Above 1200 Sq/FT Out on Quaker Road

[Finallygotit]

......I see you're one of the few that knows how to properly quote pictures. I appreciates that

Simple copy/paste. What's so difficult?

BTW, fantastic score on the abrasives.

 

[cliftonbros89]

I have to say I think you may have inspired me to start my own farming picture thread. It's always interesting to see how other farms operate. None are ever the same. Everyone always has different jobs and things to do. Especially in different parts of the country. I guess I don't always think about the fact that some people don't really know what all goes on around farms.


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[jblnut]

I have to say I think you may have inspired me to start my own farming picture thread. It's always interesting to see how other farms operate. None are ever the same. Everyone always has different jobs and things to do. Especially in different parts of the country. I guess I don't always think about the fact that some people don't really know what all goes on around farms.

This sounds like a great idea !!! I know you'd have at least one daily visitor to check out what's up "down south" !!

 

[jblnut]

Simple copy/paste. What's so difficult?

BTW, fantastic score on the abrasives.

It both amuses me and makes me shake my head when people quote a post with 15 pictures and leave a comment about one of them in the middle of the post. Makes things way messier than they need to be

 

[jblnut]

After I had lunch I went out to mix a few loads of feed to get ahead of things. The ol' 886 was grouchy in the 29F heatwave we are having right now.

I filled it up for the third time this calendar year. I don't think we've put 75gal through it all summer. This thing just sips fuel !!

While dad was doing tillage with the 4-wheel drive and big disk I thought I'd try and see if the 7630 would pull the "new" chisel plow.

It's a 15 shank with 3" twisted shovels we got at an auction a few months back. It seems to pull it mostly just fine. Plenty of power but majorly lacking in the traction department with bald tires and no front weights.

I don't know how much weight a rock box full of weights adds but it took a fair bit of the weird hop out of the front end.

These John Deere's like their fuel. 8.3 gal/hr under 90% load. Good grief.

 

[Finallygotit]

This sounds like a great idea !!! I know you'd have at least one daily visitor to check out what's up "down south" !!

Make that 2!

 

[1949 caddyman]

I’m in also, love to see where our food comes from. We couldn’t live without you farmers!

 

[jblnut]

Against our better judgement we decided to have a go at the corn while the snow was still on the stalks. Typically this only works with it is colder than 20F and it was 29F so we'll see what happens ...


That sure is a lot of corn on the ground behind the combine .... I'm guessing the sieves are plugged up with snow !!!


Yup, the sieves are all full of snow. Should have figured it would happen. Guess we'll have to wait until it melts off the corn and try again !!

The gravity boxes have a clevis style hitch on them so a straight bar hitch is needed on the tractor. The chisel plow has a pintle hitch so the tractor needs to be adapted to work. No big deal.


I use the 1/4" impact and 1 1/4" socket to snug things up and the 3/4" breaker bar with the torque multiplying pipe to REALLY snug things up


All ready to go to the field !!


This digger is just about all this tractor can handle. I'm curious to see how it'll do in the heavier clay soils this afternoon .....


Not sure what this guy is going for but it looks like he sprayed RoundUp on his whole lawn for some reason ...


About 3pm the snow finally melted off the corn so back at it we went !!!


We've been having some odd electrical issues with the dryer so I broke out the ol' Amprobe and watched things for a while. It sits steady at about 120a when everything is running full tilt.

 

[jblnut]

The 20,000bu bin and the 13,000bu bins are full so it's time to move the auger to the 11,000bu bin this morning. The wheels on this auger turn so it is easy to swing it side to side. The skid loader makes it even easier yet

All moved over and blocked into place where it will sit for a few days.

This is on top of the bin the auger is now over. It's neat to go up and look around, the view is way better than from the ground !!

I noticed there was oil coming out of one of the breather holes. That will need some attention at the end of the season. For now we will just add oil and monitor so it doesn't run dry.

Gotta check inside to make sure the power sweep is in the correct spot before it gets buried with corn.

