Something new to rc [Archive] - RC Truck and Construction

Lil Giants

06-17-2011, 02:45 PM

100ft, 103.5ft w/fenceline nozzles.

It sure is a big improvement over the 16yr old 100ft pull type, can travel nearly 3x the speed in the field & just about double speed on the road!

The greatest feature of all it is the five section auto-shutoff. Auto-steer shaved off about 10% of the acres for both seeding/spraying, I'm hoping to gain another 5% on the spray.

Continuous cropping everything came on strong in the later 90's. The Richardson Ground Squirrel (gopher) was dominant in the hayland/pastures for-ever, but 50/50 crop/fallow kept them out of the cropland. The f#@%^&ing treehuggers got our 2% strychnine banned from regular use for rodent control in 99, so the gophers got over populated in the pastures and started moving out into the crops... and why not with an unlimited food supply!

So fast forward to 07, gopher populations are out of control, crop damage in the $40-100/acre or more, holes everywhere, badgers the natural predator to the gopher & they dig holes the size of a basketball / along with the huge mound of dirt on the surface... these pull type sprayers with small 24 inch wheels to carry the booms are getting the shyt beat out of them even at 5-6mph. I use to spray @ 9.5mph.

Now with this self propel with its huge tires with its long footprint on the ground, I can drive over the holes without dropping into them. Also I can spray 3x the acres as the pull type in the same alloted time, making myself more self efficient when the weather is agreeable.

We got our strychnine back in 08, but it's not as potent as the old stuff. It still works, though I wonder at times... but then again the populations were huge a few yrs ago. And now with extremely wet weather for the past yr, getting poison out in the spring/early summer has been next to impossible. I put out many cases in 09, covered most of the farm twice, some of it three times and I do notice a reduction in populations, but worse than ever now is the badger holes everywhere.

The last couple yrs I've been doing about 15% tillage during the growing season, which means 15% less crop planted/harvested. :rolleyes: Something I'm shopping for currently is a big field disc, as much as I can pull with my 1325 Panther Steiger, so I can till the bad areas after harvest - before the snow flies. Then maybe I can continue on with 100% cropping again. We only grow one crop yr here & the season is pretty short!

That's my plan, anyway. This yr is so wet that I only got half planted. Now I got lots of chem fallow to do, which is the biggest reason why I bought this outfit sooner than later.

I'll fill with it water this afternoon & go out & play with it some more... alot of buttons & settings to fine tune yet. In crop herbicides will likely start next week sometime.... if the sun will shine?!

4u2nv

06-17-2011, 04:39 PM

You sir, have all the toys... you win!

Stuff

06-17-2011, 04:49 PM

now that is a fun toy!

fhhhstix

06-17-2011, 08:52 PM

Nice APACHE you have there Joe. I use to work on those sprayers and even more interesting the guy who started the company is my brothers neighbor and his brother is my neighbor. I also have a few friends of mine from college who currently work for them. Kind of a small world we live in. The current factory is only 60mi from my house.

Travis

Lil Giants

06-17-2011, 10:48 PM

Small world indeed Travis! :D

Yesterday, 1st tank (half a tank), I sprayed about 75ac of glyphasate/2-4-D to finnish out my chem fallow for the 1st pass, then I started to rinse out. I couldn't get the Roto Flush to work... it's suppose to be a simple half turn of one valve from Agitation to Roto Flush, but it just wouldn't come on. Boom press would bolt to 120psi & agitation went to zero... water flow was dead heading. Brand new machine... WTF?! :confused:

So I start pulling apart hoses and fittings till I found the problem....(drum roll)....

stuck in both sprinkler heads within the product tank looked like Milo?! HTF could that happen?! :mad: Some jackass at the factory thought he was being funny? This machine just come across the line last wk direct Indiana factory.

The Roto Flush now works perfectly! I can change chemical in a fraction of the time compared to the outdated pull type sprayer. Aint technology grand, more done with less effort. :D

Say Hi to your neighbors for me. :)

pugs

06-17-2011, 11:24 PM

doodlebug

06-18-2011, 08:28 AM

Hey Joe, have you seen this? Maybe charge admission to see it work, LOL!
Home page
http://www.rodexindustries.com/4000.html
http://www.rodexindustries.com/action.html Page with video. I like blowing thing's up!

Later, Neil#2 aka doodlebug.

Lil Giants

06-18-2011, 10:52 AM

I've heard of them Neil, some farmers south of town bought one together, though I don't know specifically what brand name they have. I spoked to one of the owners of it, he felt that although the kill rate was 99%, it's a very labor intensive apparatus, takes three guys to cover any significant area in a day. 1st guy with gopher balster, 2nd guy with a shovel to block surrounding holes for maxium concussion and 3rd to drive towing vechile.

I have over 6000acres of pasture/hayland/cropland infested with these varmits, grain mixed poison put out with an electric 2" auger drive dispencer on a quad takes me a wk of 12hr days to paint the farm once with a tablespoon of poison @90% approx of the holes.

I saw this outfit at a farm machinery show a few yrs ago.
http://www.gophinator.com/

With a bit of research about it shortly afterward, the closest dealer for anhydrous is 150miles away, but it's likely they wouldn't sell me small quantities b/c apparently anhydrous ammonia is an ingredient for methamphetamine. So if it weren't for the meth head druggies, I'd probably try this for a more effective rodent control tool, it'd likely be 2-3 times quicker than the gopher blaster.

Lil Giants

06-18-2011, 11:01 AM

Nice, I wish we had one like that. I did manage to get 35 ac of Ignite sprayed today, then had to get the planter back out for some custom work. Feels weird planting corn in mid June, but it has been wet here as well.

So what's your Liberty Link soybean seed & chemical cost you an acre there? Are you happy with the yield & weed control you get with it?

My dad yrs ago was growing the Liberty Link canolas, weed control was less than impressive and yield was no better than the generic polish canolas I was growing for half the price.

doodlebug

06-18-2011, 08:35 PM

Hey Joe, that's a big spread. My relatives used to inject anhydrous ammonia into the corn chopper, preservative? Later' Neil#2 aka doodlebug.

pugs

06-18-2011, 10:36 PM

First year we did liberty link anything. Have a 6 variety test plot of beans so will let you know in fall what it looks like, hoping to hit mid 50's for yield. Should know about weed control in a few days.

I think we paid $43.00 something per gal of ignite and running 24 oz per acre. We are all No till as well so weeds are a problem, Thinking a couple of the grassier fields may need a 2nd app.

Seed cost, I don't recall atm, but it was comparable to the RR varieties. Our normal fields are all 0.9 maturity, test plots have some 1.4, 1.7 and a 2.3 in

Our corn is all RR2, like the idea of liberty beans to keep from having any tolerant weeds in the rotation, and easy to remember Roundup on corn, Ignite on beans. Had to laugh a couple years ago when the neighbor forgot which field of corn was which type, sprayed Roundup on non RR corn and fried a nice 25 acre field off

Lil Giants

06-22-2011, 10:11 PM

HAH! my dad has had a few of them wrecks over the yrs, he smoked some oats of mine one yr spraying a wild oat herbcide in wht & the small oat field right next to it, sprayed it all... the last to be sprayed for the season & he was thinking about his 5day break at the cottage instead of what he was doing. :(

I've seen the neighbors' mishaps over the yrs too... I'm only on my 3rd yr spraying, no screw ups yet for me. :D

So I think I have my machine figured out now, burned through 5 tanks of water... I don't like this Raven Smart Trax auto steer, it's really a step down from the Outback as to how it works, it's gonna take some getting use to.

I loaded with chemical for my brown mustard when the skies finally cleared about 3pm today, 1st tank went well, the start of the 2nd tank the machine lost power & fault code appears @5:10pm... isn't the way?! Phone the dealership, everybody gone, except that one guy who doesn't know anything about my machine.

It's really a nice evening to be spraying too... :(

However, that one guy suggested it might a clogged fuel filter the way it's behaving... brand new machine, possibly some plastic shavings from factory installation, add on the bio diesel from the states that the machine started out with & the algae problems that can come with that...

What really burns my chaps when shyt like this happens... the longest days of the yr right now, could start @4:30am, virtually no wind - perfect sparying conditions but gotta wait till 8:30-9am for service 1st. By the time I get it going the wind will be howling! lol

Lil Giants

06-28-2011, 02:44 PM

It's broken already! :(

Transmission/torque converter troubles... mechanics coming tomorrow morning to figure it out.

Not even 50hrs use yet.

doodlebug

06-28-2011, 09:06 PM

Hey Joe, will a regular obd/2 reader plug into your engine, for reading fault codes???
Later, Neil#2 aka doodlebug.

pugs

06-28-2011, 09:17 PM

doubtful, if anything might be canbus or isobus

pugs

06-28-2011, 09:21 PM

Oh and so far the Ignite is looking awesome. Within 3 days weeds were clearly dying. By 5 days they are about dry enough to burn with a match. Beans showed no signs of yellowing or growth lag from the application. We even had some comefrey plants in our test plot that roundup usually only holds back for a bit, the ignite has turned them into dry, brown clumps.

Lil Giants

06-30-2011, 10:04 PM

pugs

06-30-2011, 11:07 PM

was supposed to be a cure all type plant, but mostly it was a fast growing feed for steers, they loved the stuff. grows as a rhizome with underground roots that spread the plant out.

Dieselchopper

10-24-2012, 11:06 AM

Cool!

doodlebug

10-24-2012, 01:32 PM

Turned out to be an oil pressure sensor for the torque converter lock up... if the weather is calm tomorrow, I've got a few hundred acres of chem fallow to do, it'll be a good test to see if it's working properly as there's hills & muddy soils to contend with.

What's comefrey plants?

Hey Joe, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comfrey used take comfrey pill's when I was a kid, Now it's ILLEGAL! I can still taste the stuff-YUCK!
I had no idea about anhydrous and meth, what next?

Cheer's, Neil.

grumpygrady

10-25-2012, 10:55 AM

have you thought of renting out fields for gopher hunting?
a bunch of shooters would love to have a place to go shoot them,
or guided Gopher hunts

Grainfarmer

10-25-2012, 02:19 PM

Nice project! Looking forward to more pictures...!

regards
Frank

Lil Giants

10-25-2012, 07:37 PM

Hey Joe, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comfrey used take comfrey pill's when I was a kid, Now it's ILLEGAL! I can still taste the stuff-YUCK!

Cheer's, Neil.

Interesting... so you took this to improve teeth & bone structure Neil?

Thanx for the link, I don't recognize the plant at all from any of my own land.

Lil Giants

10-25-2012, 07:55 PM

have you thought of renting out fields for gopher hunting?
a bunch of shooters would love to have a place to go shoot them,
or guided Gopher hunts

Actually there is or was such an annual event about an hour from where I live that happened every Spring. Apparently it was done over 17 quarters of land, though I don't know if it all was adjoining or spread out and the land owner supplied all the ammunition.. I heard that one of the years was approx 22,000 gophers and 44,000 rounds = 50% kill rate or 10 cents a gopher. :D I never went to it, as I was busy taking care of my own farmwork.

It'd be interesting to know how they coordinated such an event, with so many ppl around shooting in all directions.. I would hazard a guess and say only .22 shorts were allowed.

Between my own diligent efforts of poisoning & the cooperation of mother nature the last couple of Springs, the gopher population is nothing like it was two yrs ago. ;)

Lil Giants

10-25-2012, 08:03 PM

Nice project! Looking forward to more pictures...!

regards
Frank

I have no intention of building a model of this... I was just estatic about my new purchase and wanted to show it off. :D

You want to build it Frank? I can take pics & measurements for you.. in the Spring that is b/c it's now put away in the shed for winter. ;)

Lil Giants

10-25-2012, 08:05 PM

Cool!

You betcha Shawn! :cool:

It's a great time saver & a Blast to cruze the field @21mph! :D

doodlebug

10-25-2012, 09:43 PM

Interesting... so you took this to improve teeth & bone structure Neil?

Thanx for the link, I don't recognize the plant at all from any of my own land.

LOL! no for allergie's, I have one of those mother's, that like's the natural stuff first.

Cheer's, Neil.

Dieselchopper

10-27-2012, 06:53 PM

Can't wait to see working model.

Lil Giants

05-12-2013, 02:53 PM

I used this Apache 1020 two seasons, worked really well... I was wowed with what muddy conditions this beast could blast through. I never ever got stuck, not even close ever once.

A new 1220 unit showed up on the dealer lot this Spring, I got to talking with the salesman about it & he struck me with a trade deal I couldn't refuse... so now I have a 1220 - 40hp more (215hp), 200ga greater capacity (1200)... the 1020 would cover 170 acre per tank @ 5.5ga/ac; spray two tanks 1st thing in the morning, then go seeding the rest of the day till late in the night. Now this 1220 does 220ac per load, maintains speed throughout the field much better than the smaller one and spraying a 100 ac more in just about the same time frame, maybe 30mins longer. I luv it! :cool:

Never got stuck with the other one, got too brave with the muddy areas, thought it would never happen... I buried the 1220 this morning!!! :eek: :( :p 7 foot tall tires, one on the right side is just about underground! :eek:

Got the neighbor over to drive my 9390 Case IH with triples, pulled in 1st gear at an idle till a bolt snapped on the tow eyelet on the sprayer frame & quit!!! Atleast we got it turned 90 degrees so I can get my Chevy 4x4 & gooseneck with a water tank backed in to pump the load off the sprayer. When my hire hand comes to work 7am tomorrow, we'll try 'er again with Big Red.

Having some dinner now, take my camera with me & get some snaps this afternoon. :D Pictures @6! :D

doodlebug

05-12-2013, 04:40 PM

We like pictures! Well it was a hard winter wasn't it? More snow than normal?
Cheers, Neil.

Lil Giants

05-12-2013, 06:41 PM

Not here Neil, winter wasn't too bad at all... go 100miles north & 200miles east of me & yes, they got blasted!!!! Those areas are probably another week yet before they can get into the field with a sprayer, much less do any seeding. Talking to a buddy who farms near Saskatoon, he hoping for mid May to get out to do some scouting on the land to see what fields will be dry 1st.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/003-8_zpsae93b482.jpg (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/protrker/media/003-8_zpsae93b482.jpg.html)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/004-9_zps183370e4.jpg (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/protrker/media/004-9_zps183370e4.jpg.html)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/001-7_zps3fc25954.jpg (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/protrker/media/001-7_zps3fc25954.jpg.html)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/002-10_zps7ec29a38.jpg (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/protrker/media/002-10_zps7ec29a38.jpg.html)

Big Red (retiring farmer I bought it from last summer was his pet name for it, rather fitting I'd say too :D) 500hp, about 28 tons. Hardly left a print where the sprayer is, pulled sprayer around 90* - 10', didn't slip a wheel at an idle in 1st gear.

I did however get Big Red stuck last Wed with the drill on behind, my smaller 1982 Steiger Panther pulled it all out as a whole (stop the tractor in plenty of time, didn't get it down more than 6inches).

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/009-3_zps76587dd4.jpg (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/protrker/media/009-3_zps76587dd4.jpg.html)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/010-2_zpsfb262f6e.jpg (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/protrker/media/010-2_zpsfb262f6e.jpg.html)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/008-3_zpscf5d7135.jpg (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/protrker/media/008-3_zpscf5d7135.jpg.html)

I got the gooseneck this winter, the tank showed up last week, I get it on the trl this afternoon & looky there, I got no fitting or valves to connect tank to pump, pump to sprayer yadda yadda, trip to town in the morning. :rolleyes:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/013-1_zps7e83b0ec.jpg (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/protrker/media/013-1_zps7e83b0ec.jpg.html)

Part of my seeding team here... drive to field that I am going to seed that day, off load the quad & go home to get my seeding tool, when it's time to reload seed/fertilizer, take trk home to get my single stack Mack you see in the distance. At the end of the work day, do the reverse - don't leave nothing in the field! Too many retards nowadays that like to f/k $hyt up for giggles, see if they make crime stoppers on the news. :rolleyes:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/014_zpsc7f1f96a.jpg (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/protrker/media/014_zpsc7f1f96a.jpg.html)

WhiteWolf McBride

05-12-2013, 09:25 PM

Joe:

At least ya realises ya dinna have the hose/fittings before ya dragged it all out to the field tomorrow, and then started cussin' up a storm.

