Central Illinois Soybean Harvest, September 30, 2005

Central Illinois Soybean Harvest, September 30, 2005

Driving along Highway 1 last week, it was evident the soybeans were coming close to harvest. I have a friend in Paw Paw, Illinois who raises corn and soybeans. She claims her husband can bite into a soy bean to identify if the moisture content is less than 10%, which is ideal for harvesting and storing. Like a lot of small farmers, they also have day jobs in DeKalb. They use their vacation to conduct their planting and harvesting.



In this field of soy beans, the farmer has a second source of income from the oil pumped to storage tanks on the edge of the road. Since oil prices have been greater than $35 per in the last few years, the economic practicality of pumping these wells has been revived. In a few locations, I saw new and quite large pumps for the first time instead of these rusty relics pressed into service.

Bringing in the soybean harvest was the regional task du jour. There were combines seen everywhere harvesting the soybeans:



Once the combine has filled, then it off loads the beans to a truck for transportation to grain elevators:



Grain elevators, which always seem like silent sentries in small agricultural communities, were abuzz in activity:



Trucks filled with beans are first weighed, then their product off-loaded and finally the truck returns to the scales for an empty weight recording.



It’s pay day for the farmer who hopefully earned enough to pay off their loans, expenses and hopefully some funds leftover called profit.

Their job done not yet done, a combine moves on to the next field as it moves north following the harvest cycle.



Please refer to this website for more information on soy bean processing:
http://www.nsrl.uiuc.edu/aboutsoy/soyprocessing.html

Regards,