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The high cost of farm equipment put an end to the days when each farmer owned all the equipment necessary. In rural South Texas, third-generation (in this county) Texas Czech farmers have formed an informal co-op where individual farmers purchase specific pieces of specialized equipment. The other farmers then pay for the service of the equipment and the farmers work as a team as they move from farm to farm.

This is one of two identical "combines" used to harvest our milo. The blades (wheel) in the front turns and draws the heads of the milo plants in and across a row of cutting blades. The cut heads fall onto a platform with a screw auger which moves them into the actual machine where the seeds are thrashed off the stems. Finally, the stems and scraps of plant matter are discharged from the back of the machine. The milo seeds are contained in a hopper in the combine. When the hopper is filled, the shoot (top right) will be deployed and the milo dumped into a grain buggy. A tractor pulling the grain buggy will move beside the operating combine as the milo is transferred.

This is a mid-sized tractor with a grain buggy. When full, the milo from the buggy will be pushed out the shoot and into a truck waiting to take the milo to the Elevator where it will be weighed, tested for moisture content, and then stored.  The height of the cutting blades can be raised or lowered to catch the majority of the heads with out much stalk and/or leaves...which increase the moisture content of the crop and may cause the elevator to assess a charge for "drying."

This photo shows the interior of a combine cab. When the harvest is in full swing, a driver may stay in a cab from before noon until around 9:00 in the evening or when the dew starts to set in. The combine crew will start pulling maintenance on the machines about mid-morning. Filters, fluid levels, belts, etc. are all checked each day. As he was working on a combine, I asked the owner (Ronnie Nemec) how it was going that day, "Great!" came the response..."but, we haven't started the combines yet...THAT is when all the trouble begins."

This is a combine "off-loading" the milo into a grain buggy being pulled next to it by a tractor. The combine continues to move forward and cut grain as the transfer takes place.  Thirty years ago, a combine had to leave the field and move to the location of a truck along a road to off-load the milo when the hopper was full. This took time away from cutting. The use of the grain buggy makes the harvest much more time efficient.

This photo shows two combines harvesting the same field. They start on opposite sides of the field and work towards the center.  The cloud after the front combine is the discharge from the milo. It is mostly chaff, bits of stems and leaves, and some insects.  You are guaranteed to itch like mad if you get into this stuff.

These trucks are waiting to haul the cut milo to the grain elevator.

These trailers will be used to move the blades of the combines after the harvest is finished. These combines take six rows of milo at a time and this makes them too wide to move down most rural roads with the blades on.

This is one of two identical tractors used to pull the grain buggies. It is not a large tractor by today's standards. The big and newer tractors feature tank-like "tracks" instead of wheels. The tracks change how the weight is distributed and is supposed to help decrease the micro-fracturing of the soil.

One evening we had two combines, two grain buggies, and two tractors parked behind our implement shed (barn)...that was well over $1,000,000. of farm equipment.

This my Cousin Michael's tractor ready to "shred stalks." The first piece of equipment (on which I stand) is the actual shredder. It functions on the same principle as a lawnmower with blades. It is followed by a "disk." The sharpened edges of each disc will further cut apart the stalks and stems. This process returns as much of the plant as possible to field. Organic matter (such as the stalks and stems) is incredibly important to the condition of the soil. The South Texas black clay soil literally eats the material matter.

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