And if that Steiger is ~small~, show us a pic of 'Big Red' eh?

And yea, you bogged that sprayer really well, dinna ya. Got a bit over-confident with the extra horses hm? The lord loves a smartass, doesn't he?

Remember I once hung my FWD Escort on a narrow causeway I wasn't supposed to be on. Thought I could 3-point (well, mebbe 5...) and dropped the fronts off the edge, then couldn't get 'em back up. Luckily, farmer came along and hauled my *** out, seems he did that about once a week. Was cheaper than a commercial tow too!

Hang in there, and take it easy,
WhiteWolf

Lil Giants

05-12-2013, 10:30 PM

Well that is Big Red in the pics above... do you not see 9390 Case IH on the side of the hood & that it's red in color? :confused: Panther Steiger is a light green color & is notibly smaller in stature, a 175hp less & only 18tons.

It's not about hp, but rather the predictment I got myself into... I was trying to make a U turn and sliding straight instead. It wasn't till I stopped & tried to back up that it then went down. If the trees weren't there & I could have gone straight through, I never would have gotten stuck... after two yrs of having an Apache sprayer, I just discovered today it's 1st limitation, it don't do nuttin but go straight in mud! :D

WhiteWolf McBride

05-12-2013, 11:44 PM

Ah...

Thought that was Red, but saw the Steiger badge on the nose, in spite of the Case IH on the side of the engine casing.

As for farming, heck, I know beef & milk comes from cow, eggs from chickens, and pork and bacon from pigs. Not that 'Milk from wax cartons' and 'eggs from styro containers' crap some city kids think. Grandpa had a few acres outside of Sydney NS: taters, beans, peas, carrots, a lovely patch of strawberries and some raspberry bushes... sadly its long gone. Even dad grew some veggies when I lived at home, even rhubarb & mint bushes!

Hope all goes well in the AM,
WhiteWolf

Lil Giants

05-13-2013, 12:00 AM

Case IH bought the Steiger tractor namesake in 1988.

Stuff

05-13-2013, 12:03 AM

Could have been worse!!

http://youtu.be/Vrp5ThGlbC4

doodlebug

05-13-2013, 12:13 AM

Could have been worse!!

http://youtu.be/Vrp5ThGlbC4
Wow, what a soggy mess, Lol :lol::lol::lol:!
Cheers, Neil.

lee.means

05-20-2013, 12:15 PM

you need this only been stuck ! time in the last 20 years

Lil Giants

05-20-2013, 10:32 PM

Only once? Must be in Monatana this beast, somewhere around Great Falls?

I know some one here in sw Sask that has a 450HP BUD, his smokes like that all the time too... not very economical, but he doesn't care, he's 6'7" and loves the roomy cab. :D

lee.means

05-21-2013, 02:35 AM

No I'm in Idaho.its a 525/50 and its pushing like 600Hp it pulls 50ft big G Flexible Double Offset Discs. it pulls really hard it gets about 35 gph it has a 500gal tank. but the good side is 1hr 30mins dose 90 acres

Lil Giants

05-30-2013, 08:32 PM

Are you sure on your acre count? 50ft implement, he'd have to be travelling about 11mph.. double discs don't work well at high speeds!

My 51ft air drill @5.5mph = 33ac/hr, but the reality with headland turning & other obstacles throughout the middle, it's more like 28-31ac/hr on mile long strips... less for 1/2 mile square quarters.

How deep is he working? My lil 325hp Panther is pulling a Sunflower 35ft double offset @3" & hardly breaks a sweat @4.5mph (sandy clay loam soil)... although I just got it last Fall & it was so dry that the implement was either riding on top or pulling up softball sized lumps... I only did 40ac, then quit! waited for rain that never came. I didn't seed that half this spring, it's in such disarray, weeds & tall stubble... probably disc it early July, seed it to winter wht in late Aug.

Lil Giants

06-14-2013, 02:31 PM

Here's what I have 'MacGuyver'd' in the last couple days... Princess Auto PowerFist 6.5HP, 2.5g/m hyd pack and a Wire Winder to roll up old barbed wire fence. I've got about 20miles of old fence around native & tame grass pastures that my dad built back in the late 60's - 70's to remove & replace over the next couple of summers. Plus remove some fence permanently.

I took my Ranger to town this morning to plumb it all & get it working. Gonna go out this afternoon to wrap up a 3 wire 1/2mile fence so I can join a 1/4 with a 1/2 section together and farm it as one big field. ;)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Jan%2013/002-1_zpsb6032e79.jpg (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/protrker/media/Jan%2013/002-1_zpsb6032e79.jpg.html)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Jan%2013/003-1_zps3747104e.jpg (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/protrker/media/Jan%2013/003-1_zps3747104e.jpg.html)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Jan%2013/004-1_zps6f7ff691.jpg (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/protrker/media/Jan%2013/004-1_zps6f7ff691.jpg.html)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Jan%2013/005-1_zps62e06c5b.jpg (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/protrker/media/Jan%2013/005-1_zps62e06c5b.jpg.html)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Jan%2013/006-1_zpsb7433b9b.jpg (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/protrker/media/Jan%2013/006-1_zpsb7433b9b.jpg.html)

doodlebug

06-14-2013, 10:42 PM

Wow, that's a lot of wire to roll up! I hope you don't have to back up the entire time?
Cheer's, Neil.

Kingcam2

06-14-2013, 11:09 PM

Cool toy Joe, :cool:

How the farm life going?

I'm just sold last of my firewood stock pile last week, I've got to make up 10 more cubic meters to fill 3 order I have book in.

If any one call about firewood I just tell them that I am out of firewood, and I am not taking any order for one Month so I can make more firewood.

From Cameron.

Acadieman

06-24-2013, 01:29 PM

I just completed a cross Canada trip, and the prairies impressed me.
I can see why you would need a tool for all that wire! I wondered how the farmers installed and maintained it all.

Stuff

06-24-2013, 06:01 PM

i was down to wood mountain park this weekend. Really missed that part of the province!

Lil Giants

03-27-2014, 09:31 PM

A necessary evil to keep new & up to date :( 2014 CR9070 ...my 1st piece of equip with a Tier 4 emissions. :(

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Jan%2014/009_zps5da67051.jpg

Kind of a cold day here to start this ol dog without being plugged in... drive it outside & wait a half hour before I could see inside again. :eek:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Jan%2014/007_zpsed7832ea.jpg

ekim

03-27-2014, 09:37 PM

I live in Idaho as well and was thinking that maybe I saw that beast!!!!!

Michael (ekim)

Lil Giants

05-01-2014, 02:26 AM

Brought home another new toy for the farm.... the middle piece of equipment... the seed cart I got a couple yrs ago, spread out the heart-attack cost. :eek:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/001_zpsaa8382be.jpg

By the looks of the forecast, it'll be another week yet before I get to try it out! :(

Stuff

05-01-2014, 10:38 AM

in the big big times now!

Acadieman

05-01-2014, 03:38 PM

Pretty serious equipment!
Will that save you time?
If you don't mind me asking, how many acres do you harvest?

Lil Giants

05-02-2014, 03:15 AM

Sorta Dean... the neighbor on the other side of the fence, you should see his new 70 foot SeedMaster with 850bu seed cart! My drill cost about 1/3 what his did. :eek: He plants over 10,000ac every spring & has a lot more road miles between fields than I do.

I crop just over 3400ac... with 800ac winter wheat sowed last fall, that leaves 2600ac to do this spring :)

Depending on what crop I'm planting and the amount of fertilizer I'm using, last yr with 51 feet I was seeding 300 per day avg... although sometimes I'd peak 400ac in a day. The 1st 3hrs of my day is spent spraying two tank fills of glyphosate covering 400ac.

This new drill is 60 feet, nearly 20% bigger, but with laying down more seed/fert per pass, I'll defineitely need to fill cart atleast one more time in a day, which takes about an hour to do. I'm hoping I'll achieve 400ac avg over the duration... maybe peak 500ac in a day if I have more than a day's worth sprayed ahead so I can start right away seeding... but those are killer long days of 19 - 20hrs!

Excessive weather delays resulting in high stress with late May - early June planting is a great motivator though. ;)

Currently, this is the next 6days of either cloud and/or rain. :(
http://weather.gc.ca/city/pages/sk-11_metric_e.html

It's early yet... I'll sleep well for the next week while waiting for sunshine. :D

Acadieman

05-04-2014, 07:41 AM

Hopefully the weather will clear up!
What's the goal of the glyphosate?

Sounds like a good investment as it'll speed up the process, Big Red has a good load now. :) The combine from earlier looks nice too. Combines are expensive, but they seem to be replaced fairly often.

Lil Giants

05-08-2014, 12:30 AM

Chemically burn off all the existing weed & volunteer growth so the new year's crop gets the best start possible. In crop spraying is 5-6 weeks later , the next flush of weeds are much smaller than the crop & easy to kill! After that, the crop flourishes, stools out to canopy the ground and block any sunshine for future weed growth during the growing season.

Actually, the old drill was single shoot & I was using a 4” stealth tip to spread the seed & fert together... this new drill being double shoot with a 1” opener & 3.5” spreader 3/4" above is less iron in the ground & should pull considerably easier... I’m already kicking myself for not going to 70’ width! ...I’ll see how it goes this yr.

I loaded up my seed cart today, calibrated the seed drives, ready to go tomorrow late afternoon... after I put out 3 or 4 tanks of spray starting at noon. It's gonna freeze again tonite, the scientific analysis is wait 24hrs for the weeds to recover to uptake the chemical better... but rain is coming again Friday night for the wkend... 2009 it froze every night till May 20th, but I still sprayed everyday & still got a good weed kill. :D

jack van

05-08-2014, 01:53 AM

Lil Giants

05-09-2014, 01:00 AM

I got a bit of a surprise today... I put some water in the sprayer & went to the field to do a pressure check and HOLY $%^& water everywhere! :( 5 section boom & 4 of them are split in many places.

This was 11am, quick call to dealership, bring it to town & start fixing... we got 'er rebuilt by 5pm... I was home & loaded by 6pm, buzzed the 1st tank by 7pm & the 2nd tank by 8:30 with some daylight to spare. :eek: :D

Last Fall, I had this SP sprayer in town for its bumper to bumper check (warranty is only for the 1st season), before I left I poured their sprayer guard antifreeze into the tank & flushed it through my booms... they know that... they'll see what they can do for me $ parts & time wise... but my dealership is owned by a much larger dealership in the city & although the small town work ethic & good service is still there - big city still has the final word ...and lately it seems not in the favor of the customer. :(

Tomorrow 1st thing, go find out if the drill is gonna work right out of the gate... :confused:

RCTech9

05-10-2014, 01:03 AM

Joe- How many hours were on the "old" combine? I got my first combine in Febuary a 1998 John Deere 9510 2500 engine, and 1500 separator hours. The previous owner was great about maintenance so we paid a higher price for it. Since then we bought a 9610 and another 9510, but mine is the best.

How big of a head will you be running with this combine? What are your thoughts on Tier 4 Emissions?

doodlebug

05-10-2014, 12:57 PM

Tier 4 emissions have taken the "F" out of fun!
I'm hanging on to my older equipment and truck as long as I can!
EGR is the worst thing that ever happened to Diesel engines.
Cheers, Neil.

Lil Giants

05-11-2014, 01:15 AM

3yo combine, just under 500 thresher hrs. I could have easy gone another yr without major work, but with a falling dollar & the combine another yr older, the trade difference could really sky rocket!!! My dealer made me a good deal on a 2014 that didn't sell last yr before harvest season, carryover stock they wanted to get rid of.

I use a 36' draper head made by Honey Bee, the factory is about 50 miles from my farm. The header is an '02, it's pretty solid yet, I don't see ant cracks anywhere & the dealership won't give me any trade value on it b/c of its age... so as long as the frame holds together, I'll keep using it.

I don't know anything about tier 4 yet, I just drove it home that day & parked in the shed. It's gonna be a pain in the neck to buy the right amount of def fluid for the season b/c it has no shelf life! :rolleyes: Other than that, I haven't heard of any problems from others with New Holland or CaseIH combines... John Deere on the otherhand with their re-burn system for tier 4, a lot of combines burnt up in 2012, didn't hear about quite as many last yr.

It's the way of future, good or bad, gotta deal with it eventually. :(

Here's a video of me seeding yesterday... 1st time using my IPhone to shoot film, you gotta tilt your for the 1st minute, then I got it right side up - with a bit of help from youtube's editing. :D

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCkeWQPe8I4

Acadieman

05-11-2014, 12:02 PM

seems like the new equipment is working good. I think what impressed me the most was the relatively tight turning radius. :)

hvy 1ton

05-12-2014, 12:09 AM

If you can keep it room temp and out of the sun def will left at least 2 years. I need to check but i think we were around 8% of fuel use for the year with 7230's. Just buy a tote and good stainless pump if your never too far from home.

Lil Giants

05-12-2014, 01:09 AM

I do my headlands 1st, so I have about 120' to turn around within... it's proving to be a bit of a challenge to get just the right arc so the drill swings into position asap for the next pass - so when I come back from the other direction there is no gap not seeded.

When I got the combine home that day, I drained all the def fluid as soon as I shut it off the shed into two 10L jugs & took them to my house. Storing a tote over winter somewhere heated is not possible for me to do... I'll have to gauge by how the crop is fairing from one tote to the next vs how much I have left to harvest & use 10L jugs from there. I don't even know yet what it costs per Liter. :confused:

I was able to start the combine without def fluid last week to get my sprayer out of the shed. "Out of def" alarm was beeping continually for 20mins it was running to make the swap.

Here's a couple of pics of filling my sprayer... I use to fill from the house well, but my galvanized tank rusted out this yr... I got all this water next to farm... Buying a sump was a lot cheaper, easier & quicker than getting another tank! :D

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Jan%2014/002_zpscfb0ef2c.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Jan%2014/009_zps8e0ba439.jpg

My corrals :eek: GOSH!!! I'm glad I got rid of my cow herd 3yrs ago, this flooding is gonna be a problem for a long time to come yet!

You can see a white line on the slab fence, that's how high the water level was in 2011 & the water level then by the time winter came still looked about this deep it is currently. The water didn't leave this pen till August of 2012... and it floods every Spring now. Strong winds last June blew over that section of fence in the water... those railroad ties were 5 feet in the ground, they just popped out of the soggy ground. I was going to stand the fence back up last October, but I didn't get within 30' of the fence & the front axle of Ford FWA fel started sinking quick! What a mess! :(

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Jan%2014/003_zps725c77f8.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Jan%2014/004_zpse3f625b9.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Jan%2014/005_zps19a59fc0.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Jan%2014/006_zps5b98b75b.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Jan%2014/008_zpsbe95731a.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Jan%2014/007_zpsaac79b5e.jpg

TRUCKMAKER

05-12-2014, 06:44 AM

RCTech9

05-12-2014, 06:14 PM

It looks like you have a big pond Joe! How many acres of water do you think that is?

hvy 1ton

05-12-2014, 07:31 PM

The DEF in the combine can freeze. There is a heater to bring it back to liquid and the concentration of urea is low enough that it doesn't salt out. Probably affects the shelf life some, but i'd expect 6 months or so at least from the stuff in the combine tank. Don't run your combine anymore with out DEF or a tech might have reset the computer. Dunno what your harvesting conditions are like, but we had problems with the chaff being sucked into DEF tank through the vent lines under high fuel/DEF use in irrigated barley. Put vent filters on all three machines. Never had any troubles with the cart tractor. I think the 2 year shelf life with the temp between 10-85F if you can manage that. There's a steep mark up on the 2.5G jugs down here. If your worried about storage 55G drums close to the same unit cost as the totes. I'll call the boss and see if he ever figured up the our DEF usage last year.

