Rocks

 (Click on any image to make it bigger.)

Show and Tell (or Complain, You Decide): Yetter 6200-184 Tailpiece/Closing Wheel

 

From a relevant thread on the New Ag Talk Forum:

Before buying ANY closing wheel, or even using the OEM wheels, release the spring pressure on your tailpiece and try to move the tail piece from side to side.

As the center to center distance at the tightest point on most closing systems should be just a tad more than your seed depth especially for corn, if you can move your tail piece more than maybe 1/4" side to side THAT should be where you put your money before buying any brand of closing wheels and before planting any $150-$300/bag seed!!!

Lateral movement of the tailpiece means that your closing wheels are not centered over your seed slot much of the time.

The last 7200 was manufactured around 1996 or 18 seasons ago. Most are over 20 years old. The 7200 OEM tailpiece was manufactured out of relatively thin sheet metal.

Most 7200 tail pieces I've seen should be replaced before putting one seed in the ground.

The idea that people will plant hundreds of acres of expensive corn seed but balk at the idea of spending $50-75/row to replace or rebuild the closing wheel tail piece on their 20+ year old JD 7200 or 7300 planter defies logic.

Spices: I'm Glad I Learned How to Cook

 I'm still dragging a bit after getting my J&J/Janssen Covid-19 shot, so staying inside and doing something comforting is what I want to do.

I like to make, and use, spice mixes. I noticed I was low on a few and decided to fix that. I started with Garam Masala.

I buy bulk spices online and store them in Mason jars.

Recipes for almost every mix are online.

I toast the spices on the stovetop. Once cooled I'll grind them into a powder.

Next up is making "Chinese" 5 spice powder and Baharat.

Digging Up a Tree Stump

After I got the new adapter that allows me to attach my skid steer "quick attach" style rock bucket to the Deere model 741 loader, I wanted to test it out on something. 

A couple of summers ago when we had tornado like straight line winds (a derecho), a big pine tree blew over right next to my house. I cut up the trunk soon after but the stump remained.

(Click on any image to make it bigger.)

 

Next up for the rock bucket is digging up two big, how big is hard to say as they are mostly buried, rocks, maybe 3 foot diameter?

A Beautiful Day: Time to Walk Around the Farm and Talk

 

Working New, Rented, Pasture and Tillable Ground

 The neighbor to the north of us offered us the chance to rent about 28 acres that's been in their family for generations. There's about 15 acres of "tillable" and 13 acres of hilly "hay" ground. I've been working to get them into organic production.

In short: The tillable is going into corn, the hay will be reseeded and rented out to another neighbor,Rodrigo, who will graze organic sheep. 

After having soils tests done, all the acres need fertilizer (turkey litter) and ag lime.

(Click on image to make bigger.)

Dad and I used his old 3 bottom plow to plow up about 15 acres of old pasture, labeled "Corn-Tillable" in the picture above. The field is just north of, and contiguous to, land that we own and we'll plant the new, larger "merged" field with organic corn, probably by the end of May.

After plowing, I disked it twice, the first time at a 45º angle, the second at 90º to the original furrows. We're having turkey litter spread on it tomorrow. Right after that we'll incorporate it by making another pass with the disk, as there are still a lot of clumps of sod in the soil. The goal is to get the pieces small enough that I can use my tine weeder and row cultivator without them plugging up.

Side note: I'm occasionally asked about "no-till" ag. There have been a few attempts at organic no-till, though they are very difficult/risky to make work and have primarily been done at the research level. "No-till", as it's commonly practiced is reliant on herbicides (and if needed, pesticides) to kill weeds as well as the cover crops that are grown before and after the cash crop. For me, right now, no-till is incompatible with staying organic. In the meantime I minimize tillage and do my best to keep a living root in the ground, year round.

 

 

 

The "Hay" ground in the picture at the top of this post was reseeded with oats, medium red clover, and Organic Pasture Mix.

Spring Wheat (and Clover) is In the Ground

I'm happy with how it went, aside from getting stuck twice. I have a few bags of wheat seeds left over, probably 5% of the total - getting the seed drill to meter properly is a challenge. I need to bring the truck as well as the tractor and seed tender home as they are still in the field about 12 miles south of here.

With a bit of luck I'll have some food grade organic wheat to harvest in August. The clover will really take off once the wheat is gone. It will be my nitrogen fixing, soil building cover crop - one that winter kills - ahead of 2022's organic soybean planting.

I still need to finalize where I'm selling the wheat. I hope to have a signed production contract in the next week. 

UPDATED 5/13/21: Ardent Mills will buy the wheat for $13/bushel. I'll harvest the wheat in August, put it in a grain bin and run air over it for a week or so and then send them a sample. If I meet their specs, one of which is a protein level of 13%, I'll have the roughly 3,600 bushels (or 210,000 lbs) of organic food grade wheat trucked to their mill in Mankato, MN.