This week’s farm week in pictures brings us a few steps closer to planting. We started the week out pretty warm, but we’ve finished wet and cool. It’s definitely not going to hurt having some more moisture in the ground before we plant seed. Last year we started planting very early on March 28th and finished on April 23rd. Looks like we’ll be getting started about the time we wrapped things up last year, but you’ll recall last year’s record high temps in March ended up in a prolonged drought. This year has been much more normal. Let’s see what we’ve been up to!
All in one Basket
Our rolling basket install on the field cultivator is done now. Once some soil dries out we can run it for a while and make any adjustments necessary. Hopefully the baskets will give us an even better seed bed than we’ve had in the past.
Staging for Planting
Most of our seed has been delivered. We are still waiting on quite a few soybeans that will occupy the empty space. Corn is on the left along with one box and small pallet of popcorn. Soybeans occupy the boxes on the right.
Official Inspection
The rolling baskets are getting final approval.
Put a Fork in It
Here’s Dad unloading several Pro Boxes of soybean seed with our forklift. Until a few years ago we moved these around with a set of forks on the 7920 which isn’t really the best tool for moving the relatively small boxes and pallets.
Ready to Roll
The 8420 has been mated to the planter once again. The planter shouldn’t need much of anything before it goes to work, but we’ll give it a thorough check up.
Photosphere
Photosphere is a new feature on my phone. It’s kind of like panoramic shots except I can continue to take pictures in all directions. As you can see I was able to capture nearly all the equipment in this part of the shed in one combined shot. Pretty cool!
Good Weeds?
Now that we have cover crops on our farm I often wonder if there are any weeds that would actually make good cover. This spring I’ve noticed that while applying NH3 fertilizer that the soil holds together allowing the knives to slice through the soil. In the bottom half of the picture where there are no weeds you can see the toolbar throws quite a bit more soil.
Full of Manure
We had one field receive an application of manure from a neighboring farm. They ran out of manure before this field was finished so I had to come in and finish the rest with anhydrous. This field may end up making an interesting yield map this fall when looking at the areas of the same field under different fertilizer management.
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I look forward to seeing the results of the two different nitrogen sources on yields.
Wow, your shed is really clean! Love the photosphere pic– so cool to see all your machinery like that, even if it is green 😉
Yay, your comments are working!
They are working. I had to turn off Jetpack comments though. Hopefully I’ll find a way to get them turned back on.
You have a great website. Keep up the good work.
Thanks, Todd!