Stuff

05-13-2014, 11:37 AM

Galvanized tanks! lol Joe get with the 1960's :D

yeah that is a big problem with those. I see metal ones still do that. only real way to get away from that is to go fiberglass and even then there is problems.

I noticed the other day that the water along highway 39 where the "Great lake of Saskatchewan" is along the highways is pretty well up to the 2011 levels again. The sask highways government is doing sweet all to get that water to go away. Their solution was to raise the highway so that the water was no longer over the road. they didn't put in guard rails and the reflectors are all broken off now.

last week my mother sold her chevy tracker to some nice people in weyburn. they didnt make it back with the vehicle. an rv swerved and they went off the road, hit the huge rocks they dumped along the highway and flipped over several times into the water. luckily the tracker righted it'self on the last flip or they would have drowned!

i got a feeling its going to be another wet wet year up here...

this was 2011
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EdLu_cKyW0w

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EdLu_cKyW0w

TRUCKMAKER

05-13-2014, 12:19 PM

That's pretty wild, I've seen white caps on the great lakes and small lakes around Michigan but I've never seen them on a highway before! How deep is the water in the fields around the highway?

Acadieman

05-13-2014, 01:04 PM

That seems like a good amount of water. Time to throw in a few trouts. :cool:

Is it my understanding that wheat doesn't grow well in wet soil?

Stuff

05-13-2014, 04:04 PM

deep enough there was a car in the ditch for a whole year and nobody noticed....

JDH429

05-13-2014, 05:12 PM

Thats beautiful country.

Lil Giants

05-18-2014, 11:41 AM

Hi Joe, when you are planting your fields using GPS how do you program it to know where the rows end etc? Do you make a manual run around the perimeter? Sorry for all the questions, I've had friends and family who've owned farms so I've grown up visiting them. But they weren't as large as yours. Thanks for posting this is interesting reading!

Yes, I manually steer the perimeter & set my A & B line. And I manually turn around at the headlands & around other obstacles within the field, like sloughs, rock piles, power poles, ect. The GPS autosteer holds a straight line for no overlap... it doesn't drive any programmed course around the field, you still have to be alert where you are & where you're going so you don't run into stuff.

Earlier in the week, somebody smoked a power pole & brought it down north of town... dicking around on their phone or sleeping... seems to happen nearly every yr.

It looks like you have a big pond Joe! How many acres of water do you think that is?

I don't know... it stretches about a mile in length & varies between 1/4 & 1/2 mile wide. The deepest point might be 7 or 8 feet.

Galvanized tanks! lol Joe get with the 1960's :D

My dad bought that tank back in the 80's & would haul it in the back of a 3-ton grain trk, back in the day when sprayers were manually unfolded/folded, haul water & chemical to the field was much easier than winging up to come home & do it.

I made use of the old galvanized tank the last 5yrs, but it's unusable now. If this body of water ever disappears & I have to go back to well water, I'll get a black wall plastic tank.

That seems like a good amount of water. Time to throw in a few trouts. :cool:

Is it my understanding that wheat doesn't grow well in wet soil?

This water body only accumulates from spring runoff, there's no creek or spring adding to it. A couple of dry yrs & it will be empty again.

Wheat grows better in wet soil than dry... everything does! :p Untimely rains can have dramatic effects on quality & disease. Last yr was 17 inches rainfall & I had a fantastic hard red spring wheat crop in both yield & quality. But my amber durum wheat just exploded in yield & the quality was poor... durum is a very temperamental crop that takes almost perfect weather to get both quality & yield from... I haven't grown much durum in the last 4 yrs b/c it's been wetter than usual.

Thats beautiful country.

Yes it is Jason... and the best part is there's very few ppl around. :)

It rain @6am & again @7:30am this morning, a bit of water laying about... chances of rain again this afternoon, I might be sitting all day. I got started seeding brown mustard yesterday, got Big Red stuck! I had to pull the pin & then using 70 feet of tow strap & chain to pull the drill from various angles to get it out... I had to roadgear my tires twice to clean the mud from them... this is one of the hardest pulls I've ever had, it was a bit worrysome, I was out within the hr, rehooked & seeding again.

Where I'm seeding now is so flat & gumbo clay, it's hard to tell where the mud might be until I'm in it! That gumbo is like snott, so sticky & slippery. The surface will look dry, then all the sudden the crust lets go & SURPRISE! you're ****ed!!! Being there with the sprayer the day before, I can usually feel out those spots & flying at 22mph, I'll blast through it without sinking much. But it's 100' booms & a lot area each pass I don't drive on.

I made up a sprayer vid a couple days ago, I tried to load it last night, but it stopped at 80%, it must be too big. I gotta re-do the edit or make it a 2 part.

doodlebug

05-18-2014, 08:34 PM

Hey Joe, I hear ya on that damp clay, been fighting some myself!
Cheers, Neil.

RCTech9

05-30-2014, 11:26 AM

How is planting going Joe?

Lil Giants

05-30-2014, 08:45 PM

I finished the main part Sunday night... liquid fertilized my winter wht Monday & saw how bad the broadleaf weeds were getting already, so I did in-crop weed spraying Tuesday... then went to do some custom spraying glyphosate that night.

I have a self draining 75acre slough bottom that I got seeded Weds, I put it to oats & have a cattle farmer interested in taking it for either green feed bales or silage.

I have a couple of 10ac sloughs that are probably a wk to 10days to dry out if it don't rain much in that time, but tomorrow is forecasted rain to start some time in the morning & be possibly an inch worth in 24hrs. The cut off seed date is June 20th, so if I don't get it done by then, I won't do it.

My phone has been ringing since Tues to do custom spraying with glyphosate, I've got about a 1000ac to do. But it's been quite windy Weds Thurs today, so I've done none of it... I look out the window just now & the trees are still swaying quite a lot. Lots of crop everywhere is now through the ground, gotta be careful about drift... I farm in a block, there's nobody within my perimeter & all my land is fenced, so there is 10'+ grass berm separating me from my neighbors' lands, I've never had spray drift cross the fence and so far (knock on wood) I haven't killed any of my own crops using different chemicals... as in what I use in my oilseed crops (flax & brown mustard) to kill broadleaf & grassy weeds - including previous yr cereal that has now volunteered would kill the cereal crops planted next to it... but there again I've changed things from the way my dad did it 6yrs ago - he used to have 80ac or so strips all across the farm of various crops so if a hail storm came through he would still have some of each crop in another area... vs today I farm in big blocks - one corner is all mustard, another corner is all flax & last is all spring wht & winter wht... not very often I get hail, last time a bad one was 99, which got about 2/3's the farm.

I loaded out the last of last yr's flax on a Btrain this afternoon... wait to get paid a month from now... my last cheque came from headquarters in Ireland. :rolleyes: Other than that, it's been pretty slack since the last couple days... Gosh I love this life - go hard when I have too & goof off when I don't. :D

Lil Giants

09-09-2014, 09:56 AM

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Jan%2014/004_zps7c7e15b3.jpg

Oh what joy to wake to this morning. :rolleyes:

I've been cutting one day a week the last 3wks, being rained out same day I get started again. I've managed to go Sat, Sun, Mon & got a few acres done. Just the last 2dys the trk has been able to get around the field & we were dumping on the go. Before that the trk had to stay at the road & I was carrying each hopperfull out to it... it's gonna be a s.o.b. when I get to the 1,5 mile long strips. It'd be nice to have a grain cart... but to spend 50G's on a tool that I may only use once... but oh the fuel & def fluid I'm gonna burn up without it. :(

To date I'm about 10% harvested... 2012 I finished harvest 4dys ago.

JAMMER

09-09-2014, 10:06 AM

Hi Joe I could use some of that snow right now it is to hot here. Ed

Lil Giants

09-11-2014, 10:42 PM

Another inch of accumulated moisture from Tues-Wed's snow & rain (total since planting is now 18 inches), the trk was just barely getting around the field with one hopper dump off the combine. Sunday I was cutting around the edge of slough & one side of the combine sunk in the mud, I was 3/4 full. Fortunately the unload auger was pointing to the field & the trk was able to pull under, but it still took Big Red to get the combine out. :eek:

If we could go more than a week without rain, maybe the soft conditions will subside, but in the short term I'm hoping this will work to keep the combine cutting crop continually all day. Most fields are within a mile of a bin to unload. The tricky part to learn is backing up to the auger to unload with no outside mirror on the left side of tractor cab.

It's not warming up much & looks to be cloudy till Mon-Tues. I use two hopper bins with aeration that I fill up, dry grain for 4-5 days, then move grain to non air bins. The hopper bins are presently full, so that'll give me some practice in the coming days to figure out how to do this safely & quickly and hopefully the hiredhand is a quick learner too. ;)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Jan%2014/001_zps2f1f71ac.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Jan%2014/002_zps3ca0550c.jpg

I rigged up this air gauge on the supply line to keep track of air pressure. The pressure doesn't drop to 60lbs for a couple hrs which keeps the maxies off, but I should install the bolts in the brake pots so the brakes never come on period. I thought maybe the gauge would also be helpful to see how much air is maintained for the air ride, but is doesn't. The air gauge down on the lower left of trl frame is a weight gauge, it shows about 10lbs empty & 54lbs is about 2/3's full (15mt or 550bu), which is what I filled it to hooked on the trk for a legal load. I intend to just put one combine hopper (320bu) + whatever additional volume it is while unloading on the go. Then tractor/pup zooms to the bin to unload. ;)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Jan%2014/003_zps14ea1428.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Jan%2014/004_zps2fff1dda.jpg

The ride height is connected to the center axle. I'm not sure yet whether to disconnect leveler rod to prevent loss of air while travelling & keep leveler rod in a fixed position? :confused:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Jan%2014/005_zpsa4d2068d.jpg

The yard is pretty wet too! I spent a few thousand last fall for pit run fill & grading after a wet summer's hauling out making ruts everywhere. I got nearly all my grain out during the winter so I didn't tear up my yard this summer... trying to get harvest in might destroy it again. :(

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Jan%2014/006_zps1374d174.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Jan%2014/007_zps268a0c17.jpg

My guard dog is a bit camera shy. :D

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Jan%2014/008_zps1ca43a2a.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Jan%2014/012_zpsc2ab0b06.jpg

Acadieman

09-12-2014, 03:01 PM

Sounds likes a tough go this harvest season. Calgary seemed to be a world of hurt with the fresh snowfall too.

How's the new harvester operating?

Lil Giants

09-12-2014, 03:37 PM

Having a few electronic/hydraulic issues with the auto header height, the Honey Bee draper header is not following the ground contour as smoothly as it did with the 3 previous combines it was on. I haven't determined yet if it's the combine's software or the potential meters on the header itself... combining 1 day a week for the last month makes it difficult to fine tune the combine, as I try not to waste any time while it's good cutting weather.

30% chance of rain tomorrow... it's been cloudy & cold all week... some guys were talking this morning of trying canola this afternoon... my yard is still a bit muddy, I doubt the spr wht is dry, maybe I try some brown mustard tomorrow to see where it's at for maturity.

I dug thru junkyards this morning looking for brake pot bolts & found 3 useable bolts, the rest were seized in the pot. I found 3 new ones at a couple trk part stores. Finish getting this tractor/pup ready to go this afternoon in case it's too soft for the trk to travel about the field. I ordered a remote camera this morning to help with backing up to the auger, but it won't be here till Monday.

My brother lives in Calgary, I haven't spoke to him yet as to how much the snow has damaged trees in his yard. :confused: But yeah, a lot of down trees, a lot of power outages! The area saw nearly two feet of dense snow. I'm sure all the crops in the surrounding area will be flat on the ground! My cereal crops are leaning southward pretty bad, I may have to cut at angle, which will be a little rough crossing the seed rows... I still have more than a 1000ac of spring & winter wht to do yet. The oilseeds are still upright.

TRUCKMAKER

09-12-2014, 06:42 PM

Hi Joe,
My wife grew up on a farm in central Illinois. She is curious what you mean when you say "cereal crops". We could only guess.

Kent

Lil Giants

09-13-2014, 12:24 AM

Cereal grains - spring wheat, winter wheat, durum wheat, rye, CPS or Canada Prairie Spring wheat (soft white wheat, high starch, great for ethanol production, also great for animal feed), barely, oats, triticale (animal feed crop)... I'm sure there's other cereals to add to the list, but that's what I have grown over the yrs.

Oilseeds - Canola, soybeans, yellow/brown/oriental mustards, yellow/brown flax. There's a new variety of mustard in recent yrs that is use in the manufacturing of jet fuel from its extracted oil, I can't remember what it's called.

Pulse crops or legumes - yellow/green peas, red/green lentils, kabuli/desi chick peas is what's grown in my area.

TRUCKMAKER

09-13-2014, 10:45 AM

RCTech9

09-13-2014, 01:55 PM

Sorry to hear about your long harvest Joe. I like your Tractor / Pup setup.

RCTech9

10-10-2014, 12:26 AM

Were you able to get most of your crop out of the field Joe?

Lil Giants

10-10-2014, 01:00 AM

I have about a day's worth of cutting left to do... this afternoon was 4hrs & 3 trips to town for parts to fix the knife drive... and right when I quit @10pm I discover a bearing failure on the rotary screen drive, I hope they have parts in stock & get it running by noon so I can finish tomorrow. :thinking:

Lil Giants

10-10-2014, 11:17 PM

DONE!!!

..but not without another two trips to town again today for various parts on the header. The air temp dropped about 10 degrees the past two days over the two previous & made the flax straw difficult to cut...

Overall this crop yr was kind of a dismal one b/c of excessive rainfall in June with very little sunshine, drowned & thinned a lot of crop in its infancy, then excessive rains throughout later August & September bit into crop quality with staining, sprouts... I'll pretty sure I'm still in the black for the yr, but not by much...

Never did have to use that tractor/pup, thank goodness, I think it would have really slowed down production!

Go out on Monday with the combine to do a little mowing... remove the clean grain & return doors, close off the sieves to mow off several weedy patches I had to cut around in the mustard... the mustard is really sensitive to moisture, dry is under 9%... green seeds from kochia & pig weed could cause hot spots in the bin & spoil the whole the bin in short order if left unchecked. I have temperature cables in the bin that I can plug in with a monitor outside to check for any such hotspots after I turn the fan off. I'll be checking all my bins weekly till xmas.

Stuff

10-12-2014, 12:56 AM

Joe! You gonna make it to Estevan for the show? Lots of trucks this year!

Lil Giants

10-12-2014, 11:55 PM

How many trucks? Is there more than 3 yous now?

Are you gonna have REAL dirt or rubber dirt?

Dieselchopper

10-13-2014, 10:54 AM

Sorry rubber and grain. Cleanup is to much for only a couple guys.

Lil Giants

02-19-2015, 10:15 AM

Here's a vid showing my Apache 1220 sprayer from last spring... you can see near the start of the vid all the water in my corals.

http://youtu.be/N33HgUR1omc

Acadieman

02-25-2015, 08:48 AM

How fast does the sprayer go? Seems to trot along at a good pace. :)
Good amount of water, think it'll go away this Spring?

TRUCKMAKER

02-25-2015, 05:12 PM

Thanks for posting Joe, as always lots of questions, the brown fenced areas I take are your corals, do you do livestock also?
When your spraying does the computer control the throttle/speed for proper application or just steering?
One more, is the green on the screen the area that's been sprayed?

Lil Giants

03-14-2015, 12:22 AM

Top speed is suppose to be 36mph, but I have after market tires on it that are quite a bit wider & a bit taller, according to the GPS top speed is 42mph. I spray full throttle in 4th gear, speedometer on console says 18mph, GPS says 22.4mph.

It's gonna take a few drought yrs to make all that water go away. Last two summer's rainfall accumulations have been 18inch each yr. I took these pics yesterday, the water level currently is a bit lower than last Spring judging by the shoreline, but Spring runoff might not be done yet.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Jan%2015/006_zps8dwcsxvp.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Jan%2015/005_zpsfm8eee7s.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Jan%2015/001_zpsdppoah4w.jpg

Kent, I did have 150 head beef cows, mostly red Angus until Dec 2011 when I had a herd dispersal.

