Between the River Hills & the River Bottom

[cliftonbros89]

Well. As mentioned. Planting finally got under way this week. But not with out some issues. Some very frustrating issues. Right now I’m going to blame Deere, not the operator.

Got a small shower this evening. But I don’t think it’ll hold us back too much.

But I’ll say. I’m tired. I’m frustrated. I could use a break. So needless to say as soon as the rain hit I was homeward bound. A few Busch heavy, a few cheap cigars and a sit outside in the low 60’s to settle nerves a little bit.

 

[cliftonbros89]

Going full throttle on everything. Not enough time in the day. Not enough hands for the jobs. Way behind on everything. Everything has been a pain in the *** the past 2 weeks. Mother Nature can’t decide if she wants to rain or not. It’s like there’s no end in sight. I could use 2 more of me and a break all at the same time.

Some progress has been made. But it sure don’t feel like it. If it’s not one thing it’s another. But working on it. All of it. Every day. Trying to get something accomplished each day.

Doing everything at once also means there’s been nothing accomplished on fixing up the truck bed with everything.

 

[bugnut]

Time to be afield if you can, it is a busy time. The weather man will tell you when it is time for a few repairs and maybe a nap. Hope nothing major breaks....

 

[cliftonbros89]

Time to be afield if you can, it is a busy time. The weather man will tell you when it is time for a few repairs and maybe a nap. Hope nothing major breaks....

These meteorologists don’t know what they’re doing. We end up getting more rain on the days it’s not supposed to rain at all than the days we’re supposed to get it.

 

[cliftonbros89]

Things have been going nonstop the past couple weeks yet. I’ve think I’ve done just about every job possible for this time of year. We’ve missed a lot of rains in the area. But we have been fortunate enough to get at least a half inch within the last 36 hours in a few spots. It’s hasn’t exactly been wide spread rain.

But even with the rain we don’t get much of a break. Still cattle and equipment to take care of. Not to mention hauling off some grain we still have in the bins. It’s a decent price on corn right now but with a fertilizer and chemical bill we just received we’re going to need a decent price.

 

[cliftonbros89]

Also, despite the fact that we’ve been working so much I still haven’t got everything loaded up in the new bed on the truck. I actually don’t have anything in there. At all. But that’s also because we’ve been working so much. Even on the couple breaks we have had I haven’t had a chance to get anything going for it yet. So I guess that will be on project of several for after things slow down a bit.

 

[Sifan]

Been thinking of your Family, hope you're about done planting. Still a lot of ground to be worked on this side of the river.

Saw on news they are starting to talk about replacing Chester bridge, so much for grain sales in Illinois for a while, when that happens.

 

[cliftonbros89]

Been thinking of your Family, hope you're about done planting. Still a lot of ground to be worked on this side of the river.

Saw on news they are starting to talk about replacing Chester bridge, so much for grain sales in Illinois for a while, when that happens.

Thanks. It was a bit of a late start. But once we did start it’s been nonstop ever since.

Yeah they’ve been talking about it for awhile. They’re supposed to be having more meetings on it. They’ve also been checking and testing spots in and along the river where the new one is supposed to go. But I have a feeling it’ll be awhile. Last I heard construction wouldn’t begin until 2026.

 

[cliftonbros89]

Well most everything is in the ground. Minus the ground outside the levee. Made hay the last 3 weekends. Definitely keeling busy. Wheat might be ready to go by next weekend.

Things are getting a little dry. We had 3 rains of the corse of last week. Total amounting to anywhere from .8” to about 1” all together. But we could definitely do with some more. Especially because of the upcoming temperatures.

The weather has been somewhat mild. But as of right now it looks like we’re due for at least a 2 week heat wave. Highs in the upper 90’s a few days forecast to be 100. Not counting the heat index and humidity. Wheat may not be an enjoyable time if it gets to be 100. We’ll see how it goes.

I promise more detailed updates and pictures will be on the way.

 

[Sifan]

Planning to double crop your wheat ground?
Very surprising how fast it went from too wet to too dry, not only down here, central Illinois too.

 

[cliftonbros89]

Planning to double crop your wheat ground?
Very surprising how fast it went from too wet to too dry, not only down here, central Illinois too.

Yeah. We’ll be putting in beans after the wheat which means we’ll really be needing some moisture.

