Midwest Farm tour

[buck35]

Thanks Buck. Post a pic of the blossoms!

Their a lightly past prime but here you go.

 

[Taboma]

Their a lightly past prime but here you go. View attachment 747277

What are they ? Sure are pretty !!

 

[buck35]

What are they ? Sure are pretty !!

Sweet cherries. I'll try and get a better picture when it's light outside.

 

[Tractorsdontfloat]

The office is set up and ready to rock and roll. Got a little rain, and had a minor wiring issue to diagnose and repair today, as well as my monthly school board meeting this evening, or today would have been the start. Tomorrow is the day. For the foreseeable future, if ya need me, this is where ya shall find me. I’ll bring ya all along through pics and videos over the next few weeks.

 

[Tractorsdontfloat]

Gotta love day one fun! And oh yeah the eating lunch with these!

Corn is going in, but a few minor glitches. Have I mentioned how much I enjoy electronics?

 

[j21black]

Well, I made to my moms this evening.

I found the picture of my little brother with his bubble mower.

Not the greatest pic of the MF860. I remembered the combine with the header in the front of the pic, not covered by the tree. But I found it in about 3 seconds in a box of lose pictures.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Bowtiepower00]

I had a bubble mower too! Lol...

 

[HydroSkreamin]

Gotta love day one fun! And oh yeah the eating lunch with these!
View attachment 747605

Corn is going in, but a few minor glitches. Have I mentioned how much I enjoy electronics?

Um, I don’t think your electronics are supposed to be that greasy!

 

[Tractorsdontfloat]

Um, I don’t think your electronics are supposed to be that greasy!

Yeah, was mostly from the drive chain that drives from the hydraulic drive motor to the main shaft drive for the row units. When the electronic row clutch seized up, it took out the front gearbox for that row too. Only way to replace that is to pull the shaft. The hex shaft runs through the parallel arms from each row behind the airbag for the downforce. The black piece with the part number is the top of the gearbox.

Surprisingly went a lot better than expected.

 

[Tractorsdontfloat]

A few shots of the cab. With any luck maybe I can even get the video I took uploaded into YouTube before I go to bed.

Here’s a shot of the armrest and all the controls. Transmission, three point, hydraulics, pto, all the goodies right there at my fingertips.

And an iPad running two additional apps. One is a documentation app that keeps track of variety, population, etc... and the other app is monitoring the fertilizer flow.

And of course the section control box for the planter, and my XM radio so I got the tunes!

 

[X-rated]

Whats in the go cup????

 

[Tractorsdontfloat]

Whats in the go cup????

Bean juice! Drink a literal fu&@ ton of it this time of year! 4 am this morning was the go time. Been in the field and running since before 5, and pending rain amount ( drizzling here currently) I’m expecting to see the 9 pm hour from the seat!

 

[Tractorsdontfloat]

Weather held yesterday, and today is a beautiful day too. Started out a little chilly at 23* but I’m pounding the clock pretty hard. Hitting the field at around 5 am every morning, and home for dinner around 10 pm. Makes for a long day, but corn is about 1/3 in already. Weather holds, we should cross the 50% mark by night fall tomorrow.

Looks like I got the planter dialed in pretty well. Blue dots are the corn seeds

 

[j21black]

Found a couple pics of some 4430s.

And there is part of a 78 T-Bird in one of the pics.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Tractorsdontfloat]

Here’s the video I took a couple days ago while planting. You can see that the field was strip tilled, and then I go through the three screens. First is the iPad showing the mapping of the varieties, then the armrest screen with the hydraulic settings, then the gps screen with the guidance, planter, and fertilizer readings. Then I pan to the planter. On the way back to the iPad I get a quick shot of the planter switch box and my XM radio and the air compressor filter for the planter compressor, and then the switch of screens on the iPad to the fertilizer flow monitor screen. Short but you get the point.

 

[X-rated]

How often do you need to stop to fill the seed boxes? Is your seed bulk or bags?

 

[Tractorsdontfloat]

How often do you need to stop to fill the seed boxes? Is your seed bulk or bags?

The boxes on the planter are three bushel boxes. Our seed is mostly bulk pro boxes, but we do buy some in lots of 16 bags (1 bag per row). We have two seed tenders. One with a 375 bushel hopper, the other a four tote box holder. Both have scales and conveyors, and the big one has a talc dispenser. They speed up the fill process immensely.

As a note of reference for those who don’t know, corn seed is sold by count. A bag of corn seed is 80,000 kernels, so tote boxes are filled by weight based off an average seed count per pound. Totes range a bit, but most are in the 2100-2300 pounds range for most of our seed, but I request large round seed.

