Above 1200 Sq/FT Out on Quaker Road

[jblnut]

I moved the onions, strawberries and beans inside last night. It's going to be COLD the next week or so and the planters will be much happier in the shop in the balmy 70 degree heat

 

[ABSTIFFGS]

"It's getting cold outside, I'll just bring my garden inside..."

 

[sgfarm]

Very cool side benefit to gardening in totes. Easier than tarping the garden.

I am enjoying this thread and the bigger side of farming. I have 25 acres (14 workable) my neighbours have roughly 400 acres, nothing that big here.

Very cool, thanks for the updates.

Mike

 

[drivesitfar]

JB: i second that having those totes to bring in from the cold is a nice idea. speaking of big farms how many acres did you say you and your family own? also you've mentioned leasing maybe land or storage and is that depending on the year's needs and yields?

hell your new chicken's coop is bigger than my lot, but at least i bought a house where i can see more than my neighbor. here's a view from my living room.

 

[jblnut]

"It's getting cold outside, I'll just bring my garden inside..."

It has caused all the onions and garlic to sprout. I've been keeping it at a balmy 70ish degrees in there. That is 70ish american freedom degrees not that confusing metric stuff where it freezes at 0 and water boils at 100. Nope.

The radishes are up too !!

Very cool side benefit to gardening in totes. Easier than tarping the garden.

I am enjoying this thread and the bigger side of farming. I have 25 acres (14 workable) my neighbors have roughly 400 acres, nothing that bog here.

Very cool, thanks for the updates.

Mike

The totes were a thing of convenience and they've turned out to be a really good thing so far. We did a few last year and about doubled the number this year. I think I'll end up adding a few more before the spring is over.

JB: i second that having those totes to bring in from the cold is a nice idea. speaking of big farms how many acres did you say you and your family own? also you've mentioned leasing maybe land or storage and is that depending on the year's needs and yields?

hell your new chicken's coop is bigger than my lot, but at least i bought a house where i can see more than my neighbor. here's a view from my living room.

Dad and I run about 700 acres with under half being owned. We rent as much land as we can each year and are always looking for more. The sheds we rent are nice but we'll more than likely not be renting them this winter as that landowner will be selling his farm this winter. We'd like to purchase it but the $850,000 price tag it carries is a big bite.

The chicken barn will cover 0.89 acres with the whole are with driveways and such being almost double that.

I would love to see that every day !! Here's my living room view .. complete with Christmas decorations and all.

 

[jblnut]

You should really get back to rambling about building something inside a hay shed or something...

OK I WILL !!!!!

After recovering from my own personal reenactment of the flu pandemic of 1918 a small amount of progress has been made in the yet unnamed shed inside a shed. It'll be approximately 14.5x23ish inside when done. Gotta test it out to make sure it'll work. Yup.

Holy buckets !! The north form is up !!! AHHHHH !!!! PROGRESS !!!!

Gotta have a floor drain. Probably just going to be a bucket filled with rocks buried under the floor drain grate. X marks the spot. Now to find a shovel.

Shovel located. I thought it best to lean the shovel against the wall so as not to over exert myself after the disease filled past few days.

Well the guy who leveled my floor out last summer didn't know I was going to be building this little shed this summer so I need more fill. Lucky I know a guy with a little gravel/sand pit.

 

[jblnut]

I managed to get the hole dug and the "drain" in. It's just a 30 gallon barrel with holes in it that will be filled with small rock and be surrounded by sand. Nothing crazy as all it'll ever see are a few drips of snow from the skiddy loader.

I'm a sucker for new tech so I'm trying out some Ubiquiti Mesh AP's to see if it's something I can add into my arsenal at work. So far so good but even though the box says it does, the 5pk doesn't come with power injectors. Ba, rubbish.

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It's been crazy wet and cold here the last few weeks and the forecast looks warm and sunny for the next week so I took a week off work and we're gonna start planting corn !!!!!!! Game on !!!!!

 

[jblnut]

I put the garden back outside today. I swear I saw the plants smiling when they were back where they're suppose to be.


We decided to pick some rocks this morning. I got to man the hand fork whilst dad ran the Bobcat. We switched off every so often so we would spread out getting sore in different areas.