Skid loader back in place to keep the big auger planted on the ground and we're good to go back out to the field.

The field we were in today was next to a field we planted some cover crops in after the wheat was harvested this summer. We put daikon radishes in the mix for numerous reasons. This is a small one, they get about 3" in diamater on top and can grow to 18" long !!

The smaller ones are also quite tasty

All fall it's been getting more and more difficult to shift the hydro on the combine into road gear and tonight it would not go at all. Time to figure out what's going on.

It was a very simple fix. A bunch of junk had wedged itself in part of the linkage and was preventing the pin from being able to engage all the way. We cleaned it out and it shifted like new again.

We usually drag the two little wagons out to the field just in case we need them at the end. Well we needed one of them because there was about 150bu to much to go on the big wagon so good thing they were there !!

 

[Lunker]

I stopped at a farm yesterday of a friend in Central Illinois and I saw he was averaging 280-290 bushels an acre. He had a 12 row head combine going with 2 1000 Bushel grain carts and 2 semi's they were going non stop. It looked like the bottle neck was the semis

 

[Finallygotit]

Just curious, is the grain drier insulated?

 

[jblnut]

I stopped at a farm yesterday of a friend in Central Illinois and I saw he was averaging 280-290 bushels an acre. He had a 12 row head combine going with 2 1000 Bushel grain carts and 2 semi's they were going non stop. It looked like the bottle neck was the semis

I'm sure the semi's were the bottleneck. They had to do three loads an hour each to keep up with him I'm sure and that would be tough to do. Most Class 8 or Class 9 combines need a pair of grain carts and 3-5 semi's hauling to keep up comfortably when they're in corn like that. It depends on how far they're hauling and how fast they can unload. A Case 9240 or Deere S690 should be able to pump out 5,000bu/hr if they hustle. We've done 1,200bu/hr a few times over 7-8hrs before by unloading on the go with a short haul and lots of coffee

 

[jblnut]

Just curious, is the grain drier insulated?

The idea with the grain dryer is to heat the corn and let the hot, moist air out so no, it's not insulated. The fan blows the hot air into the center of two 1' thick columns of corn and that hot air is forced through the corn and goes outside. The corn takes roughly 100 minutes to work it's way from the wet holding bin, into the dryer and then into the storage bin.

 

[jeepxj]

I stopped at a farm yesterday of a friend in Central Illinois and I saw he was averaging 280-290 bushels an acre. He had a 12 row head combine going with 2 1000 Bushel grain carts and 2 semi's they were going non stop. It looked like the bottle neck was the semis

depends how far they are going but even if it was just a 1/2 a mile you'd need 3-4 semis to keep up. 5 prolly.

 

[Lunker]

depends how far they are going but even if it was just a 1/2 a mile you'd need 3-4 semis to keep up. 5 prolly.

About 7 miles one way back to the home farm bins.

 

[jblnut]

We broke open a new field today. At 54 acres it's one of our largest fields. We have multiple fields under 5 acres so it's nice to be in this one


We started at 10am and had 5,100bu done by 3:30. That's 927bu/hr average. Not bad for this little machine


Once the wet bin was full we decided to haul some corn straw bales home that got baled up last week Wednesday. Dad decided to lead the way with the truck and skid loader.


He usually has me run the skid because it's bouncy and hard on his old body parts but he wanted to run it today so I didn't argue.


The first load of the day came home looking pretty messy but by the time we had all 126 bales home we had it figured out again


It took until just before 9pm to get them all home so we got the test the lights out.


There are 16 HID lights on the 7630 and it lights the field up like a football field. It is very nice.

 

[jblnut]

Yesterday the last of the corn got combined !! Good thing too because there is 5" of snow on the ground this morning Hopefully it'll melt and we can get some more corn straw baled up end of next week. It looks like it'll be warmer and hopefully it'll melt and dry out enough.

I've really been neglecting my grill lately and I feel kind of bad about it so I cooked a full griddle of Gold'N'Plump chicken last night for supper !!!


