September
Grain harvest commences in late August and continues through most of September.
The first frost usually arrives around September 10th here in Saskatchewan.

Photo by Mark Higgins
Straight-cutting a wheat crop

Photo by Mark Higgins
The grain truck awaits another load
October
Often alfalfa seed crops are harvested in October. My combines have modified concaves for extra threshing and need to be finely tuned to do a good job.
Typically by October 31st the ground is frozen bringing fieldwork to an end.

Photo by Gene Pavelich Photography
Notice the wide row spacing of 24 inches as the field is combined

Photo by Mark Higgins
Sunset at the end of the day’s harvesting
November

X-ray of bee cocoons done at the Brooks Cocoon Testing Centre.
Leafcutter bee samples can be professionally x-rayed to provide live counts for marketing purposes.

Bright yellow alfalfa seed
Time to market grain and get our alfalfa seed cleaned and bagged. We direct market our alfalfa seed and deliver seed to customers across Western Canada.

Bee cocoons and the larvae found inside
December
Cold weather (-20C) brings the humidity in the warehouse down. When the humidity is below 30% nest splitting commences. If the blocks are split and punched prematurely the delicate cocoons tend to crush in the extraction process, killing the larvae inside. When the nests are split and stacked flat they ready for punching.

Cutting the straps off a pair of bee nests

Split nests ready for punching

Stacked, empty nests waiting for
re-banding into doubles
January and February
Styrofoam nesting blocks are put back together with straps and stacked ready to go back to the field.
We have described and illustrated the twelve month cycle for our alfalfa seed and leafcutter bee operation.

A pair of Pinamatic bee punching machines

Handful of loose cell cocoons, yellow ones are cut flower blossoms