 

[cliftonbros89]

Well. The days have become more humid and hot. By next week they’re predicting actual temps above 100 for several days. No chance of rain in sight for 2 weeks.

Our corn looks like ****. Our beans looks like ****. It’s already so dry that we now put off trying to plant beans outside of the levee. You can dig down and there’s no moisture in the ground. No moisture in the ground and no moisture in the forecast is sure to spell disaster for planting beans. Likely be the same way with beans that are supposed to follow the wheat if we don’t get any rain.

So other than spraying fields we’ve moved our focus to trying to get things ready to go for wheat. Our Deere dealer never came and did our yearly combine inspection at any time over winter like they said they would. So hopefully we won’t have an mishaps with wheat.

I’d like to get the pastures mowed down too. Make things a little easier on the cattle. But I’m also starting to spot a few brown spots here and there in the pastures. Let’s hope we don’t have to start feeding hay that we just made.

 

[XJSuperman]

I've done every dance I can to send it south, but we just kept getting rain all week and weekend. Storms coming again tomorrow I think. Definitely hot here too. Hoping for the best on your crops down there.

I'm sitting here running a 1990 seeder today. Do you guys run a seeder at all and if so, what model? Can't for the life of me remember if I've seen you post one or not.

 

[cliftonbros89]

I've done every dance I can to send it south, but we just kept getting rain all week and weekend. Storms coming again tomorrow I think. Definitely hot here too. Hoping for the best on your crops down there.

I'm sitting here running a 1990 seeder today. Do you guys run a seeder at all and if so, what model? Can't for the life of me remember if I've seen you post one or not.

Thanks. I might have to try it myself.

Yeah we’ve got a 1990. I bet we’ve had it for over 10 years now. We’ll use it for some beans. Of corse for the wheat and cover crops too. It’s not ideal for beans down here. But it gets the job done. I don’t mind in until I have to grease it. I know some guys that have one and don’t like it. But I don’t think they know how to operate it with some of these older tractors. No troubles with it this year since replacing the hydraulic pump on the 8400 this winter. Turns out my suspicions were right the last couple years. We would have trouble with the fan shutting off on the 1990 while in use and then off corse it would choke up with beans. I kept telling dad I thought it was the hydraulic pump just not keeping up. But he didn’t believe me. But now that we replaced the pump we haven’t have any issues.

 

[cliftonbros89]

Well wheat is out. Some of it was good. Some of it not great. Beans are now all in the ground. But at the moment that’s more so for playing the insurance game than for growing.

It’s hot. It’s dry. We had about a half inch early last week. But you couldn’t tell it did anything by the following day.

Due for a slight cool front by Sunday. Maybe the slight chance of a shower out of that but it doesn’t look like much. Then more dry after that. Things are looking kind of bleak.

But with the wheat out, the beans in, we’re almost ready for a bit of a break. Or at least not going full throttle. That being said the boss at home insisted I take the weekend off. I think she put in a word with the boss at the farm who also insisted I take a weekend off. So I guess I’m taking a weekend off.

 

[cliftonbros89]

Alright. Here we go. Let’s get caught up. I guess we’ll just start where we left off which was way back at literally the beginning of the year. I don’t know if I’ll get it all caught up this evening but we’ll try to get a chunk of it out of the way. I’ve likely forgot a lot of details but I’ll try to go off what I at least took pictures of. I’ll do what I can and I’ll get to any responses after I’ve got things caught up. It only lets me add 10 pictures per post so there will likely be several post on the way after this. Here we go.

 

[cliftonbros89]

I believe I’ve updated a bit on the cattle and things since but here’s everything else.

So if you recall we were at the end of 2021 I had the 8400 in the shop for service.

I used the Macnaught C16 suction gun to pull the coolant out of the reservoir. It had been leaking. I used everything I had to try and seal it up with but nothing would adhere to the plastic. Nothing would seal it. So I had to break down and buy a new one for about $200 and put it in there.

Pic is sideways. But I’d replaced the transmission output shaft seal on the 8400 that had been seeping oil. Since it was right there I’d removed the flywheel and noticed dirt build up around the rear main seal. I didn’t have the tool to properly install the new seal so I had the dealer come do that. With $70 in parts and me assisting in removing the old seal for a little over an hour of work it cost us over $900 to have them do the seal. Absolutely ridiculous.