The little people "helped" and got all the vehicles cleaned off. It was rather amusing.

 

[jblnut]

The snow sure made a mess of everything. The local township doesn't like to plow the roads past us until noon it seems. I headed to the farm abouts 8am and it was still a slushy mess.


I'm quite sure the 886 won't be able to be used on the mixer in the snow but I'm a stubborn ol' cuss so I'm gonna try anyway.


Well I made it this far and it wouldn't even move once I filled the mixer up with corn. The 7400 has new deep lug tires and 4wheel drive so away we go !!


The grain bins are all plump full and we had about 500bu that we didn't have a home for so I am going to grind out of the gravity box until it's gone. It actually works pretty good.


Pops carrying a corn straw bale into the barn to bed the steers whilst I'm mixing feed. Some of the bales that we knew are wetter are starting to mold already inside. We should be able to use them fast enough .... I hope ...


Since it was my beautiful wife's birthday we went "out on the town" and made a trip to Sam's club to get some LED lights for my skid loader shed. We also went to Applebees and took advantage of their 1/2 price app's. Loads of fun were had and we ate too much !!


I have to say I'm quite impressed ... for the money ...


Two 4' LED lights more than light this little 16x24 room up.

 

[ABSTIFFGS]

Skid steer is a tight fit in there. Lights look nice.

 

[jblnut]

Skid steer is a tight fit in there. Lights look nice.

Bah, there's feet of room in front of it yet. That wooden box of goodies needs to get hung up in the chicken coop once Gold'N'Plump gets back here to finish things up and get chickens in there !!

 

[jblnut]

We've decided to rearrange things inside the bus this winter so I had to wake the sleeping bear to get it closer to the house. A bit of seafoam and some ether dumped in the carb and it fired right up.

In my giddy excitement I backed over the steps. Oops. Guess I have a days worth of firewood for the shop now

In it's winter parking spot.

Miss Lily helping me put angle iron over the bus power cord so my work van doesn't run it over.

I built this dinette in a hurry WAY back before we had kids and it is just way too clumsy to use. Children are hard on things and the table got very beat up last time we used it. PLUS all the stuff in the "storage" under the seats was junk that needs to go away.

The plan is to tear the dinette and wall out and replace it with something along the order of what is in the right side of this photo. If this is your bus props to you, this looks amazing.

 

[ABSTIFFGS]

In my giddy excitement I backed over the steps. Oops. Guess I have a days worth of firewood for the shop now

Those stairs where ugly anyways.

 

[C_F]

At least you didn't catch one of those nails in a tire!

 

[jblnut]

Those stairs where ugly anyways.

I thought they were rather nice. Well they were functional at least. They served their purpose for 4ish years so it's time for something better. I'm thinking a hydraulic lift platform is in order.

At least you didn't catch one of those nails in a tire!

Meh. I have more

 

[sgfarm]

Always need to have a spare around.

Does the bus have air brakes? On board compressor could make for a neat set of steps.

Congrats on getting all of your corn off. Up here people have just started to combine corn this week. But the moisture is still up over 20%. Need a few more nights of frost to dry it out. We have had a record setting year for rain, highest rainfall ever recorded. Fields are flooded, yields are down. Montreal only got its first frost on Nov. 5, way later than usual.

Anyway, keep it coming, I check this thread every day.

Thanks

Mike

 

[jblnut]

Always need to have a spare around.

Does the bus have air brakes? On board compressor could make for a neat set of steps.

Congrats on getting all of your corn off. Up here people have just started to combine corn this week. But the moisture is still up over 20%. Need a few more nights of frost to dry it out. We have had a record setting year for rain, highest rainfall ever recorded. Fields are flooded, yields are down. Montreal only got its first frost on Nov. 5, way later than usual.

Anyway, keep it coming, I check this thread every day.

Thanks

Mike

When I got the bus I thought it had really ****** tires on it so I got these off craigslist pretty cheap. That was 4 years ago and they're still on that pallet. The tires on the bus are worn out but I don't think I've put 500 miles on in the last 5 years so they'll be fine for a while yet

The bus has regular ol' hydraulic brakes and we've decided to put a different door in place of the front bus door so I don't know that I'll be rebuilding any steps for the back. It'll more than likely get turned into a storage area.

