Some Super good videos of BIG harvesting/planting

JD Seller · Dec 6, 2014

I just happened across these videos of planting and harvesting on a large scale. I am not promoting this type of farming. These just are fascinating to watch. They are very well done with some of the best aerial camera work I have ever seen.
Planting alfalfa and corn

Harvesting Hay from Mowing to chopping

Chopping corn and making a LARGE Silage pile

fixerupper · Dec 6, 2014

What kind of horsepower does one of those choppers have? 850? 950? It'd take a bunch. It also takes a lot of organization to keep the support vehicles coming and going in time.

Eldon (WA) · Dec 6, 2014

Look Ma....no hands, no markers!

Pete in MD · Dec 6, 2014

Wonder how many cows they're feeding with silage/haylage piles that big.

JD Seller · Dec 6, 2014

I think that they are feeding around 7000 head each at two different farms. East Dublin and West Dublin, Minn.

JMS/.MN · Dec 6, 2014

IIRC, a couple years ago the big JD SP machines had somewhat over 600 hp....more than necessary, but a way to stay clear of the Tier IV requirements. My middle son was the service tech on them at a Focus Dealer, working MN, Dakotas, Northern Iowa.

Dave H (MI) · Dec 6, 2014

That's some interesting stuff! Won't comment on the silage videos other than the guy chopping alfalfa with his sunglasses up on his head did not look like he was working very hard. On the planting video...

-A planter with a curved staircase on the back? Really?! I have to climb mine like Everest.

-Coolest part was where they fold up the planter. I have end transport but sorry to say it doesn't work quite like that.

-Am I the only person in the world who uses their row markers? Are they like "training wheels" for people learning to plant?

Thanks for the post, enjoyed those much!

Eldon (WA) · Dec 6, 2014

(quoted from post at 21:22:05 12/06/14) That's some interesting stuff! Won't comment on the silage videos other than the guy chopping alfalfa with his sunglasses up on his head did not look like he was working very hard. On the planting video...

-A planter with a curved staircase on the back? Really?! I have to climb mine like Everest.

-Coolest part was where they fold up the planter. I have end transport but sorry to say it doesn't work quite like that.

-Am I the only person in the world who uses their row markers? Are they like "training wheels" for people learning to plant?

Thanks for the post, enjoyed those much!

With GPS and auto steer you don't need markers...look at the operator, his hands aren't even on the steering wheel. I think he is watching tv LOL!

JD Seller · Dec 6, 2014

Most fellows with very many acres are using GPS systems to hold planter spacing. Many of the newer tractors are set up with auto steer as well. So all you have to do is turn it around on the ends. Then just set there and ride to the end.

The boys newer planters are used with GPS. The tractor cab looks like a B52 bomber.
1) Auto steer. Which works great IF your system is working. LOL

2) Auto adjusting seed rate by soil type. Works well IF the weather does what you GUESSED it would do. LOL

3) Raven monitor for the fertilizer and chemical application. This one system has caused the fewest problems.

4) Individual row shut off for point rows. This is actually one of the biggest money saving/earners I think you can justify on a planter in irregular fields.

LarrySTN · Dec 6, 2014

The large choppers are 1100 HP. With a 30 foot head and 25+ ton corn you can use every bit of it. 600 HP is low power these days.

FLOLDFORD · Dec 7, 2014

That is truly amazing especially for some one like me raised in the south. I don't think I have ever seen a corn field over a 100 acres. Wonder want kind of drone they were using to shoot the video

fixerupper · Dec 7, 2014

Markers for a 36 row planter are heavy and bulky and prone to breakage. My neighbor took the markers off of his 36 row Deere and it lightened up an already heavy planter. He got tired of fixing them. I rode in the tractor with him when he still used the markers and when they were extended they were WAY out there, 45 feet out there. Too much leverage on the planter.

Ultradog MN · Dec 7, 2014

Great videos!
I'm trying to find a nicer way to put it but most country music now days just plain sucks.

john in la · Dec 7, 2014

In the corn silage picture.
What is that tractor doing?
Riding along wasting fuel just being there in case the truck gets stuck.

Now I see where all our old tires are sent to.

The size of those uninterrupted fields is amazing.

Dave H (MI) · Dec 7, 2014

No, that pretty much sums it up! LOL

Dave H (MI) · Dec 7, 2014

Give us a break, will ya? I just got my 160 horses last year and you are making me feel like a Cub owner!

T in NE · Dec 7, 2014

45 foot out there off the end of the planter. Which is already 45 feet out there.

Bryce Frazier · Dec 7, 2014

You laugh! Some friends of ours have about 15,000 acres of wheat on the Paluse, and when I was real little 5 or 6, he invited us all to come down there and for me to ride in/drive anything I wanted.. Well, it has planting time, and he had a huge Case Steiger tractor, and it was pulling a drill, and I wanted to ride in that, so he had his employe take me for a ride.

The driver literally sat there with his feet up watching some tv show and at the end of the field, the tractor lifted and killed the drill, spun around, dropped everything back in, and kept going! I was SHOCKED!!!

That is cheating... Mainly because they have 14 and I don't have one...

T in NE · Dec 7, 2014

The first time you see that tractor, it's dragging a semi through the field. I noticed they quit filling one of them with some space in the back yet. Most of them could probably get out themselves without too much trailer axle weight.

It'll cost them more to have the chopper sitting while the tractor runs the length of the field than it will to idle around in the tractor all day.

Don't know about the JD but a 300 HP Steiger with an 1100 bushel cart will burn more fuel moving to another field than it will the rest of the day on wheat or dryland corn.

T in NE · Dec 7, 2014

It's either pop music with a twang or a hat, or a rapper with a hat.

Heard someone on the radio say that taylor swift went pop. I thought hello, have you actually listened to anything she's put out?

Turned the radio over to KRVN the other day, thought I had found a BET feed, asked the boss if they changed formats. Nope, turns out it was just jason aldean.

T in NE · Dec 7, 2014

I think some of the big Claas choppers run a pair of 600 Mercedes.

fixerupper · Dec 7, 2014

Ya that's right, 90 feet out from the drivers seat. Your sense of depth perception has a big learning curve for sure. That fence post I worry about the end of the marker hitting with my 12 row would hit a 36 row planter six rows in from the end of the planter. The 36 row planter marker could hit something 60 feet out farther than that.

Some Super good videos of BIG harvesting/planting

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