 

[X-rated]

So....How often do you need to stop and fill? And how long does it take to fill?

 

[Tractorsdontfloat]

So....How often do you need to stop and fill? And how long does it take to fill?

Oops, sorry. Got side tracked and forgot to answer that part. Generally, I fill with seed about twice a day, and can plant around 110 acres per fill at about 20 acres an hour, so something in the 5-6 hours neighborhood for seed, and about every 65 acres on fertilizer, or twice per seed fill.

 

[Tractorsdontfloat]

Planting long hours here lately due to nice weather, until today anyway. Got a lot of ground covered in the last week. Was planting near home yesterday, and I took these two pics one after another. First is across the field looking at the farm, the second, out a different window is across the field I’m planting at the buildings by my house. The commute was hell yesterday.

 

[monkeyswrench]

OK, stupid question for field irrigation: In the last pic there is the end of the sprinkler setup. I assume those things are wheel driven by the water flow? If so, how many gph is required to run it?

I was about 20 the first time I went on a plane. I couldn't figure out why all those fields were in circles. It really wasn't until the next year I saw the pivot setup. That next year I started driving through "Fly Over" states doing shows. That's when I saw all kinds of new things, like combines and planters.

Where I grew up, we had dairy farms and some orchards, but all those went away. Progress and housing...really kind of sucked. We used to street race by a strawberry patch on Sunday nights, and by dairy farms on Saturday nights. The strawberry patch is a Home Dump and shopping center, and the dairy farms are housing developments

 

[Headless hula]

OK, stupid question for field irrigation: In the last pic there is the end of the sprinkler setup. I assume those things are wheel driven by the water flow? If so, how many gph is required to run it?

I was about 20 the first time I went on a plane. I couldn't figure out why all those fields were in circles. It really wasn't until the next year I saw the pivot setup. That next year I started driving through "Fly Over" states doing shows. That's when I saw all kinds of new things, like combines and planters.

Where I grew up, we had dairy farms and some orchards, but all those went away. Progress and housing...really kind of sucked. We used to street race by a strawberry patch on Sunday nights, and by dairy farms on Saturday nights. The strawberry patch is a Home Dump and shopping center, and the dairy farms are housing developments

The pivots are electrically driven. There's a motor on every section that's connected to a gear box. The motor turns on and off by a micro switch thats at each joint. The outermost motor never shuts off, and the rest "keep up" so to speak. When they drill the wells for the pivots, the goal is a 1000 gpm. Sometimes they hit it, sometimes not.
Each sprinkler head is sized to apply the same amount of water to the field, so smaller the closer you get to the actual pivot point. Pumps can be turned on by smartphone apps, including the direction of travel, and rate of application. It's pretty incredible at how much tech is in a sprinkler system.

(I built one of the local irrigation dealers new building, and picked up a bit of info on how they work.)

 

[monkeyswrench]

The pivots are electrically driven. There's a motor on every section that's connected to a gear box. The motor turns on and off by a micro switch thats at each joint. The outermost motor never shuts off, and the rest "keep up" so to speak. When they drill the wells for the pivots, the goal is a 1000 gpm. Sometimes they hit it, sometimes not.
Each sprinkler head is sized to apply the same amount of water to the field, so smaller the closer you get to the actual pivot point. Pumps can be turned on by smartphone apps, including the direction of travel, and rate of application. It's pretty incredible at how much tech is in a sprinkler system.

(I built one of the local irrigation dealers new building, and picked up a bit of info on how they work.)

Damn, never thought of the water flow needing to vary on the radius, so as not to drown the inboard crop. I figured it wasn't a hook up and go thing, but wouldn't have figured WiFi enabled micro switched setups either. It ain't no Rainbird

 

[Headless hula]

Damn, never thought of the water flow needing to vary on the radius, so as not to drown the inboard crop. I figured it wasn't a hook up and go thing, but wouldn't have figured WiFi enabled micro switched setups either. It ain't no Rainbird

would you believe the sprinkler heads are crop specific? There are different heads that create a different shape water droplet. some crops shouldnt have huge drops blasting them, and have dirt splashed up on their leaves. its really nuts.

 

[Tractorsdontfloat]

Damn, never thought of the water flow needing to vary on the radius, so as not to drown the inboard crop. I figured it wasn't a hook up and go thing, but wouldn't have figured WiFi enabled micro switched setups either. It ain't no Rainbird

Yeah, Hula is pretty much right on with his comments. They are all electric. The end tower, at full speed does run continuously, but to slow them down, they run intermittently, using a percent timer to feed power on and off to the end tower, the rest use an alignment system to run when needed to keep up. Some of the newer ones do use frequency drives to control speed. These do run continuously on the end, just speed up or slow down with the freq. drive.