I had heard that y'all were wet and warm up there this year but yowser !! At least the fields will be passable when they freeze solid !!

I'll try to keep the posts coming because I also check this thread everyday

 

[cliftonbros89]

Thought I'd give you a heads up and share that I started my own thread.
Between the River Hills & the River Bottom
https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=374913


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[jblnut]

Dad and I went to a steer barn today to take a tour and see what we like/dislike about the design of it. We found things on both lists but the thing that stood out the most was a cat-walk above the pens. WONDERFUL IDEA !!! This is something that I think I'm going to put in my current barn and will be installed right away in any future cattle barns. Being able to keep an eye on the cattle from above will be very nice !!!


We came home and took the grain dryer augers down and winterized them. Basically just cranked them down as far as they go.



The last bin we filled was our old drying bin and we filled it a little full. The stir augers are almost burried !!


I had a quick and nutritious chicken based meal cooked on my old Pizzaz from college. Between my roommate and I we cooked two meals a day on it. Everything from cookies and apple pies to chicken strips and pork chops. I think we even cooked a pizza on it a few times


I was working in the bus this afternoon and decided to bring the fish house heater in because it was 12F inside and I was getting cold !! I put it on high and it was toasty warm in about a half hour


I almost got the entire dinette out today. The only stuff left is bolted through the floor and there was no way I was gonna lay on the ground today to take them apart. Just way too damn cold !!!!!

 

[C_F]

Sounds like you guys got the cold snap we had here a few days ago, only worse. Thankfully it's warming back up a bit.

The catwalk looks like a great idea!

 

[jblnut]

Q q

It's about time for an update !!!

Last week a coworker and I trekked out to Lisbon, ND to start installing a Cow Scout system on a dairy that we will be installing a 60 stall GEA Dairy ProQ robotic rotary parlor. <- Click the link !! I decided it would be a good idea to stick my finger somewhere that isn't made for fingers.


I had **** to do so I put some PTFE tape and the pinkie finger off a milking glove on it and away I went !! I figured the PTFE tape is nonstick and stops leaks in pipes and such so it should stop a leak on my finger. It worked so well that I put a roll and a glove in my first aid kits.


The only thing funny about North Dakota when it's 15F outside with a 25mph wind is this sign. "Contaminated Water" hahahahahaha !!! This is the manure pit


Each cow has an ear tag that gets read by the green box in the center of the picture. There are going to be four of them around the farm to collect the activity and rumination data and send it to the parlor PC.


We found some extra headlock brackets and decided they would work great to mount the antennas to the posts in the barn.


Kinda hard to see but it's all mounted !! I hung my 240lbs off the end of the bracket to test it and I think it'll hold the 3lb antenna for a long time


Overkill was the name of the game so we made the outside bracket out of a pair of heavy wall 2" tubing. Should help hold the barn together


On Sunday Miss Lily helped me with a ton of stuff outside. She climbed up here and was shouting "I'm the queen of the bales!!!"


She had to check how much corn was in the gravity box. There was "just enough for today but probably not all week". Smart kid.


We were counting the bales in the hay shed when a kitty came running out. They were best friends in a hurry. I guess it's name is now Poochy. The things kids come up with make me laugh and wish for simpler times in my own life.


We got the generator put in the shed in a shed.


Lily, Alyssa and I headed to town to switch my phone over. My 5yr old smartphone was getting to be quite the turd so I purchased a Kyocera Duraforce Pro to replace it. To say it's faster would be like comparing my Neon to a Nascar. No contest !!!


It's got all kinds of neat new things like this wide eye mode.


We were working in that giant steer barn again and I had to whip out the new wide eye camera shot mode. Looks pretty sweet !!


I got home to find four 1,000gal propane tanks by the chicken coop. Progress is always welcome !!


