1600 bushel grain cart

[blackpowder]

Combines need to roll. Period.
It is an amphibious landing on hostile soil. You can't stop moving up the beach for anything until they're all dead.
Carts have no motors👍! Bonus.
Anyone can operate.
4wds with pto will hold their value very well if bought right and are multi purpose.
Trucks can be cheap but I haven't seen a cheap trailer that was worth it.
Keep it simple and eventually get truck unloader on bagger. Unless you need 16" capacity at yard. Heck, pile it first. Or build bins.
Sounds like your bottleneck is keeping it away at same pace its threshed.
Or like i said to the young guy this fall. "Or we could just pay down debt"😆
PS. Never give up finding Class 1 drivers. They exist. School <$12k.

[ry0972]

I ran 2 850/875 carts with single 30.5x32 tires and am now using 1 of them and a 1600 on tracks. (looking for another older cheap tractor to have the other small cart available as well.
1 guy (me) running 2 or 3 tridems and 2 carts all spotted strategically worked for years to keep 2,3 or 4
smaller combines going.
Added a class 9 combine this year as that is easier than finding operators.
On longer hauls in higher yield crops sometimes one combine would have to stop and run a full cart to a truck and maybe catch the other combines as well, OR usually then we would just run the 2 carts and bag those fields.
The 850/875 were MAX for a 250hp FWA when it is reasonably dry. If wet a 435 4wd could have trouble unless only
The 850 and 1600 work good if you have tridem grain trailers.
If you have super B's I would say get a 2000 or 2 1000 carts.
If you have a 4wd with pto you will be alot happier with a bigger cart behind it and keep your current cart and tractor as well.
Having a big cart that you cant move loaded will get old FAST!!

[Herc]

3 combines 3 carts no trucks to load and unload... figure it out... if you have a fast auger [that unloads carts] the cart is quicker to unload than trucks...[twice as fast] there are people doing this all the time ...especially if your roads are not too busy... no class 1 needed... you might grow high yielders next to bins... then you really make up time! Bagger in combo really works nice... skip the trucks whenever possible!

necessity is the mother of invention!

Cheers

Ya cause taking a loaded cart down a public road 10 miles just seems safer….

[jdg364]

I think I’d spend some money in the farm yard personally, buy a 16” auger and put that front wheel assist in it. Buy a 1600 bu cart, and sell the small one. If you’re fields are over 20 miles from the yard, lay a bag and get them picked up before Xmas (sell the grain or build the bins to hold it).

Install a dryer system to take some tough grain so your not pushing everything during the “just the right time”. Would also be high on my priority list with your problems.

To the guy with the idea of driving a grain cart 10 miles down the road loaded.. that’s one different concept and IMO very inefficient if your yard is on highway, have many hills or just having to drive down the country roads during the busiest time of the year, but each there own.

[TOM4CWB]

I think I’d spend some money in the farm yard personally, buy a 16” auger and put that front wheel assist in it. Buy a 1600 bu cart, and sell the small one. If you’re fields are over 20 miles from the yard, lay a bag and get them picked up before Xmas (sell the grain or build the bins to hold it).

Install a dryer system to take some tough grain so your not pushing everything during the “just the right time”. Would also be high on my priority list with your problems.

To the guy with the idea of driving a grain cart 10 miles down the road loaded.. that’s one different concept and IMO very inefficient if your yard is on highway, have many hills or just having to drive down the country roads during the busiest time of the year, but each there own.

Depends on the roads and where the bins are... if an extra step can be removed... so much the better!

Keep it simple... Save the super b to direct hit the elevator...

It is truly amazing what a good tandem that matches hauling away from a 500u combine capacity hopper... unload on the go...with a good auger that can unload 500u in 3 minutes... can do... usually haul 450... works out nice... Tridem for overflow...

Many solutions... depends how wet the ground is.. how big the field... straight cutting or swath... seed or commercial... Canola usually not a problem... doing over 700u/hr/combine does not happen that often!

Cheers

[Rareearth]

Your bottle neck is:
- auger into bin is too small or
- too many small bins, moving auger all the time, or
- bins too far from the field

Need these answers too evaluate.

By the sounds of it the truckers are swamped and cant keep up, and they never are waiting in the field. Its not the grain cart or combine capacities or bushels harvested per hour in the field slowing you down. The trucks should be in the field waiting 5 or 10 minutes roughly.

If the long term vision and transition would have the farm going strong in 20 years from now you are best to get your infrastructure, bin yards figured out then the rest cones much easier. Problem is they are long term assets that are expensive, that should be capitalized or depreciated 30 years - same value and importance as land.
mobile Farm equipment is much easier and always changing to fit the current needs of the farm - relatively easily, difficult to sell westeel rosco flat bottom bins now - they were king for 25 years

[shtferbrains]

Your buying the cart so one trucker can do more work.
You?
Try get the other trucker off the swather? Limited hour job appeals to retired farmers.
Line the trucks you have at the gate for the extra storage?

