Between the River Hills & the River Bottom

[cliftonbros89]

Hopefully I can get caught up on the week’s activities tomorrow.

 

[jdw8320]

What containers are you using in your service truck ? I’m sick of the 2 1/2 jugs I’m using now

 

[cliftonbros89]

What containers are you using in your service truck ? I’m sick of the 2 1/2 jugs I’m using now

I’m using 5gal jugs like this with the Macnaught BOP20 system.

https://www.uline.com/Product/Detai...words=S-17471NAT+Jerrican+-+5+Gallon,+Natural

Not my final setup. I may come up with something else. But being able to use the BOP is a lot more handy than the 2.5 gal. jug and a funnel.

 

[cliftonbros89]

Ok let’s get caught up here! Some days will likely be brief. Once I get this far behind it’s hard for me to remember everything. But we got some stuff done this week.

The rain Sunday didn’t really amount to anything so we had no problem doing stuff Monday.

After checking the cattle we fixed up that anhydrous wagon that dad rolled.


On top of a few other things my uncle wanted to work on one of the 60’s that was having a clutch issue.


I started spreading fertilizer again and by the evening we got things rolling and got my uncle going in the planter.


So we were off to a start.

 

[cliftonbros89]

Tuesday...checked the cows

In between getting fields ready to plant and getting corn in the ground it was time to cut rye for hay.


Got the cutter and the baler and took them to the shop.

After taking care of some paper work for the trailer trucks I was back to spreading fertilizer.


Dad was going to start cutting rye with the 7230...but he ended up with a flat.

Being it has fluid in it we had a guy come work on it.

So meanwhile we hooked the 4020 to the cutter.



In between everything else I kept uncle going with seed corn.

Then I had to go pick up more seed corn.


But by the evening it was going to get down to freezing.

I pulled the baler in just to look at it real quick and grease it and oil the chains

 

[cliftonbros89]

Wednesday things were about the same.


Checking the cattle and keeping my uncle moving with the planter.

We were done cutting rye but the 4020 developed a starting issue.

But I got the cutter backed in the shop so I can get it looked over for summer in between everything else.


I didn’t have time to mess with the 4020 too much but I managed to get it started and pulled it in the shop to check it out later.

By the evening we started baling some of the rye.

While dad started that I began gathering up all the bales.

Good time to break in my bale moisture tester.




Then on the way home I picked up a hose for the sprayer and a fixed tire for the brush hog.

 

[cliftonbros89]

Thursday we started getting the anhydrous toolbar ready to do some more work. But we had to get a tire on it fixed, along with another tire that’s on one of the water tank wagons.


Guy came to wrap the rye bales in silage wrap. Dad helped with that. While they did that I moved around equipment and got my uncle rolling again.

By afternoon we started baling the rest of the rye and gathering it all up.


By evening it was time to wrap those bales too.


I also had to fix up a few spots in the rye fields. Since the bottom ground isn’t ready to go we decided we’re going to plant corn where we had the rye.

It was a little tight getting through my uncle’s driveway.


Got the rye fields shaped up.

My uncle was caught up with us so I put the planter in the shed.


With the cool temperatures this week the rye we sprayed to plant behind wasn’t burning down very quick.



Good news is there was one field in the bottom that I could work.

So I started on that.

By the evening we finished with wrapping rye and anhydrous on those rye fields.

 

[cliftonbros89]

Thursday night into Friday morning we had another light shower. But it didn’t amount to much either.

We allowed for some dry time. So I decided to look at the 4020.

Found the culprit.

Luckily I had one at the shop.

But there was also a few circuit breakers that I didn’t like the looks of. So I changed them too.


It was a cloudy day so we weren’t getting in the field.


So since I had the 4020 fixed up I started on the hay cutter.

Time to change oil in all the gear cases.


Dad did some work to the 60 too.


Toolbox has been a wreck lately.

 

[cliftonbros89]

On too Saturday...




Checked all the cattle.


Got my uncle rolling in the planter.

Got dad rolling with anhydrous.


So then I was read to roll with fertilizer.


Got all that wrapped up and had to ground a batch of feed


Then time to move more equipment.


Then it was time to finish filling gear cases I didn’t get to.


This BOP comes in handy again.

 

[cliftonbros89]

And here we are to today...

We had a little shower this morning again. So I used the opportunity to get a little extra sleep. But it wasn’t a day off.

Did some feeding and checked on things.

Got my uncle going in the planter again.

Then I ran over the field in the bottom with the field cultivator again.

Just a run over with harrow and it’ll be ready to plant.

Dad started planting the rye fields this evening too.

 

[cliftonbros89]

Haven’t had a chance to take the metal detector out lately. But you can tell it’s been on my mind and I’ve had my eyes trained for it.

Found that pry bar last week.