The Raven computer has an auto rate controller that will match the correct volume of water/chemical to whatever speed I'm travelling. Most of the spraying I do is 5.9us ga/ac, some chemicals require 10us ga or I'll spray either liquid fertilizers up to 13us ga/ac or foliar fertilizers up to 8us ga/ac. A change in speed, the rate controller will open/close a valve to match the volume needed & will also vary the water pressure too almost instantly, maybe a 1 to 3 second delay depending on how sudden the change in speed.

The auto steer is a seperate controller, but it is tied into the primary monitor.

Yes, whatever is painted green is what has been sprayed. There is a few other colors too, red will appear when the volume drops more than 20% below target, usually when the tank is nearly empty & sump sucking air occassionally. Purple when volume is 20% heavy, usually when I have to slow down suddenly to cross a washout. I have auto shutoff, the boom is split up into 5 sections, when 100% of 1 section is on the green, that section will shut off automatically, keeping overlap to an absolute minimum. For headlands I have the shutoff delay at 0sec & turn on 4sec advanced, I don't want any misses. ;)

TRUCKMAKER

03-14-2015, 09:02 AM

Thanks for the info Joe, it's really interesting how technology has advanced farming!

Lil Giants

04-23-2015, 02:23 AM

So I finally got my air drill home yesterday (gone 2 weeks), hooked up to Big Red and activated the hyd lever for fan/manifold/auger... even though 3pos lever on seed cart was set to fan, apparently some oil still flows through auger circuit... and my view from the cab to see the conveyer with air drill in transport is not great... about 20 hyd fittings & I forgot to tighten only one - sprayed the seed cart tank & conveyer & air drill... ohhhh what a mess in less than 3secs, probably less than half a gallon, but it painted everything with oil. :(

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Jan%2015/010_zps1e0zatgh.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Jan%2015/002_zpsrjgb3riv.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Jan%2015/003_zpsb8nawjp5.jpg

With the tube screw auger before, that double pivot arm off the main arm was 16 inches length, but with this rectangular shaped conveyer that arm had to be 40 inches and with the now added leveraged weight it made it impossible for me to manually move that arm out away from seed cart so I could get the discharged end of the conveyer to clear the top railing & tank fill doors. So then I had no choice but to add a 2" bore, 12" stroke hydraulic cylinder.

I got my welder/fab man coming tomorrow to change the hyd cyl mount on the main arm so when the cyl is fully retracted it pulls that 40" arm back even further. Plus I need a metal hanger added to other end of 40" arm to support the hyd hoses up out of the way of pivot points.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Jan%2015/009_zps9r0wy6sl.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Jan%2015/007_zpstb8dtb0h.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Jan%2015/004_zpsyq6jqc54.jpg

The conveyer needs to be atleast another foot to the right of the picture so I can get my tank lids open to fill.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Jan%2015/006_zpselbbdtv1.jpg

The supports for transport were simple enough to fabricate. I just got to add puck board for a wear/rub strip where the aluminum contacts on the upper & lower steel support.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Jan%2015/005_zpspfotdjkr.jpg

The conveyer itself runs awesomely quick & smooth & QUIET!!! hmmm sweeeet :)

RCTech9

07-27-2015, 12:34 AM

Whats been going on lately Joe? We got this years wheat crop in the bins.

Lil Giants

08-22-2015, 02:57 PM

I desiccated some durum yesterday, do some more next week, it'll be Sept 1st before that's ready to combine... I'll have to desiccate the flax too, probably start mid Sept... so much hail this yr on the entire farm, the durum I was spraying yesterday, majority looked short & thinned out... :rolleyes:

This week I combined what little peas I could salvage from the hail, about 30ac, got most of my seed back from 400ac planted.

Some guys around here are harvesting fantastic crops & have been going since Aug 1st, some are better than half done already...

Lil Giants

10-16-2015, 12:35 AM

So for the last week this how my harvest has been going...

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Jan%2015/011_zpspdxqimeo.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Jan%2015/012_zpsvxbgcxdq.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Jan%2015/013_zps2xndqmkk.jpg

...had to bring in a grain cleaner to separate the FM (foreign material) from my flax, something I can't do with the combine. The volunteer spring wheat, brown mustard & wild oats that grew after the 4 hail storms from June 23rd to July 14th, (1st storm was a week after in crop spraying), the FM is still quite green yet & raising the moisture to 11 to 13%, clean that crap out lowers my moisture in flax to 8.3%. Dry & storable flax is 9%.

It's really slow to clean flax, with some wild oats coming out the clean side, capacity is about 220 - 240 bushel/hr... with the days so short now & freezing almost every night, I only have about 7 to 9hrs cutting window, can't start before noon & done not long after dark, depending on the wind... soon as the wind is gone, it gets tough & plugs the knife. 1st field of flax 200ac, running about mid 20's bu/ac, by dark both tandems are full & combine too, cleaner going all day as well... start cleaning again at dawn, by noon less than half a tandem left to clean, I start combining & everything full again by dark. Took 3days to cut 200ac... normal conditions & earlier in the season with warmer weather, I cut 200ac a day.

When my peas & brown mustard got hammered in early June I just round-up the whole field of each crop cause I knew the weeds would choke out whatever came back. The 350ac flax field I'm in now showed some promise early on & I let it continue growing. It got golfball hail mid July & now it's a wreck with added costs & the bushels just aint there (1st 150ac less than 10bu/ac, probably averaging about 7, looks better further east). If I would have sprayed this field out last July I would be done!!! But the finish line is a couple days away.. providing my old shyt holds together...

...today was a day of breakdowns... my 20yo Onan motor on grain auger taking clean flax away from grain cleaner lost its spark, determined the problem to be the pickup coil behind the flywheel... could be next Tues before that be fixed :mad:... a few hrs later later & $2700 brand new Kohler getting the show on the right track again... just after 5pm now get back on the combine, didn't go 300yds & blew a hyd hose on the header...:rolleyes:... less than 2hr of daylight left, after hrs charge of $50 +parts, it'll be tough before I get it fixed anyway... get er done in the morning.

20's & sunny on the wkend - changing to single digits & rain on Mon-Tues... may the gods be with me so I get this wreck of a yr done with already!!! The majority of farmers in my area were done a month ago.

Supermario

10-16-2015, 08:10 PM

http://i1275.photobucket.com/albums/y447/catman4088/76f1594db5106b6f75aaa357414fa510_zpstbkdxkzf.jpg

Thanks Joe for sharing what you go through and all the hard work you guys do each and every year. :cool:

Lil Giants

10-16-2015, 11:11 PM

Great caption! Thanx buddy :cool:

Today was a productive day acre wise, not so much yield wise though less than 3 full tandems, but I am under the 100ac mark... start again before noon, no hiccups & I'll be done before dark! :jump:

A couple pics at sunset... the tall yellow stuff is FM

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Jan%2015/007_zpsp9vrx6er.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Jan%2015/005_zps7xgchh8o.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Jan%2015/001_zps2x3lypdr.jpg

TRUCKMAKER

10-17-2015, 05:24 PM

Good stuff Joe, sorry to hear you had such a bad year. Not much you can do about Mother Nature.

Lil Giants

10-18-2015, 09:23 PM

Yeah Kent, Mother Nature was a real big "C" to me this yr! :(

...anyways, got done combining mid afternoon yesterday, that last field of flax averaged out about 6,5bu/ac, sample not real good with green seeds & some very dark ones too.

Moved cleaner over to my house today to clean durum for seed next spring, couple more truckloads to do tomorrow, should be done by noon. Then it's just clean equipment, oil changes & put stuff away for winter storage the rest of the week. Mail out some grain samples & start making some deals... another couple weeks of farming yet before I can retire to the Lil Giants workshop for the winter. :)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Jan%2015/003_zpspakfzjsp.jpg

TRUCKMAKER

11-02-2015, 01:59 PM

So did you get everything done for the season so you can go back to digging a tunnel?

Lil Giants

11-06-2015, 02:52 AM

For the most part, yes... just doing some grain hauling, soil sampling right now & trying to figure out fertilizer blends & what to grow next yr & where.

Lil Giants

03-16-2016, 10:25 PM

What I've been working on the last couple weeks at the farm shop, mounting cross box augers on my tandem & pup so I can drive along side of air drill fill auger to load product into cart. Only need to take one trk to the field instead of two, saves time moving equipment around.

Took trk & pup to town a few days ago to plumb all the hyd hoses, hard to fathom it took 226 feet of braided hose. I had to plumb this trk so it would dumped the pup as well, before it was just the red Mack R that could pull the pup.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Jan%2016/006_zpszkxz0dvl.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Jan%2016/005_zps9hv9q2mp.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Jan%2016/007_zpsqhpuwyjm.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Jan%2016/009_zpsxpdovugt.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Jan%2016/008_zpsbzfzi16k.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Jan%2016/004_zpsycauzgme.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Jan%2016/003_zps2tibpasq.jpg

Couple more hrs of tinkering to do securing all the hoses to keep them away from moving parts & pinch points. Try it out next week hauling home granular fertilizer for this spring's planting.

Acadieman

03-18-2016, 12:01 PM

Looks like a good setup. Will save travel time for sure. What's the plan for the ol' red mack? It looks like a beast of a truck.

Lil Giants

03-18-2016, 02:32 PM

Those cross box augers weigh about 150lbs each, so I won't be taking them on/off just whenever. The red Mack will be used to chased down 3 different seed varieties from different seed growers prior to start of seeding. Plus I got 2 railcars of flax to deliver to an elevator 1st part of April, 15 mile haul. Hook the red Mack onto the quad axle belly dump & get 'er done.

Lil Giants

03-20-2016, 09:27 PM

Finally a beautiful day here again with sunshine +15, working at the farm shop to put in these dual hose holders, the base is steel & I can weld it in place anywhere.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Jan%2016/001_zps849eea2e.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Jan%2016/002_zpszx24zmje.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Jan%2016/003_zpsrqmbj2e5.jpg

Just got to get a couple more for the pup.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Jan%2016/004_zpsfqaypaky.jpg

doodlebug

03-20-2016, 11:19 PM

Hey Joe, what year is your white CH Mack?
Cheers!

Lil Giants

03-21-2016, 10:13 PM

'97

doodlebug

03-22-2016, 12:17 PM

'97

Same as my CL.
Cheers!

Lil Giants

03-25-2016, 01:46 AM

I spent the last couple of days hauling granular fertilizer home, the crossbox augers themselves worked very well, but some refinement with the hyd supply is in need... the reservoir is too small, the oil gets blistering hot! Then the valves for dump & auger drive don't work freely, and then it can get hairy to operate smoothly. The temps last couple days start out -2 & rise to +10... during seeding temps could be in the 20's. Hopefully I can get it sorted out in the next week without too much additional expense.

The pup's auger will over supply the 10" auger, tractor running full throttle @540 pto rpm. Dump 12mt in about 10 mins. Then dumping the trk, the tractor is running maybe half throttle, the oil extremely hot!! takes about 20 min to unload 11mt.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Jan%2016/001_zpsjsrcwrm4.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Jan%2016/003_zpsex7nbuhe.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Jan%2016/004_zpsjcvmyo3v.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7SozR7F-X8

TRUCKMAKER

03-25-2016, 08:41 AM

It's to bad they couldn't have made the long runs out of aluminum tubing to help disapate some of the heat in the fluid along with the larger reservoir.

Lil Giants

03-26-2016, 10:35 PM

The tank that's on the trk is about 5ga... after 2nd day of use I went to look at somebody else I know that has these same augers on his trk & pup, his reservoir is about 30ga and he's had no issues in the ?yrs he's been using it spring & fall, up to 30's temp.

Start doing some phoning/shopping around Monday to see what I can do to rectify the situation.

Lil Giants

03-29-2016, 07:58 PM

Got the call today to haul my flax in... it'll be loaded into 2 railcars end of April - 1st week of May. Couple hrs checking tires, oil levels, grease & load 'er up with secondary weights... I was a few tonne under, but the grid road is still too soft in places... such a mild winter & it seems to be taking longer than usual for the frost to leave the ground. :rolleyes:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Jan%2016/002_zpsybhrqwtm.jpg

Doing some phoning around last couple days to figure out what to do next with other trk's hyds... tomorrow I'll order a 25ga oil tank with valves on it, that's essentially 5x bigger than the tank I currently have. From what I'm told that volume will solve my excessive heat issues with the oil.

Acadieman

03-30-2016, 08:06 AM

That hydraulic setup is pretty slick. Unloading in style. :cool:
What's the end destination for the flax?

The granular fertilizer, do you convert it to liquid form, or apply it as is?

Lil Giants

03-30-2016, 04:18 PM

I don't know about style, but it's much quicker & easier than jack knifing. :)

The flax buyer is a China company, don't know how or what they'll produce... not sure what coast it's going to either to be off loaded from railcar to container. Payment is 10 days after it's emptied from railcar.

The granular fertilizer will be applied as is with my air drill. I hired an agrologist last fall to do soil sampling & make fertilizer blend & rate recommendations. It's been an El Nino winter here, much warmer than past years, but still got a fair amount snow or rain all winter, spring moisture is very good. But the summer forecast is predicting drier than normal. :confused: So I'm going to back off fertilizer rate 25% from agrologist's suggested #'s & if the moisture is looking good to great up to flag leaf, then I may top up nutrient levels with liquid fert then, applied with my Apache field sprayer.

After last yr's weather wreck with so much hail, got to proceed this yr with some caution with how much money I put into the ground, especially if it's a possibility of being a drought yr, something we haven't seen since 2006, which is very unusual for this area.

It started spitting rain an hour ago, looks like it's gonna carry on for few hrs yet, can't load flax in the rain, the seed gets wet it will stick to the metal box like glue... even after it's dried, it's stuck to the box. Then I got to use a metal paint scraper to get it out!!! not fun. :rolleyes: ...off to the basement to do some digging in the tunnel. :D

Lil Giants

04-01-2016, 07:37 PM

A few loads of flax out today... one more to do Monday. Because I cleaned flax before binning it last fall to get rid of the high moisture FM, the trk & trl is like half full volume wise & weighing up 28mt... last couple loads I've been down to 25 -26mt... last load I gots to try to guess 21mt or I'll be bringing some back to put in the bin... a lot of extra time & effort & clean up :rolleyes:

The upside knowing how well my flax is weighing up is that my dismal guess of 6,5bu yield from the last fall is very likely over 10bu now, more money :) now if the price would just go up 20% to reach last yr's highs...

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Jan%2016/005_zpspj8q7mxh.jpg

Country elevator 6 miles away yet, half way there...

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Jan%2016/006_zpszce3rnus.jpg

Acadieman

04-06-2016, 11:12 AM

Nice pictures! Hard to imagine that the Elevator is 6 miles away.
Hopefully the weather will cooperate this year! Its been a odd Spring so far in this area.

Lil Giants

04-06-2016, 06:52 PM

The zoom was maxxed on the Iphone. Yeah, the weather... I'm due for a lottery yr for a change. :)

The local New Holland dealership, an impressive icon being mated to a brand new Morris drill, the 600/50 Big Bud looks kinda small :eek:... last week the Bud was in the shop parked next to a 700hp Ford 4wd on tracks & the Bud dwarfed it!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Jan%2016/005_zps1c2sgetg.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Jan%2016/003_zpsyqhd7rxk.jpg

The mechanic is about 5'7"

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Jan%2016/002_zps5zugu9fd.jpg

The drill is 71ft on 12" spacing

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Jan%2016/001_zpskx04xvcp.jpg

Going to town tomorrow to pick up my new seed cart, this one is 30% bigger than the old one. And variable rate toowhich will be nice to fine tune seeding rates from the cab. :)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Jan%2016/006_zpshhtnruuv.jpg

Acadieman

04-08-2016, 10:05 AM

71 ft drill, can't take to long to cover an acre with that.
Big Bud still are impressive. I like the Belarus/Kirovet models as well, very square and basic in design.
The new cart looks sophisticated and easier to pull with the 4 wheel setup. :)

Lil Giants

04-08-2016, 02:51 PM

71ft on the mile will seed about 8.6ac, me @60ft is about 7.3ac.

