Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Shelling Corn 101

This machine is called a combine. Probably because with it's invention it combined a number of jobs previously done by several machines. The front fingers (aka corn header) pull the ears of corn off of the stalks. They walk up the header to the middle and go inside the machine.
The corn is then separated from the cobs and sent to a holding tank in the center top section of the machine.
Various screens and displays show Landon how this field is doing. This is so he can decide which variety of corn is best suited for each field. Also so he can more accurately keep up with the records for the USDA and crop insurance. A buzzer goes off when the tank is full of corn.
The stalks and cobs come out of the rear of the combine. They are thrown out very fast and hard. Never stand back here, lol. As you can see a very short, sharp stalk is left. Thus the need to bush hog behind the combine.
When the tank is full, the combine pulls along side of a truck and unloads. In other states the combine driver does not even stop. The trucks match his speed and he unloads while he is cutting to save time. (they have no hills or rocks like we do)
Tomorrow.....the grain bins.

6 comments:

Jennifer A said...

awesome! thanks for the info!

Shannon said...

This is for a reader named Elizabeth. We take for granted that everyone knows how this stuff works and what it does. :)

Elizabeth said...

Aahh!!! You totally ROCK! Thank you for the clarification. I am so glad I asked you!

I bought a bag of deer feed corn at Walmart so I could put it in a Rubbermaid bin for my kids to play with - kind of like a sandbox. I bet your kids have MORE than enough corn to play with. Ha!

Feel free to post more info about this whole process. I love to learn about this!

Nancy M. said...

Well, I knew what a combine did, but not exactly how it did it. Very interesting!

Anonymous said...

I'm totally going to look up "combine" and see if you are right!! haha Very interesting though. Can I have some corn? ::))

Shannon said...

Marel, the shipping would kill you, lol.