Combine class size

[farmaholic]

Does anyone take into account the possibility of minor and major breakdowns.

I think if you operate with your capacity on the upper edge...yikes

Better to be over equipped than under equipped. ....at least that's what she says!

[tweety]

Acres seem almost irrelevant. What you should be talking is bushels per hour.

[highwayman]

Breakdowns will happen no matter what the color stripe you choose to run, that a given. It's just part of the equation. Having a good relationship with your dealer goes a long way to mitigate the risk. In the past when the need arose we have been fortunate and grateful to have dealers with outstanding support as well as providing replacement equipment in waiting to help one through those challenging times with very minimal downtime. Machinery plays a vital role in harvesting capacity requirements however qualified human resources plays even a larger one. The latter definitely being the biggest hurdle. I'm positive Mother Nature will reset the rules to this farming game all over again next year.

[farmaholic]

It's all irrelevant under the current conditions. ....capacity, whether bushels per hour or acres per hour, is greatly diminished now.

Even a thin crop can make capacity appear big in acres per hour but not bushels per hour...you can only drive em so fast and picking up swaths or straight cut feeding suffers.

Wet lumpy swaths don't go through easy or downed crops with wet ground don't cut well....then the grand-daddy of capacity killers....the plugged solid-won't budge-belt burning-horror story.

[furrowtickler]

We ran 4000 AC per yr with a class 6 , then class 7 for years. Had to push things a bit at times but only needed help 2 times out of 12. Each area is different and every year is different. 15 miles north or south and you would be lucky to get 2000-2500 AC out of any combine .
We now run 5800 with two class 7's , and tweety is right , it's more about bus/hr now. We run a lot more BPH now than 10 years ago .
At $500,000 per average machine now , they "should " do a lot more APH but in general crops are or have been bigger if you can get them off. So maybe it's all relative in the big scope of things , but these big machines need to and should do a lot more acres per hr than they do regardless of crop. They cost 2-3 Times more and we as farmers are not making 2-3 times more .
End of the day , Mother Nature runs the show regardless.
This whole area here has enjoyed years of almost endless harvest days - that changed in a hurry this year, as did most areas in western Canada .
There are a few bigger acre guys done here , and that's impressive considering the fall. There are also big, medium and small guys not even close depending on location . It's been a strange harvest season to say the least .
Everything here still soaked and cold with a slight glimmer of hope in the forecast but very very slim at best. Good luck to all regardless of your situation .
There is still complete heavy snow cover south and north of here.

[SASKFARMER3]

We use three Class 9s and Dryer and grain Cart plus bagger. Should be done but one thing is screwing us up. Mother Nature. Thought long and hard could we have got any more acres done and came up with three quarters if we went all nights on the three nice nights. Thats it dryer took wheat at 20 and canola at 16 so got a jump on things.

Only guy done that farms big has real deep pockets thanks to a payout. 20 machines and your done.

Auction on another farm is in less than two weeks today and they aren't even close to done.

Average is 30% to go in our area some more some less.

Friends on the west side of Saskatchewan 50% done and they have snow.

Its areas and rain events.

9 to 14 days to get harvest done.

Same pattern three nice then spit or heavy rain. Repeat. All harvest same shit. Sunday would of been close to dry and we get a fracking 1/4 inch rain.

Sick fracking weather.

[tweety]

8 inches of snow on swaths, its gonna be a day or so yet...

[sumdumguy]

Oh Global Warming, where arth though!

[fjlip]

We averaged 600 bu/ sep hr wheat and canola, 9870, all swathed, dryer and cart, just two of us 70% of the time.