I was hoping yesterday it would quick switch, but of course not :rolleyes: need a different hitch on back of drill... and my plastic auger is too short too... summer time mod. :(

My 25ga hyd tank for the trk & pup showed up today, get that in place & see what hoses need lengthening.

Here's the two carts side by side, left one is 580bu capacity, right 430bu... the arrangement of the 3 individual compartments for capacity is better on the newer cart so I can maximize my acres per fill to its full potential. The smaller cart had its smallest tank in the middle, the larger cart has it in front. The middle tank is paired with either the front or rear tank, can't be metered alone.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Jan%2016/001_zpscfhi9u54.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Jan%2016/002_zps66c9x1e6.jpg

Lil Giants

04-18-2016, 11:36 PM

Loaded up tonite for turnkey in the morning... it hasn't been this early since 2012, and that was a lottery yr of great crops & great prices... here's hoping for a repeat. :)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Jan%2016/004_zpsp19kbamh.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Jan%2016/002_zpsdxmnlahp.jpg

TRUCKMAKER

04-19-2016, 12:26 PM

Nice pictures Joe, got one of it all stretched out, in the field?

Lil Giants

04-19-2016, 11:29 PM

Panoramic from the cab on the fly

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Mobile%20Uploads/image_zps1ql4y9sy.jpg

...not so good :rolleyes:

...anyways, new cart worked good today, a couple of hiccups to work through the 1st couple hrs, the 30% increase in capacity is awesome! :cool: and the adjusting seed rates from the cab is pretty sweet too. :)

Red lentils done, moving onto yellow peas tomorrow, that'll take a few days.

Lil Giants

04-21-2016, 12:01 AM

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Jan%2016/002_zpsc3tryxmj.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Jan%2016/003_zpsivctzbbc.jpg

TRUCKMAKER

04-21-2016, 07:33 AM

Great pictures, thanks Joe!

RCTech9

04-21-2016, 02:51 PM

Looks like you got yourself a pretty slck set up Joe.

Acadieman

04-22-2016, 12:28 PM

nice pics!

Soooo many lines! I suspect means more control in the application too.

Sounds like we are all having an early start. Over here the province is already in a no fire permitted state because its so dry.

Lil Giants

04-23-2016, 03:25 PM

Thanks guys. :)

Acadieman, the drill is a double shoot, two 1" lines going to each shank/seed boot. One line fertilizer, exits seed boot in the middle of the seed row, the 2nd line is seed coming out either side of fertilizer (paired row) half an inch above. The seed boots are spaced 12" apart.

I had a good week here, sowed 900 acre by Friday 2pm... I need to spray burn off (glyphosate) to continue seeding durum, but yesterday & today it's too gusty for that! :mad: Fricking weather. :rolleyes: Talking rain/snow here Sunday/Monday... it'll be Wednesday below the weather cooperates again... so much for getting started early :rolleyes:

Hiredman is on the landroller right now, packing down the small rocks & flattening the dirt lumps left by the drill pass... pulse crops are either very close to the ground or right on the ground, the surface has gotta be as smooth & flat as possible to get 'er all in the bin. :) ...and hopefully not pick a rock into the combine, that would be bad & expensive. :(

Lil Giants

04-25-2016, 03:20 PM

Aint this HILARIOUS :eek:

last night
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Jan%2016/001_zpsnlxpfxxt.jpg
today
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Jan%2016/002_zpswrexpkbv.jpg

...last week mid 20's, sunshine changing to 0's & snow for most of this week. :rolleyes:

Supermario

04-25-2016, 04:30 PM

Totally agree Joe. This is getting ridiculous! Started snowing here this morning till after lunch. About as much as you got. I got all my yard raking finally done and was actually thinking about setting things up in the park:eek: till the wife told me the forcast.:mad:

I'm sure you can still have a 2012 type year or does this really screw things up?

RCTech9

04-25-2016, 08:03 PM

I cant see the pictures, but the upside of having the snow will be some extra moisture to help get a (hopefully) great yield.

Lil Giants

04-25-2016, 08:51 PM

Just makes you want to reach out & punch a tree hugger, eh Mario?! :D ...lying azz morons with their fossil fuel global warming bullshyt -> it's as big of a joke as the Y2K scandal 15yrs ago. :rolleyes:

No, cold snowy weather won't hurt any week old seeded crop at this point, some of what was planted last week has probably germinated, but it's not above ground yet. I seed pulses 1st, then do my weed burn off 7-10days later. Chemical options for spraying in-crop pulses are so limited & timing crop growth extremely crucial that this has been the best option for maximum weed control measures that by the time it's necessary to do in-crop spray control the next flush of weeds is very small & easy to wipe out... then hopefully with the right timing of sunshine & moisture the crop advances quick enough to canopy the ground & block the sunshine for the 3rd flush in later June... that's the plan anyway. My only worry atm is how long will this cold dreary weather carry on vs how quickly the seed germinates & tries to poke through the surface... Wednesday I'll be walking the muddy fields & digging by hand in the seed rows to see how much the seeds have grown & make a new plan when to spray... cold weather should slow down activity enough so hopefully the fields dry out enough that I don't have to rut the shyt out of it with the sprayer...

Right now it's snowing pretty heavy...

RT9, something's wrong with photobucket... some of pic appear - some don't. Rebooting computer didn't help either... maybe tomorrow they'll work. :rolleyes:

doodlebug

04-26-2016, 05:22 AM

I have a load of wet batch concrete on my truck, raining, the paving has stalled!
Cheers!

Lil Giants

04-26-2016, 02:46 PM

So as long as it keeps raining the cement won't set up in the box? Is the hardener added by the paver machine?

ihbuilder

04-26-2016, 07:38 PM

Concrete will setup under water . It's a chemical reaction with water added to the cement .

Acadieman

04-27-2016, 10:57 AM

Thanks for the explanation Lil Giants. I'm always impressed by the techniques and new technology used.

tough break on the weather! Hope it clears up soon. Temps are hovering between -3 to +10 here which is typical Maritime climate. Newfoundland got 50cm or snow last week, they can have it. :D

Lil Giants

04-27-2016, 03:05 PM

Concrete will setup under water . It's a chemical reaction with water added to the cement .

True, but is the chemical makeup altered per applicable use? How long does the wet batch sit on his trk before he HAS to dump it out? Why stop paving when it's raining when the cement will eventually setup anyway?

Lil Giants

04-27-2016, 03:15 PM

YEP! Still cold, cloudy & drizzling here, about 1,5 inch moisture accumulation during the last 4 days... a deep slow soaker... snow is all gone... I can't get down the grid road now without my chevy in 4wd... it's freaking wet!!! :(

Gonna go have a look here right now to see how far advanced last week's seeded lentils & peas are...

doodlebug

04-28-2016, 01:13 AM

So as long as it keeps raining the cement won't set up in the box? Is the hardener added by the paver machine?

It's mixed up dry, compared to what comes out of a transit mixer, for general use. I don't know why they kept batching trucks? Can't second guess what they are thinking !
Cheers!

Lil Giants

04-29-2016, 11:55 PM

Crop checking Wed & Thurs, cooler single digit temps & the soil cool damp, the lentil seed had a root jetting down an inch and another coiled around the seed. Today with warm sunshine, that upper root is starting to go skyward, just a few mm below the soil. Blasted off one tank of spray just before dark & the 2nd one early tomorrow morning. With a magnifying glass, I might be able to see the lentil poke through the ground Sunday afternoon :thinking: The ground tonite was wet enough that I wasn't making much dust @22mph, but not throwing any mud either... sweeeeet!

Probably Sunday I do 3 tanks of burnoff for the peas, they were seeded a little deeper, grow a little slower.

Normally cleaning out the seed cart, I would auger back into the trk, but metal screw augers are not too friendly to yellow peas, there's always a small percentage of crack every time it goes through metal screw... so I eliminated one unload by dumping directly into bin with the aid of a short hyd belt conveyer. ;)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Jan%2016/002_zpsdxibvrqb.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Jan%2016/004_zpstfxgiwti.jpg

Then reloaded trk with a different blend of granular fertilizer & the pup with durum... cart is turnkey tomorrow.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Jan%2016/005_zpsevmgb47i.jpg

Hammer down for the next week... everything goes well, should plant +300ac daily, plus spray 400ac per day... be done durum by next Friday. Then it's a section of brown mustard & 75ac green feed....:)

Lil Giants

05-10-2016, 03:51 PM

Started seeding April 19th... I think it was April 22 my a/c in seed tractor was blowing warm air & by very good luck I caught the roaming mechanic go by house & had it recharged within the hr :D... then the next week it snows, about 5days off... fire up again & go 10 long days straight, sure thankful I got my a/c charged when I did b/c mid week temps were 30's for highs... now this morning is wet wet wet & 9:20 it starts to snow

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Jan%2016/009_zpsndymkikp.jpg

Getting worse at 12pm

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Jan%2016/010_zpspyoi3stv.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Jan%2016/012_zpsgdandgtb.jpg

Out looking at my pea crop yesterday, looking real good at 2" growth... next couple nights forecasted low's -2 :rolleyes:

Some pics from last week's activities

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Jan%2016/002_zpsxvzmoz5i.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Jan%2016/003_zpswyqcqpye.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Jan%2016/004_zpsaexzhzpv.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Jan%2016/005_zpsii9navbf.jpg

Neighbor across the fence on Friday afternoon with his 600hp JD track & 70' Seedmaster air drill.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Jan%2016/006_zpstfhjyx4t.jpg

I'm down to 180ac of brown mustard to seed yet, and another half section that was still a swamp yesterday... don't know when I'm going to get in to do anything with that... if I don't get it seeded to durum before June 1st, then it'll be planted sometime this summer when it does dry out with a tri-blend of grass seed... get 5 hay crops from it, then maybe a few yrs of cattle grazing it too should do wonders to rejuvenate the land to near its original glory again for growing grain crops.

TRUCKMAKER

05-10-2016, 04:57 PM

Neat stuff Joe, thanks for posting. How far are you from the fires?

Lil Giants

05-10-2016, 07:56 PM

https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Fort+McMurray,+AB,+Canada/Instow,+SK,+Canada/@53.1405408,-114.7564471,6z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m14!4m13!1m5!1m1!1s0x53b03aeeff1a44 59:0x5c8133330dca74b7!2m2!1d-111.3803407!2d56.7263796!1m5!1m1!1s0x5316af80b13eb 3af:0x35a0e5755a2e082a!2m2!1d-108.283426!2d49.723298!3e0

TRUCKMAKER

05-10-2016, 08:46 PM

Thanks for the link, it's a ways away. Never realized how far north it was.

RCTech9

05-10-2016, 11:33 PM

Awesome pictures Joe, it seems you are quite the snow magnet. How many acres do you have left to plant?

Lil Giants

05-11-2016, 03:24 PM

I'm certainly a magnet for unusually cold weather during spring/summer/fall since 2007... 2012 is the only yr I didn't get a late May - early June frost to screw up my hay crop, close to 3t/ac vs .5 to .8t/ac 5yrs prior to & since, last yr was zero - didn't make a bale!...2010 was early Sept frost... 2011 was mid Sept... big price losses in cereal grains... 2013 there was a 3rd week of August frost that decimated my brown mustard crop a few weeks before harvest, one field on higher level ground does 28bu/ac & a different one in lower ground & triple in size does 8bu/ac... last yr was 4 hail storms from mid June to mid July, it's been from one extreme to the next the last decade with 2012 being the only bright spot with high quality - big bushels - high prices simultaneously. :rolleyes:

Left to seed - 180ac brown mustard that I'll get to when the sun shines again, maybe on the wkend, 75ac slough that's self draining & should be able do right away that'll be sowed to oats for green feed again, and 270ac durum that's crazy wet atm...

This latest system that came through, my rain gauge is 6/10's of an inch plus whatever snow the gauge doesn't catch... 20 miles to west ppl talking 2 to 4 inches & same to the east, I'm thankful I didn't get bombed with that much moisture in a couple day period. :)

Maybe tomorrow I can get around on my quad & I take some pics of my crops as they're just in their infancy. :)

TRUCKMAKER

05-27-2016, 11:14 AM

Joe, did you get everything planted? It seems they are just starting around here.

Lil Giants

06-01-2016, 03:35 PM

I was unofficially done on May 16th with 3100ac planted, that last 270ac field never did have a chance to dry out as it's been raining a few tenths every other day since... there's quite a few farmers in my area not done yet. I got that last field sprayed with glyphosate on May 19th & very nearly sewer'd it a couple times... get it seeded to winter wheat this fall is my only option now. :thinking:

Here's some pics of crop from a week ago...

Durum at 2 leaf, in the ground about 2 weeks

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Jan%2016/002_zpso0ch3mtt.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Jan%2016/003_zpsi6ppmfmn.jpg

Red lentils

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Jan%2016/005_zpsnunjmdyt.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Jan%2016/006_zpsd2kzcuww.jpg

Yellow peas

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Jan%2016/001_zps73gykriw.jpg

Yellow peas again, pics I took yesterday

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Jan%2016/001_zpsi8o7vxbc.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Jan%2016/002_zpsheivk0xr.jpg

I'm quite pleased with the weed control I got with post seeding burn off on peas & lentils... looking at other guy's fields who burnt off before seeding, they've got quite mess with fields too wet to get into! :eek: But as of today, now I'm on the brink of getting behind too with so much wet weather lately, the crops need sunshine so I can get busy spraying in crop for weed control... the next week forecast looks to be dry, but could be windy :rolleyes:

RCTech9

06-01-2016, 08:46 PM

Nice pictures Joe!!!

Lil Giants

06-12-2016, 12:56 AM

Thanx T-9

A couple of snaps while spraying my lentils Monday

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Jan%2016/002_zpsohnf1nd2.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Jan%2016/003_zpsybyh9obu.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Jan%2016/004_zpsm8bjz95z.jpg

Enjoying a nice light rain all day, not a huge amount but still a good soaker :) Probably too wet to spray tomorrow, but hopefully finish up durum on Monday & maybe all the brown mustard Tuesday, although the last 160ac was seeded a week later.

After enjoying an El Nino winter, weather predictions then were for drier than normal, but sometime early April the weather patterns switch back to La Nina & I've been getting some good moisture nearly weekly since the snow melted, not bombed - just nice light rains. :) Today's all day rain might add to half inch by morning. Perfect! :) Crops are looking fantastic! :cool:

TRUCKMAKER

06-12-2016, 11:25 AM

Good deal Joe. Crops look good. I have yet to see anything coming up around here.

Lil Giants

08-16-2016, 12:22 AM

Started cutting yellow peas Saturday afternoon (hiredhand took these pics today)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Jan%2016/039_zpsod3epenn.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Jan%2016/038_zps2xgipejw.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Jan%2016/036_zpsmbuyrhfw.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Jan%2016/035_zpsr49pkiqk.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Jan%2016/032_zpsa98hch2t.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Jan%2016/033_zpslggmaiaa.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Jan%2016/040_zps41hb2uda.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Jan%2016/037_zpsvztdsgyf.jpg

Pea crop looks pretty good throughout

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Jan%2016/025_zpsamuwgqcz.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Jan%2016/020_zpsa8mnk3lx.jpg

Yield monitor reading about 30% high, this is the highest spike I've seen (85bu/ac), monitor usually shows between 85 - 100 (55 - 70)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Jan%2016/028_zpswmtipa7d.jpg

But, 3 nights in row had to shut down early b/c of DEF error codes appearing resulting in reduced power :rolleyes: Mechanic comes out in the morning to do a software reset... I hope this doesn't turn into a daily routine for entire harvest :( :thinking: Last yr didn't have not one hiccup, but then not much crop either getting less half the hrs. Year before when it was brand new DEF errors maybe half dozen times for the season.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Jan%2016/019_zpsjz7yaioo.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Jan%2016/016_zpsovbjksoe.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Jan%2016/015_zpsyvaakhxg.jpg

Tonite I got this window & it really cut my power, engine slowed to 1800rpm, rotor dropped from 800rpm to 700rpm... after I shut off separator, then engine wouldn't rev above 1250 :( ...mechanic came out before dark & did a reset, by the time that was done it was already getting cool & tough and sun just went down... hopefully good to go in the morning... maybe tomorrow will be a full day. :rolleyes:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Jan%2016/031_zpsvbye8gzy.jpg

These pollution systems on ag equipment is BULLSHYT!!!! Burn more fuel - get less power - f/ked up days with error codes that nobody can answer why

5yr warranty on the DEF, then I be forced to trade up newer or pay to play with old junk... :rolleyes:

Northern Farmer

08-16-2016, 03:24 AM

Always impressed watching you work Joe and the machinery you use. Real bummer about the tractor throwing codes, guessing you can't reset it yourself ?