The picture is rather fuzzy but this sum-***** was so big the Bobcat wouldn't even curl the bucket when it was in there. After spending 15 minutes digging it out dad said I "looked like the dog that caught the car" when I finally rolled it out of the hole. There was no way the skid loader was gonna lift it into the trailer so I had to roll it to the edge of the field and onto the rock pile.


After the rocks were picked dad spread dry fertilizer and I started discing.



I was moving right along until this happened. Part bad luck, part BIG rock under ground. It snapped a 1.125" diameter shaft like it was nothing.


I got it chained up so I could bring it home to work in it in the shop.


Never good when you have to go pick up pieces in the field .....


Dad ground the old broken shaft smooth so we could get all the pieces off.


Broke off clean. Must of been a hell of a hit.


ANNNNNNNNND it's all back together ready to go. The local dealer had all the parts we needed on the shelf.

 

[C_F]

I'm surprised that rock didn't fold one of the discs too, when it broke the shaft.

So do you ever think you'll get all the rocks out of that field?

 

[jblnut]

I'm surprised that rock didn't fold one of the discs too, when it broke the shaft.

So do you ever think you'll get all the rocks out of that field?

It's been a long time since we've broken a blade on this disc. It must have hit the gang just right and the shaft snapped. Plus, the disc is 13 years old and goes over all the ground each year, some of it twice, so they've taken a lot of abuse over the years. It may have just been time.

I should have taken pictures of the rock piles at the ends of the fields. On the west end there is a row 6' high and 200' long as well as a bunch of smaller piles scattered about. All for only 25 acres. It is some of the rockiest ground we farm !!

 

[jblnut]

In the spring we spread 60lbs of Nitrogen per acre on the corn ground using a dry fertilizer spreader.

The drag chain on the bottom that meters the rate the fertilizer comes out is ground driven so the faster you drive, the faster is comes out. Pretty simple.

The fertilizer drops onto a spinning disc that flings it out about 25' in each direction for a 50' swath with each pass.

We put in a test plot this year. We put 4 varieties of our own corn in and the CoOp brought out 8 more. Test plots are nice because it lets us see side by side the differences in the different varieties. The generator and vacuum are used to **** the corn out between each pass so the only corn in the row units is the corn we want in there.

A company rep came out to supervise and record what varieties we planted in what order.

Pops is getting ready to dump another variety into the planter to test.

After the test plot was done dad kept planting and I started to get the next fields ready for fertilizer and planting. A couple of them are still quite moist. We use the field cultivator to work up the wet spots as it's very lightweight compared to the disk so I'm less likely to get stuck with it. It is also 44' wide compared to the disk being 32' so it reaches farther into the wet spots to loosen the soil up more.

I don't think we're gonna get this spot planted any time soon .... it's a bit moist ....

I just about got stuck on this pass !! This tractor would not be easy to pull out .....

When I went back to get the fertilizer spreader the tractor looked a little weird ....

Well that's no good. The tires on this tractor are worn down quite a bit so we'll replace all of them. It doesn't pay to stick much money into them.

After all the disking and fertilizing was done for the day I brought the cultipacker home and did some prep work to seed grass around the chicken barn.

Some of the slops are quite steep so I used the 7810 with the duals on so as not to roll the tractor over.

The dirt is rather cloddy and chunky before going over it ....

Annnnnd it looks MUCH better with just one pass.

 

[jblnut]

Sunday funday !!!! I got a mix of grasses, wheat and alfalfa planted around the chicken barn.


We also got the sweet corn planted. Miss Lily even got in on the action. She was helping us close the seed boxes.


12 rows approximately 250' long. Should be a good bunch to eat !!

 

[C_F]

Another nice update in the day of a farmer's life.

What's the extendable arm on the planter, with the metal disc at the end?

 

[mcmlvif100]

What's the extendable arm on the planter, with the metal disc at the end?

It's a marker. When it's extended and on the ground, it leaves a mark in the field which can then be used as a guide for the next pass. Dad used to set his so the front wheels of the tractor ran on the mark on the return pass. That way, there were no misses or overlaps in the rows. He mostly planted wheat so the row spacing was narrower than for corn. You can see the far side marker is on the ground in the last picture.

 

[jblnut]

It's a marker. When it's extended and on the ground, it leaves a mark in the field which can then be used as a guide for the next pass. Dad used to set his so the front wheels of the tractor ran on the mark on the return pass. That way, there were no misses or overlaps in the rows. He mostly planted wheat so the row spacing was narrower than for corn. You can see the far side marker is on the ground in the last picture.

