I rant about an Ag Lender who doesn't know what a three-point mounting system is...

The three-point tractor hitch was invented by Harry Ferguson.  It was patented in 1926. The version that we know of today was patented in 1928. In the 1930-40's Ferguson partnered with Henry Ford to produce tractors with this hitch.

Since that point in time this basic system has been become a standard with tractors worldwide. 

This is how you attach/pick up a plow, attach a grader blade, rototiller, and the pellet mill I was attempting to buy.

HOWEVER, the lady in charge at AgDirect does not think the three-point mount on a PelletMasters 16" pellet mill makes it portable. She feels  it is a stationary mounted machine which they could not hook up to and repo, and so they decided not to loan me $10,000. It was actually not even $10,000 because I was putting $4,000 down. I think I was borrowing like $6500 over three years.

Ok... I have excellent credit.

I could walk into my local dealership and borrow like $100,000 or more to buy a tractor I couldn't actually pay for! Insanity...

Obviously this is not a lot of money, but I am small scale and I need a way to spread my purchase over a minimum of two years. Also, if I spend $10,000 right now I will be broke until spring planting season. I don't want to use a credit card or any thing sketchy. I want it simple.

The other irritating issue is that I get turned down two weeks from the end of the year. I have like ten 1,000lbs of bags of oats crammed all over the farm. Next week I am getting peas, I have 10,000lbs of barley, 8,000lbs of rye, 6,000lbs of corn. It is going to be a long winter making pellets at 300lbs per hour...

The pellet mill I was going to buy, setting in the shop. Pictures were sent to AgDirect. I asked then nice loan officer if she was familiar with three-point mounted farm equipment. (not so much) I asked if they had made loans for rototillers or three-point grader blades. She said yes. Apparently three-point pellet mills don't have a box to check. 

This picture did not prove the portability of the mill. I actually send pictures with it on a different tractor in a different location to show portability. But, it must have wheels and a tongue. I suggested this mod to PelletMasters but I don't think it is going to fly...

Feed musings... I get rained out, I make a plan for Chicken feed

Today it is raining. Actually, it is a down pour.

I have had renewed interest in feed pellets. But now it is in 50lb bags and not 1000lb bags. Also, they want chicken feed and not oat/alfalfa pellets.

The mixer is full of oats and alfalfa. 

Yesterday I thought I could empty it out and fill bags. I had a customer coming for five bags and I filled ten earlier. I felt a pallet of 20 was just a good place to be. But it poured down rain!

I have potentially three chicken feed customers who use 500lbs per month. I think the mix will be corn heavy. I used CoPilot to come up with the mix. Which some times gives odd results. I will go back and change it a bit. 

One ton mix, 750lb Corn, 400lbs Barley, 200lbs Rye, 250lbs groates, 150lbs peas, 100lbs Clover seed screenings, 100lbs Canola, 80lbs alfalfa. 

One major problem is that I ended up needing storage so the rye, groats, and some of the corn got mixed together and when that bin was full I dumped another 1000lbs of groats on top of my bin of peas. I am going to end up guessing on the peas and groates so I think I will put in 300lbs of clover and drop the corn to 500lbs and I may add more alfalfa. I am almost out of peas which is a problem.

The nice thing about this mix is that is also good for pigs. I make 4000lbs and put it in a bin and then I can sell it as ground feed for pigs or pelletize for chickens.

I will probably just make 500lbs of chicken pellets at a time and then add red peppers and garlic to keep the rats out of the bags and also chicken people like peppers in their feed. It is also hilarious to see goats try to eat it.

 

Production capacity of 400lbs an hour would be fine if I was inside and the pellet mill was electric. This just takes forever to get anything done.

The M670 Super is working really well on the pellet mill. Fuel consumption is similar to the White 2-60 but rpms are lower, and hydraulics are more suited to the conveyers. I have been getting three days out of one tank fill up of diesel. About ten gallons a day. However, it took me three days to get 3,000lbs of pellets. I need to record the hours. It was not 23hrs of use.

Of course I had to pick up my daily bag of groates. 

Of course, I didn't start at 7 a.m. 

Of course, it started pouring rain just as my customer arrived.

The pathetic small scale of my operation is starting to wear me down. I have four ton of oats, four ton of clover seed screenings, 12 ton of barley, and a similar volume of rye. Plus a stack of alfalfa. Of course these material are stashed in bags, trucks, and bins all over my farm and two nearby farms.

I would kind of like to quit. 

The nice lady from AgDirect does not get back to me on the financing of the new pellet mill and I am starting to thing of better things to do with the money. Like, put a couple grand into retirement. Or buy a potentially better farm truck, or a mower tractor, or new coulters and press wheels for the Great Plains 1500, or just spend it on diesel and fertilizer for next year.

But I got a free tree yesterday. My nephew brought me one. It is my payment for hauling Christmas Trees.

This is really a nice tree! Now we just have to put it up.