I’d got everything together and oil was slinging everywhere. I’d replaced the o-rings again on this little shaft that sticks in the transmission output shaft. And put everything back together. But yet again I had oil.

So finally the I replaced the piece that slides on the transmission output shaft that then bolts to the dampener on the flywheel, replaced the o-rings again and somehow no more oil.

There didn’t appear to be any problems with the parts I replaced. But I no longer had oil slinging out so I considered it a win.

While I did work on the 8400 I had Noah service the 2520. We checked several things over on it. It had to be ready to go to run the augers to haul grain for the beginning of the year.
I think I’d mentioned by this time we’d replaced the secondary hydraulic pump on the 8400 and I used my little test cylinder to make sure things were working properly again as well.

At this time it was still January, so we were still in late bow season and I’d still get calls from my uncle after dark to come help track deer. It’s always got to be me.

We finished up with both the 8400 and the 2520. So it was time to pull in this new 4650 and check it over to make sure things were good to go.

 

[cliftonbros89]

8400 was cleaned up and good to go.

While I had room I wanted to get the 4020 in the shop with the 4650. If I had to wait on things for one I could still work in the other.

(Note, some pictures are turning sideways on me, it’ll say they’re too big so I’ll downsize them and it then turns them on their side and I can’t get them to turn properly, apologies if you have neck problems after reading this update) One thing I’d been meaning to do to the 4020 was finally put the block heater on it. The 4020 absolutely hates the cold. It doesn’t take nothing to pull start it. But when it’s 25 degrees and you’re the only one around pull starting isn’t an option. Plus, I’ve literally had this block heater sitting on the shelf for at least 6 years now. It was going on this tractor. But the first issues was the damn mounting brackets wasn’t even made right to properly hold the heater in the first place. We had to grind it down to get it to work. Which was aggravating.

But then we had a real issue. The heater has to be plumbed to the head. Which means this hex plug has to come out. Guess what didn’t want to come out? That’s right the hex plug. Naturally, it was seized in there and didn’t want to go anywhere. Of corse it had to round out. Then we were really in trouble. It was already enough of a pain to get to and it didn’t help that the loader was in the way as well.

I tried several things but nothing wanted to work so I had to step away from that job for a bit.

So it was back to servicing the 4650. I didn’t know what shape things were in so we were starting fresh. All new engine oil, transmission/hydraulic oil, new coolant, new air filters, new oil filters, and fuel filters.

Not cheap but at least I knew we’d be starting fresh and clean. But also gave me a chance to inspect the filters and the screen in the transmission for any potential issues.

Around this time we’d finished with trailer truck inspections. The van trailer we use to haul the pulling tractors had yet another tire blow out while dad was bringing in from inspection. Damn thing have rotted from sitting in the weather all the time.
One thing dad wanted to do to the 4650 was replace the interior, all of it. More money and another job. It’s not really a pain to install. It’s more of a pain to clean out the old stuff.

So I started on that an investigated a coolant leak.

 

[cliftonbros89]

The coolant leak ended up being solved by tightening up a few hose clamps so that was an easy fix.

Shop work was put on hold for a little bit because it was winter. Winter also means cutting and splitting wood. We hit it pretty hard for a few days and got quite a bit done.


Enough to last awhile anyway. Luckily October through January had been fairly mild for the most part. But we had some cold days ahead of us and it’s stay cool through May.

It was also time to haul grain. Our 8” auger finally wore through and corn would run out as we were using it. It wasn’t cheap but we ended up buying a new 8” tube and auger. Just the tube and auger was still cheaper than a whole new one.

The 8”x31’ auger was a lot easier to handle than the 10”x51’ auger we did last summer. It’s still an 8” auger but it works well for emptying the smaller bins. Plus with this 31’ auger and the 10”x31’ auger we can can easily load out of 2 bins at the same time.
So it was worth it to get the new tube and augerAround this time by uncle decided to take up trapping again. So for a few weeks I had to deal with him having dad make stuff for new traps as well as treating new traps. Another one of those things I’d have to stop what I was doing to help with something else.

 

[cliftonbros89]

Had to replace part of dad furnace in the basement. Another fun time. Another unexpected job.we were having some cold days but at least it kept the ground froze for the cattle. Up to this point it had actually been fairy dry as well. So that helped.