That is exactly what it is for. On all of our tractors there is a small arrow on the front of the tractor hood exactly in the center of the hood. That is what we line up with the line left in the field by the marker.

Our grain drill is only 12' wide so there is no need for one on that. I'd like to get a larger drill but for the few acres we use this one for it works fine.

 

[jblnut]

We try to be nice to the neighbors because it's the neighborly thing to do. Just south of me one of the neighbors has a deer plot that we put in for him. He used to do it back when but we've been doing it for a while now.

It gets rather tight with the big equipment working a 60'x200' patch up but it doesn't take long. I'd imagine there aren't too many deer plots out there that get worked by a 325hp tractor and planted with a 12 row planter

My mom made us lunch today and brought it out in a bucket.

It was a great day to do field work !!! 65 and sunny for the most part ...

One of our landlords has a Dakota Turbine wind tower deal that we have to go around. It's neat but I still have to go around it now. The clouds are rather nasty looking in the background !!

It didn't take long and it started raining. There was a 40% chance for "scattered showers". Ha. Looks to be a 100% chance where we were !!

As long as dry dirt still gets turned up I keep going. Once it gets to wet it's not good to do field work because the ground gets all hard and nasty when it dries out. Baaaaah the dust really sticks to wet equipment making it all dirty

All in all I got about 120 acres disked today and dad got about 60 planted. The rain gauge says we only got 1/4" of rain but it's likely going to be too wet to plant today. Dad brought the planter home all muddy so that'll need to be cleaned up today before we go back out with it.

Perhamps we'll get the forms up for the shed-in-a-shed or maybe we'll get some more calves or maybe it'll dry up enough to plant. We'll see.

Maybe we'll just drink beer all day and say the hell with it

 

[welder57]

Thanks for the updates-I rather be plowing than stuck here inside working-but we have to make ends meet!!!!! Love the kids helping out as well!!!! Have a Blessed Work Day!!!!

 

[C_F]

It's a marker. When it's extended and on the ground, it leaves a mark in the field which can then be used as a guide for the next pass. Dad used to set his so the front wheels of the tractor ran on the mark on the return pass. That way, there were no misses or overlaps in the rows. He mostly planted wheat so the row spacing was narrower than for corn. You can see the far side marker is on the ground in the last picture.

Makes complete sense, thanks for your reply.

 

[cliftonbros89]

We just got back to planting corn here. Had all but 114 acres planted already last month. But in the last 2 weeks we've received about 14 inches or rain. Should get finished up tomorrow before another round of showers on Thursday.

 

[jblnut]

Thanks for the updates-I rather be plowing than stuck here inside working-but we have to make ends meet!!!!! Love the kids helping out as well!!!! Have a Blessed Work Day!!!!

I am fortunate to have a job that lets me take the time I need to spend on the farm. The little's love helping and no way am I going to ever discourage that !!

 

[jblnut]

We just got back to planting corn here. Had all but 114 acres planted already last month. But in the last 2 weeks we've received about 14 inches or rain. Should get finished up tomorrow before another round of showers on Thursday.

I've been reading that your area has been rather moist the last few weeks. It was less than 35 degrees here about the same time as you were getting drenched so that prevented us from doing pretty much anything.

 

[cliftonbros89]

I've been reading that your area has been rather moist the last few weeks. It was less than 35 degrees here about the same time as you were getting drenched so that prevented us from doing pretty much anything.

Yeah lots of flooding. I think we've almost had more rain fall in the last few weeks than we've had almost all year.

 

[jblnut]

The tire guy came and put new tires on the 7400 yesterday. R-1W deep lugs. Should pull like a bit better now.

I got 20 new 460lb calves this morning. They look like a pretty nice bunch.

When we plant corn onto soybean ground we spread fertilizer and go over the ground with just the finishing disk. Soybeans leave the soil nice and soft so there's no need to work it up with the big deep disk first.

All the fields I was in today had multiple wet spots. The disk is really heavy and doesn't carry all that well so when it starts to sink **** gets real in a hurry. It's not bad in this picture but a few dozen times today the wheels stopped turning and drug along. When that happens the last thing I'm thinking about is taking a picture !!

