The top two indicators are what is going on with your crop. The left is moisture percentage and the right is bushels per acre. Just below that is your crop. In this case it is a lie (we're actually harvesting winter wheat) but it's close enough.

In this type of combine the majority of the threshing is done by a device called a bullet rotor. The top left indication below the crop type is the speed of your rotor. The number below that is the clearance between your rotor and concave. In this case it's 0 because we want it as close as it gets.

Next to your rotor speed is the cleaning fan speed. The cleaning fan blows light weight unwanted chaff out of the mechanism.

The last two indicators on the right are the top and bottom sieves. They are what sort the grain from the remaining chaff.

The bottom block is the message center. In this case it's telling me my grain tank is 3/4 full. Next to that is the record button for keeping records of what we're harvesting.

You control all of those settings with this panel.

Sorry for the crappy photo. I was driving and it's bouncy.

I'm pretty tired so I'll just close this post by saying you adjust all those settings based on crop density and moisture and by visually inspecting your grain tank and by getting out and counting the amount of grain you bypass per square foot. It sounds more complicated than it actually is. You can learn to do all of this in a day.

Remember that hail storm back in June?

That scar is 3/4 the length of the State.

South Dakota isn't exactly the size of Rhode Island either.

@Der Seeteufel - SD yikes did that harm people's farms?

Yeah it destroyed more than 15,000 acres just on the farm I work on. The reason you can see the lines is because basically everything is dead along that 420 mile swath. @ThisIsChris

@Der Seeteufel - SD I am sorry to hear about the farm you work on.

Luckily we had insurance to cover most of it. Rather than losing 5 million dollars this year my boss should break even. That's just the reality of farming. This was a once in a lifetime storm though.

Farming tire tech I learned today. This tire has big tread that grips the soil at low pressure, then if you inflate it to high pressure, only the center of the tread contacts the ground, making for good fuel efficiency and tread wear when driving on pavement.
https://www.michelin.com/eng/media-room/press-and-news/press-releases/Products-Services/Michelin-at-SIMA-2017

We actually do that with our normal tires. It probably isn't as effective as this new tire is designed to be but we do increase our tire pressure if we are going a long way down the highway.

Today, farmers in France got the gas.
https://www.sltrib.com/sports/2018/07/24/tour-de-france-marred-by/

I'm driving the grain cart today.

This cart can carry about 80,000 lbs of wheat.

I'm half full.

I think this is the last load for tonight.

Oh and if anyone is wondering what that kink in the reel on the combine is. That's what happens when you don't pay attention and hit a rock. That was from when I was driving it the other day.

Luckily I was able to hit the E stop before the combine ate it.

This is why you wear a mask when sweeping out bins. This mask was new when I started 30mins ago.

@Der Seeteufel - SD ask for a respirator, homie

The mask actually works just fine. It's relatively large particulate. I have a respirator for chemicals.

@Der Seeteufel - SD is it true that you can "drown" in a silo?

Yeah. You should never enter a bin while loading or unloading because you can be buried or sucked into the grain. You also have to be careful when entering a bin that has been partially unloaded because the top layer can crust over and form a void. You don't so much drown as get your lungs crushed by the weight of the grain but you suffocate just the same.

@Deleted User

oosh

Ouch.

@Der Seeteufel - SD I've seen a lot of guys recently wear those masks when mowing their big lawns. Glad to see people are getting wiser about PPE.