George

“I am driving the spud digger, harvesting here for the next 5 or 6 weeks. I drive about three miles per hour right now, but when I get closer to the pivot I have to go slower because there is more sod. Last year we grew grass in this field so I deal with a lot of sod. The sorters have to deal with all this sod too; they have to get it out before the potatoes go in the shed. If we have sod in the sheds it blocks off the air, without air the potatoes rot in the shed. I am in contact with the trucks all the time. I also have a screen in here that matches the ones in the trucks so we can both see what is going on. We used to use mirrors and have to look back all the time and that was pretty bad on your neck. Your neck was sure sore every night. Now we can see what’s going on so much better. Things sure have progressed over the years. The trucks have automatic tarps now too, they have a button to push and the tarp just covers the potatoes.

When we’re done for the year, we take the machine in and strip it all down, take all the belts off and check the bearings. Sometimes we just put new bearings in whether we need them or not because it takes so much work to change them in the field if something happens. We get them all ready for next year and park them in a shed, they can’t be outside. The sun and rain is hard on equipment. The bearings would go and the belts wouldn’t be as strong. So when we put them in the shed, they come out the same way.

Every truck is weighed so I will know how many tons per acre I dig at the end of the day. I’ve had a lot of practice, doing this for about 40 years. I just put the GPS on and let her go… Ha-ha.”

#agriculture #hutteriancolony #potatoharvest