Above 1200 Sq/FT Out on Quaker Road

[jollygreengiant]

Having your own hydraulic hose machine is so nice, since hoses always seem to blow at the worst times.

One other trick I've seen for routing hydraulic hoses, though it won't work for big john since there's no three point hitch, is to take a shackle and hook it into the eye of one of the lower 3 point arms, and then route your hoses through the shackle.

 

[RickP]

Loving that new crimping machine!

I've seem that geyser of oil before -- I broke the end off a loader fitting by getting too close to a fallen tree. After paying through the nose for a local shop to fab up a new hose, I really wish I could justify buying a crimper...

 

[jblnut]

Having your own hydraulic hose machine is so nice, since hoses always seem to blow at the worst times.

One other trick I've seen for routing hydraulic hoses, though it won't work for big john since there's no three point hitch, is to take a shackle and hook it into the eye of one of the lower 3 point arms, and then route your hoses through the shackle.

I bought the machine hoping to never use it and I’ve made four hoses in the last week. So far I’m roughly $400 ahead vs going to town so it’s on its way to being paid for. Slowly but we’re headed in the correct direction.

The 3pt and shackle is a great idea !!

Loving that new crimping machine!

I've seen that geyser of oil before -- I broke the end off a loader fitting by getting too close to a fallen tree. After paying through the nose for a local shop to fab up a new hose, I really wish I could justify buying a crimper...

You don’t need to justify it to buy it

 

[jblnut]

I made the mistake of showing Mama Bear some ropes on a close by auction. I knew they were a tad large but holy smokes


Also snagged a shop vac for $7 that seems to work great !! Back of the manvan was pretty full. I picked them up in the morning and had them sealed in the van until around 9pm and holy **** does it stink in the van now. I drove home in the rain with the windows open just so I could breath lol


No idea what she’s gonna do with them all but here they are !! At least now she can’t grumble quite as loud about me bringing home stuff from online auctions


Girthy buggers.


Pops and I started in on the last of the irrigator bridges on Monday and were able to get them all finished. Feels good to have that project checked off the list.


Stacked up and ready to be installed !!


Off on an adventure in the Cummins powered rocket ship to bring something of my own home.


I found myself an 800gal bulk tank !! I plan to use it as a fresh water storage tank on a future spray drone trailer. Can’t go wrong with a complete drain stainless steel tank for $500 !!

 

[madison069]

I envision a fence or railing project in your future with those ropes!

 

[cvairwerks]

Battle ropes....

 

[jblnut]

I envision a fence or railing project in your future with those ropes!

That's what I'm afraid of ....

Battle ropes....

 

[cvairwerks]

Nah...

 

[jollygreengiant]

I'm quite surprised that nobody in here has so far mentioned the obvious project: A nice comfortable swing for the bedroom. You know, to relax after a long busy day.

 

[82355]

Hey, I found an actual rock! Usually I just kick up steel and concrete. I’m guessing this rock was imported and used in a foundation. Just West of here we have a pasture that years ago had an old barn on it, and the foundation was made out of limestone. Probably came from Kansas?



It looks bigger in the cab!



We don’t have rock boxes around here.

Martin

 

[jblnut]

Hey, I found an actual rock! Usually I just kick up steel and concrete. I’m guessing this rock was imported and used in a foundation. Just West of here we have a pasture that years ago had an old barn on it, and the foundation was made out of limestone. Probably came from Kansas?

And he’s got those square toes work boots so he doesn’t roll an ankle when he’s on his knees and asking for a raise from the boss

It looks bigger in the cab!



We don’t have rock boxes around here.

Martin

I’m just tearing you apart today it seems. You sir need a new water jug !! That one may tip over at any time

 

[jblnut]

Nah...

I didn’t mind watching parts of that video. The part about waggling those ropes around though made me sweaty just watching.

I'm quite surprised that nobody in here has so far mentioned the obvious project: A nice comfortable swing for the bedroom. You know, to relax after a long busy day.

I told the builder guy that I wanted bracing in the bedroom ceiling for a swing and he asks “as in a tire swing or what ?” Yeah let’s go with that

 

[drivesitfar]

Since we are chatting about swings and ropes I’ve seen some builders put hefty support hooks in rafters in fake canned lighting where you remove the fake lights (yes have a few real ones for the illusion) and then the kids attach their swings and trx or whatevers.

