better pic of CIH hillside combine and IH truck

[Red_Painter]

For anyone interested in IH or CIH history, Mr. Hassert has put SDman's 3rd edition on his site, (which I've listed at the bottom) and it has a  fairly good picture of CIH 1670's on a fairly steep hill ( 6 pictures down). I've seen more than a few John Deere and Gleaner pics on sidehills on internet sites, but surprisingly few pics of IH or CIH hillsides on real hills. The picture on the site below shows a typical hillside that this combine would be working on, though trees in the background are only seen in a few areas. The 1680 had the R A Hanson leveller which would level more than the Hillco.
Also shown a couple of pics below,  is a plains scene with a1680 unloading grain into a white colored IH truck. IH trucks were popular in wheat country here and were sold by many agricultural dealers. IH trucks are now called Navistar and are a major large truck manufacturer in America. I guess they're still independent. Now many farmers are using 18 wheeler types though many large farmers still use  single or double rear axle  trucks for smaller jobs like hauling seed and for harvest as well.
In our area large semi trucks for transporting grain must have engine brakes (Jake Brake), in addition to regular brakes, like logging or lumber trucks which use the  engine compression to help brake the truck. Alot of the farmers with bigger trucks have been hauling grain from the plateau (about 2800 ft. elevation) down grade to the canyon floor (about 600 ft. elevation) to the barge terminal on the Snake River. This can be very dangerous as a runaway truck with burnt out brakes can be disasterous. A few years ago a Canadian grain truck (among other trucks in the same predicament) got out of control coming down grade,  jumped the opposite lane near the bottom on a sharp turn, and plowed into the corner of the State Police station. Miraculously  noone was hurt and the driver jumped out of his truck with part of the roof pealed back.  
See www.toytractorshow.com/caseinternational_axial-flow_combines.htm  

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You know, it really is amazing how the Palouse and Snake River area is farmed. I'd like to know more, but I'll email you about that.

But that area, where the slopes are often quite severe, is amazing. You guys do some cool things out there. I can only imagine there being a lot more problems then a regular "flatland" wheat crop.

Good post

[Red_Painter]

I'm glad you found it interesting. Since it's such a different area, I like to bring the subject up. I think since the internet, more people know about it. Farming with modern machinery or older machinery on the Palouse isn't really much more difficult than on level land except you have to be careful on how you approach hills with combines or trucks and use a little common sense.
Truck driving with 18 wheelers requires special care any place where there are steep hills or mountains which is common anywhere out West. I came on the crashed truck in Lewiston, Idaho by chance and thought it  would be interesting. Large numbers of trucks come down the Lewiston Hill and others like it with no problem, but occasionally one gets away. We have smaller IH trucks and don't even attempt hauling grain down to the river.     One farmer I knew bough a tandem dualled  truck which was a smaller size than something like an 18 wheeler Kenworth and took a load of grain (no trailer)  down a canyon grade to a barge elevator. The truck kept jumping out of gear and it took two of them to get it back in gear. When they got to the elevator the other truckers couldn't believe they came down the canyon road in that truck. Soon after he got a big 18 wheeler size truck.

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What kind of wheat is grown there? Winter or spring?

How do you establish it - with air seeders or with hoe drills? What's the most common machine

Spraying and fertilizing? How do you do that? Mostly with NH3? At seeding or after emergence? What kind of sprayers are used?

Is it mostly no-till, or do the chisels still fly around there?

And what kind of soil is it?

[Red_Painter]

  The soils are a loess wind blown soil (I can't say more specifically as I've never studied soil types much)  The soil sits on top of the largest non ocean continental lava flow in the world ( 2000 feet or more deep in areas). This explains the high plateaus. I guess they are similar to some soils in North Dakota. The soils really vary quite a bit from very light  brown colored powdery soils in the dry areas closer to the Columbia River to what would be considered black dirt in wetter soils in the Eastern Palouse. We  don't have the red colored soils like in central Oklahoma except for subsurface clay which underlies the topsoil and makes for hard pulling .
   Most wheat is soft white winter wheat which is used in pastries and noodles and is golden colored instead the red color of red hard wheats. Some hard white wheats are starting to be grown. The drier Big Bend which is more similar to the great plains may grow some hard wheat. Lately many farmers in wetter areas are planting spring wheat. We don't. We grow winter wheat planted in early October and the next year plant dry peas which are harvested with a floating cutter bar ( probably similar to soybeans) and then plant winter wheat into pea stubble which can be  worked with a heavy cultivator except piles of vines have been a problem. By raking and spreading them out with a cultivator
set at a very shallow setting, we have avoided using long tooth harrow to rake vines into piles.
  Some larger farmers use no till now with John Deere no till drills, locally made drills, or air seeders. We fertilize right before seeding, injecting amonia, phosphate and sulfur. We use pull type fertilizer applicators built by McGregor Company at Colfax, Washington and used by their customers. The company has trucks that deliver fertilizer to the applicator on the farm. We don't have to go get it ourselves though more and more farmers are handling their own fertilizer in bulk to save money. The McGregor applicator cultivates somewhat like a chisel plow and can triple shoot. We pull about a 28 footer with the MF four wheel drive on hilly land, but with earlier models, which primarily injected without tilling, we pulled a 45 footer. In dryer country they use alot of aqua since the very dry soil (8-10 inches of rain a year) will lose the NH3 gas. Some of those applicators probably cover over 60 foot widths.
In the spring we spray roundup to kill weeds then cultivate and incorporate Fargo and Pursuit with harrow though many do it as they cultivate. McGregor also builds the sprayers which are similar to their fertilizer applicators and have about 1000 gallon stainless steel tank and 66 foot width (I've heard that in drier areas they have 100 ft sprayers) The sprayers we use have three wings on a side for transport. After a second cross cultivation, we seed with 6" spaced double disc IH drills and roll the ground with packer rollers after peas come up. Barley is grown on highly erodable hills continuously. We Plow that ground with a chisel plow though we moleboard plow wheat ground, which being winter wheat in a high moisture area, has very hard baked soil, (in dry years it's hard to tell clods from rocks if you plow before rain and want to take a chance on excess volunteer and breaking your plow) and does not erode badly in the winter. Steep hills we will chisel plow late in the year after rains.
  Air seeders are just getting started here. A neighbor had someone seed some land for them using an air seeder on a cultivator. On the steep sidehill, the side draft of the cultivator put three rows of seed in about one row due to the cultivator sliding down hill. Some big guys went together to rent and try a John Deere, but now one of them has a Great Plains with discs for no till I guess. There are alot of guys still using conventional IH or John Deere  fold drills. Some no till for wheat but alot more for peas. Not the straw problems.
  In the dry country by the Columbia River (Big Bend) alot of press drills are used with split packer wheels. The emerging wheat comes up in deep furrows between the packer wheel prints and is protected from wind and dryness. They seed in August on summer fallow and it is too dry there for spring crops. There are intermediate moisture areas also which grow barley and rapeseed.
     Down by Walla Walla, Washington and  Pendleton, Oregon and up to above Lewiston, Idaho to a lesser degree I guess, green peas are grown and harvested with  FMC pea harvesters (with levellers) instead of growing dry peas. Blue grass seed production has been very important here and especially in the extreme northeast Washington Palouse and neighboring north Idaho areas. Jacklin Seed in Post Falls, Idaho was a pioneer in this area. Burning bans in Washington and threatened bans in Idaho may really hurt this industry which is a real soil saver though burning grass stubble makes dense smoke.