Something new to rc

[Lil Giants]

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

[doodlebug]

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

[Efroeh]

How's the crops looking out your way Joe?

[Lil Giants]

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.







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



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]

Got a new piece of equipment for the farm today.

[Lil Giants]

Today's good fun on the farm





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 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]

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.

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

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




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)



Markets currently for durum are really poor, elevators are offering $6.25/bu for any grade - any protein 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 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 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.

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"

[Lil Giants]

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/ne...eather/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 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

[arf1201]

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.

[Lil Giants]

Originally Posted by arf1201

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

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

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

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 Friday afternoon's job, string 3 strands.

Next hurdle will be trying to pound posts into frozen ground ... 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]

-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 , didn't get very far.



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.



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



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]

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.



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.

[sandfarmer]

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

[Lil Giants]

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

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.

[Lil Giants]

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



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.





Pics I took the next day

[Lil Giants]

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 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.

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.











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



The embankment where it went off





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.