Shop work was put on hold again cuz it was time to haul off a lot of corn.
Too bad it wasn’t at the price then that it is now. But it was what we had. So haul grain we did. It’a actually one of those jobs that makes the day go by pretty fast but when you do it all day for about 2 weeks you’re ready to do something else.

In between hauling corn I was working on the 4650. To remove the screen for the transmission you have to undo the line that fits between the transmission and hydraulic filters. Well then that line absolutely would not line back up. The fitting on top was froze up. I absolutely could not get the top fitting broke loose to get the bottom fitting lined up again. I finally said screw it. I cut the line so I could take it off. That meant buying a new one but it was worth it just to get it off there. All that just to check a screen.

The screen was definitely not clean. I also saw some blue, like someone used some blue rtv on something inside somewhere at some point. The filters appeared to be clean. But I cleaned the screen and put new oil in after letting everything drain really good. I think I’m going to check the screen again this winter just to inspect it. Maybe the screen hasn’t been checked in several years.

We also got an expensive delivery of oil from Deere. Needless to say it as all oil really shot up this year.

 

[cliftonbros89]

I’d got the new truck.

Then the F250 started over heating. I’ve learned to expected the unexpected. So we were able to pull the truck in the shop between both tractors for a full shop.

The water pump had gone out.

At least that wasn’t an awful job to do. No unexpected surprises either.

It was a good opportunity to finally use this bolster thing I found online. No really any more handy that a piece of cardboard. But I thought I’d try it. It’s not really fit to work on tractors though cuz the bolts are often larger. It’s definitely better for automotive type fasteners. It worked good to quickly stick the water pump bolts in order though.

We got all new tires for the van trailer and mounted them. Not an expense that I thought was necessary. Especially, considering they haven’t even gone to any pills since the price of fuel is so crazy.

Hauled more grain.as is typical we had electrical issues with the grain bins. There’s also a breaker switch to replace somewhere.from snow melt it was nice and muddy around the bins too. I hate snow melt mud.

Also birds and mice like to shove things in the augers and choke things up.

 

[cliftonbros89]

It took patience, precision, and more patience but I’d finally drilled and ground out the rounded out plug on the 4020 head for the block heater.

I finally had it one. It was good to go. I put the coolant back it and though things were ready.

But then we had another issue. The radiator was leaking. Why wouldn’t it be? What’s another radiator replaced. I don’t know why that’s been such a common thing the last several years. But I don’t care for it.

Both local places that worked on radiators no longer do. So I found a place across the river that still works on them. Deere wanted I think about $600-700 for a new radiator. But I thought I’d save some money. Big mistake. Of corse the radiator shop said the old one was junk and it’d cost more than a new one to fix it. So I decided to settle for aftermarket. Big mistake. What a piece of junk.

Those holes for the fan shroud didn’t line up, nor were they big enough. The hole for the top supports weren’t the right size. What was worse was the lower neck for the lower hose was nowhere close to even being the right size for the hose. It was way too small. I think that’s cuz the lower tank was way smaller as well. I finally called the guy back and told him I didn’t want the piece of **** and that I wanted my money back.

That changed his tone. He said to bring the new one by and he’d swap the lower neck off our old one and put it on the new old at no charge. Which he did. But that’s not the point. But it’s obvious aftermarket isn’t worth the money when it’s not near the quality.

4020 also got some new rear rubber.

Took the old set off. They actually lasted a long while. Never had any holes or patches either.Took the old set off and sold them. Used tire market is pretty good right now. But now I’m not selling any used tires. I’m going to start holding on to them. Availability has become less and prices are shooting up all the time.
Also got rid of a bunch of used oil.


This has been what my work space and the whole shop has looked like since the beginning of the year. There’s constantly been something to tear into.



Also spent some time trying to haul some tools around in what little spare time I had to try and make some sales. Got a few regular customers now that are full time mechanics.

 

[cliftonbros89]

Things continued on with the 4650.

Got it washed up.

They had a battery shut off switch on it with bolt on cable ends on small cables. The switch was junk. It literally fell apart first time I tried to turn it. I wasn’t sure why they had one on there. But I set up a new one.I was expecting there must’ve been something on it that drained the battery quick and would cause issues. But I’ve never shut it off since I put it on and had no issues with low batteries. Maybe it was just an off season precaution. But regardless if we need it it’s on there now.
New interior, oil, coolant, filters, it was pretty well field ready except the a/c which wasn’t working properly because of a leak. We also switch around the front wheels so we could get a sharper turn with it on the planter. Despite the fact that meant they weren’t set to 30” rows. But had they been set like there were it would’ve taken half the field just to turn around.

