Illinois Harvest | a 7 Image Story
Illinois Harvest | a 7 Image Story Harvest time in northern Illinois is not your grandfather’s harvest experience. Farming in northern Illinois, like most other parts of the country, has become largely a corporate experience. The number of family farms continues to decline. Even the few remaining family farms outsource their harvest to larger operators. Corn and beans are “custom combined” by these operators using large, expensive machines.
Big Round Bales The round bales standout big against a mostly sunny sky. Custom Combining What an amazing sight! These combines cut a huge swath through the bean field. And, they rarely stop since they can offload to the wagon while continuing to cut beans. While watching this operation for a couple of hours, only one combine stopped only once and then for only a couple of minutes. Into the Semi Then, from the wagon the beans go right into the semi. The wagon can unload faster enough for one wagon to keep up with two combines. Pretty slick operation! Disked Under The farmer can almost immediately disk the field under before winter. Small Bean Field Why so many John Deere images? My dad was somewhat partial to John Deere equipment. My first tractor driving experience as a kid was on the John Deere H model. Corn Header Just change the cutter head and the combine will cut, husk, and shell corn. Big Illinois Sky After the harvest, fall paints northern Illinois fields in shades of gold accented by reds, yellows, and greens.
Each image will be posted individually this week with a bit more narrative under category Illinois Harvest.
Click any image below for a slide show.
