I even planted 22.4 acres today.
I could have done a few more if I would not have spent so much time doing pointless things to my no-till drill.
All I really needed to do was to put two new tires on it. ($150 bucks each) But, I also lowered the fertilizer pump so I can suck fertilizer out of a low tank, and I added a valve doubler so I could run the markers up and down separately of the drill going up and down. So I didn't get started until after three.
I was no-tilling wheat into pea stubble and it worked much better than I expected. Despite over two inches of rain the ground is still pretty solid. It started raining on me again on my last round.
I've got a 10 and a 15 acre field close by and then another 20 five miles away and perhaps 70 acres 15 miles away. I need another 300-400 acres to make my payments. Or I need to sell a few truckloads of hay or get paid for all the grass straw I baled, or win the lottery.
No one has any money and after three years it is starting to really get painful. Good thing we have some really smart people in charge of things in the government. Don't know what we would do without them!
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Yeah, Budd, I'm not sure how much more of this improving economy we can survive!
ReplyDeleteNow a serious question: Don't you folks out there in "rain country" have a lot of trouble with soil compaction?
Gorges, well yes we do have trouble with soil compaction. In fact the field I no-tilled yesterday was an example of that. I no-tilled peas for the farmer in the spring and the ground was quite wet. Yesterday when I no-tilled wheat I could easily find my tracks from the spring. It will be worse next year as the land owner decided to put a runway for his small plane slightly off center in the field so I can't go at an angle.
ReplyDeleteWe also have a lot of problems with compaction in clover fields because they are harvested in silage in the spring (when they are wet) and our corn fields as they are harvested in the fall-when they are wet.
In the middle of summer it is completely dry here. Kind of funny.
Budde, we have a remedy for soil compaction here in Canada. Its called winter. By the time the soil freezes about 6 feet down and then thaws out in the spring, it tends to break up compaction in the fields. Even the roads!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the reply, Budd.
ReplyDeleteIt's the freeze-thaw cycles from over-used road salt that destroys a lot of our roads, Ralph. Guess it's always something!
Wow, what a commentary, especially that last paragraph! I guess I was lucky to just be an ag teacher???
ReplyDeleteCurious what that front wheel is on the left side, some kind of front wheel assist tractor I guess?
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