I did find some interesting things. Like nails on the castle nuts of the tie rods.




Stocked up on several parts and filters for the dealer parts sale.


Keeping the 7230 decently clean became a bit of an issue after several snow melts and rains.


After the water pump fix on the F250 the thermostat housing was leaking. I didn’t realize that was as common of an issue as it is. But a new top cover and extra reinforcement to keep it from bending did the fix.


Also, after almost literally a year we finally had this overpriced computer chip covered in plastic show up. We would’ve had it a month sooner but some salesman swiped the one that originally came in for us and gave it to another customer who had just bought a brand new planter. After several phone calls we finally got it sorted out an our salesman hand delivered it to us and apologized for the whole thing. But the salesman who took the original one still got quite a talking to from the old man in person one day. Wish I would’ve gone with him.

 

[cliftonbros89]

Had to service my uncles truck. It was also leaking coolant. Again.

Luckily, it was an easy fix.

Then he was complaining about it pulling to the right all the time. It had just been inspected for license so I didn’t know why there was an issue. Apparently when it was inspected the shop thought he needed to brake pads. Well they must’ve got carried away with the brake caliper when installing new pads cuz the brake caliper locked up.

Not only did it ruin the caliper, the rotor and the new pads. But this brake line also ended up being scared up just enough that it wouldn’t seal. I’ve said it 100 times on here. I don’t really considered myself a mechanic, but if this is the type of work “certified mechanics” are doing then maybe I am a mechanic.

We started getting deliveries like netwrap.

And seed.




And we hauled more grain

 

[cliftonbros89]

I wanted to get the anhydrous applicator ready to go so we wouldn’t have an issues.

Especially, cuz we spent a little money on it. Using it 3 point on the curvy hill ground, especially hard, dry ground was hard on the coulters. We’d been wanting to get a hitch for it. We couldn’t find on used. So we just had to fork out the money to get one.


I think it was worth it. It worked better on the hilly ground. Not to mention it’s way easier to hook and unhook. Set up for 3 point it has to be absolutely perfect to get things lined up. It was always a pain.

The price of scrap metal was up for awhile. So dad got the idea that he wanted to haul off some scrap that had been sitting around for some time. Especially since we had 3 auger tubes laying around.


It was definitely worth it to haul the stuff off. But it definitely didn’t go far with the high cost of everything this year.


Sold some hay to a few guys toward the end of winter. Apparently a lot of guys didn’t make near enough hay last summer and a lot of guys were running short. It didn’t help that pasture took off pretty slow since we had such a cool spring.


We did make a new purchase though. When our Deere salesman delivered our satellite receiver we had a conversation. He said the one location had a grapple bucket that would be perfect for our 7230. He said he didn’t know why but it’s just been sitting in the back of the lot for years. Like someone ordered it and forgot about it. It was brand new but had been sitting long enough paint was faded and chipped. We got it “at cost” but it was way cheaper than a new brand new one would’ve been. I’ve used it a few times and it’s pretty handy.

Did I mention we had to haul off some grain.

There’s also several days of phone calls and searching for **** toward the end of winter. There’s always stupid things to file for the semi trucks. Which seem to only been a way for them to charge you $100 to file some stupid form that was made up to give someone a pointless job. But that’s just my opinion.

Also a lot of time looking up parts. Looking of options for different set ups for fertilizer for the planters and more. Also calls like for the headlight for the 4650. We decided we got LED, well everything was on back order. A place promised me I’d have one in hand in a month. That didn’t happen. Then there was no ETA in sight for it. I wasn’t waiting around for a $500 light that was paid for that we had no clue when it would show up when it was going to be time to get in the field. So another phone call to cancel the order and get the money back. Then another to just end up ordering the old halogen style light from Deere.

 

[cliftonbros89]

Plenty more on the way. We’re only diving into March.

 

[cliftonbros89]

It seemed like I was constantly doing something with cattle. Feeding, weening, giving shots. It was a constant thing.


