The Official Farming Thread...

[JimBear]

We tried running some corn yesterday, got along ok in the fields for the most part but were pretty hard on the road & drives.

Corn was any where from 18% - 22%. I guess we are around 850-900 acres left.

Another 1/2” today will put us off to Monday & trying to find some drier corn.

 

[jblnut]

The last of the custom tile work is done !! A few runs started in some pretty boggy ground and I needed a pull to get through it. The landowner had a Versatile 850 and I brought my 7810 to hook in front of it. I could feel the 9420 sinking and bobbling and the two tug tractors were absolutely doing all the work for a few hundred feet. All in all we got just over 103,000’ installed in 9 days. Not bad for the crew we had most days and having waaaaay too many short runs. My mind always wanders to doing more tiling as it’s quite profitable but then I’d have to cut back on my farming habit lol. The first year we had the plow we did just shy of 500,000’. Paid for itself and then some the first year.

 

[JimBear]

There is only one tile plow that I can think of around here, most are self propelled trenchers.

Buckeyes, Speichers, Wolfe ??, Hoes & some custom built units.

I see a few old pull type Vermeers still used occasionally for some shorter runs. Oliver had a tractor or 2 that had a gear setup for pulling those type of trenchers, maybe the 77 ?

Most of the guys that tile/terrace for a living around here are booked about 2 years out.

 

[jblnut]

There is only one tile plow that I can think of around here, most are self propelled trenchers.

Buckeyes, Speichers, Wolfe ??, Hoes & some custom built units.

I see a few old pull type Vermeers still used occasionally for some shorter runs. Oliver had a tractor or 2 that had a gear setup for pulling those type of trenchers, maybe the 77 ?

There are a couple very large drainage outfits west of us about an hour but most won’t even come look at the jobs we do. We tiled for 9 different people this fall and the largest patch we did was a 29,000’ job and the smallest was under 3,000’. We charge so much per foot and so much per start with anything over a 500’ run having no start charge.

 

[JimBear]

There are a couple very large drainage outfits west of us about an hour but most won’t even come look at the jobs we do. We tiled for 9 different people this fall and the largest patch we did was a 29,000’ job and the smallest was under 3,000’. We charge so much per foot and so much per start with anything over a 500’ run having no start charge.

I believe their are 8 guys in our county that do custom tiling. The sheet from the guberment office has around 30 listed for a 3 -4 county area.

 

[Bill G]

Try tiling with this........

 

[jblnut]

Try tiling with this........

View attachment 439893

Sure beats a shovel !!

 

[Bill G]

Sure beats a shovel !!

I would not even want to guess how many thousands of miles of clay tile were laid with a shovel.

Then ripped out with deep tillage

 

[Bill G]

The vintage tiling machine I pictured is in Mt. Pleasant Iowa. I believe it was recovered from the family of the original owner out in Ohio. I know it was quite an ordeal getting it back here. It has been housed in Mt. Pleasant for many years, There is a write-up and pictures of the story behind it. I snapped that picture at this years show.

Sadly there was a very similar tiling machine about 20 miles to the south of me that went to the scrapyard a few years ago. Anyone that knows this area and knows old cars and construction equipment has heard of the infamous Bud Henderson...Bud Henderson Ford and Bud Henderson Machinery. He (and his father) were very notorious for his business dealings. I do not know the exact lineage but I believe his father had the Ford car dealership in Aledo Illinois from the 1930's on. They also ran a junkyard. It was full of 1930-1960 vehicles that just say there because tthey refused to sell anything. It was sad to see the hills full of cars and trucks rotting away. Around the late 1990's I drove by one day and they were all gone. I heard they just took dozers in there and buried them in the ravines but I cannot confirm it.

The Ford dealership went belly up around the late 1990's also. Bud's real business focus was running around the Midwest buying up worn out, clapped out construction equipment and spraying it with a fresh coat of paint. He would them flip it. What he sold was generally wore out junk. He had a huge lot in town full of it and would have auctions to dump it. Of course he plug bid it along. Out at the shop they had a large line of very vintage dozers and other construction equipment. It was all sprayed with the Earl Scheib paint job.

He passed away in 2009 and that is when chit had to get done. The heirs had Hilpipre Auction out of Waterloo Iowa sell it. It was horrible as everyone knew it was junk. I believe scrap was running $250/ton then and a lot of it went to the scrapyard. He close to 300 big pieces of equipment. He had Cat D-8 and D-9's out of the strip mines that were totally clapped out. The family saved the really old stuff out at the farm/shop as they thought they would get rich opening a construction equipment museum. That is where the old tiling machine was. The stuff sat there until around 2000 or so and then it went to scrap.

 

[JimBear]

Looks like around another 1” of rain today, we will be lucky if we can get back to running by Friday, most likely Saturday.

 

[Only the Tony]

Always waiting every morning for me.

 

[JimBear]

View attachment 439990
Always waiting every morning for me.

Spoiled

 

[Only the Tony]

Spoiled

Yes and no. I haven't been giving them the grain they think they need every morning. I will probably get a 3 or 5 ton bin next year and start feeding them a bit more of that. The bulls get a couple coffee cans of range cubes every morning though. Three more weeks and then they go back in with the girls. We are small time operators with only about 35 mama's right now. I will kick it up to about 50 before I retire from the day job in about 4 years. I will try to pick up a 4 or 5 akaushi in the next year as well. Cross with angus to bring up the marble content in the meat for home and to sell hanging.

 

[jblnut]

Got some seat time doing tillage today.


Nothing quite like putting your feet up at the office


Making dirt blacker again.

 

[JimBear]

Got some seat time doing tillage today.
View attachment 440294

Nothing quite like putting your feet up at the office
View attachment 440295

Making dirt blacker again.
View attachment 440296

Won’t be any of that going on around these parts. The only thing turning the ground black here is the rain.

We starting running again today, I think we will end up getting about 60 acres out. One machine is still running, the other one got moved about 6 miles south, they got rained out.

Maybe we can knock another 70 out tomorrow at another farm that didn’t get any rain.

Guessers are saying 1”-2” Monday.

 

[Only the Tony]

 

[JimBear]

Got another .91” Monday, ran about 35 acres this afternoon, some of it was still in the 19% moisture range.

Hopefully we can get a good long productive day in tomorrow.

One of my brothers got called back into work, I guess they have about 1700 acres to spray & thinking they will start pulling anhydrous on Monday.

By my estimates we around 500 acres left.

Guessers are barking about a significant snow here on turkey day.

 

[jakethesnake]

Finally rained here. 7 tenths
Been changing truck tires. Put new recaps on the front drive axels Moved the back ones around. They’re still pretty bald in the back but the casings are ok enough to run the little bit they get used. Got to go get some firewood cut and have a tin roof to put on old man’s house

 

[JimBear]

I about fell out of my seat in the truck when this showed up today for a demo.

My brother is a green paint ho.

 

[Lnk]

I about fell out of my seat in the truck when this showed up today for a demo.

My brother is a green paint ho.

View attachment 441181View attachment 441182

Did he like it?