Bean harvesting?

[Simkie]

One of the most interesting things about living in farm country has been all of the seeding and harvesting and the equipment that comes in to do it.

Last night I saw a couple of GIANT pieces of equipment come in for a field that’s near us. HUGE yellow pieces. Maybe half the length of a semi? Solid. And wide, with a wide load lead car and a follow car.

They worked on a bean field–soy, I think–into the wee hours. I’ve not seen soy go in except the end of the season, when it dries and the combines with the huge heads come in and leave the soy straw.

I drove by the field today and it’s down to bare earth. The plants are GONE, barring a little strip of beans along the front. The earth doesn’t really look disturbed, but no more plants.

Looking at google maps, the field is ~70 acres. They were out from ~ 8 pm to at least 2 am, and I may have heard them at 5-6 this morning, too. So whatever was happening was taking some time.

Anyone have ideas about what they might be doing, and how they’re using those beans? We do have a canning plant nearby, although nearly everything I see grown is feed corn or soy harvested at the end of the season.

[SouthernYankee]

Edamame?

Green Beans?

When you say beans i assume you mean soybeans, do you know if it was soy or green beans?

[goodhors]

Timing would be right for picking green beans. In my mom’s location of southern Michigan, there has been a big change from field crops of corn and soy beans to edible crops like green beans, peas, yellow beans and others. One day the field looks nice, full green plants, the next day it is back to newly turned soil! They came and harvested, will get a other crop in and harvest again in Fall.

Beans look pretty much alike from the road, but early harvest now, would make me think edible beans over soy beans.

Even trickier here in MI, is growing dried, edible beans mostly in the Thumb area of the State. These would be Navy beans and other types used dried, for cooking. You really have to know your beans to ID a crop!

[Simkie]

Plants look like soy, but could certainly be some sort of edible crop.

I did google commercial green bean harvesting, but none of the pics even come close to the big units I saw. Giant boxy things, and I didn’t see a head like with the soy combines at the end of the season.

You could maybe talk me into something like this: https://www.ropa-maschinenbau.de/en/news/premiere-potato-harvester-ropa-keiler-potato-europe

But the plants left of the field are definitely beans and the ground doesn’t look like it was torn up or turned over at all? And the equipment on their field wasn’t pulled by a tractor–it drove itself.

[Scarlet_Gilia]

Maybe the bottom one on this page?

[Bluey]

If it looks something like this, it may have been a silage cutter, that harvested that crop for ensilage of some kind:

[Simkie]

[QUOTE=Bluey;8734436]
If it looks something like this, it may have been a silage cutter, that harvested that crop for ensilage of some kind:[/QUOTE]

Nope, bigger. And no side car. Another giant piece of machinery was following perhaps 100 ft back?

@Scarlet Gilia;8734411

Maybe the bottom one on this page?

Kinda! But didn’t leave anything at all. Bare earth!

Totally weird. Wish I’d gone out there and taken a closer look last night. Also curious why they were working overnight? We have rain coming in now, but today was clear…

[Mosey_2003]

Maybe lima beans? Or peas? We’ve got some baby gherkins set to come out soon around here.

Whoever they pick for probably wants them all in one go so they can get them all canned in the same run. Or they were being cautious about the rain because their equipment would get stuck.

[horsepoor]

I have nothing to contribute to answering your question, but saw the thread title and opened it thinking you were talking about cleaning sheaths. Thought it would be tips on how to get at the bean!

So carry on…

[Simkie]

[QUOTE=Mosey_2003;8734561]
Maybe lima beans? Or peas? We’ve got some baby gherkins set to come out soon around here.

Whoever they pick for probably wants them all in one go so they can get them all canned in the same run. Or they were being cautious about the rain because their equipment would get stuck.[/QUOTE]

Maybe! I just can’t find any pics of food beans or pea harvesters that look anything like what I saw. Or anything that would suggest they would take the whole plant? So weird.

[QUOTE=horsepoor;8734651]I have nothing to contribute to answering your question, but saw the thread title and opened it thinking you were talking about cleaning sheaths. Thought it would be tips on how to get at the bean!

So carry on…[/QUOTE]

:lol: :lol: Wouldn’t that go in horse care? :lol:

[Mosey_2003]

Well, of course they take the whole plant. How else are they gonna shuck the beans off? Unless you mean they’re ripping it out from the roots.