They all faired well during the winter. We did loose 2 small calves. But no issues with the cows.
We replaced one of the old bulls with a new younger one we bought. I’m not convinced of him yet as he doesn't seem to ever be after any of the cows. But our bull on the other side of the fence is not a fan of him. The older one of the other side tries to intimidate the new one all the time.

Grinding batches of feed is a constant thing as well. At least one a week.


We kept some heifer calves back to keep them for cows. We culled several older cows out of each group. Last spring dad had bought some bred heifers at a sale that ended up being wild as well. I made sure they were loaded on the trailer too. We lost money on them but to not have to deal with more trouble than we have it was worth it to get rid of them.

It seemed like we were constantly working calves as well.

 

[cliftonbros89]

Dad decided to turn the cattle all back out on pasture a little earlier than usual. It was staying pretty cool and the pasture was growing very fast. Then the day we decided to turn them out a cold front came through. The temperature dropped about 20 degrees and it was actually snowing when we were turning them out.

We had them mixed up quite a bit from what they were before so I had to write everything down so I can keep track of what cows belong where.

Some cows like ole Oreo are easy to keep track of. She may not be a pretty one but she’s a good cow. Always raises a good calf, always keep track of them. This spring was the second year in a row she had a heifer calf that looked identical to her. She had the last calf on Mother’s Day last year. She raised it and 11 months from the day of the last one she dropped another one on the ground. We decided to keep her last heifer for a cow. We may end up doing the same with this one as well. She always used to have bull calves. We put her with a difffernt bull and now she’s have heifers.


Plenty of mornings getting head counts and filling buckets for feed.

You can tell the cattle really like that first part of spring. No mud, fresh grass, no flys, cool and foggy mornings. It’s the one time of the year them seem to actually be relaxed.

You might recall we used to have a large Hereford bull I was rather fond of that we lost awhile back. He had ended up breeding a cow we culled before he ended up dying. It was a good bull and she had been a good cow. She was just getting old. When she had the calf it ended up being a bull that resembled his dad quite a bit. We decided to keep him and trying to raise him for a bull. He seems to have a pretty good head on him. Pretty easy to work with. He knows what his job is supposed to be too. Just need to bull him up a bit more.

There’s been 2 occasions that the electric fence quit working this spring and he knew it. He jumped the fence and was out with the cows in no time. The other Hereford bull that actually belongs with the cows didn’t care for this younger one being out there. He’d never fight him. But they did exchange words now and then.

The cattle have been pretty well this spring. Starting to have some more calves again. But it seems like the flies are awful this year. Not just face flys. All of them. Horse flys have been coming in waves too. I’ve tried to do what I can. Mineral with flu control, backrubbers loaded up, even spraying directly on them with a mix. It all might keep the flies off for a day or so but that’s about it. I actually just recently read an article that it helps to mix garlic in with feed and mineral. Apparently it then puts off the odor on the cattles breath and sweat that the flies don’t like it and it deters them. The article stated it wasn’t fool proof, but there’s been results that it definitely helps. It sounded like a cost effective way to possibly help. If I can find a place that sells 50 pound bags of garlic powder I think I might actually try it.

 

[cliftonbros89]

I finally had the F350 inspected, insured and licensed. Despite the fact I had no way to hold my tools it was time to sell the GMC. I emptied it out. Cleaned it up. Took some pictures of it and listed it for sale. Took a few weeks but I sold it.

The spring time was quite different from right now. Just about the time things would get dry enough to work we’d get another shower.

Not that there wasn’t constantly stuff to do. Even small stuff like changing light bulbs in the shop. This is definitely OSHA approved.

Even though the cost was outrageous we still had to get fertilizer on the pastures and hay patches.

It was time to get the sprayer ready to go.

Also time to get the 4650 set up in the planter and make sure the planter was ready to go.


Then there’s those jobs my uncle likes to make up. He gets an idea in his head and it has to be done right now. Like getting the fuel tank on the 630 cleaned up. It has a bunch of rust in it. I refused to touch cuz we had some much other stuff going on. I also refused to let it in the shop cuz I knew it would just sit unless dad or I did the work. My uncle is real quick about disassembling things. Nuts and bolts end up everywhere. Then he never wants to do the actual job to fix things. He always wants someone else to do it. To prove my point til picture was taken April 1, it’s now July 3 and that tractor is still sitting in the same spot exactly the way pictured here. Which is why I made sure there was something parked in the shop at all times. Other wise it gets filled with that stuff.