Have a grand day and I also agree that battle rope exercises really offset those double and triple scoops of ice cream.

 

[OutlawDrifter]

You sir need a new water jug !!

No way...that's OG.

 

[jblnut]

We’re airborne folks !! I flew it around for a bit to make sure it all worked before needing it in a few weeks to put spray some biologicals on the previously corn ground.


An empty shop and a wide angle lens make it look like it’s quite a bit cleaner and larger than it actually is lol


I plan to land the drone on my little deck over this summer and wanted to see how it looked in the back of it. I am going to build some kind of landing platform so I can leave the wings out when transporting and it’ll land in exactly the same place each time.


New tech on the left, old tech on the right. The bonkers thing is that the drone with its 20gal tank and the big sprayer with its 1000gal tank will spray around the same acres per hour or acres per day.


Some of the last seed leaving the shed. Almost all delivers are made for CY2026 !!


Pops drove Walter for the 2nd time ever the other day. I bet it was a bit stressful for both of them


Just out here making dirt flat again prepping bean ground.


Playing the brown box AutoTrac game painting lines across the field.

 

[82355]

My old water jug broke, and I saw that Pioneer one for sale on the exchange for $5! We have not planted any Pioneer for several years.

Martin

 

[jblnut]

Cursed abrasive soils. I can rarely get a shovel to wear off properly. They do this ******** most of the time.


And the joys of cultivating deep lol. I thought there were a few pumpkins out there but I ended up with 4 very full buckets. I could feel my 2 month healed carpel tunnel wrists straining but nothing popped and the pain went away quickly. They’re still sore but not numb anymore so that’s fantastic !!


Look at that gold bar with hooves. I got $3654 for him yesterday. That’s bonkers for a black and white. I sold him and 9 of his buddies and he wasn’t the one the brought top dollar. A chubby crossbred that weighed 1655lbs brought 2.40/lb. He’s the one we saved last summer that was vitamin B deficient and became super friendly and a “pet” of the kiddos.


Hells yes !! Hose machine to the save on a Sunday !!


Loaded up with some soybeans to plant on Monday.


Making ground smooth to provide a good seedbed and squarsh as many rocks down as possible.


My seed guy brought my lunch in the field !! Well he and his dad farm together and he works for Golden Harvest and they buy their seed from me so in a way I’m selling the company back some of their seed lol

 

[82355]

We finished planting yesterday.

Martin

 

[jblnut]

We finished planting yesterday.

Martin

Show off.

 

[Sifan]

it's not about the planting ... but replanting.

 

[jollygreengiant]

We're just getting started, so you're all show offs lol.

 

[jblnut]

Some of the first beans to go in were the plot beans. 12 varieties in all. Fun fun.


“They say” it’s okay to plant in cold OR wet soil, not both. Well it was 34f when this picture was taken but it’s dry so


Why are you all crosseyed and shiny !?


How the hell did a hardline get wrapped around the roller !? More broken ****


After the roller was fixed I put a sidewall plug in one of the wing gauge wheels on the field cultivator.


I trimmed it off, I’m not a heathen


More broken **** !! First C Spring to break on this disk since it was new 22yrs ago.


I had to run for parts since I had no spares because “why would we have a spare? We’ve never broken one of those before!?” -Pops. Now we have a spare.


Annnnnnnnd fixed and back at it !!


So far so good !

 

[jblnut]

Drone guy Luke came out and we did some drone training.


Spraying straight water for the tests. We flew 19 acres in under 20 minutes of flight time with the drone set to around 2/3 max speed.


I also ordered a seeded attachment for it to spread cover crops and dry fertilizer.


We tossed it in on and spread some oats to make sure it worked.


He also brought my Roadrunner 350. It’s a spray tender that has a complete drain 304 Stainless Steel tank and a bunch of other cool stuff. It’s got a shelf for the generator on one side, electric pumps for hot mix and freshwater with a 25 gal fresh tank to wash things off and rinse the big tank.


Twin 50’ Cox reels. One for hot mix and one for fresh water. There’s a cabinet for stuffs in the middle.


The charger fits on top and there is plenty room for all three batteries on the bottom.


There is a job crane on the generator side to load the drone up. The entire system is designed to fit in the back of a 6.5’ pickup bed with the drone in the back with the tailgate closed.

