The Official Farming Thread...

[Wilhelm]

Here is it tough enough to get a good year to double crop beans after wheat but the stars would have to be in perfect alignment to follow wheat with corn. You could do it with the intention of chopping it for silage but you damn sure better be prepared to chop it yourself as no custom chopper will do it unless you had a whale of a lot to chop and even then doubtful. By the time it would be ready to chop they are done for the season.

This is a picture from October 29, 2024 of some of my beans that followed the wheat.
Clearly a F .....failureView attachment 459996

It is a special fast growing seed that gets utilized.
The stalks stay noticeably shorter and they usually carry only one mid sized cob as opposed to up to three full sized ones on the spring planted corn.

There is no need to harvest those fields with a combine as people tend to do it themselves with tractor pulled & PTO powered 1 or 2 row harvesters - or they hire someone having one.
It is slower than with a big 4-6 row combine, but You still get Your goods off the field.

Our fields are generally tiny compared to Yours!

 

[Wilhelm]

Our bean fields are not in rows like that, at least not the ones I have seen!

They are spread out like wheat, just less dense.

 

[Wilhelm]

I had to look it up, 90 to 110 days from seeding till harvest for the summer corn.

 

[Bill G]

Our bean fields are not in rows like that, at least not the ones I have seen!

They are spread out like wheat, just less dense.

What you are referencing is what is called drilling beans. They are "technically" in rows but I realize they appear not to be. In general 7-8 inches or 18-21cm. The actual distance can vary. They were the rave here in the 1990's as you could drive faster and no-till them easier. In my area the drilling of beans has fallen out of fashion with interplant and air seeders taking over.

Side note: Just because we plant them in rows sure does not mean we harvest them in rows, we cut them just like drilled beans.

 

[jblnut]

I have an odd question for you ingenious farmers…..we have two good sized Athens offset disc harrows we use for food plot planting. We just put new plates on last week and as always, didn’t get them tight enough. According to Athens plow, they torque to 1,400 ft lbs. or a 200 lb man on a 7’ bar, lol. Three of the axles can be torqued this way with their plate wrench. One gang can’t due to the frame being in the way. I was debating different options and found Enerpac makes a torque cassette style wrench, but that is too expensive. A torque multiplier is too big to fit between the gangs and has no way for the reaction bar to work.

I thought about cutting another wrench out of 1” plate with different holes along the handle. Then make a bracket to temporarily go on the gang beams (4x6x1/2” tube). I could then add a hydraulic cylinder between the two. Do you all think a 2.5” or 3” cylinder would have enough pressure to tighten these axle nuts using the tractor SCV valves? I originally thought of using a power unit for like a dump trailer, but realized the disc is usually
attached to a BIG power unit.

I use a 1” impact on the disc gangs to tighten them up. Works well. I didn’t have any gangs come loose going over roughly 600 acres this spring on the finishing disc.



The torque spec for our large Wishek disk is “at least 3,000ft/lbs” so that gets the impact and then a large breaker bar I built out of a 2” hydraulic cylinder shaft and a #5 spline drive 3-1/2” socket. It has a D-ring on the end of it that we lift up on with the forklift which will lift 6,000lbs. They’re nice and snug when we’re done. The non-bug ends get a 48” or 60” pipe wrench that wedges against the frame when tightening. Gotta make sure to loosen the towers so the bearings aren’t stressed once things are tight.

 

[jakethesnake]

Got 85 bales

 

[jblnut]

View attachment 460063Got 85 bales

And you keep them in a chicken barn ? I keep chickens in my chicken barn …..

 

[jakethesnake]

And you keep them in a chicken barn ? I keep chickens in my chicken barn …..

My chicken barn is very old. Like over 40 years old. There’s been no chickens there since 2017

 

[Wilhelm]

I got 5 ducklings and a 6th is breaking through its egg.


Momma duck is hyped, she wants to leave the nest, she knows the kids need food.


We will smuggle unhatched eggs under the neighboring cluck to give them a chance to hatch in due time while momma duck can start leading her kids around.
Either today PM, or tomorrow AM.
I am hoping that a couple more will hatch!

 

[Dustin4185]

I use a 1” impact on the disc gangs to tighten them up. Works well. I didn’t have any gangs come loose going over roughly 600 acres this spring on the finishing disc.
View attachment 460055


The torque spec for our large Wishek disk is “at least 3,000ft/lbs” so that gets the impact and then a large breaker bar I built out of a 2” hydraulic cylinder shaft and a #5 spline drive 3-1/2” socket. It has a D-ring on the end of it that we lift up on with the forklift which will lift 6,000lbs. They’re nice and snug when we’re done. The non-bug ends get a 48” or 60” pipe wrench that wedges against the frame when tightening. Gotta make sure to loosen the towers so the bearings aren’t stressed once things are tight.

We may invest in another big impact. I am not sure what this one will do. I suggested we build the gangs and let them sit overnight and then tighten again the next day before installing.

 

[jblnut]

We may invest in another big impact. I am not sure what this one will do. I suggested we build the gangs and let them sit overnight and then tighten again the next day before installing.

If the gang is on the ground off of the disc and you rattle on the nut with a big impact and bang with a sledge on the other end at the same time you’ll likely never have to retighten it. Even better is holding it in the air with a few heavy straps under pallet forks and doing the same thing. No pressure on the discs makes it easier for everything to slide together.