We at Nelson Family Farms love our family and our farm, so we are happy to share some of the memories with you. Please look through our photo gallery to see what is happening.

	FALL 2011

	While Dave was setting in the pit dumping grain at the local elevator, the Quonset wall gave out, spilling beans everywhere.  It was very scary, not knowing what was coming towards the truck due to a black out of bean dust.		Clayton our Precision Ag Technical Manager at Brokaw comes out to see how the Proto-type yield monitor was working vs. our Ag Leader.

	Part of our daily maintenance program is to blow the combine off multiple times.  The fine dust can get into bearings or up by the motor causing a fire.  Many area farmers had combine fires this fall.  We were lucky enough not to have a fire!		The beans got very dry this fall...Fast!  It was very dusty and hard to see many times.

	YES, there is a combine in there and the grain cart.  It was a very dusty bean harvest.		BUT, when the dust was out of the right direction, it was great visibility!!!

	Karma runs the grain cart in soybeans a lot.  Here she is dumping beans in to one of our semi's.  Once the semi is full, it will go to the grain elevator.		The hard thing about soybeans is that you have to wait until the dew drys off each morning.  Some days we do not get started until around noon.  If the pods on the bean plant are wet, they will not crack open to let the beans out.

	A close up view of the sickle, reel, and auger.  Our bean head is 35' wide and we can cut beans at up to 5 mph...		The bean head (platform) is much like a sickle mower.  It cuts the beans with a sickle and then the black real pulls them to the middle of the head to then go into the combine.

	Only 1 field of corn was ready on the Smeltzer 4 farm.  So beans were next.		The first couple days of harvest are always fun.  Clean shiny equipment and getting to be in the field together!  Our lives...  Farming together!

	The ladies at the Otho elevator let Tyson check his own corn sample.  17.1% Corn in September...		Just to make sure our handheld moisture sensor is accurate, we send a sample to the elevator.  Tyson is in charge of that!

	Our first sample of the season.  Grant Klever, our local agronomist stopped to see how well his Dekalb corn was yielding.  "Good of course!"		This year we started on corn first.  The dry weather helped the early corn dry down first.  17% corn in September.... Just Crazy!!!

	Gary Changing oil in the combine before we start the busy harvest season.		Servicing the new CAT MT765C before harvest

	This is the first tractor that Gary and Dave have bought together...		This fall we bought a new CAT Challenger 765C Tracked tractor.  It has 18" wide tracks set on 120" centers so it can go down the center of the rows.  It is also the same horse power as a mid size 4 wheel drive tractor.  340 HP.

	Tyson's favorite part of fall harvest is getting to play in the semi full of grain.  Fear not, he never gets in the trailer without dad or grandpa up there too.!!!

	Thank you for your interest in Nelson Family Farms. If we can help you in any way, please call or stop by. Visitors are always welcome.

		Nelson Family Farms Fort Dodge, Iowa 50501 Phone: 515-574-9519 :: Email: dave.nelson@nelsonff.com