Whenever I see antlers in the field I pick them up. They can easily puncture a tire and ruin your day in a hurry. This half shed looks to be from a decent sized piece of venison.

The day was finished off in the steer barn watching a nice sunset.

 

[jblnut]

My office on wheels for the last week. Rather comfy with an air ride seat, climate control, two cup holders and a chilled spot for my lunch pail.

Odd angle pictures are not usually my thing but I think this one looks neat.

The disks up front do the bulk of the work while the harrow teeth under the black bars in the rear level the ground very nice and make a nice smooth seedbed.

Before disking on the right and after on the left. There is a much more noticeable difference in person.

When you look back and see this there is almost always a rock stuck somewhere there shouldn't be.

Well lookie there. A big ugly rock has wedged itself between two disk blades. Most times I can get them loose by pounding with a hammer and prying with a long bar but sometimes I need to go find a tree and wrap a chain around the tree and rock to pull it loose.

I was out tidying a few thing up around the chicken barn pad before dark and thought I'd pick a few rocks with the excavator. Not the fastest machine to do the job but I was close.

It takes a while to fill up the fuel tank on the 4wd. It holds 230 gallons when completely empty. Sounds like a lot but it burns about 12 gallon/hr so it easily lasts all day

 

[drivesitfar]

JB: Showing off your big toys and how to use and repair them is one of the reasons i like watching your thread. all the automated stuff with the cows was a bit over the top confusing to me cause i grew up hand milking my uncle's cows occasionally before he went to putting the suckers on the **** to get the milk quicker.

i think your rig you sat in all day yesterday is maybe bigger than my house.

cheers and keep up the great work and i hope things dry up quick so you can use more of the land. or at least make it easier for you to work and clean up.

 

[C_F]

That finished field looks great! Looking at that, I can't help but think how many hours it would have taken someone to do that 50-60 years ago, when all the equipment was so much smaller and less powerful.

So the tractor holds 230 gallons of fuel, how much does the tank on the ground hold?

 

[jblnut]

JB: Showing off your big toys and how to use and repair them is one of the reasons i like watching your thread. all the automated stuff with the cows was a bit over the top confusing to me cause i grew up hand milking my uncle's cows occasionally before he went to putting the suckers on the **** to get the milk quicker.

i think your rig you sat in all day yesterday is maybe bigger than my house.

cheers and keep up the great work and i hope things dry up quick so you can use more of the land. or at least make it easier for you to work and clean up.

Thanks for stopping by !!!

The ground is drying up more every day and we'll be able to plant all but a few acres total. Not too bad really.

 

[jblnut]

That finished field looks great! Looking at that, I can't help but think how many hours it would have taken someone to do that 50-60 years ago, when all the equipment was so much smaller and less powerful.

So the tractor holds 230 gallons of fuel, how much does the tank on the ground hold?

Back in 1967 The largest Stieger was the model 3300 and had a 8V71N Detroit putting out 328hp. They were literally built in a barn in Red Lake Falls, MN until the early 70's when production moved to Fargo, ND. The largest tractor then is the same size as the one we have today, which is less than half the max output of the STX620 at 692hp. Bonkers isn't it ?!?!

The white fuel tank is 1,000 gal. I have one by my place and dad has one by his place. They get filled a couple times each every year.

 

[jblnut]

Today was a very busy and quite productive day.

Early this morning I ran some errands. Getting veggies was on the list. 16 tomatoes, 4 jalapenos, 4 each red and green peppers, 4 sweet banana peppers, 4 strawberries, 4 broccoli, 4 cauliflower and 4 cabbage.


One the errands was to pick up enough vaccines for the new calves. Mom and dad came over to help with the process. We chase one at a time into the head chute and give them each a few things to ward off pneumonia and various other potential ailments.


After that it was back to the field to disk the last of the soybean ground.


One of the last fields to do was the one by my place as it is one of the wettest.


You'd never guess the ground was so wet by all the dust being kicked up !!



Once I was done disking it was time to head out with the rock roller to start prepping ground for dad to plant soybeans.


It has three sections that flex over the rolling fields. Each roller is 42" in diameter and made out of a piece of very thick pipe.


This roller does two things for us. It pushes smaller rocks back in the ground and levels/firms the seedbed. If there are rocks sticking up the combine may pick one up in the fall. That would make for an expensive day !!


