Garbanzo Beans combined

Last week we threshed our crop of garbanzo beans from last year. I know, a long time from harvest to threshing, but this is a totally new thing for us. We used Harry MacCormack's JD 40 combine. Thanks Harry! We ended up with about 2-300 pounds of beans. There are still some stems in the beans. Hopefully we can clean those out with a gravity table. We just tossed huge bundles of the stalks into the header on the combine. The whole process took less than half an hour. Not the most efficient way to harvest garbanzo beans. Hopefully in the future we can combine them directly in the field.

A2R is unable to participate in the Bounty of Benton County Tour

Due to circumstances beyond our control, A2R Farms is regrettably unable to participate in the Bounty of Benton County tour. We apologize for this as we know we are already on the passports. We hope to participate in the tour next year. Thank you!

Final stretch of harvest.

The next week or so should see us finishing up the harvest for this year. Due to the late, wet spring, the flax and oats are taking longer to dry down. We tried combining the flax yesterday, but the moisture was up around 17 percent. Not good for combining. The oats are also largely green. Instead of combining them standing we are windrowing them so they can dry down faster. The oats are probably our best crop this year. They seem to tolerate the wetter springs fairly well. The weeds have not been a big problem in the oats this year either. Not so with the flax. Our biggest flax field has large sections that are chock full of Queen Anne's Lace. The wheat was largely devastated by stripe rust and other fungal diseases. We have a small amount fit for human consumption, but most of our wheat will have to go for animal feed. One of the biggest things we can do to ensure a better yield is regular applications of lime. This is a prime example of what short-term compromise for cash flow costs in the long run.