The Official Farming Thread...

[JimBear]

View attachment 420784Just change plates and lower front units and change little spunky thingy and that’s about it

What series of planter is that ? I thought on all the Kinze’s you just changed out the whole metering unit.

 

[JimBear]

We got another 1.23” with some more wind & small hail. Guesser are saying sunny weather thru Wednesday then more chances of rain.

I guess I should have ample time to spray some more crp/pastures/fence lines.

Folks that have hay needing put up are champing at the bit & spinning in circles, folks that still have corn/beans to plant are getting pretty nervous & folks that that fall in both categories will likely chit out a diamond in the 10-14 days…

 

[Mastermind]

We got another 1.23” with some more wind & small hail. Guesser are saying sunny weather thru Wednesday then more chances of rain.

I guess I should have ample time to spray some more crp/pastures/fence lines.

Folks that have hay needing put up are champing at the bit & spinning in circles, folks that still have corn/beans to plant are getting pretty nervous & folks that that fall in both categories will likely chit out a diamond in the 10-14 days…

I'm in the hay guy camp. We need about 4 dry days to get a crop up.

 

[jakethesnake]

What series of planter is that ? I thought on all the Kinze’s you just changed out the whole metering unit.

3660 with new “true rate” meter

 

[Lnk]

I'm in the hay guy camp. We need about 4 dry days to get a crop up.

Same!

 

[Mastermind]

Same!

I'm gonna just do it 10 acres or so at a time.

 

[jakethesnake]

I'm gonna just do it 10 acres or so at a time.

Found that to be my best approach

 

[Mastermind]

Found that to be my best approach

That way I can work it after working in the shop in most cases.

 

[jblnut]

That way I can work it after working in the shop in most cases.

How much hay do you have to make ?

I have around 30 acres total of upland hay to do once it dries up. Most gets fed to the steers and the extra gets sold to a neighbor for his steers so it doesn't need to be great quality stuff.

 

[JimBear]

Speaking of hay, we have to take off bout 200 acres for Chase them put it to beans.

That should put him to about 300-acres of hay after that. He has about 1600 bales of carry over.

He could of sold it for $90 bale over the winter but thought he could get more, he is really squealing now as most hay is now around $40-$50 bale.

With all the rain it doesn’t appear that there will be a shortage here.

 

[Lnk]

I'm gonna just do it 10 acres or so at a time.

I only hay about 7, so I am only going to do 3.5 at a time. Not true, I have two spots, one is probably 4.5, the other around 3. So I would do one of them first, keeping the other as a just in case. I only. Use 350 squares a year. Easy to do on the fields I have.

 

[Lnk]

How much hay do you have to make ?

I have around 30 acres total of upland hay to do once it dries up. Most gets fed to the steers and the extra gets sold to a neighbor for his steers so it doesn't need to be great quality stuff.

Goat hay is what I am making, the more weeds the better. I figured out how to keep the weeds up by cutting really low at the end of growing season. Seems the weeds get more of a chance that way.

 

[Bill G]

We got another 1.23” with some more wind & small hail. Guesser are saying sunny weather thru Wednesday then more chances of rain.

I guess I should have ample time to spray some more crp/pastures/fence lines.

Folks that have hay needing put up are champing at the bit & spinning in circles, folks that still have corn/beans to plant are getting pretty nervous & folks that that fall in both categories will likely chit out a diamond in the 10-14 days…

Yep

 

[jakethesnake]

That way I can work it after working in the shop in most cases.

Yeah gives me time to do other stuff

 

[Mastermind]

How much hay do you have to make ?

I have around 30 acres total of upland hay to do once it dries up. Most gets fed to the steers and the extra gets sold to a neighbor for his steers so it doesn't need to be great quality stuff.

About 50 acres.

 

[Bill G]