I’m gonna need you to go down to the Co-Op or grain elevator or to a knowledgeable farmer neighbor’s house and ask what was just harvested, because now I need to know :lol:

[vxf111]

That sounds pretty much like how the soy went in around me a week or so ago. Plowed the prior crop (rye straw) in 100%. Then planted the seed, which had the effect of really smoothing out the soil making it look like it was graded (if you got VERY SLOW you could see “rows” but they were small/subtle). It really didn’t look tilled. I think it WAS but it didn’t look it. For a week or so you couldn’t see a thing and then today, like magic, baby soy plant-lings coming up in rows

[Bluey]

[QUOTE=vxf111;8735039]
That sounds pretty much like how the soy went in around me a week or so ago. Plowed the prior crop (rye straw) in 100%. Then planted the seed, which had the effect of really smoothing out the soil making it look like it was graded (if you got VERY SLOW you could see “rows” but they were small/subtle). It really didn’t look tilled. I think it WAS but it didn’t look it. For a week or so you couldn’t see a thing and then today, like magic, baby soy plant-lings coming up in rows :)[/QUOTE]

That makes more sense, a complete planting rig, that will till, fertilize and plant, probably an air drill type planter?

It would be a bit late to be planting here, but in other places, maybe not.

By the way, the silage harvesters I put a picture up before are from small to rather very large.
You can see the driver in the cab for size of that machine.

[Simkie]

Soy went in…oh, maybe two months ago now?? Plants are easily 12" high and mature looking This was definitely harvesting.

[QUOTE=Mosey_2003;8734926]
Well, of course they take the whole plant. How else are they gonna shuck the beans off? Unless you mean they’re ripping it out from the roots.

I’m gonna need you to go down to the Co-Op or grain elevator or to a knowledgeable farmer neighbor’s house and ask what was just harvested, because now I need to know :lol:[/QUOTE]

There’s a video of a bean harvester in action here: http://woldengineering.com/ploeger-bv-green-bean-harvester.html and it leaves an awful lot of green on the ground. But that is about the right size and shape!

Would it be weird if I drive by and take pics? :lol: This mystery is killing me. I figured you all would know! COTH knows everything!

[sascha]

“Edibles” are coming off in SW Ontario right now, Simkie. I think we’re roughly on the same harvest schedule. The harvesting is “custom” so companies that own harvesting equipment go farm to farm and get paid for getting them off. It pays to get them off faster than to hang around when there are other fields needing to be harvested too. The more work done, the more money made.

You’re lucky that the field is bare. Around here, a lot of bean hay is left to rot and it STINKS something terrible. I wonder if the folks working around you have found a way to make the waste pay by either ensiling it (but I don’t know how they’d do that without waiting a bit for it to dry down somewhat), or by sending it to a large composting company.

[sascha]

@Bluey;8735110

It would be a bit late to be planting here, but in other places, maybe not.

Rye is about to come off up here in the GWN and those that want a second crop from their rye fields will take a small gamble on planting late/short soybeans. It’s a gamble because although the growing season is considerably shorter than spring planted beans, the harvest is still considerably later and can get screwed up by the weather in the late fall.

[sascha]

[QUOTE=Mosey_2003;8734926]
Well, of course they take the whole plant. How else are they gonna shuck the beans off? Unless you mean they’re ripping it out from the roots.

I’m gonna need you to go down to the Co-Op or grain elevator or to a knowledgeable farmer neighbor’s house and ask what was just harvested, because now I need to know :lol:[/QUOTE]

Normally, the machinery spits out the unwanted bits back on the ground. Edibles harvesters tend to spit it out more in clumps than in rows unlike cereal harvesters which spread the stalks out nicely for being picked up for baling/chopping/bagging for animal bedding and feed.

Anyway, I think the OP meant there is not trace of the plant left in the field at all only a few hours later and that is definitely different from what we’re used to seeing.

[Scarlet_Gilia]

[QUOTE=Simkie;8734532]

Also curious why they were working overnight? We have rain coming in now, but today was clear…[/QUOTE]

Our neighbors grow corn - lots and lots of corn. They lease huge tractors when they are planting and harvesting. They pay by the day, so they work late into the night to minimize the numbers of days they pay for.

[Bluey]

You have to work when the crop is right, when the moisture is in a small range for some crops, just as you do to put up hay.

Normally, moisture is down thru the day and into the early night, then comes up later, why many harvest when it is dry enough during the later day and into the night, until the moisture is back up in the plants so much it is not going to harvest right, or the elevator won’t take the too moist grain.

No telling what you saw there, or what they were doing.

How about asking them next time you see them?

[Mosey_2003]

[QUOTE=sascha;8735133]
Normally, the machinery spits out the unwanted bits back on the ground. Edibles harvesters tend to spit it out more in clumps than in rows unlike cereal harvesters which spread the stalks out nicely for being picked up for baling/chopping/bagging for animal bedding and feed.[/QUOTE]
I know how a combine works, we farm :lol:

We only do fall harvest though. My friend does peas and lima beans for Del Monte, I’ll have to ask her the procedure on harvesting green plants.