This week I found these pliers in the rocks over by the old silo at dad’s. Not sure how long they’ve been there. But I guess they can go with the prybar.

 

[racer-john]

Love following your daily trials and tribulations and sometimes, winners.
Not being a farmer or knowing much about the processes, what is this "anhydrous" you are spraying?

 

[cliftonbros89]

Love following your daily trials and tribulations and sometimes, winners.
Not being a farmer or knowing much about the processes, what is this "anhydrous" you are spraying?

It’s anhydrous ammonia (NH3). It’s a type of fertilizer made of nitrogen and hydrogen. Corn requires quite a bit of nitrogen to grow well and this adds nitrogen to the soil.

It’s just one of a few ways to add nitrogen to the soil for corn. Some people don’t care to use it. It requires quite a bit of pressure to apply and it can be some mean stuff if you come in contact with it.

 

[Sifan]

Not only dangerous to handle but also an ingredient to make meth. Farmers getting tired of meth manufacturers damaging wagons stealing anhydrous and have switched to other
Products.

 

[XJSuperman]

And in most places you need to be certified to handle it or in my case, even be around it (when Im at work). This includes Co-ops, and corporations or businesses.

Im a little surprised you roll wagons so frequently. Ive never heard of anyone doing that, but then again, we don't have the same kind of hills up here. Any damage to the working parts of the tank?

 

[cliftonbros89]

Not only dangerous to handle but also an ingredient to make meth. Farmers getting tired of meth manufacturers damaging wagons stealing anhydrous and have switched to other
Products.

That is true too. We’ve never had that problem around here. The next county north of us used to have issues with that. But I think that has slowed down a lot within the last 10 years.

And in most places you need to be certified to handle it or in my case, even be around it (when Im at work). This includes Co-ops, and corporations or businesses.

Im a little surprised you roll wagons so frequently. Ive never heard of anyone doing that, but then again, we don't have the same kind of hills up here. Any damage to the working parts of the tank?

The place we get all of our anhydrous from used to deliver it to us every once in awhile. But they were just bought out by the beginning of the year by a bigger co-op and they’re not longer allowed to do that unless the driver is licensed. But before now they never had to have anything, or at least didn’t enforce it, even filling tanks. Honestly when there were really busy and I’d stop to have tanks refilled I would start refilling them myself.

I hear a story almost every year of someone rolling one around here. Turning around and on some of these hills around here at the ends of fields can be pretty sharp turns, which doesn’t work well on a steeper hill at 8.5 mph.

 

[racer-john]

It’s anhydrous ammonia (NH3). It’s a type of fertilizer made of nitrogen and hydrogen. Corn requires quite a bit of nitrogen to grow well and this adds nitrogen to the soil.

It’s just one of a few ways to add nitrogen to the soil for corn. Some people don’t care to use it. It requires quite a bit of pressure to apply and it can be some mean stuff if you come in contact with it.

That'swhat I thought it was just wanted to be sure.
Your warning is right on the button,

 

[cliftonbros89]

No break on Monday. Checked on the cows. Then loaded up some seed corn and got the planter ready for my uncle.

Then I headed to the bottom to get the harrow. I was going to go over the one farm we had ready in the bottom.

Only problem was with cool evening and cloudy days the big weeds that were in the field didn’t get much dry time.

The harrow would leave big clumps of weeds alongs the ends when I’d turn. So dad brought down the Kubota and some pitch forks and we went to work.


Several Kubota loads, and I mean several went to the ditch to burn.


But we got it all cleaned up so it was ready to be planted.

I checked out our other bottoms fields. But they’re definitely still wet.


But then it was back to the shop.

Greased the planter and the 4440 and took the no toll coulters off of the back rows for the worked bottom field.

Then finished the evening looking over things on the hay cutter.

 

[cliftonbros89]

And for today...

Checked on the cattle. Then I returned to dad’s to find some of the big calves made an attempt to venture to the neighbors out the road.

So I had to round them up. Didn’t take long to find the issue.

A tree branch had fell and of corse went right on the fence. So I fixed that problem.

While I did all that dad started planting the bottom field.

I returned the fertilizer spreader we were using. Then back to the shop to wash off the hay cutter and 7510. It was put back in the shed along with the tedder and rake.

As I left I took one of the auger wagons with me. We’re going to be using it to move some rye seed and we’ll be using it for seed beans soon too.

My uncle finished up planting this evening after he took over for dad. Dad got back to doing some spraying so I helped him keep loaded up and had to go pick up a few more chemicals we didn’t have enough of.


Then popped the no till coulters back on the planter.

Put it in the shed too.

Then I hooked to the baler and back it in the shop.

I guess it’ll be the next thing to be checked out.

 

[cliftonbros89]

We left off on Wednesday. Started like always.