[BTO780]

Easy solution ... cut your fert rates like Trudope has in mind for us and see how much money you will save on equipment.
Oh right we will be cutting back huge amounts next yr, even more than bozo wants.

[flea beetle]

Have a dryer that we try not to use at the beginning of the season if the weather is good. Maybe I should say screw it and just take it off and dry it as soon as it is able to go through the combine. Carbon tax skyrocketing screwing with that decision.

Also have enough bins for the whole harvest usually. Maybe have to make a bag or two at the end if yields are really good. Bins are small by your guys standards though. 1/3 of storage is 2000-3500 bushel bins. 50% are 4000-6000 bushel bins, and the remaining are 8000 bushel. All hoppers. Have two 13" swing augers, and planning on adding a 3rd this year so the trucker doesn't have to move an auger hopefully during the day. Hoping to move to new bins in the morning and be set up for the day.

Maybe 16" would be the answer, but wouldn't be able to use it on some bins as lids are too small.

All trucks are emptied in the morning and brought to the field. Trucker starts hauling as soon as first truck is full and cart starts on the next truck. Trucker brings back first truck and hops in 2nd truck and so on for the rest of the day. But by supper time usually the two trucks in the field are full and combines are waiting on the empty truck to get back to field. Thought by adding a large cart I could push that back to 9 pm or so, and then the swather could shut down and that guy could start helping with the trucking.

Yes finding someone to swath, and freeing up the other trucker would solve a lot of problems. But easier said than done. I put a green guy on the swather a couple years ago and took a whole day and rode along to explain what to do in certain situations. Just ended up slowing the combines down with piles and doing weird things to confuse the combine drivers. And had to pull knife apart at the end of the season to fix what he "fixed".

Our area is in a weird place where most of the old farmers are old enough they have moved to a bigger city center already. Don't come around much anymore. Then there are a lot of 60-65 year old guys, but they are all actively farming themselves. And then a couple of us young bucks. Not many you can hire that actually know what to do.

[Sodbuster]

If you already have two tridems and one super b you could go with one person in the yard and one truck driver. The truck driver would drive full grain trailer to auger get out and drive the already empty truck back to the field and grab the full truck that is already sitting in the field, wash rinse repeat. Yard person would unload trailers and move auger. This would be the solution with one driver and 3 trucks, I pitty the guy that will have to unload oats and barley all day.

[flea beetle]

If you already have two tridems and one super b you could go with one person in the yard and one truck driver. The truck driver would drive full grain trailer to auger get out and drive the already empty truck back to the field and grab the full truck that is already sitting in the field, wash rinse repeat. Yard person would unload trailers and move auger. This would be the solution with one driver and 3 trucks, I pitty the guy that will have to unload oats and barley all day.

That would work, but was hoping not to have to hire someone. But maybe it is just the nature of the beast.

It is looking like either having a yard man, or find someone who can swath will solve a lot of my issues.

[blackpowder]

Sell those small bins.

[Sheepwheat]

If you already have two tridems and one super b you could go with one person in the yard and one truck driver. The truck driver would drive full grain trailer to auger get out and drive the already empty truck back to the field and grab the full truck that is already sitting in the field, wash rinse repeat. Yard person would unload trailers and move auger. This would be the solution with one driver and 3 trucks, I pitty the guy that will have to unload oats and barley all day.

That makes too much sense. And saves however much a bin on wheels costs these days. Costs to hire sure, but if a guy can find a seasonal guy?

Makes my head swim, how much money and overhead is in grain farming. It’s not for the faint of heart. And I will be the first to say, my heart is faint.

[Rareearth]

Hire a guy $30 hour (hopefully a good guy) x 400 hours ( 40 days x 10 hrs day) = $12,000 seems cheap

[blackpowder]

If I may.
I see this often and have done this myself time and again.
It's possible you are using what I call the "heritage effect" in your decision making process.
Those tiny bins are "paid for", "have always worked in the past" "were built by dad" "have always been here, what's wrong with them now"? Similar to the 'sunk cost effect'.
"why is that row there?" "well that's where the corrals were 40 years ago". etc.
It's also possible that at 35, you're still being largely influenced, consciously or not, by the previous generation. Thus, we become insulated from changes in technology and scale. I've succumbed and now at 57 find myself doing it to the young.

Trucks need to roll, not idle 10 -20 mins per cycle while unloading or moving auger.
That's a free truck right there.

So, if one were to apply the KISS method.
All those transportable diameter bins on hoppers have great resale value. Today.
A 25000 or bigger flat with full floor air and unloads is the cheapest storage.
Linked with an air pump in the future for the dryer.
One 16" auger, one yard tractor, and a yard flunky if necessary. Less links in the chain to fail.
You will thank yourself in 20 years. Still be using them in 30 if built right. And they will have long ago paid for themselves.

Just a respectful 2 cents from someone who's been around, seen this a number of times before, done it himself, and is trying to save you some grief.