Lil Giants

08-17-2016, 10:35 PM

Yes, it does take a lot of specialized equipment to grain farm, and I really just have the basic without much perks.... my farm is getting too small ($$$$$$) to keep up with the latest greatest technology that caters to farms 3 - 5 times bigger than me.

The DEF software reset, the mechanic does it with his specialized laptop, and in some cases, like when he changed a DEF module Sunday afternoon, he needed a password to get into software download, and that came from some one in the southern USA... we sat there about an hour twiddling our thumbs waiting for that to happen, probably would've happened quicker if it were any day but Sunday :rolleyes:

Managed to go all day yesterday without problem, but today @4pm I get a red window "STOP - clean grain elevator rpm too slow"... get to looking to see where lies the problem & realize an 8 foot x 2" shaft snapped in half... not really a big deal to change, but it's something unusual to break & the local dealership's quick search before closing revealed maybe the closest part either being in Nebraska or Indiana :eek: I hope they find something closer tomorrow morning & maybe get my combine back before 5pm... :rolleyes:

If not, find out what it costs to rent one if it's gonna take a week to fix mine.

Peas are ready now... a week from now & peas get too ripe, they will start shelling in the field if it's windy & will shell really bad while trying to cut them. A week from now could add up to 10% loss, maybe more - 200ac x 70bu/ac avg yield x $9 = $12 500 in losses approx, not to mention all that might volunteer next yr & be considered a weed in my durum in 2017's crop yr.

So, maybe by 9am my dealership will know what's what & I can make a decision what to do next to get back in the field asap... no matter what it's gonna be a pricy hiccup. :(

hvy 1ton

08-18-2016, 03:00 AM

Lil Giants

08-24-2016, 04:14 PM

Except for the first code, that's the same stuff i get when the def supply line gets plugged. There is an inline filter up top that can be checked. I had to put filters on the def tank vent lines to keep dust out. That was recommended to me by a Pro Harvest mechanic a couple years ago.

So... since adding additional filters you haven't had anymore DEF error code problems?

We fuel/grease early in the mornings with virtually zero wind & most always a dew; wipe dust away before opening caps, keeps dust flying about to a minimum... plus cover fill holes with clean towel while fueling...

Mechanics never do any wrenching, just a quick reset with a laptop... I've got close to 20hrs now since last software reset... but I'll mention what you said to mechanic the next time he comes again for DEF error.

Lil Giants

08-24-2016, 04:49 PM

With a change in weather last Thur - Fri to cool/cloudy, I waited for my combine to be repaired & got it back Saturday after dinner. The closest part was indeed in Nebraska, I think the place was Beatrice :thinking:; UPS overnight $750usd - cost of part $817usd :rolleyes:... albeit the part was in Billings, Montana @8am - it took more than 7hrs to travel 3hrs north to Turner, Montana where my hirehand picked it up from there @3:30pm... so it's just about 5pm Friday when he shows up at the dealership with it :(

Took a pic of broken shaft, that looks like an air bubble within, it was flawed right from factory! 445hrs seperator

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Jan%2016/015_zpswaboh7ha.jpg

hvy 1ton

08-24-2016, 09:39 PM

So... since adding additional filters you haven't had anymore DEF error code problems?

We fuel/grease early in the mornings with virtually zero wind & most always a dew; wipe dust away before opening caps, keeps dust flying about to a minimum... plus cover fill holes with clean towel while fueling...

Mechanics never do any wrenching, just a quick reset with a laptop... I've got close to 20hrs now since last software reset... but I'll mention what you said to mechanic the next time he comes again for DEF error.

Haven't had any more problems as far as i know. Never had any problems out of the magnum tractors for whatever reason. Well, def problems. It only has to look at dust to clog the air filter.

RCTech9

09-21-2016, 08:49 AM

Joe, i saw this and thought of you.
http://www.cbc.ca/beta/news/canada/saskatoon/fiske-news-crime-harvest-guns-1.3770769

doodlebug

09-22-2016, 03:12 AM

Had my 12 gauge out at the shop, the other night, what ever was making the noise dissapeared in a hurry! 30 minute response time is too slow!

Lil Giants

09-22-2016, 11:37 AM

I usually don't have the radio on very loud or maybe not at all cause I want to hear asap if any gremlins start acting up in the combine... just caught blurps about a massive manhunt central sask, but oblivious as to what it was all about.... thanx for the link Tech9 :eek:

I don't own any pistols, it's a restricted fire arm with a mountain of paperwork to purchase & very strict guidelines to transport under lock & key and federal felony charges if you don't comply "to the letter"... I've got rifles on both farms varying from .22 to .300 & I'm quite accurate up to 500yds... shyt like that ever goes down in my neighborhood & it's shoot - shovel & shut up, won't be calling RCMP & hiding waiting for them

I think it was 2001, a super dry yr, bang two rocks together & the sparks start an immediate grass fire.... there was this guy who wanted to join the town volunteer fire department, but the crew didn't want him around - he didn't seem mentally fit for such responsibility... so late summer - early fall there's suddenly a rash of fires starting in the ditch... being it's harvest, lots of ppl around travelling up/down roads fairly constant to spot these fires within minutes to put them out... that guy was a suspect, but nobody caught him in the act doing it, it was thought he was using a bottle torch to start fires quick & leave! One farmer travelling in his pickup spotted a vechile a mile off & gave chase, this was right at sunset, gravel roads, heavy thick dust. Couldn't catch him, his trk governed out at 100mph - the perp's vehicle didn't, farmer couldn't make positive ID on vehicle. Farmer raced back & put out the fire.

After that news, everybody within 100 mile radius of town had their deer rifles with them at all times! And the cops went to talk to the guy & mentioned that to him... he left town not long after...

Lil Giants

09-22-2016, 03:47 PM

Well... it's been another not enjoyable harvest with break downs, wet weather delays, crop slow to mature & now quickly turning to junk, rich with disease & other grading factors diminishing price returns.

Got an 8day stretch up till last night of hammer down! But 7:00am it starts raining & looks like it could carry on bout 3 days... a slow – deep soaker kind of rain...the last third is 99% certainty to be just crap, now!

And a lot of my brown mustard, bigtime weed wreck on some of it... probably gonna have to get that mobile grain cleaner guy back to clean as combine so the high moisture weed seeds don’t spoil the entire bin... bewildered as to why the $50/ac chemical didn’t do its job. :thinking:

frizzen

09-22-2016, 06:52 PM

Stay safe up there guys. We don't need to find out how long it'd take to dig graves by rc...

Hopefully the weather breaks and you can get back at it before it spoils.

doodlebug

09-23-2016, 12:00 AM

Raining like mad! No wet batch concrete to haul, last 2 nights. Tomorrow looks like a repeat.
Cheers!

Lil Giants

10-04-2016, 11:53 PM

Isn't this lovely weather for October? :rolleyes:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Jan%2016/018_zpsgazjwxkc.jpg

Another brutal harvest of bad weather... crop took forever to mature. Hammer down on durum wheat Sept14th for eight days, then get a two day slow soaker rain that takes four more to dry out, cut 5 days & then get bombed 8pm Saturday night with a half inch down pour with quarter size hail... HAIL IN OCTOBER FOR KRIEST SAKES!!!

At this point I'm 80% done. 45ac durum & 500ac of brown mustard that's a total disaster of a weed wreck... if the sun ever shines again & warms up... the next 10 day forecast is cold & wet!

And if that isn't stressful enough, my help has been a total retard the last couple weeks... he talked the big talk, but when it was time to put in the big hrs - he folded up like a paper doll, some days showed up late or not at all!!! :mad: I am paying him nearly double $/hr than ever made in the oil patch... it's just so frustrating... the weather, the excessive electronically flawed equipped equipment & shyt help...

TRUCKMAKER

10-05-2016, 07:30 AM

Yeah good help is hard to find, seems everybody wants/needs a job but nobody wants to work!
Does it seem that the whole growing/harvest season is shifting to earlier in the year? We got down into the low to mid 60's last week and now are heading for 80 for a couple days then back down next week.

Northern Farmer

10-05-2016, 11:39 AM

Snow already!! Uhhh :(

TRUCKMAKER

10-05-2016, 12:14 PM

Yeah if I'm reading the radar right it should be coming down pretty good up there.

Lil Giants

10-05-2016, 03:21 PM

Yep! this is what my trk looked like this morning

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Jan%2016/001_zpsj5zcaqll.jpg

Some standing hard wheat that I saw yesterday near town stood 3' tall, this morning it's just about flat on the ground, weighted down from the snow... more snow tonite, tomorrow & Saturday in the forecast.

It's getting to be just one season here Kent: cold, wet & miserable all yr round... if we don't get out of this La Nina cycle soon, it's gonna bankrupt me! :(

TRUCKMAKER

10-05-2016, 05:10 PM

I would think its cyclic but who knows what Mother Nature's got up her sleeve. I hope it straightens up for you that's not good.

Lil Giants

10-06-2016, 11:40 AM

Took a drive around yesterday afternoon

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Jan%2016/001_zpsekmizrqa.jpg

This the brown mustard with the weed wreck, it was already flat on the ground :rolleyes:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Jan%2016/002_zpsyl3a9vmj.jpg

And this brown mustard WAS standing 4 foot tall

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Jan%2016/003_zpsczj2fq5a.jpg

And the durum that WAS standing good as well

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Jan%2016/004_zpsahstv0sx.jpg

Those last two fields adding up to about 250ac should've been combined before the snow if it weren't for my a**hole hiredman's drama the last couple weeks of September :mad: ...the time & the fuel & the electricity that's gonna be wasted to get it harvested

The next 7 days... go hide in the shop & tinker
http://weather.gc.ca/city/pages/sk-11_metric_e.html

Cooper

10-07-2016, 09:00 PM

Lil Giants

10-07-2016, 09:39 PM

Hey, I feel for ya with the help situation joe, I've had to pass up on some work because I am just one guy now. Seems like any good help I hire moves on soon as to better themselves and can't argue with that but the ones that stick around usually end up costing me more in re-doing work or creating more work than what they are worth!! Nobody wants to actually work and be reliable anymore!! Only bad side is I don't have anyone to blame for something wrong now :).

Hopefully you can get the best out of you crops this year.

Yeah, harvest is just too time sensitive not to have help, bad weather can be quite costly... got some hard thinking to do whether I'm still here next yr or not.

I got some results today from some of my early durum samples that show some promise of maybe getting some decent returns... the entire yr is not a complete write off yet. :)

RCTech9

10-11-2016, 10:06 PM

Joe i totally understand your lack of good help. We are having the same situation here in Western Nebraska, Got the wheat drilled, then we let our help go. I am sorry to hear about your weather frustrations.

Lil Giants

10-12-2016, 12:13 AM

Thank you RT9 (I'm sure I ask you your name before, but I'm becoming forgetful :p)

It's an unusual job with irregular hours, short term work period & high stakes to get it done in a timely manner... it'd be great to have partner to share the wealth when times are good & spread the risk when times are not good, but the buy in is just too high to be a consideration. :(

RCTech9

10-13-2016, 02:26 AM

My name is Parker... Farming sure can have unusual hours, some nights during wheat harvest i would get 4 hours of sleep.

Lil Giants

10-13-2016, 02:58 PM

We don't go that hard... 8am -10pm max, sleep is a must to be safe.

Lil Giants

11-08-2016, 10:58 PM

Done!

In all my years I can't recall harvest dragging out this late in the yr... what a shyt show the last couple weeks with crop flat on the ground, cutting @2 - 3mph ...crop is brown mustard that should be standing 4 foot tall.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Jan%2016/037_zpsoquwu04c.jpg

After one day of missing more than I was getting, I got these crop lifters from a buddy, the lifters made a huge difference, but I was still leaving some crop behind. Start discing this Friday to Sunday, hopefully chop up what's still left in the field so it's not a nightmare to seed through next spring. I was wanting to do a couple thousand acre this fall... race against the weather & I got no help... azzhole hired man never did come back, paid him too much.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Jan%2016/031_zps1vwhib3b.jpg

Got a call yesterday morning from local elevator that I MUST deliver 450mt this week for 5 cars to be loaded next week :eek: Yesterday morning was foggy, wouldn't be combining till late in the day anyway... banged in 4 loads yesterday & two this morning, trk worked good, a little over half done, haul some more Thursday, Friday is a holiday, finish 'er Monday.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Jan%2016/032_zpsaclamvyp.jpg

Next week, some how I'm suppose to load out 44 B train loads of durum... 1500mt :eek: that's 9 trks a day avg... I sure hope they start coming at daybreak cause if after dinner it just aint happening.

And the following week is cleaning all this weedy brown mustard I just combined & do a couple thousand bu durum for next yr's seeding.

egronvold

11-09-2016, 06:27 AM

I tried to wave, but didn't see you... ;)
http://i307.photobucket.com/albums/nn304/ls_15/Misc/IMG_0014.jpg (http://s307.photobucket.com/user/ls_15/media/Misc/IMG_0014.jpg.html)

Lil Giants

11-10-2016, 09:03 PM

If the X marks the spot where you were waving to, you were looking out the wrong side of the plane, I'm in opposite corner of Saskatchewan :D :p mog, Stuff or Dieselchopper down in Estevan might have seen you though. :)

egronvold

11-11-2016, 09:06 AM

Lil Giants

11-12-2016, 09:45 AM

Got rolling yesterday with the double offset in the mustard field I just finished earlier in the week, a lot of crop left that was too low to the ground to get with the combine, gotta get it chopped up so it doesn't plug up the airdrill during next yr's seeding.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Jan%2016/003_zpskone2twf.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Jan%2016/001_zpsdcwi6gyy.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Jan%2016/002_zps1xtjzkv7.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Jan%2016/004_zpsy6hmhxto.jpg

Lift up over the washouts, spring runoff can turn into flash floods some years if there's lots of snow & the weather warms up too quickly. Leaving the roots in the ground helps to anchor the soil as much as possible.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Jan%2016/005_zpszixndtdw.jpg

GPS Autosteer is without a doubt the greatest advancement in agriculture technology since the change from horse drawn equipment to petroleum powered! Didn't shut down till 10pm last night... 10hrs non stop = 200+ac done.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Jan%2016/006_zpspcjlcmyd.jpg

Looks like this Wed winter is on it's way again & could be here to stay... in the last 2 weeks we've had several 20C days, many farmers in the area will liekly finish harvest this wkend. I need 2 more weeks yet for fall field work...

up9018

11-13-2016, 08:38 PM

Very nice disk. :D

Lil Giants

11-14-2016, 02:22 PM

You have one too?

RCTech9

11-17-2016, 12:35 PM

Joe, how big is your Landoll? We have a 49ft and love it. Glad you got your harvest done.

Lil Giants

11-17-2016, 05:19 PM

49?! :eek: holy smokes, is that something new? I didn't know they made them that big... I certainly have plenty of tractor to pull that much, currently with 36', I'm 8th gear throttled back to 1300rpm, purrs right along doing 560ac on a tank of fuel.