Then we had a little bit of a surprise. Dad had got a call on Tuesday and I didn’t know if it would happen or not. But we got a call from the Deere dealership.

We get to take a new tractor and the brand new planter for a test drive! It’s wet up for beans, we aren’t exactly ready to put any in the ground yet. But we get to use it...at least for a day, probably not any longer than that though.

So after checking that out we got back to work. You might recall last year we picked up a farm late in the spring that was going up for sale. The owners were holding off on letting us farm it again this year since they sold part of it and had two new offers on the other part. Well Wednesday morning the called and told us to go ahead and farm the section that wasn’t sold.

So we got ready to roll cuz we were expecting rain.

I fixed places in the field while dad did the spraying.

Then I got dad ready to go with anhydrous. He started on that while I picked up fertilizer.

So I got going on that while dad finished up with anhydrous.


We finished up just in time too. All 54 acres ready to be planted in just a day.

Got everything in the shed and called it a day.

 

[cliftonbros89]

Thursday started off with rain.


In between rain showers we dropped off the anhydrous wagons and fertilizer spreader and picked up a pallet full of mineral and feed supplement.

Serviced the portable compressor.

Macnaught pump works good for this too.

I noticed a little bit of a tougher ride in the truck that morning too.

Sure enough by the afternoon I had a flat. So I had to put the spare on.

Then I got back to the baler.

Replaced all the belt pins.

My uncle finally got the clutch problem on the 60 fixed with help from dad.


Drained the gearbox on the baler.


Greased things up too.

Highlights of the day anyway.

 

[cliftonbros89]

So we arrive today. No rain, but muddy.

Checked on everyone.



Filled the gearbox up.




Then I made a trip to town, an expensive trip.

Got all new tires on the truck. Made for a nice smooth ride.

After doing some other stuff I went back to looking over the baler. Got a few teeth to replace on the pickup on it.

More rain overnight too. So no field work this weekend.

 

[cliftonbros89]

Got a few new things too.

SK wrenches on sale.


Irwin set that all the tool trucks rebrand. I wanted some extractors and left hand bits for the truck, just in case.

Then I also decided to take a chance on something new.

They were on sale too so I decided to try out the Tite-Wrench set. Might have to give them a test run soon.

 

[cliftonbros89]

Dad got some free corn meters from a farmer down the road for his food plot planter. They definitely need some work though. Couple of them had mice rest in them.

 

[cliftonbros89]

I forgot to mention I’d also got something new last week. Haven’t got to really use it for anything yet. Just tried it out.

I thought this might come in handy. I shopped around a little bit. Saw Flir has one that attaches to iPhone. But didn’t see the best reviews on it so I tried this one. Hoping it comes in handy.

 

[cliftonbros89]

Rainy day today.

Had a little time in between showers to check on the cows.

Had to pick up a piece for the baler at the dealership.

Had showers on and off.

Pretty much finished up looking over the baler. Greased it. It should be ready to go. Over 6,300 bales on the monitor. I finally found a way to look over the diagnostic mode on the monitor and found the hours. According to the monitor there’s 225 hours on the baler. Not much. So everything should be in decent shape.

So after that I decided to call it a day.

 

[cvairwerks]

Z extensions are worth their weight in gold sometimes. The ones we have at work are welded and broached bars, so no gear train in them. I've had a few occasions where I've need two of them, and offset 90 degrees to get around some obstruction.

 

[cliftonbros89]

Let’s hope I get caught up soon

 

[Steve102C3]

I, and I'm sure many others, always look forward to your updates.

You may not realize how interesting your everyday chores are to those of us in a different profession.

 

[Hugo L.]

This thread is awesome.

 

[MacTexas]

I really enjoy your updates but I know during planting season it is a busy time.

 

[cliftonbros89]

Z extensions are worth their weight in gold sometimes. The ones we have at work are welded and broached bars, so no gear train in them. I've had a few occasions where I've need two of them, and offset 90 degrees to get around some obstruction.

Definitely not a regularly used item but they are handy.

 

[cliftonbros89]

This thread is awesome.

I really enjoy your updates but I know during planting season it is a busy time.

I, and I'm sure many others, always look forward to your updates.



You may not realize how interesting your everyday chores are to those of us in a different profession.

Thanks guys

 

[cliftonbros89]

I’m having trouble getting pictures to load. But I’ll keep trying.

 

[cliftonbros89]

Well since we have a whole week to cover I probably won’t do a day by day.

But checked on the cattle. Did some feeding. Fed mineral. Ground feed.
View attachment 1006537
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We had a few showers last week too. So it made it difficult to finish up with planting corn.

Unhooked then anhydrous applicator for the year.

Hooked up to the drill and got it in the shop to get ready. Everything pretty well checked out ok.
Also had to empty out some of the rye we never got to drill last fall that was left if there.


