SO YOU WANT TO BE A GRAIN CART OPERATOR...OR NOT!

 

Change is inevitable. Some change is good, it all depends on your perspective. Either way, I got a big dose of it this year during harvest.

For the last few years, I have been helping Ron get the harvest in by pulling the wagons up to the bin and unloading. It got to be pretty much old hat, me and his 656 got along just fine. I never had an oops, well except when the bin got full and corn started spilling out. Of course, that wasn’t my fault because he did tell me to just keep unloading.

Well, this year my world changed in a big way…literally. He bought a 1000-bushel grain cart because it would make things easier…his words, not mine. In theory, he was right. There wouldn’t be as many trips up from the field and when you loaded a semi the driver wouldn’t have to wait to unload each wagon.

I have to admit that I was excited the day it arrived. I documented its coming to its new home with lots of pictures. Seeing it up close and personal was a real eye-opener. It was big. No, it was huge. No, that’s not right either. This new monster that came to live with us was GIGANTIC!

Ron reassured me though. “Don’t worry, you will never have to drive it.” Those were the most
reassuring words I have ever heard.

But then, it is harvest, that special time of year when all rules and normalcy doesn’t apply. I think Ron was a little intimidated by it at first too. That soon changed after he and his son Rodney got familiar with it while harvesting soybeans.

The next thing I heard was, “It would really help me if you could learn to drive it just so you could bring it to the field when Rodney can’t be here.”

Well, that didn’t sound so bad. After all, I just had to think of it as this over-sized wagon that would just follow the tractor and the tractor was automatic with all the bells and whistles. Seriously, how bad could it be?

I never should have gotten in the cab that first time. How did it go from just taking it down to the field to dumping on the go?? I think this had been the plan all along. I had been bushwhacked!

At the end of that first row, with tears in my eyes, I almost screamed, “What are you doing!”

His answer, “Don’t worry, you’ll be fine, I can talk you right through it.” Famous…last…words!

He had purchased walkie talkies to make things go smoother. So, this was in the plan all along! I guess if I had to do this, that was a good idea since hand signals didn’t quite get it in the past. There were only two that I had mastered very well, “stop!” and “get your head out of your ……!”

Unfortunately for me, Ron was a big fan of AgTalk and he had been reading about other farmers and their grain cart operators. It was the general consensus that whatever happened it was the grain cart driver’s fault. If the cart was too close, if it was too far away, if grain got spilled, if the cat got run over, if the barn burned down, it was pretty much the grain cart operator’s fault. This was going to be an uphill battle all the way.

It started out bad and then got worse. First of all, the radios didn’t work like they should. They picked up the engine noise and, with me not hearing out of one ear anyway, it made for a bad situation. I would only catch a word here or there, not enough to know what he wanted. So, I stopped the tractor, ran over to the combine…like in the old days….climbed up and asked what he wanted. “Just stay in the tractor!” That made it clear as mud what he wanted!

So, I tried holding the radio to my good ear while driving. Well, that didn’t work so well. I did catch two words that time…radio and down. What’s a girl to do!

“Listen,” he said, “it’s pretty simple, just stay on the third row of corn from me and drive at 3.1, that will match my speed.”

Well, that would make things easier…not. Even following those orders, it was, “Get over, you’re too close, now you’re too far. Well, speed up, slow down.” I give up…until the next round.

It was no piece of cake turning that monster around either. He warned me not to turn too short and to be careful of the tractor tongue since there was a lot of weight on. I would turn around to catch him, but where was he? He had changed his mind and instead of coming back where he had been, he was taking more end rows off. Of course, that was the grain cart operator’s fault too.

I watched how slowly and carefully he would pull the full load over the uneven ground on its way to the barn. This was something else that I was never going to have to do until the second day and he told me to head up. I just knew that I was going to be the next poor soul on AgTalk pictured with an overturned load.

The one thing that I never did do was unload in the semi. Even with cameras, it was a little tricky for him and Rodney and I guess he really wanted all the grain in the truck with no “oopses.” Good for me!

I guess why this was so hard for me goes back to me being a right-brainer like most women are. Still, some women manage just fine, and even make it look easy. Monica is her husband Mark’s grain cart operator and does it with no effort at all. Rene became her husband Bruce’s operator this year and done it all from dumping on the go to dumping in the semis. Linda drove truck for her husband Byron and hauled the grain into the elevator.

In a way, I feel sorry for Ron. I will never be a Monica, a Rene, a Linda or any of the many other women out there that master this art. It’s not my thing. Me and his 7240 tractor, we got along fine. It is  just the big red thing behind that gives me fits.

In all fairness, the grain cart did make life easier and better…for him. He didn’t have to wait on me to get back with the wagons when he was at the far side of the field and the truck drivers didn’t have to wait to be loaded while jockeying four wagons. After all, during harvest every minute counts.

It’s all said and done this year and we made it through with no oops. I am grateful for that. Looking back, it could have been a lot worse, but then it could have gone a little smoother too. Rodney was able to help him finish shelling corn so they finished on a good note.

Lessons learned from this year will make next year go better. However, I am not stressed at all about next year because…I am now officially a RETIRED grain cart operator!