 

[moab11]

That's a nice compact unit! Do the drone arms fold up to fit into the bed? or do they hang over the sides?

 

[drivesitfar]

Is your new drone going to make the big green and red machines obsolete? Sounds like a lot less **** time and broken stuff?

Happy Mother’s Day!!

 

[jblnut]

That's a nice compact unit! Do the drone arms fold up to fit into the bed? or do they hang over the sides?

The drone folds down into a more compact state and sits in the back of the truck. I plan to fly it off my little deck over this summer and build a proper spray trailer with an elevated flight deck and possibly an enclosed room for the operator.

Is your new drone going to make the big green and red machines obsolete? Sounds like a lot less **** time and broken stuff?

Happy Mother’s Day!!

Not at all. It will be a compliment to the big sprayer and not a replacement. I plan to spray first pass herbicide on all acres with the big sprayer and use the drone for 2nd pass and fungicide work so I don’t smash as much crop down.

I hope less broken stuff but the drone is a giant flying collection of parts that can’t be inexpensive to replace so I hope to keep it in the air when it needs to be and on the ground when it needs to be lol.

 

[Sifan]

Given time, big green will do themselves in? $600,000+ for a 2026 self propelled sprayer and green retains right to electronics???
Don't see how the # of available seasonal hours works to make the payments.

 

[82355]

Drive by the co-op, and see ten of them lined up!

Martin

 

[jblnut]

Given time, big green will do themselves in? $600,000+ for a 2026 self propelled sprayer and green retains right to electronics???
Don't see how the # of available seasonal hours works to make the payments.

The numbers aren’t as wild as you think as far as payback goes. Plus $600k ain’t gonna get you much of a brand new sprayer these days

If you charge $15/acre and figure half is expense it’ll take 80,000 acres to pay for that $600k. A sprayer with 132’ boom going 15mph will cover 240a/hr so figure 200 or less and you’re still under 400hrs of spray time to recoup the investment. It works.

Drive by the co-op, and see ten of them lined up!

Martin

Up here the local coop has 25-30 lined up with a dozen floaters and a couple air flow rigs. The $$$$$$ sitting there is wild. The local guys have two See And Spray rigs this year and are charging quite a premium to run them and say you’ll save a bunch on chem. Well yeah they want to charge more for application because they aren’t going to sell you as much overpriced chem lol.

 

[jblnut]

Planted the last of the sweet corn today.


I also tossed the Roadrunner and drone in the back of Walter to see how it all fit. Pretty slick if you ask me !!


Picked it up with the crane no problem.


Lowered it down like a champ. This is gonna be slick.

 

[jblnut]

So. We’ve been bringing the tomatoes outside during the day and back in at night as it’s been 30-32f over night the last while and someone forgot to bring them in one night so I decided to just plant them and see what happens. I don’t have high hopes lol.


There were a few fields that weren’t rocky enough to pick with the skiddy but too rocky to leave so I loaded the gator up and picked those pesky bastards up. I think I gathered 11-12 loads total.


One of the rocks I found was this sweet white quartz rock. Uh yes I’m bringing it home !!


I ran the truck and gator home and buzzed back up with the minivan and two seed totes. For you non farmer types that’s roughly 6,000lbs of seed plus boxes and the seed tender trailer. The van handled it like a champ ! Nothing quite like 10yr old Honda quality lol


We interrupt the spring schedule for a brief (3hr long) school concert. I was told it was something I needed to be at so I was there.


Moo. 35 new sets of hooves arrived today which is good because I was wondering what to do with the $75k I traded for them. Good grief.


Corn test plot is going in !!


Sure looks like a mess on Ops Center but I’m excited to see how it does this fall !! Some brand new by new genetics in there that “should” blow our existing stuff out of the water.

Ended the day with Miss Lily and I checking out the new barn residents and hanging with their bottle calves.

 

[OutlawDrifter]

We used to plant our tomatoes in the "walls of water" product when I was growing up in Western NE. @ 4000' elevation, a really late freeze wasn't too uncommon. Always worked at saving the maters.

Noticed as I turned down our road here in Northeast KS yesterday that you can row both the corn and soybeans now...most guys are finished up with a few stragglers left planting/replanting. We need the rain to turn back on now.

 

[XJSuperman]

Thats a hell of a map lol. Haven't seen one quite that colorful before.