Things were turning green but it was still cool and wet.

Pasture was growing but not very fast.

 

[cliftonbros89]

We decided we were going to run the liquid fertilizer on the planter for the corn this year. So we bought a tank large enough to hold what we needed for spring. We did cut back some on corn acres due to input cost this year.we got it all set up with a pump. We also had to put a hose on the outside to use as a gauge to know how much is in the tank.

I got to be the one to crawl inside to tighten up the fittings for everything. It’s not easy to get out of one of those things.

I told dad we should put water in it to check for leaks. But he was in too big of a rush. The fittings at the bottom of the tank was leaking when it was filled with the liquid fertilizer. We got the fittings tightened up more. But it still leaked enough that we put a cut jug under it to catch the drip. I’d have to empty the jug at least once a day. There was enough pressure on the fitting that it kept dripping til we got it down to the last few hundred gallons. Needless to say I was a bit annoyed.

Since we were going with liquid fertilizer that meant we would also need a nurse tank to fill the planter with liquid in field. We ordered one brand new that just barely arrived in time. Had the spring not been so wet we likely would’ve been waiting on it. Dad wanted something big enough we could also use it for water for spraying as well. It’s a 1600 gallon tank so dad can get two sprayer fills up out of it if needed. Not exactly balance the best since it has the platform up front. But that also works well to haul chemicals and seed corn too.

After the issue with the large tank dad thought we better check this tank with water first. Sure enough the fitting on the bottom of the tank leaked on it as well. Apparently nothing comes ready to go anymore.

Cuz the planter wasn’t ready to go either. Not having used the liquid on the planter last year we didn’t know what to expect. But we immediately found an issue. Apparently someone at Deere thinks you can try to hose clamp a 3/8” hose on to a 1/8” barbed fitting and you won’t have an issues. They would be wrong. Cuz it doesn’t work.

But after a lot of cussing other people we finally had the whole liquid situation pretty well ready to go.

 

[BORING HOP YARD]

Wow! now that is an update. Nice work on the 4020, 4650 and 8400.
The cattle look great as well.
Thank you for sharing.

 

[cliftonbros89]

I’d got the planter all switches back over for corn.

The planter originally came from Deere with an in furrow liquid set up. After talking to several people we decided to go a different route. We went with a Precision Planting set up.

It had an attached seed firmer. But also splits the shot of liquid off on to both sides of the furrow.

We had several boxes of expensive plastic parts show up and set all the corn rows up on the planter with this set up.

There was plenty of aggravation involved and we had to have the 4650 A/C worked on twice but it was finally ready to go. Or so we thought.

We had nothing but monitor issues. The planter monitor didn’t read correctly all spring. One row wouldn’t read population at all. Still doesn’t actually. We also had trouble with every one of the Trimble monitors this spring. It seemed to be a thing though. I heard of several people having trouble with both the planter monitors and Trimble monitors.

The Trimble 250 monitor completely froze up. I had to have it reset. Then it worked for a day and quit again. Put a new receiver and cord on it and it worked for about a week and then quit again.

The 750 Trimble ended up completely freezing up as well and won’t let me do a hard reset on it. The touch screen is all screwed up. So it’s out of commission too.

We ordered a third new Trimble of April last year and didn’t get it til almost November. I got it out to try and use it. It took me all spring to get it figured out. But it’s not exactly the most user friendly. They also have so much **** on it. I don’t know why these companies have to make things so overly complicated. I just want something that is going to easily allow me to follow along the wiggly hill fields with a light bar. There’s so many places that I can’t use a straight A B line and I think some of these companies are so focused on bigger and better than they’re just out of touch with things and don’t realize that not everyone is farming straight, flat 1,000 acre fields in Nebraska.

Another situation where electronics are nice when they work. But when they don’t you want to punch someone.

 

[cliftonbros89]

One job that wasn’t done in the winter was replacing the tarps on the auger wagons.both had ripped tarps and bent tarp rods. We fixed them both up so they would be ready to go for seed.

I held on to the old tarps and they’ve come in handy to cover up the auger hoppers when the occasional rain clouds move through during the day.

It was a good thing we had the auger wagons ready to go because we were having seed delivered like crazy.