That is a regular ol' cornstalk for a thickness comparison of the roller itself. I've hit some very large rocks with this roller and all it does is make a ton of racket. Not a noticeable dent in the thing.


It makes quit the dust storm !!


It's back there somewhere !!


I decided to park it next to some trees overnight to keep it company

 

[welder57]

When planting, does the planter bonce over the rocks that you push down? We don't have that size rocks here in the southeast. Thanks for sharing!!!!

 

[C_F]

Cool rollers! Looking at the dust photos makes me wonder...how often do you need to clean/replace the air filters on your tractors? I know the filter housings have a "swirl" type assembly to keep the dust from settling as easily on the filter, so just wondering how long it takes before they finally plug up.

 

[jblnut]

When planting, does the planter bonce over the rocks that you push down? We don't have that size rocks here in the southeast. Thanks for sharing!!!!

The planter either bounces over the rocks or pushes them out of the way. Sometimes **** breaks .... that's no fun.

If you need some rocks that size PLEASE feel free to come up here and help yourself

 

[jblnut]

Cool rollers! Looking at the dust photos makes me wonder...how often do you need to clean/replace the air filters on your tractors? I know the filter housings have a "swirl" type assembly to keep the dust from settling as easily on the filter, so just wondering how long it takes before they finally plug up.

We clean them when they get dirty and replace them when they are no good anymore

I'll grab some pictures of the different types of filters today. Most have a two stage filter and it's the outer one that gets dirty. Shaking it off and banging it on the tire is usually good enough. We check oil, filters and leaks before the tractor is fired up each day and if it needs to be cleaned, we clean it.

 

[jblnut]

Pretty uneventful day yesterday. I rolled rocks all day. Nothing broke and I got about 120 acres done so it was a productive day.

Here is a before and after shot at what the roller does to some heavy clay ground. Levels and firms quite nicely. The line is the edge of where the disk went. There is usually a small depression at both ends of the disk in heavy soils.

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[ABSTIFFGS]

You should add on to your steer barn. I've been reading, beef is decently profitable. More animal units is what you need.

 

[jblnut]

Planter all loaded up with the last of the soybeans to plant !!


We had a few bags left over when we were all done. No big deal, it can go back.


This looks like a nice place for a driveway ....


A driveway should have a culvert under it. Not a lot of water will be flowing through here so an 8" should be plenty fine.


What a nice looking mess !!

You should add on to your steer barn. I've been reading, beef is decently profitable. More animal units is what you need.

There just may be a dual purpose to lowering this area and using the dirt for the driveway


ANNNNNNNNNNNND we got the rest of the totes filled up. I added a bit of the liquid starter fertilizer that we put on the corn I need to make 3-4 more to fit everything we want this year though.

Front to back: Green Peppers, Tomatoes, Tomatoes, Tomatoes, Strawberries


Peppers, Peppers/Cabbage/Cauliflower, Onions, Onions, Onions/Garlic/Radishes, Green Beans.

 

[jblnut]

Once the corn and soybeans were all planted I didn't have a great excuse to take more days off work so on Monday I went back to work after having 11 days in a row off. It was wonderful but alas, can't last forever.

Dad got the driveway from the chicken barn pad to the steer barn finished Monday morning.


There was a bit of black dirt/clay mix that was left over so he put it on a pile. We'll use it somewhere I suppose.


The wheat/grasses mix is coming up on the slopes around the barn pad.


The little garden totes won't get flooded when it rains because they have built in drains It rained about 1" Monday night and the gardens were all dripping when I checked them this morning.

 

[Terrick down Under]

I have been watching your totes and suggested to DW we should start something similar. She has agreed but wants them set into the retaining wall. I think this could be a winner because I won't have to bend over to do the weeding. Win Win.

 

[jblnut]

I have been watching your totes and suggested to DW we should start something similar. She has agreed but wants them set into the retaining wall. I think this could be a winner because I won't have to bend over to do the weeding. Win Win.

Eventually we will probably do something nice like that but for now the ability to move the garden around is a valuable thing for us.

As far as weeding goes, get yourself some Roundup and a paint roller. Dunk the roller into the Roundup and wipe it across the weeds as if you were painting a wall. No worries about over-spray onto the veggies and it's quick and easy.

 

[Terrick down Under]

JB, thanks for the tip.