There is what is called a j-pipe that runs up through the center of the pivot point that has a power wire run up through it to a collector ring. The brush system allows the wire coming from the panel box to connect to the wire running down the system without getting twisted as the pivot goes around. The wire, or span cable that runs the length of each span has either twelve or thirteen wires in each one. They are all color coded for forward, reverse, safety, percent timer, four power wires- three hot, one ground, etc.

If you look at the second photo closer, between the tires on the cross beam, there is a gearbox and drive motor. This motor drives the gearboxes that the tires are mounted to. Lots of tech and it still uses a basic drive shaft and gearbox drive.

I can access each of these machines from my cellphone, and pretty much do anything I can do right from the pivot panel itself, short of diagnose problems.

 

[Tractorsdontfloat]

I think I may have lost my seat! Put The kid to work now that he’s home for the summer. That’s been my seat for some 37 years. Not sure what I’m gonna do if I’m not the guy running the planter? But I believe it’s time.

 

[Tractorsdontfloat]

For some unknown reason (really, I know the reason. It’s cause I don’t say no!) I always end up planting a bean planting on Memorial Day weekend! Well, this year I didn’t say no because it’s been so wet in so many areas, the canning company asked if I had anything that was dry enough. Only difference this year is I was the seed and fertilizer gopher and I let Jr. do the planting. The kid seems to be enjoying it, and doing a good job, so it’s his job now. (Sorry, proud dad moment)

I’m not sure I’m ready to totally hand it over yet, but I left him alone for most of the day other than filling with seed and fertilizer, and he got it done.

Also took a few minutes this morning while it was still too damp to get started planting to raid the hedge row where I knew there would be a ton of asparagus. Never got more than about fifty feet from the truck, and didn’t look real hard. Took about five minutes to pick this much. Probably about five pounds here. This area of the state, probably one of only a few nationwide, that asparagus grows wild all over the ditches and hedgerows. This time of year people are scouring the ditch banks all around here picking it. I eat a lot of it this time of year when it’s fresh.

 

[HydroSkreamin]

I remember hunting for it and picking it with my grandparents and mom as a kid, always loved it. Now I just buy it... back then our local stores didn’t carry it, but now they do.

My sister pickles it, and man, she cans it about 3 different ways, but the hot version is my favorite, especially in the middle of winter.

Glad junior is taking a serious interest, that’s really cool. I’m pretty sure my daughters aren’t going to do anything remotely close to what I do.

 

[monkeyswrench]

My Pops always told me, "...go to college, do anything other than what I do". I tried school, but couldn't make a house payment and be a full time student.

Pops was proud, even when I did start doing the construction gig. Between that and the mechanic stuff, I did OK. Home, wife and kids...turning out pretty decent now.

Kids are getting older. Sharp as can be...kind of scary at times. Now I find myself hoping they keep their grades, and do some white collar thing. Ironic, but they'll be what they choose. Best we can do is help them where we can.

In this case, the farm is more than a job. It's kind of a family legacy. Glad your boy has an interest in it still

 

[TPC]

As many of you know, I hang with @Headless hula a fair amount and he has been after me for quite some time to start a thread here chronicling my life as a grain and vegetable farmer, so finally here it is.

First off, let me set a few ground rules. 1. I’ll try my darnedest to explain things as best I can. 2. If you have any questions about certain parts of what I’m talking about, ask questions. I’ll answer them if I can. 3. Try to be patient as I will post more over time. I can’t and won’t try to explain every bit of Cheeseland Agricultural practices in a single post. 4. I will post pictures as I go and try to make it as interesting as I can.

Beyond that? Sit back, read, enjoy, and interact as you wish. I’m doing this for your benefit, and maybe I’ll learn a thing or three along the way.

Also, if you are ever in the area visiting Hula, make sure you tell him to get my ass th Hula HQ 2.0 so we can partake in a little shenanigans!

Here’s a little teaser pic to start it all off. This is a shot from the seat, or as I call it my corner window office.
View attachment 737036

I’ll try to keep each post from getting too long, and May add several posts over a short period to keep them shorter.

It is a little early in the season yet too, so I’ll add a few posts over the next couple weeks detailing the winter processes too.

Coming out and working a harvest with you is on my bucket list.

 

[Headless hula]

Coming out and working a harvest with you is on my bucket list.

He's always in a bind for drivers Ross!

 

[snowhammer]

He's always in a bind for drivers Ross!

I'm in! Is a resume needed?

