NORTH DAKOTA LARGE SCALE FARMING EQUIPMENT

Most years recently our travels take us through the rich farmlands of Minnesota and North Dakota.We marvel at the scale at which farming business is conducted there. When I was growing up in southern Wisconsin (over 65 years ago), the size of a farm was measured in acres. In this area, the size of farms is measured by quarters of sections (160 acres).  Here is some of the equipment used in the big operations.

 

 

Here is the tall sprayer with the heads neatly folded in for traveling on the road to the field. Its wheels are about 7 feet tall. A tank is pulled behind it containing the product to be sprayed.

Newer ones are GPS and computer controlled so all the operator has to do, after necessary programming is put into the computer, is to turn the machine at the end of each pass over the field.

 

Before planting, the bare fields are sprayed with a herbicide like Roundup  to discourage the weeds. This is the truck which takes the mixed  Roundup to the spraying machine working in the field.

 

Here are three of the larger John Deere tractors used primarily for planting and fall tillage. The largest has a diesel engine developing 620 hp. (Our motor home has a 300hp diesel engine.)

 

The machine behind the smaller tractor is the grain cart. It is pulled beside the combine going down the field to receive the grain (corn, beans or wheat) from the combine and to carry the grain  to a semi trailer in the field The toothed things left of the tractor are the heads for the combines – one head for corn and the other for soybeans for each of the two combines.

 

 

Here are two combines, without the heads. When Jo and I go the the Quad Cities in the summer we sometimes visit the John Deere showroom where machines like these are on display. The list price for one of John Deere’s new combines, with a head, is about $500,000!

When the wings are folded down in the field, this seeder delivers the seeds and fertilizer pellets for planting. The seed and pellets are in separate bins in a trailer pulled behind the seeder, and through a GPS and computer system the fertilizer application rate can be varied to fit the varying nature of the soil in the large field.

 

 

And this is the seeder for the corn.

This is the truck with the hopper for the seeds to be fed into the bin on the seeders.

 

The red machine is called a Joker and is used for spring tilling, just before planting.

(I wonder if there is a Batman machine!) The blue machine is a large disc for fall tillage of corn fields after combining to break up the stalk and leaf debris. The large tractors are needed to pull these.

 

And after the combine transfers the grain being harvested into a large cart or buggy to travel with the combine, the buggy is taken to a semi  truck such as these in the field to transport the grain to  storage bins or the to elevator for sale and shipment to market.

 

 Here is the fuel station to dispense the farm diesel for the tractors and combines, the road diesel for the trucks going over the roads, and gasoline for the pickup trucks.

 

Some of this field of winter wheat was harvested. But it rained that night, so the equipment just sits until the field dries out sufficiently to continue the harvest. Left to right is the combine, with head at its right and chute to the left, the semi truck, and the cart or buggy with its chute out to discharge its load into the semi trailer.