 

[jblnut]

We used to plant our tomatoes in the "walls of water" product when I was growing up in Western NE. @ 4000' elevation, a really late freeze wasn't too uncommon. Always worked at saving the maters.

Mom still does that. Not a bad suggestion !!

Noticed as I turned down our road here in Northeast KS yesterday that you can row both the corn and soybeans now...most guys are finished up with a few stragglers left planting/replanting. We need the rain to turn back on now.

Things are moving along quite quickly here as well. We’re also overdue for a shot of rain !!

Thats a hell of a map lol. Haven't seen one quite that colorful before.

16 varieties in the plot and the rest of the field is split 6/6 with the plot remnants and a 95 day hybrid. The monitor must only have so many colors as they started to double up after a while lol.

 

[82355]

We are irrigating already.

Unfortunately.

Martin

 

[OutlawDrifter]

We are irrigating already.

Unfortunately.

Martin

Doesn't sound like the Gering Valley is going to have much for a crop this year, most ground west of Hwy 71 isn't going to get planted to anything other than Sudex. They were hoping to get a 40-day run of water in the ditch, but sounding very unlikely like that will happen.

 

[82355]

Doesn't sound like the Gering Valley is going to have much for a crop this year, most ground west of Hwy 71 isn't going to get planted to anything other than Sudex. They were hoping to get a 40-day run of water in the ditch, but sounding very unlikely like that will happen.

That is far more unfortunate than our situation. We are pumping out of the ground.

Martin

 

[jollygreengiant]

The numbers aren’t as wild as you think as far as payback goes. Plus $600k ain’t gonna get you much of a brand new sprayer these days

If you charge $15/acre and figure half is expense it’ll take 80,000 acres to pay for that $600k. A sprayer with 132’ boom going 15mph will cover 240a/hr so figure 200 or less and you’re still under 400hrs of spray time to recoup the investment. It works.


Up here the local coop has 25-30 lined up with a dozen floaters and a couple air flow rigs. The $$$$$$ sitting there is wild. The local guys have two See And Spray rigs this year and are charging quite a premium to run them and say you’ll save a bunch on chem. Well yeah they want to charge more for application because they aren’t going to sell you as much overpriced chem lol.

Your numbers are a lot better than the ones up here. New sprayer is $1.3 million, plus at least $100k in tendering equipment. That's $1.4M.
Our field size is a lot smaller here with more road time so our productivity for a 120' boom sprayer is only a bit over 100 ac/hr, maybe 120 ac/hr. At $13/ac that's 100,000 acres, or about 900 hours just to pay for the sprayer. You still gotta take out labour for the guy to run it (at least $25/hr), fuel for it (currently $2/L), and fuel/machinery/labour cost for tender trucks. By the time you do that, your gonna be closer to 2k hours than 1k, which means you are gonna start looking at repair bills coming due too.

It's even worse for Terragators. A bit cheaper to buy at $1.2M but a lot slower, only about 50 ac/hr on average, and a lot more maintenance. And a lot more money and expense ******* in multiple special tender trucks. All for a machine that won't cover more than 7k acres/yr at $13/ac.....

And the cost of these machines just keeps going up.

IIRC the guys said one new tire for a terragator cost them about $25k.....

 

[jblnut]

Sweet corn is up and looking healthy !!

I have been doing a little drone flying on some ground to get the hang of things.


Zoom zoom !! It is rather fun to watch do it’s thing !!


I put together a couple pallets to make things easier to load and unload from the trailer so it isn’t ******* completely. The back one has a landing cone that the drone slides into when it comes down so it’s always in the same place. So far it’s been working incredibly well.


Spraying fungicide on some oats with a gooey sticky drift control product in the tank. It all fell right down to the ground once it was out of the prop wash which was the idea. Pretty neat to see !!

 

[jblnut]

We got a few things crossed off the hunny do list. First one was building a pad for the pool so it didn’t have to be on the patio again all summer.


That turnt out decent so since the yard was all screwed up we tackled a few other things as well.


Boom. Fire pit is placed in a granite slab to make it easy to trim around.


More granite slabs are placed to be used as bases for corn hole boards.


May as well stay on theme and make granite corn hole boards. This was a justification project to defend the “What do you need all those tools for!?” statements. “Well dear I can use my own stuff instead of renting it. Sort of handy isn’t it that I can do projects for you on a moments notice !!”


250lbs each. Ain’t no one moving these