Mondays ...... well Mondays can be rough. Harvest start-up ....... always stressful. Starting onion harvest on a Monday ..................... :W:
Today really needs a 'reset' button!
My Monday started Sunday when I went in to check one of my plants after the storms that moved through Saturday. Every major piece of equipment was down, but at least I was able to reboot. Not nearly as bad as a burnt out truck though!
As a business owner myself, I feel your pain. As a welder I put literal fires out on a daily basis, you had to do the same today. Just sucks. Hopefully nobody was hurt
Sorry to see that. Hope your week gets better, maybe a little fishing when you can break away. I once used a jd 4400 to combine fescue seed and it broke down every day, the last straw was the main bearing going out and by the time I got it fixed harvest was over.
I can just see the craigslist posting now; " clean one owner no major engine problems just needs a tune up."
In all seriousness hope everyone was okay and your week gets better.
Sorry bout that. We love to see the onion haulers going down the interstate in the fall. Free onions by the road without fail. Bags fall off on our rough interstate and usually end up off the shoulder for easy pickins'.
Hope it gets better for you today!
Thanks for the concern and most importantly no one was hurt. I believe it was an electrical fire and just one of those things that was going to happen regardless of what the driver was doing. Kansasdad, as to your questions; onions used to be sold based on a 50 pound bag, now we sell them in 3 lbs consumer bags to 50 lbs boxes and bags, as well as bulk sales in 2,000 lbs totes or bulk trailer loads. The earliest varieties we harvest have a fairly short storage life and soon after harvest are packaged and sold. The long-storage type onions will store for up to 10 months. The storage buildings are constantly monitored for temperature, humidity and air flow. If you're interested in seeing a little more here's a link to our website, http://www.sunsetonions.com/index.html, the last picture in the Gallery is a video my sons put together that summarizes most of the growing season for an onion.
Thanks for taking the time to reply, and wow, what a great start to finish documentation of onion production in your link.
You and your family sure have grown up an impressive farming operation. Technology of that level requires such an investment of capital, beyond my means of comprehension.
Around my neck of the woods, a great wheat harvest is measured in 60+ bushels per acre. I imagine that you all measure onion harvest in tons per acre. Thanks for sharing the link.