The SOB's are brand new !!

 

[Finallygotit]

OK, that video was just amazing! I am further edumacated.

 

[jblnut]

OK, that video was just amazing! I am further edumacated.

We are all quite excited for the project to finish and see what it can do !! The video is from an identical rotary near Chilliwack, BC that has been running for a little over a year I believe. There is another 32 stall rotary near Chilliwack, BC and a 60 stall near Green Bay, Wisconsin. We have this 60 stall rotary and another one much closer to home to install this winter so we will be quite busy !!

 

[jblnut]

The more time I spend on these boom lifts the more I like them !! I got into some pretty tight spots with it yesterday without issue. Even though they're MUCH more expensive to rent than a scissor lift I think the extra is worth it in time savings not having to screw around in the pens with the cattle. Plus since it stayed in the feed alley the whole time we don't have to wash manure off it when we are done

 

[dchance]

Have enjoyed the thread. ( yep I read the whole thing, didn't want to miss anything )

I enjoyed all the different things and the fixes for the different problems. Looking forward to more adventures.

Have a good Thanksgiving

Dwight

 

[jblnut]

Have enjoyed the thread. ( yep I read the whole thing, didn't want to miss anything )

I enjoyed all the different things and the fixes for the different problems. Looking forward to more adventures.

Have a good Thanksgiving

Dwight

All of it ?? Yikes, it's taken me over two years to read through this thread, one post at a time, a few days apart each time

I'm still having fun taking pictures and sharing my world so the adventures will continue !!!

 

[jblnut]

Yesterday was a rather boring day at work. I updated software on a calf feeder so the wash temp could be increased to 58C.


Unzip the software onto the /root of a 2GB SD card, stick it into the handheld and away it goes. It takes about 12 minutes. No big deal.


Boom and it's done and the wash temp is increased !!


When I got back to the shop I helped unload and assemble this little gem. Hobart Ironman 230. I've been looking for a larger welder for a little while now and I think this might be it. $1449 with a $100 Gift card AND FREE shipping at Northern Tool right now .... VERY tempting !!


Last night I hauled some more round bales into the hay shed. These LED lights on the ol' skiddy sure are bright !!

 

[jblnut]

When I moved the camper/bus a few weeks back I backed over the steps. On the way to do chores this morning the little people hit me with all kinds of questions about what this pile of wood was from.

Lily- "Dad, why is this here ?"
Me - "That is still there from when I ran the bus steps over."
Alyssa - "You should be more careful dad."
Lily - "Well NOW WHAT will we use to get into the bus ?!?!"
Me - "I will build something else."
Lily - "Better hurry up, I want to go busing soon."
Alyssa - "Don't drive the new steps over dad."
Lily - "Or just build them better"
Me - "Enough picking on dad, lets go do chores."
Alyssa - (While patting my leg) "There there dad, you'll be okay."

What a couple of smarty pants kids.


We fed the steers and decided to wander around the chicken coop. Alyssa hadn't been out there in a while and she wanted to see "what is all going on in there!!" The camera on the new phone has a wide view that captures the whole works lots better.


This is looking back where we started, about 100' away. The strips on the ceiling are 4' apart.


Whilst cutting up some scrap lumber to burn I got sick of having dust blow in my face so I found something to deflect it down to the ground. An old beat up work hat seems to serve the purpose well.

 

[C_F]

Your little ones sure are cute, that's such a fun age. I like the sawdust deflector hat, I don't know if I could have come up with that idea.

 

[1949 caddyman]

When do the chickens arrive?

 

[jblnut]

Your little ones sure are cute, that's such a fun age. I like the sawdust deflector hat, I don't know if I could have come up with that idea.

I think they're rather cute as well but I'm a little biased I guess

I have all kinds of things goobered together like that hat deflector that seem to work great. Lots of function over form kind of stuff around here.

When do the chickens arrive?

Gold'N'Plump is building a few laying barns to better supply the company with chicks. It seems like the question of "What comes first, the chicken or the egg?" has finally been answered