Had a hose to replace. Just about everything was good to go but I think it’s going to be in need of a few repairs after this year. I’d like to replace quite a few bushing before next year before things start to wear too much.

Had a code keep coming up from the fan for the drill shutting off. Everything traces back to that hydraulic oil level switch I replaced a few years ago but it seems as though the switch is working properly. So I’m not sure why the fan wants to shut off...

But it sits ready to go.

Speaking of drills...we got another drill...as if we needed it.


Dad picked up an International 510 drill. It’s just about like new. In really good shape. He thought it’d be good for food plots and waterways. Maybe even some small hay patches.

But we put it away in the barn for now.

Cleaned some stuff up in between rains.



The combines finally got inspected last week by the dealer too.


So I cleared the shed out so they could do that.

Interesting to see the new Deere and the Kinze planter side by side.

We still haven’t got to run the new Deere planter.

But the more I look at it the more I feel like it would really **** to work on when it would come to taking things apart to change bearings or something like that. It’s all pretty close quarters on everything.


Was a cloudy and unseasonable cool week for the most part.


Got the 4020 in the shop to replace that busted hour meter/tach.

Used that as an opportunity to try out one of the new TiteReach wrenches. Worked pretty good.

While it was in I also replaced that piece back by the SCV that was cracked and leaking.


I decided while the SCV was off it’d be a good opportunity to put some new seals in the couplers too.


So I got a start on taking it apart.

Got netwrap last week too.



Checked the grain in the bins.

It was all good.

Market really hasn’t been worth a **** lately. But last Thursday beans just jump up for a day, not where we’d like, but higher than they were. So since bills needed to be paid we decided to contract what we had left.





Hauled off 6 loads on Friday and that emptied it out. Good thing we sold when we did I guess cuz beans took a pretty hard hit again this week so far.

Checked on things over the weekend.

Corn is finally starting to pop up too.

Going to be another cool week though. Not exactly what it needs.

 

[cliftonbros89]

Sunday I checked on the cattle. Then went out to the retirement farm.



Had a few washed out spots in some what ways that I wanted filled so it seemed like a good day to do that.

 

[cliftonbros89]

Yesterday I checked on all the cattle and checked fences.
View attachment 1007330
It was somewhat dry enough and there was another chance of rain so we decided we’d plant the last 50 acres of corn.
View attachment 1007332
I got dad loaded up and ready to go.
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I cleared a few trees along the edges of the field while dad planted.

He got done just in time too.

We had a little storm roll through. But we were finally done with corn. Bottom ground isn’t quite ready to go yet so we’re going to just go with beans in those spots this year.

I finally got a chance to redo the seal kit for the SCV couplers too.



Ended up with a little more rain than what’s pictured but it was enough to keep us out of the fields for a few days.

 

[cliftonbros89]

This morning I checked some of the cattle.


I needed new springs and clips to finish up the SCV couplers so I picked up those first thing this morning too.

The springs weren’t quite springy anymore and the clips weren’t as clippey anymore.

But then before I could get to that my uncle pulled that 3 row planter in the shop. I knew it was wore out and figured we could go over it this winter. But my uncle used it for a good plot last week and wasn’t impressed with its performance.


So he thought it needed to be fixed up and needed to be fixed up now.

So that meant I had to spend a good chunk of my day searching for parts and prices to compare the availability and prices between Deere and about 3 different aftermarket parts places.

I knew this planter was based off a 7000 JD planter. What I didn’t know is that there is like 7 different variants of the 7000 which contains like 3 serial number breaks on stuff. To make things better some of those breaks they based off model year (which I can’t say I’ve ever seen Deere do), then have about 3 different substituted part numbers for stuff. Then some of the aftermarket place don’t want to give you a cross reference for the original part number, they just give you their number. Deere doesn’t want to give you measurements or dimensions on the parts website. What a pain in the ***!

Had our Pioneer seed beans delivered today.



Got both auger wagons loaded and ready to go with a few varieties. We had some delivered last week too so we have majority of our seed ready to go. We just have to wait til we can get in the field.

So by this evening I was finally able to get the springs and clips on the SCV.

For what ever reason this decided to be extra difficult to get on.

I made up a little tool that halfway worked to compress the spring down with I got the clip started. It could be done a little better. But with an extra hand from dad I finally managed to get them on. I’ve never had that much of a problem with those before.



So it’s all back together now and on. I was hoping put a new seal kits on the couplers on the other valve while it was in the shop. But we’ll see if that happens or not.

 

[cliftonbros89]

So we’re all caught up. On the bigger parts of the past week anyway. Going to be dry the next few days but cool ands little cloudy. Another chance of rain come Friday. With the rain is a chance is some frost for Saturday morning...not exactly what we’re looking for in the first week of May. But what are you going to do?

 

[Farmall450]

We ran into a killer frost Friday night.