 

[Headless hula]

I'm in! Is a resume needed?

Doubtful. Pump da brakes after 8-10 beers. You're in....

 

[Tractorsdontfloat]

Been nice here for a few days finally. Water levels are at a level I’ve never seen before, and some may say historic high. Crops are growing, but behind because of the cool damp weather. Amazing though the improvement with just a few days of warm sunny weather.

Here is a shot of the taters behind the house that I showed pics of the planting process a while ago. Second pass of hilling will be done either today or tomorrow. Will try to get a pic but they don’t stay in a field long as they cover a lot of ground quickly.

 

[Tractorsdontfloat]

Rain, rain, go away! No really, for God’s sake stop raining! Gotten a couple inches of rain over the past three days. Really need some sun and heat.

 

[Tractorsdontfloat]

Getting some nitrogen put down on some snap beans today. Sun is out and things are growing. Still battling a fair amount of wet areas in some fields, but crops look decent here.

Pre cultivation

A shot of the cultivator.

After the cultivator passed by

Dribbling a band of liquid fertilizer down beside each row as well.

 

[RichL]

A lot of the fields around here still have a fair amount of ponding. I'm feeling sorry for the local guys.

 

[Wolskis]

A lot of the fields around here still have a fair amount of ponding. I'm feeling sorry for the local guys.

Rode the MC thru Iowa into Nebraska several weeks ago. I was surprised at so much standing water in the fields. A portion of I-35 south bound was closed due to flooding, an entire town was under water. Sad. Same thing in southern Illinois, several county roads north of St Louis was closed.

 

[rivrrts429]

Getting some nitrogen put down on some snap beans today. Sun is out and things are growing. Still battling a fair amount of wet areas in some fields, but crops look decent here.
View attachment 766387
Pre cultivation

View attachment 766390
A shot of the cultivator.

View attachment 766392
After the cultivator passed by

Dribbling a band of liquid fertilizer down beside each row as well.

Sorry if you mentioned it previously in the thread but do you guys utilize Tile Drain much?

 

[Tractorsdontfloat]

Sorry if you mentioned it previously in the thread but do you guys utilize Tile Drain much?

Don’t be sorry for asking questions. That’s what I want this thread to be is as informative as it can be.

No I hadn’t mentioned it here, but there is some in some fields around here, but most of my fields do not have any tile lines. Unfortunately on a year like this, most of the outlet ditches and ponds are higher than the outlet so the fields just stay wet

 

[SLT Kota]

How many times do you think you have to pass over a field between tilling, planting, fertilizing, harvesting, etc on average? I'm sure you spend more time in the seat of a tractor than most people spend in a car in a given year.

 

[Tractorsdontfloat]

How many times do you think you have to pass over a field between tilling, planting, fertilizing, harvesting, etc on average? I'm sure you spend more time in the seat of a tractor than most people spend in a car in a given year.

It kinda varies by crop and by previous crop to a degree. We try to minimize our tillage passes just from a fuel and time savings reason, but it also has to be properly prepped prior to planting, so fall tillage plays in for the following year.

On average most fields get one spring tillage pass, a planting pass, most two sprayer passes, one in season cultivation tillage, one or two fertilizer spreader passes, a harvest pass, another spreader pass to spread cover crop, and a final fall tillage pass. So most fields will see some sort of equipment pass 8-10 times a year.

I will add that a crop like potatoes that are very susceptible to fungal diseases get sprayed on average 12-15 times a year, so those fields probably see near 20 passes a year.

As for equipment seat time, yeah between planter, harvester, and miscellaneous other tasks, I probably average 750-850 hours of what I call corner window office time.

That’s why I have a portable satellite radio that I put in my tractor and harvester. If I’m gonna pay for it I’m not gonna leave it in my truck.

Case in point. Current situation.

And my radio

Dust is flying

 

[Roaddogg 4040]

field.

It kinda varies by crop and by previous crop to a degree. We try to minimize our tillage passes just from a fuel and time savings reason, but it also has to be properly prepped prior to planting, so fall tillage plays in for the following year.

On average most fields get one spring tillage pass, a planting pass, most two sprayer passes, one in season cultivation tillage, one or two fertilizer spreader passes, a harvest pass, another spreader pass to spread cover crop, and a final fall tillage pass. So most fields will see some sort of equipment pass 8-10 times a year.

I will add that a crop like potatoes that are very susceptible to fungal diseases get sprayed on average 12-15 times a year, so those fields probably see near 20 passes a year.

As for equipment seat time, yeah between planter, harvester, and miscellaneous other tasks, I probably average 750-850 hours of what I call corner window office time.

