as you are sweating up a storm and about every quarter inch of exsposed skin there is a false chinch bug stuck in your sweat and biting. You don't dare scratch because it only makes things worse. I always dread harvesting this trial. You Extension guy's really earn your money and I appreciate everything you guys do. We are part of a Department called Agricultural Experiment Station but we do have some extension work as part of our job descriptions.

Larbo, There were only two companies making small research plot combines for a long time. If it was blue it was Wintersteiger, if red it was a Hege. Wintersteiger has since bought out Hege. All of their stuff is now hydraulic so all the exposed belts are gone. Massey is now making a real neat little combine for seed and plots that is far superior to either of the afore mentioned pieces of crap. It has a cab, filtered air, and air conditioning not to mention a computer load cell that takes plot yield weights and test weights. It's only about $120,000 dollars and our little poorly supported research center can't afford one of those beauties.

In case anyone is wondering our CSU Research Farm at Fruita has to generate the majority of our operating income through sales of seed, crops, and by doing $contract$ research for big corporations. We pay for all of our equipment, fuel, fertilizers etc. without tax dollars.

Beanman

 

[Cow Tag]

Beanman, did you ever hear of an Extension entomologist named Gene Nelson. He was stationed at Grand Junction, CO? He is retired now and has been for several years. He was a resource person for me years ago on places to hunt Colorado on public lands. We have a University of Illinois Agricultural Research station close to where I live in deep south Illinois. They have the largest herd of beef cattle in the state of Illinois. Many, many good things have come from research stations similar to the one you work at and other across the country.
We raise much grain sorghum in our area and sometime growers witness a cinch bug infestation on this crop late in the season as the crop nears maturity. That milo dust will irritate a man's skin very easily too.

 

[BeanMan]

Cowtag,

I know Gene pretty well. He used to be a hunting fool. Killed more elk with a bow than anyone I know. We used to have some cooperative insecticide trials with him. He could talk with the best of them too.

Bean

 

[lve2143]

Fred, it was Red.
lrv