My favorite time of year has arrived...barley harvest!  I love harvest because we get to see all of our hard work pay off.  My son loves it because he loves riding in the combine with me.  

The barley is dried down and ready to be taken to the elevator.  The barley is cut and fed into the header that is attached to the combine. The combine separates the barley from the rest of the barley plant and puts the barley in the grain bin, and the rest of the barley material which mainly consists of straw comes out the back of the combine.  The straw is either spread evenly or put into windrows to be baled.  Here is a picture from the driver's seat of the combine.

Combining Barley

The barley is then loaded into the waiting trucks to be taken to the elevator.  This is either done from the combine, or from a grain cart which is loaded in the field.  The grain cart is nice because it allows the combine to keep working in the field.  Without the grain cart, once the combine is full, it would have to stop and go to the trucks to unload which takes time. Here is a picture of us unloading into the grain cart and a picture of us unloading directly into the truck.

Unloading the barley is my son's favorite part. He loves watching the auger swing out and the grain coming out.  He also likes watching the grain tank empty as it is unloading. We started harvest a couple days ago and have had a couple delays.  One was rain and one was a breakdown.  While breaking down is never fun, getting to drive through a national park to get a part makes it a little better.  Here is a buffalo we got a quick picture of on our way.

We have a lot of barley to harvest, so hopefully the delays are done and it goes by smoothly. I will try to get some videos as we go and hopefully can post them soon. 🙂

Click here to see pictures of the barley from start to finish.