That’s why I have a portable satellite radio that I put in my tractor and harvester. If I’m gonna pay for it I’m not gonna leave it in my truck.

Case in point. Current situation.
View attachment 766848

And my radio
View attachment 766849

Dust is flying
View attachment 766850

What a great thread! I just saw this today and read all 7 pages.
Most of the questions that I have thought of have been already
been answered by you. Thanks for one of the best reads that I
have seen in a long time.
Steve

 

[Headless hula]

It kinda varies by crop and by previous crop to a degree. We try to minimize our tillage passes just from a fuel and time savings reason, but it also has to be properly prepped prior to planting, so fall tillage plays in for the following year.

On average most fields get one spring tillage pass, a planting pass, most two sprayer passes, one in season cultivation tillage, one or two fertilizer spreader passes, a harvest pass, another spreader pass to spread cover crop, and a final fall tillage pass. So most fields will see some sort of equipment pass 8-10 times a year.

I will add that a crop like potatoes that are very susceptible to fungal diseases get sprayed on average 12-15 times a year, so those fields probably see near 20 passes a year.

As for equipment seat time, yeah between planter, harvester, and miscellaneous other tasks, I probably average 750-850 hours of what I call corner window office time.

That’s why I have a portable satellite radio that I put in my tractor and harvester. If I’m gonna pay for it I’m not gonna leave it in my truck.

Case in point. Current situation.
View attachment 766848

And my radio
View attachment 766849

Dust is flying
View attachment 766850

It would be kinda cool to see a rdp t-shirt worn by the clown drivin that big green tractor around in circles all day....


They sell em on here ya know.

 

[Tractorsdontfloat]

What a great thread! I just saw this today and read all 7 pages.
Most of the questions that I have thought of have been already
been answered by you. Thanks for one of the best reads that I
have seen in a long time.
Steve

Thanks Steve. Glad you like it, and I hope it’s informative.

 

[Roaddogg 4040]

Thanks Steve. Glad you like it, and I hope it’s informative.

All I have to do now is write my questions down so I have something
to refresh myself because I can’t remember crap for longer than 30 seconds anymore

 

[HydroSkreamin]

It’s funny what kids remember.

When my youngest daughter was about 10, I mused one day in the middle of June when we were driving by a friends cornfield (about 5 miles away from tractorsdontfloat) if the corn was going to be “knee high by the 4th of July”. My daughter asked “What does that mean”, and I explained that my grandpa used to always say that, and I don’t ever remember it not being true other than really wet years when planting was late or didn’t get in at all due to flooding.

Well, corn grows really fast, especially with water and sun, so if you can imagine the corn had just popped out, probably 6”-8” high, and she says “No way, dad!”. So I bet her an ice cream that it would, and she would watch that corn every day we drove by, getting nervous that she was going to have to buy the old man an ice cream. July 4th came and it was well above my knee, and she couldn’t believe it. I let her slide and took her for ice cream anyway.

It’s funny, because she talks about it every year since, (she’s 16 now) and last year when she worked at the custard stand up the road, brought me a cone and said “this is for that bet I lost...”

So it’s been a really wet year here, and she said to me the other day “Dad, I don’t think the corn is going to be knee high by the 4th of July”. I told her “It’s going to be close”.

So @Tractorsdontfloat , will the corn indeed be knee high by the 4th of July? And how fast does corn grow? I’ve heard people joke that if you listen at night, you can hear it grow?

Also, you have to keep me informed when the Hancock Fire Department Jamboree is so I can head out there and contribute while eating some of your tasty pulled pork.

 

[Carlson-jet]

Cool thread. Thanks for the effort posting.

 

[Roaddogg 4040]

I

All I have to do now is write my questions down so I have something
to refresh myself because I can’t remember crap for longer than 30 seconds anymore

I just remembered one of my questions. After watching you show all of the different adjustments that you have to
do when getting ready to start planting or harvesting crops, I wondered how you check to see if they are correct?
IE: seed spacing, amount of fertilizer, depths etc. It looks like there dozens of different knobs, rods, discs, brushes and on and on????? It doesn’t look like you can just drive a 20-40 foot wide set up out of the barn, run it for 5 or 10 feet, then stop, climb down and measure everything, or do you??? Inquiring minds need to know

Steve

 

[Rvrluvr]

Similar scenario as Millennial Farmer on YouTube. I’ve subscribed to his channel for a while now and got a whole lot of insight into the corn and soybean versus livestock way of farming and why.

Great thread and excited to see where it goes. Thanks for sharing [emoji106]

The OP sounds like the How farms work guy on you tube. That channel is pretty awesome