 

[cliftonbros89]

Aside from regular service the sprayer also had a minor repair.dad never uses the foam marker on it but wanted to make sure it would work in case there would ever need satellite issues he’d have some sort of indicator of where he’d sprayed.

Several of the plastic fittings and a check valve had ended up with moisture in them and froze at some point so there were several pieces that were cracked.

All that little **** could’ve been bought through Deere but the price was crazy. I finally was able to piece everything together through several online places and a few piece from Deere. But I literally saved hundreds of dollars not getting everything through Deere. Then there was another check valve that was leaking.

Just yesterday we had the seals blow in another valve that shut down spraying for the day. Going to be a few days to get the seals to replace it with it being a holiday weekend.

But now we can at least use the foamer if we absolutely have to.

 

[cliftonbros89]

Then there was another expensive job to do.
The brush hog. I knew the seals on a few gearboxes were leaking and I figured it would be bad news.the splittergear case in front, despite having been rebuilt not long ago was too far gone. Worn seals, worn shafts, the gears were really starting to show a lot of wear.

Then the center pan gearbox was toast. The lower seal had completely blown out. The box was dry as could be the bearings showed it. The lower shaft on it had already been damaged as well.

So the cheapest options to get things going again was 2 full brand new gearboxes.

I shouldn’t have even looked at them. As much as the new ones cost I should’ve just dropped the thing off an an auction somewhere and took the lose. But on the other hand I wouldn’t want to pay the price on another worn out used one or a brand new one.

So new gearboxes it was. Nice, new, shiny and pricey. Looks like we’ll be holding on to this thing for awhile.

 

[cliftonbros89]

Well we’re still not caught up. We haven’t even made it to the in field work and there’s plenty there to talk about. Too much really. I feel like it’s been a ridiculously busy year. A pain in the *** year. There’s about 200 pictures left on my album in my phone for the update. They probably won’t all be posted. But a lot of them will. I’m going to take a break and I’ll be back at it. Turns out catching up on over 6 months of work takes a little while.

 

[gt05254]

I can't tell you how much I enjoy your updates...and the fact that you do, in the face of some pretty awesome adversity, maintain a semblance of a sense of humor about it all. Especially where your uncle is concerned. Thanks so much for spending time on this for us.
Gary

 

[Sifan]

Enjoying the updates! Helping nephew in central Illinois, also had Trimble issues. Actually had to drive parts of three days, oh the pain, funny how you get used to not steering. Our units kept kicking out saying not enough satellites available.

I also have gotten quite the taste of farm paperwork. Cousin that was coordinating and making decisions with our shares tenant farmer had health problems and had to step aside. Even though I'm 3 hours from the farm, I took it on, it's just paperwork, right? LOL Then after coordinating end of 2021 and actually starting 2022, majority of owners wanted me to investigate selling the farm. 14 owners, 3 attorneys, one court, piece of cake, no problem LOL

And then the USDA would't recognize me as the new farm manager. When USDA figured they didn't process the right paperwork 5 years ago, they suddenly recognized me and asked my help in cleaning up their mistake. That took 4 months.

I have a 4" and a 3" binder full of documents for just the 8 months I have been the farm manager.

I've lost track of the number of 6 hour round trips I've made to the farm.

 

[jollygreengiant]

Great updates! Thanks for taking the time to post them, and looking forward to seeing more.

I'm surprised you put new tires on the 4020, the old ones didn't look bad enough for a farmer to replace them yet.

I hear you on the GPS and new equipment issues. We had a brand new terragator at work this spring that spent more time sitting than spreading fertilizer because of software problems, which was really helpful during one of the busiest springs in my career.
I don't know what to say about the GPS situation anymore. It seems there isn't as much available in the aftermarket segment since the majors have bought some of the former independents. But even the major brands are having issues with hardware or signal, and they are all so ridiculously expensive for what you are getting.

 

[cliftonbros89]

I can't tell you how much I enjoy your updates...and the fact that you do, in the face of some pretty awesome adversity, maintain a semblance of a sense of humor about it all. Especially where your uncle is concerned. Thanks so much for spending time on this for us.
Gary

Thanks Gary. I have to say, there are plenty of times it’s tough to have a sense of humor about things. Believe me there’s plenty of days no one is around that a wrench or something similar gets thrown, just to take out a little frustration.