I found this one on a dealer lot in Manitoba, I inquired about a special order with 3/8 blades, but the price was 30% more than this one with 5/16 & they didn't know when it would show up... 5/16 is too light for rocky land, I have probably a dozen bent blades now from deadrock. :( haven't broke any yet :)

Lil Giants

12-16-2016, 08:27 AM

A welcome friend in my equipment storage shed :)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Jan%2016/001_zpslythmmlu.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Jan%2016/002_zpsazfqzgm8.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Jan%2016/003_zpswy6ldr7b.jpg

TRUCKMAKER

12-16-2016, 10:12 AM

Rodent control?

Cooper

12-16-2016, 12:31 PM

whoo dat???

frizzen

12-17-2016, 11:52 AM

I knew about Barn Owls, but i didn't know up thene in Canada you had Quonset Owls.

Lil Giants

12-19-2016, 02:20 PM

Don't know if it'll ever get any mice within the shed Kent, but it keeps the sparrows out. ;)

Barn - quoncet, I don't believe the owl would know the difference frizzen :D :p this was at my dad's place, I usually have one in my shed too ..or maybe it's the same one :thinking:

Lil Giants

12-21-2016, 10:35 PM

The last of the durum contract went out today... what should have been done 3wks ago, but 1 of 2 trking companies didn't organise their load pick ups within the scheduled date. The buyer sent the trks... don't think that buyer will ever commission that trking company again, the buyer is of one of largest brokers in the country. :eek: :rolleyes:

It was great to see these guys again, they call a day ahead & show up at the time they told me the day before & friendly fellows to chat with too.

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Lil Giants

01-04-2017, 06:53 PM

Today was liquid fertilizer day... a balmy -18 (-30 windchill) :eek: :D

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Jan%2016/002_zpsd2g05wjj.jpg

Acadieman

01-04-2017, 08:49 PM

Always something on the go!

Bo Wallen

01-04-2017, 09:01 PM

A bit nippy for me......Can you get used ever ? Even the flowers on the wallpaper will freeze ! Come to Cabin Fever Joe it's warmer i'll promice :)

Lil Giants

01-06-2017, 08:47 AM

No Bo, I don't think anyone ever gets used to it, some are able to deal with it better than others... me not so much, low blood pressure = poor blood circulation - hands & feet get cold quick!

Cabin Fever was a great event in 2012 & I'm sure it's gotten better every yr since, but that's quite a hike for me to get there! I'll make it there again someday... reminds me that I need to re issue my passport for such travel. ;)

Lil Giants

02-01-2017, 11:55 PM

Well the month January has been rather quiet, grain prices have been lower than Fall, so I haven't made any deals lately, still have about a third of my 2016 crop to price yet.

I get a call from my neighbor last night that his turbo blew mid afternoon, sitting out on the road just off the hiway a few miles from the country elevator, can I come him a hand tomorrow & bring my trk to empty his & tow him to town? Sure! :D

Last 3 weeks have been like Spring with Sunday's temps @10C, this morning cool off to -15C & with 30 - 40km/hr wind, windchill was like -25C. DAYUM it was cold!!! :eek: Even though we had to hand shovel the trk, it was still difficult to keep warm, for me anyway. :(

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Jan%2017/001_zpspaouv93p.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Jan%2017/002_zpseibbresj.jpg

Neighbor in tow @about 50 - 60km/hr, 50 some km to get it to a repair shop. Whole trk was covered in oil, squirt some windex to try to clean windows & it froze in seconds. :D

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Jan%2017/005_zpsevwf5cs5.jpg

Anyways, it was good to get out & do something different today. :)

Last week, same neighbor was at another neighbor's for a visit & bought that guy's B train hoopers, old trls, but didn't have a tractor to pull them home. Couple days later he takes me trk shopping to help him pick out a trk, he settled on a low mileage 2001 9900 International w/ 550hp ISX Cummins, 18spd, 4.10 46's, pretty sweet workhorse, very clean & everything felt tight. I drove it home for him & picked up his trls along the way cause he doesn't have a cdl. So I guess now this Friday I'll drive his semi to finish hauling the last of his malt barley, 10 mile haul. I'll drive there loaded, he can drive back empty & get some practice. ;)

Lil Giants

02-09-2017, 12:51 AM

Talking to my neighbor today, the shop said the turbo grenaded & sent all kinds of metal into the engine! :eek: :( Oil filter is half full of filings. Had 20% of its oil left in the pan. Needs an inframe @$20k or a reman @$23k. :rolleyes:

Efroeh

02-09-2017, 03:14 PM

That's some shitty news for your neighbor **** repairs can break a person. One thing I do miss living in the city is you always could depend on a neighbor for help any time and for anything in a small town. I do miss the farm life.

Lil Giants

03-27-2017, 11:34 PM

Spent the day out in the farm shop working on a lil mini project.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Jan%2017/002_zpst51tbhsf.jpg

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With the external cross-box auger in place, the only way to clean the corners out is to climb into the box, not fun! And trying to get enough fertilizer on the trk box for 2 fills, usually means having to climb in to shovel the corners out too.

The pup trl's center door is two piece, so I can open upper door separately to shovel out corners, works pretty slick.

Find out later this week how well the lil 2,5 inch flighting auger works when I haul home a couple hundred tonne of fertilizer for this yr's spring planting.

Lil Giants

03-29-2017, 10:13 PM

Auger runs like a champ! :cool:

Using the 1/2 inch impact didn't work, there's enough initial resistance that the impact goes into ratchet mode & hammers away at very low speed. A 2 spd drill worked great. Use 1st for a minute, then 2nd for another minute, cleaned the corners out to about shovel on each side. :)

TRUCKMAKER

03-30-2017, 12:22 PM

Should have used the dozer to clean the corners out, a little work, a little play, a little work,:lol::lol::lol::D

Lil Giants

03-30-2017, 10:45 PM

Ahhhh........ hmmmm........... steel tracks on a steel floor.... might be all day to clean the corners on one load, :eek: :D :p

Got done hauling fert this morning, and spent the afternoon cleaning the salt out of trk/trl & auger, then did an oil change on trk.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Jan%2017/001_zpscgc5fpwk.jpg

2015 I had major problems with fertilizer gumming up my drill & causing irregular seeding rates... today, seeing this build up on the auger flighting of the auger I used to fill the bin is quite concerning. 5yrs ago this never happened, flighting was virtually clean polished steel. Added time every day during seeding watching for signs of trouble. :(

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Jan%2017/002_zpsffmqxmfg.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Jan%2017/006_zps3vjwvmn9.jpg

frizzen

03-31-2017, 12:27 AM

Is the fertalizer salt just too moist, or is there more to it?

Lil Giants

03-31-2017, 07:54 PM

No, the product is dry, and the humidity Wed - Thurs was low 40's. The formulation of how it's produced is somehow different. In 2015 the fert build up was a brown colored oily mush that gummed up my drill in the seed rolls, throughout the air tubes and primary heads. This yr the fert build up on the auger flighting is different in being hard white stuff, not oily at all. I don't know what to think, It's just the last 2 yrs that this has become an issue. :thinking:

Lil Giants

04-12-2017, 12:09 AM

Heading 3 hrs north of home to pick up 700bu of yellow flax seed...

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/IMG_0419_zpsur1efdrf.jpg

It's spring like weather since March 20th, took a week to melt & dry up, been servicing trks, tractors, augers, air drill, getting ready for spring planting... weather permitting, I hope to start spraying burnoff late next week & then start seeding durum April 24th... long range forecast doesn't look good for that to happen, but perhaps it's wrong. :)

Lil Giants

05-01-2017, 02:46 PM

I went about 1hr north of home yesterday to pick up a (new to me) conveyor with a farmer invention shaker screen attachment on it... in the past it was a painfully slow process to gravity screen fertilizer from the bin, more than an hour to put on 10mt 2 - 3 times a day. Last couple yrs I've had help to take the time to do it while I'm seeding, but no help yet this spring, I didn't want to waste 3hrs a day loading fert trk. Now with this shaker screen AND 15 inch conveyor I can load trk in 10 minutes. With over 200mt to put through the drill in a season, that's close to 30hrs time saved. :)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Jan%2017/008_zpsgdbh2ons.jpg

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I was gonna start seeding today, but wet weather started at 7am this morning & forecast don't look good for tomorrow either... so far it's been a bit of a drizzle. The fields are crazy wet, gonna be a lot of butt puckering next couple weeks.

Lil Giants

06-09-2017, 11:06 AM

Unofficially finished planting May 18th, the last 300ac had too many wet spots throughout & I was hoping they would dry. May 23 - 26 the wind blew up to 50mph everyday, the wet spots seemed like they dried & I tried to finish planting May 27... I didn't go half mile & sunk my drill on the side of a hill :eek: :( First time in my life of farming that I had to split the cart from the drill to get out of the mud hole... that was about 4hrs of not fun :rolleyes:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Jan%2017/IMG_0516_zps1ux9ez7t.jpg

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Where I buy my fertilizer & chemical in town, they also have specialized equipment to rent like this Valmar... I filled it with fertilizer & was hoping to broadcast on the surface the last I was trying to seed & with just seed in the cart it'd be a lot less weight to drag around... just about sunk it 3x :( Gave up, done seeding!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Jan%2017/IMG_0529_zpshzn8k5bp.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Jan%2017/IMG_0528_zpsehigcl6s.jpg

With that Valmar, I broadcast the last 20mt of fert on the land I seeded, don't want to store fert till next season anymore b/c I went thru an exhausting wreck this spring from fert I kept over from last yr.

A half section that was a swamp last yr that I never got seeded meant 20mt of fert left over. took it all out of the bin, put floor dry in the bin bottom to collection any moisture that might accumulate at trap... added 60mt on top last week of March this Spring... May 3rd when I just started seeding, couldn't get the fert to come out of the bin.. beat on the slopes of the hopper with a fence post & using a hockey stick to poke from the bottom for 2hrs by myself with no success... phone fert agent, two guys come out with a big plastcic sledge hammer & a vibrator snake... two more hrs go by & we kinda got it to flow, but the fert was coming from around the edges & that started a corkscrew effect that started to literally crinkle the hopper slopes & dents appearing up the side of the bin :eek: so we quit... and I go to town to get 10mt of new fert so I can atleast get some seeding done that day.

Next morning two guys come again with a picker trk & basket, and a gen set with a big hammer drill with a home made 5ft drill bit... essentially a half inch rod with sickle sections on the end with 1/2 rod stubs welded perpendicular on the 5ft shaft.

I managed to get the manhole cover on hopper slope open the day before & we worked the hammer drill through there for better than a hr AND THEN THE FERT DROPPED!!! It was a bit of struggle getting that manhole cover slid back in place, maybe half tonne hit the ground.

Put 15mt on the trk, go fill the drill, take another 15mt out, looks like we got it, the workers leave. Next day take another 15mt out & it flows ok. But after that the last 45mt to come out was a lumpy mess that took better than an hr each trk load. That wreck cost me more than a day's worth time of hard labor over the period of the week of seeding durum... never again store fertilizer through summer, fall, winter!

That shaker screener/conveyor was a god send, it would've been 10x the job if I was still using my screw auger. :)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Jan%2017/IMG_0498_zpsldgbrwk6.jpg

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Land rolling peas, took 2 days to go over 650ac

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Jan%2017/IMG_0504_zpsk4zhpna7.jpg

Pick rock football size & bigger b/c the land roller aint pushing them in the ground.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Jan%2017/IMG_0506_zpswqnxkoa2.jpg

This is why I spray ahead of seeding... somehow I forgot a small area in the middle of the field... probably tank went empty, went seeding rest of day, next morning spraying again in a different area, didn't check "plane" view on monitor when finish the field :rolleyes:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Jan%2017/IMG_0530_zps1wcjysdd.jpg

The swamp half I didn't seed crop on last yr, it's bottom ground that has several square miles of higher ground of water run off that goes through; the last 7yrs the quality of soil has been diminishing with the ten feet of rainfall accumulation, plus whatever the winter snowfall amounted to; I decided last yr to seed it this spring to a forage grass blend of alphalfa, brome, crested wheat grass... cut/bale next summer for 7 - 10yrs, then maybe rent it for pasture after that or could farm it again... though I won't be farming anymore in 10yrs.

I put my 9390 on the little grass seeder, tractor is 21ft wide, seeder 33ft wide :D ...but I did find a couple of spots that I did get some wheel slippage :eek: ...the Ford FWA would've been stuck!!!

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Lil Giants

06-09-2017, 11:31 AM

As wet as it was this spring, now it's gotten incredibly dry with about a half inch total rainfall throughout entire month May, but the biggest kick in the nutts is the strong winds last 3 weeks that has dried out the surface & created a 2 inch gap to moisture.

My durum on gumbo land, it was so wet when seeding that the drill compacted the soil bad!!! A good soaker rain anytime after seeded would've cured that problem, but the high winds turned the clay into brick hard & my durum on a 1000ac has come up patchy, 7 - 10% never germinated... for Kriest sake - one extreme to the next!

And my yellow flax is shallow seeded at about 1/2 inch, same problem, surface dried out - patchy germination.

Got a boomer last night, 3 tenths in the gauge... it'll help, but not sure if it's enough... plus it's kinda late for the majority durum that germinated 5 weeks ago, a 2nd growth now, gonna cause problems come harvest :rolleyes:

About 20% done in crop spraying... lack of crop growth also means lack of weed growth ...probably take all month... whatever, go tinker in the Lil Giants shop. :)

Rimrock

06-10-2017, 03:45 PM

Looks to be quite big investments in equipment in order to run a farm this size. Quite some maintenance I would guess) Do you hire people now and then to help with maintenance, and general work on the farm, or you manage most of it your self?

Lil Giants

06-13-2017, 03:27 AM

The most important tool on the farm is a grease gun Oyvind, it virtually eliminates most any other additional maintenance ;)

Half my equipment is a few yrs old, the other half 20 some yrs old & primarily operated by me alone - never abused.

Other than my combine that goes to town for a yearly post harvest check up, I do my own wrenching/service/welding on machinery.

Good - experienced help is hard to come by nowadays. I do the majority of the farm work by myself... everybody wants big $$/hr wage, but won't do any heavy labor or long hrs when needed. I don't have time to babysit & train somebody new every yr, nor can I afford to let just any idiot try to operate a half million dollar piece of equipment applying $100+/ac ag products... 6 more yrs after this one & then it's FREEDOM 55 :D :cool:

frizzen

06-13-2017, 08:28 PM

That sounds like its shaping up to be a rough year.

I hope the land starts playing nicer. Ya might need to buy stock in companies making high floatation tires

Lil Giants

06-15-2017, 01:20 AM

Starting out to be a less than ideal yr frizzen... as nuts as it was last fall with the crazy wet weather, crop under snow for a month, crop riddled with disease & trouble with the help; some of the price deals I made afterwards with durum ($422/ac) & yellow peas ($450/ac) were at the right time & I managed to do alright. :) Next week the grain cleaner is coming to the farm to clean brown mustard, try to get the sample to the buyer's standards so he'll honor the $0.36/lbs contract I have with him... hopefully be another $250/ac to add to the pot.

Alberta has had some decent rainfall so far, but Saskatchewan, Manitoba & much of the mid-western USA is drier than normal, price of wheat has risen 30% in the last couple weeks... a lower yielding - higher quality crop is cheaper to harvest & easier to market. :)

I've never played the stock market, I figure I gamble away enough with just farming ;)

Lil Giants

06-24-2017, 05:32 PM

Painfully slow, maybe 75 bushel/hr, but it's getting all the crap out :)

Could be 120hrs to clean these two bins :eek: 17hr days x 7 :(

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/IMG_0612_zpspq2ailwp.jpg

Lil Giants

06-26-2017, 11:30 PM

Finished 1st bin mid afternoon, 50hrs in 2.5 days. Moved to next bin, up & running by 5. Crazy hot today, I think it's peak was 36 :eek: 40 - 60% chances of rain next couple days, haven't been in the Lil Giants shop for 10 days.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Jan%2017/IMG_0617_zps9h7dvqt1.jpg

Lil Giants

06-26-2017, 11:49 PM

Finished in crop spraying Tuesday, finally... here's what remains of $100k of chemical used.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/IMG_0608_zpsps9wnyhl.jpg

doodlebug

07-05-2017, 11:26 PM

That's a whole lot of lunch money!
Cheers!

