Adventures in Fertilizer Spreading Continue until I become bored with the subject and end the post abruptly with no real conclusion of anything (because the screen says "Your mac will go to sleep soon unless plugged in," and I need to go to work

Spreading fertilizer is a necessity. I know that the regenerative agriculture folks and the aggressive salesmen from HGS BioScience and the emerging Biostimulant Industry are pushing certain mythologies which like all legends, are based in important truth, but the most practical way to get yield is though N-P-K.

I lack an ag science degree and it shows. But I have Doane's Handbook from 1970 and it tells me Alfalfa takes a lot of Potassium every cutting and somehow I need to put it back. 

But I digress...

I wanted to finish my fertilizer spreader story from yesterday, while it still seems funny to me.

I left my gentle readers hanging with a road race story involving a diesel pickup and an 1970s LN8000 with a 6V-71 Detroit louder than an AC/DC concert in 1976 and faster than a speeding min-bike. (at top speed maybe, obviously not in the quarter mile) 

I brought the spreader home empty as I figured that I needed to try it out before filling it with fertilizer. This proved to be a good plan.

The PTO did not easily slide, simple fix with PB Blaster. The PTO shield was pretty much shot but who needs safety features, little did I know this would result in wrapping up the pull rope multiple times.

I connected spreader to White 2-155 as it has a nice cab, a heater and ac, a radio, and will pull the POS spreader buried to the axles  has GPS and good flotation. When I pulled the trip rope no response. I sprayed PB Blaster on the trip mechanism, hit it repeatedly with a hammer, and adjusted the Bungie Cord that has replaced the spring on the trip bar. It is a particularly nice Bungie Cord with actual holes for the hook molded into the rubber so you can adjust the tension in important uses like replacing springs on farm equipment.

By the time I was finished with the fine tuning it was dark and I didn't load up.

The next morning I loaded up and was off to the races. So to speak... 

I did discover the spreader had an auto application feature that if harnessed properly would be a handy thing. As it was, randomly turning on and off was a bit of a frustration. I sorted that out with the hammer and once I knocked a little rust scale off the trip functioned better. 

But, the pattern was off. I think...

I was spreading 46 percent Urea on Orchardgrass for hay. I feel like we should be using 38-0-0-7 but everyone has stopped doing that. The guy at the fertilizer plant was asking me about that as I used to always get 38 for my hay fields. We stopped because 46 was cheaper and he said he didn't think it was anymore. 

But I digress..

Urea is bright white so I can see the pattern. I set the spreader by driving so the edge of the fertilizer hits the center of the last pass. The width is supposed to be 35 feet but I was only getting 32 feet at 540 rpm according to the computer.  Not wanting to run the tractor wide open I set the width on the GPS to 32 feet. 540 PTO on the 2-155 is around 1700 RPM on the tach. (This will prove to be a problem later when I get irritated and keep inching the throttle wider.)

The trip quits again. I am going back and forth. When I turn around  I pull the trip to shut off the chain and pull the trip again when I am turned so the chain starts. I can see it start but when I turn myself around to drive it shuts off and I don't know for like 100 feet. Eventually I get tired of getting out and I just leave the drive on. So I have a weird pattern. 

I can still see the fertilizer trail from the box that leaked last year.

Now what I should have done was call my friend that work at the fertilizer place and tell him my issues. Did I do that?

Nope...

I wanted to keep going and get it done before the rain! So instead of stopping and getting help like any sane person I just kept going like the grumpy and stubborn old coot I have degenerated into.

 

 By Saturday the feed chain was refusing to turn on with a full load. I took the main drive out to change fields. On this trip back, the little clip busted which keeps the lever disengaged and it dropped down and the drive started. I would not start in the field but I started on the road. Fortune was with me! I had a zip tie!

 

 

I fixed the latch mechanism with a strategically applied stainless steel hoseclamper! This exposed another problem. The main drive chain would also randomly skip and this was why my field acres and lbs applied kept changing. There will be "test strips."

 

 

Not having employees and having to worry about safety inspectors I was not worried about the bad PTO cover. I did not plan on wrapping my flowing skirt and long hair in the PTO shaft. However! The pull rope started catching on the shredded plastic and then wrapping on the shaft. Happened a couple times before I figured out just to swap ends of the PTO shield and have the shredded end on the tractor side. I am resourceful!

Injury was added to insult when the pin came out in the middle of a mudhole. Yes, you cannot see the two inches of water beneath the tractor but it is there. Fortunately I connected the safety chains just in case of such an unforeseen happenstance. Not sure how the safety clip came out but it did. Must be a common occurrence as it is tied to the tongue with baler twine.