The traditional schedule here has been the "holiday" schedule. It used to be that it was mostly 1st cutting Memorial Day, 2nd cutting 4th of July, and 3rd cutting Labor day. Now common sense says that you mow when the bloom is right but for years that schedule was what most folks followed. For years I got so irritated at Dad because he would wait until Memorial Day (or later). Guess what happens on many Memorial Day weekends, it rains. I wanted to mow/bale the week before (if the weather was good) but he was always saying we were too busy planting. Finally one year I told him you and my brother do the planting, leave your hands of the hay equipment and see what happens. He was pissed and threw up his hands. Well that year I got all the 1st crop done before Memorial Day weekend and guess what it rained Memorial Day weekend. The next two cuttings went off smooth also. I might have snuck in a short 4th but I am not sure. I was lucky (not skilled) to hit the timing damn near perfect. In accordance with me telling Dad and my brother not to touch the hay equipment I did have a few labor issues. When I needed someone to rake while I was getting the baler ready I had no one. It said "time for my wife to learn a new skill" As far as I know she had never driven a tractor. I had a 180 Allis Chalmers which has the high/low power director hand clutch with neutral in the middle. I put the standard tranny in 5/6 and the hand clutch in neutral. I rode a couple rounds showing her how to use the power director. I also told her if she get panicked to just pull the injector pump shutoff. She did flawless and my fields are horribly shaped, not easy to rake. At the end of the season we had the most hay we had ever gotten from those particular fields. Dad was here one day and started complaining about something related to hay. I pointed to the storage area at my place that was full and then asked if he had seen how much was in the other field/fenceline storage areas. He grumbled something. I said "do you think maybe I had the right idea this year since this is the most we have every baled" My wife was standing next to me and he grumbled something else that i did not understand. He than tore off in the Mule. My wife asked if I heard what he said. I said no and she informed me that Dad had said something to the effect of "you didn't do anything, you had to get your wife to do it for you".

Well from that point on I took care of all the haying.

 

[Only the Tony]

I'm in the hay guy camp. We need about 4 dry days to get a crop up.

Same here. About 65 acres to do.

 

[Seachaser]

Advancements of herbicides and rising costs of fuel and labor, not to mention the size of the farm acreage, I'm sure make up a lot of the reasons for not running cultivators now. A lot easier to run a Farmall with the narrow tires between the rows than to have a dedicated narrow tractor just for cultivation. Seen several spray rigs in the area running the highways. We don't row crop so I had to do a quick read and it's crazy how advanced they are. 132 foot booms that can be equipped with camera systems that can "see" the weeds and selectively apply herbicide in only the areas needed. Takes a lot of land to pay for one of those.

Around here, they rent someone to do it. A friend of mine works for our local Ag chemical company. They order everything and he comes spread it. It’s awesome to watch. Another guy does it by helicopter. He begins in Florida and ends up in Illinois. He then sprays cutover land in late summer before planting pine trees.

 

[Bill G]

Around here, they rent someone to do it. A friend of mine works for our local Ag chemical company. They order everything and he comes spread it. It’s awesome to watch. Another guy does it by helicopter. He begins in Florida and ends up in Illinois. He then sprays cutover land in late summer before planting pine trees.

Many folks do there own spraying but many pay the fertilizer companies also. It is money well spent as they are spraying while you are planting. The airplanes are a very small niche industry but also very financially successful on many years. They are used for fungicides not herbicides. I cannot speak to other areas but here if you applied herbicide aerially you would be out of business in days.

In July 2011 we were heading to Newton Iowa to get a new mower. As we headed north out of Wilton we saw a big black cloud of smoke ahead a couple miles. As we got closer you could see it was burning right along the highway in a small wooded area. I thought it was probably just someone burning a brush pile with way too much fuel. My heart sank when I saw the US Army insignia through the flames. It had just occurred minutes before and there were several vehicles pulled over but there was nothing any of us could do. The flames were intense as well as the billowing black smoke. All you could do was confirm 911 had been called and pray the person(s) inside died instantly. Just like in most folks area's first responders here are volunteers. This occurred shortly after noon on a Monday so getting folks there is not easy. To complicate matters even more this was close to the Muscatine/Cedar County line but the closest fire department is Wilton just a few miles south in Muscatine County. I am betting the 911 call went to Cedar County first then had to be relayed to Muscatine EMS which then contacted Wilton. It would not have mattered though as there was nothing anyone could do.

Now you ask what does all that have to do with crop spraying? It turns out it was a 54 year gentleman from Arkansas that was flying a retired 1960's Army helicopter spraying fungicide on corn. I had never heard of anyone prior to that or after it using a helicopter. The planes are all that get used aerially here but now I read some about drones.

This article might be behind a paywall but if not it gives some info. The local paper had a lot of coverage but it is all behind paywalls.

One dead in helicopter crash near Wilton

UPDATE: The Federal Aviation Administration says one person is dead in the crash of a crop-spraying helicopter north of Wilton …

www.thegazette.com

 

[stretch5881]

I've seen planes and choppers spraying around here, but now, it seems most use high wheel boom sprayers.