Efroeh

07-28-2017, 06:08 PM

How's the crops looking out your way Joe?

Lil Giants

09-11-2017, 11:31 PM

Finished up my durum yesterday, still have yellow flax to do in maybe 2 weeks (I hope), then I'm done done! Big change over last yr! I worked by myself for much of harvest, this tandem/pup worked really well, heaped is about 1400 bushel... usually dumped it 4x a day.

https://s26.postimg.cc/8hcgvhhnt/014.jpg (http://postimg.cc/image/4kz4zhwo5/)

https://s26.postimg.cc/bqvhfov55/015.jpg (http://postimg.cc/image/uvyqpg9t1/)

https://s26.postimg.cc/xv5nckjah/024.jpg (http://postimg.cc/image/4fzz3keqt/)

This Spring went from crazy wet during planting to bone dry in less than a month & virtually no rain all summer... I say virtually b/c the tenth here & two tenths there was never enough to soak up the ground to make it muddy... wicked compaction created by both the tire tracks of the sprayer & tractor/seed cart lead to patchy crop germination throughout all my durum, the durum was seeded at a depth of 1,5". My peas were seeded nearly twice as deep @3" & no issues; the yellow flax @0,5", 1st 350ac came up great - last 250ac I sprayed out early July b/c germination was 20-30% & I don't need any additional weed populations than I already have :eek:

https://s26.postimg.cc/6w1shewtl/018.jpg (http://postimg.cc/image/pbm9etaxx/)

As dry as it has been, crop volume is about one third of last yr, BUT quality is near perfect! Now if the price would reflect that it would be a great yr... apparently much of Europe & Russia are pulling in bumper crops - keeping the price down below last yr's levels. :(

Lil Giants

09-12-2017, 08:11 PM

Got a new piece of equipment for the farm today. :D

https://s26.postimg.cc/wm97b317d/008.jpg (https://postimages.cc/)

Lil Giants

09-28-2017, 11:10 PM

Today's good fun on the farm

https://s26.postimg.cc/c3kg43yd5/004.jpg (https://postimages.cc/)

https://s26.postimg.cc/ldwk7n92x/005.jpg (https://postimages.cc/)

This half section native pasture is 2 miles straight south of my farm... the guy that rents this, he's another 1,5 mile south. He calls me July 20th to say 12 cow/calf pairs (out of 35) were at his front door that morning :D This bog has been so full of water the last decade that the cows never ventured into it... but this summer with zero rainfall, now the bog has dried up quite a bit & the fence is on the ground that far in. Today I put in two 8" diameter x 8' length post here & on the other side (had to drive 3/4 mile east to get around to other side). Probably December, after the temps have been -20's for a few weeks, hopefully the bog is frozen so I can unroll 3 strands of wire with my quad... not sure yet what use for posts, probably steel T bar.

Lil Giants

09-16-2018, 12:04 AM

This year's update on growing year 2018...

Late spring melt April 20th, following week started getting machinery ready to roll, May 1st - 4th putting out granular chemical for oilseeds & pulse crops... few months earlier bought a mid 90's StrawMaster heavy harrow with granular chemical applicator... using this implement, the harrow tickles the ground for light soil disturbance to get good ground contact with the chemical to make it more effective & the added benefit to get weed seeds actively growing so when I come back in a few weeks with the pre seed burnoff, the weeds were a plentiful & a few inches tall... smoked them! And I've never had granular chemical work so well before, my peas were so clean that I never sprayed in-crop, saving me about $30/ac in costs. :cool:

Started seeding May 5th, working by myself, as I have 8 out of the last 10 yrs, got it done in good time with little delay or effort. Finished May 22nd.

Got a good soaker rain May 24th, 7/10 of an inch, that got everything germinated & off to a great start.

Next 3 weeks, started to get into in-crop spraying of grasses & broadleaf control, got rather hot & windy and crop starting to suffer from lack of rain. June 19th got a 6 tenth rain & from there on till end of July was avging close to an inch a week. Crops were looking FABULOUS :cool:

August 7 - 11th got a wicked heat wave in the low 40's... b/c of the lack of moisture in early June stalling plant growth, then good moisture throughout July, peas & brown mustard flowered off late July, and when that extreme heat hit the crops were just beginning to set seed.

From the date peas & mustard flowered off, I should've started peas last few days of August & mustard would've been ready about Sept 10th... but b/c of the rogue heat wave everything came in two weeks sooner

https://s33.postimg.cc/dnbds2fxr/001.jpg (https://postimages.org/)
https://s33.postimg.cc/ilyw6pemn/004.jpg (https://postimages.org/)

The pics above are of brown mustard, and just like the peas, the crop mass was huge & looked like a bumper crop... but that 5 day heat wave was just as deadly as a killing frost at the absolute worst time in the plant cycle and yields were half what they should of been... that four days of 40 heat cost me about $400 000 is lost revenue :(

The durum wasn't hurt quite as badly, as it's cycle is much different than the specialty crops & it flowered off much sooner. But the side of the farm it was planted on, I've been dealing with some group 1 chemical resistance weed issues & the other groups I used in my durum crop weren't 100% effective in every field. One field didn't make 20bu/ac, majority of the acres were 35-40bu/ac (very good) & about 300ac that I had sunk my airdrill May 2017 seeding, I chem fall last yr & this yr went close to 60bu/ac

Occasional low spot would spike the yield for a few seconds (I've never programmed the yield monitor or moisture, yield reading is about 30% high)

https://s33.postimg.cc/67c46fzzz/009.jpg (https://postimages.org/)

Markets currently for durum are really poor, elevators are offering $6.25/bu for any grade - any protein :confused: WTF?!

The one shining light of this yr, I got a full time guy 2nd day into harvest, turned into the best hand I've ever had, I've never had anyone WORK WITH ME so well before :cool: Despite a couple of day long breakdowns, we mowed off a rather large crop (material wise) in record time! We finished Tuesday Sept 11, started raining next day & every day since with no sunshine in sight the next 5 days :eek: I got about a truck load of green spots to combine yet, but everything else is in the bin. If I had gone it alone again this yr with my after 4pm partime drivers, I'd probably still have 1000ac out there yet turning to shyt right now... not that it matters right now anyway with how durum is current being traded, but just saying...

I gave this new guy the same flat salary I paid the last guy & b/c we did the harvest so quickly & efficiently with zero mistakes & zero adverse weather delays, his hourly wage works out close to $100/hr... the last guy was about $45-50/hr & aside from his wage, b/c of his BS not doing his job or not showing up costed me over $100 000 in losses in 2016 that were a direct result of his poor job performance.

New guy will be back in the Spring. :) Despite the huge wage I'm paying him, he's gonna make me money. :cool:

Saturday mornings is crib at the vet clinic, Doc's quote of the day, as it pours rain outside & crackling thunder, "the Devil's hauling rocks" :lol:

https://s33.postimg.cc/551xnwwm7/012.jpg

Lil Giants

09-30-2018, 01:18 AM

The last 3 weeks we have been having November weather, cold and wet nearly everyday, hmmm this is interesting & helps to explain why

https://www.theweathernetwork.com/news/articles/record-ridge-alaska-heat-cold-snow-alberta-anomaly-historic-extreme-pattern-weather/113160/

The majority farmers in my area are either done or within 10% of finished. Get north of the #1 hiway and many are 50-75% done. Get north of the Yellow Head hiway (#16) and many farmers haven't even started their harvest yet :eek: The next two week forecast is getting colder & talking snow flurries :(

A shocker to the system to go from 25-30 Celsius to single digits virtually overnight... I'm just starting to feel better after being down & out last weekend with a wicked head & chest cold... I rarely get sick, but a drastic weather change like that kicked my azz for 5 days :eek:

arf1201

12-18-2018, 12:06 AM

Lil Giants

01-31-2019, 07:54 AM

Joe were down to one day of shelling corn and 3-4 of beans, so far we have mudded about 2/3 of our fields and barely completed 1/4 of fall tillage. Definitely been a different year, not often you can't get across the field with a combine with 6 30 inch tires.

Sorry bud, I didn't notice this till now... where you at? I saw on facebook some guys finishing 1st week of January, I assume South Dakota :confused:

The prairies finally got some decent 20-25C sunshine about the last 10 days of October. I did my last 2hrs of combining on the 25th of Oct, surprisingly the snow didn't flatten it & the quality was still #2. I had just enough time to get my combine cleaned, serviced, put away; did a couple days of discing; loaded out 6 B's of pre-contracted durum, sold & shipped a carload of brown flax, everything put away in storage on Oct 30th.

It was 20C on Oct 30th, changed to -8C by 7pm Oct 31st :eek:

It's been quite a mild winter till just this past week has been -25C with -40 windchill... Friday is suppose to be +7 :lol:

A couple posts back showing my pounder at the pasture, last winter was mild till late January, then it turned -20's -30's & we got bombed with quite a bit of snow. I never got that bog fenced last winter... I tried to string wire that December but out towards the middle it hadn't quite froze yet & I sunk 850 Polaris quad, had a **** of time getting that out! completely destroyed the double strand barb I had strung out, twisting loops in the wire to pull from with the winch...

Renter put cows in June 1st, cows found the hole in the fence a month later...

Checked the bog last week, walked it 1st tamping with a crowbar, then drove my quad back & forth a few times... it's good to go :D Friday afternoon's job, string 3 strands. ;)

Next hurdle will be trying to pound posts into frozen ground :rolleyes:... I'm thinking of using a piece of 2 7/8 drill stem, put a point on it, use the pounder to punch a hole, then with a chain hook on the pounder head & links welded on drill stem, pull it out & pound a skinny 3-4 inch wooden post in... probably 40-50 posts.

Good times :)

Lil Giants

02-04-2019, 03:11 PM

-27C Supposed to get a truck today to pick up mustard. Plugged tractor in @7am, go for coffee for a couple hours. Come back to yard 8" auger out of my dad's, I don't think this Chevy has a posi rear :confused:, didn't get very far.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Jan%2019/001_zpstxqw7sq3.jpg

Yes, the grille is broke & headlight bent downward. Clipped a small deer early morning in November. Get it fixed in March, after winter weather & driving in the dark.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Jan%2019/002_zpsj5mdq0wu.jpg

Stupid steering turns the wrong way :rolleyes: keep dragging it till it straightens out :D

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Jan%2019/003_zpsha1qeofw.jpg

Dispatch calls @noon, trucker broke down in Sask somewhere, loaded headed for Alberta, ECM troubles, won't be seeing him today. Brutal cold all week, I've got 4, maybe 5 B's in my yard in hopper bins, contract is 6 B's; hope it warms up when I need to plow my dad's yard. :)

Lil Giants

02-08-2019, 08:34 AM

Brutal cold this week... tues had two trks, 4pm was -24 & 30hp Kohler motor worked good; 2nd trk came after dark 8pm, it was -28 & higher humidity, just about didn't get motor started, it ran rough for entire load, carb icing.

Next day one trk, -28. Dragged my 125000 btu diesel heater out to the shed 30 minute before trk showed up.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Jan%2019/036_zpsotp4argd.jpg

While loading, the trker tells me his electrical plug on lead trl shattered in the cold that day, got no lights, needs to get to town to fix it... I tell him we can fix it here, I should have what you need. :) Two of us stood in front of that heater for an hour, bare hands, it was almost as good as being inside. :D

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/Jan%2019/037_zpsbiyzxfnd.jpg

sandfarmer

02-08-2019, 09:49 PM

Looks like fun, we just got 4+ inches of rain so we are swimming here!

Lil Giants

04-11-2019, 08:47 PM

Fack I hate deer! ... this gonna be expensive, the inside tires have chloride, thank goodness the outside two don't ...fack I hate deer! Useless, thieving, property destroying varmints :mad:

GPS auto steer on 3 tractors & sp sprayer, I've lost count how many horns I spotted before running over them... my luck ran out. :(

https://i.postimg.cc/bNfRW4Nr/002.jpg (https://postimg.cc/PNKZ83Dn)

https://i.postimg.cc/3xnCyRj0/003.jpg (https://postimages.org/)

Lil Giants

05-02-2019, 06:32 PM

An early melt starting late March, a slow melt too allowing most of it to soak in rather than run to all the low spots... I did my granular chemical with my heavy harrow April 16 - 19th... the entire time while doing that I couldn't any green vegetation (weeds)... my neighbors to the east starting seeding, what they were spraying for burn off prior was likely nothing but a waste of chemical. I started cruising the fields on my quad Easter Sunday looking for weeds, nothing... Tuesday afternoon started to see some weeds poke through the cover... forecasted to be a wet weekend, start seeding the following week, maybe May 1st.

WRONG! We got bombed on Sunday!!! The snow started some time during the night & didn't let up till 7:30pm.... unbelievable amount of snow! My trk about 4pm

https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/IMG_1590_zpsgqohrcns.jpg

When it did quit at 7:30pm, I use the Apache sprayer to get out of my yard with its 7foot tall tires to get to my dads yard to bring my Ford FWA loader back to pull out my trk & clear the snow away.

https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/IMG_1592_zpsw4z5vwk4.jpg

https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/IMG_1591_zpsmyykxnsb.jpg

Pics I took the next day

https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/IMG_1594_zps6dbmsmvl.jpg

https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/IMG_1595_zps0vj7yc8f.jpg

https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/IMG_1597_zpsdvjdirtr.jpg

https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/IMG_1596_zpsbvdjm793.jpg

https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/IMG_1599_zpsqnnx3hoo.jpg

https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/IMG_1600_zpsknnitfxw.jpg

https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/IMG_1601_zpsod4ug51c.jpg

https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/IMG_1598_zpsk5dedob5.jpg

Lil Giants

05-02-2019, 07:03 PM

Today's adventure, May 2nd (actually started yesterday without my involvement)... a used oil recycling plant is 3 miles north of me, the last 6 months they've been doing a major expansion/upgrade with no production, just all new construction. A zoom boom was traveling on the east side of their property on a high narrow road when the shoulder let go.

A kid that works there got his dad to come with a 140hp FWA to pull the zoom boom back on top... they short chained it, almost got it back on road when boom started to straighten out behind tractor & boom touched tractor tires. They stopped, lengthen chain a bit, try again, now zoom boom won't move!

I get a call, they ask if they can pull it down the embankment into my pasture... I said ok, not realizing exactly where they were, I should've went to look right away :rolleyes: I got there an hour later to see what was going on to discover what a bigger wreck it turned into.

I headed out at 6am this morning with my 9390 to pull it out. 1st couple tries on a short rope down in the bottom couldn't budge it, spin out right away, HOLY $@*&!!!

Stretched out all the straps, chains, ropes that were on site... a couple of straps were 4"... starting pulling from good solid ground, 1st gear - low throttle... one of those 4" straps vaporized when it snapped, I was looking right at it, it seriously disappeared, I wish somebody was filming it, I've never seen a strap obliterate like that before. :eek:

I had my 6" 75000lbs strap & two 20t shackles with me... I went to town with the foreman to help shop for two 6" 100 000lbs straps & another 20t shackle,,, $900 total, back to the site.

https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/IMG_1610_zpsmnwou4rs.jpg

https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/IMG_1618_zpswjhab6ur.jpg

https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/IMG_1615_zpskz94afgj.jpg

https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/IMG_1619_zpsuxgorxky.jpg

https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/IMG_1617_zpsh5wi6t95.jpg

Pulled him to the top of the hill to a good spot where they could cross the fence & get back on their property.

https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/IMG_1613_zpsza9gty6v.jpg

The embankment where it went off

https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/IMG_1616_zps5g3rv2hz.jpg

https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/IMG_1620_zpszvcgy2e6.jpg

Pics I took at noon today when I got back, still alot of snow. Forecast for the next week is single digits & maybe more snow on the weekend. :(

https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/IMG_1624_zpsvxymbdte.jpg

https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/IMG_1623_zps9glj8qsv.jpg

https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/IMG_1622_zps4ltc8ukb.jpg

https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/protrker/IMG_1625_zpspftiiseg.jpg