A year in the life of a farm

[elgato]

It once was said that farming is easy, it's keeping everything working that is the challenge. Yep!

Here is a picture of the gearbox on our no till drill...shattered. Not sure how it happened but we are probably thru planting for about a week till it gets fixed. Still have 13 acres of our cowpea mix, the sunn hemp, and a 13 acre sunflower field yet to go. Running late!

Shifting to spraying and mowing. 80% chance of rain tomorrow.

[texas shag]

It once was said that farming is easy, it's keeping everything working that is the challenge. Yep!

Here is a picture of the gearbox on our no till drill...shattered. Not sure how it happened but we are probably thru planting for about a week till it gets fixed. Still have 13 acres of our cowpea mix, the sunn hemp, and a 13 acre sunflower field yet to go. Running late!

Shifting to spraying and mowing. 80% chance of rain tomorrow.

Ouch! that's an impressive failure on that gear box.....an expensive one too. Good luck getting all the planting wrapped up. I think it will be a struggle this year due to all the precip.

[BIG BONE]

ouch that stinks

[unclefish]

Very impressive failure. Hope you get it fixed soon and can start rolling again.

Do you have double disc openers on your NT drill or big single disc? How do you like your drill?

[elgato]

There is a big single cutter up front then 2 coulters that close the lane and a rubber wheel that covers. I may explore different coulters to better cut thru the thatch and assure seed gets in seed channel. Some of the beans ended on top of the soil in my heaviest clay and thatch.

I absolutely love the drill and the no till process. Will never go back.

[BIG BONE]

There is a big single cutter up front then 2 coulters that close the lane and a rubber wheel that covers. I may explore different coulters to better cut thru the thatch and assure seed gets in seed channel. Some of the beans ended on top of the soil in my heaviest clay and thatch.

I absolutely love the drill and the no till process. Will never go back.

How wide is your drill and how many total acres do you plant

[clint623]

Subscribed

[elgato]

How wide is your drill and how many total acres do you plant

8' drill. Planting 42 acres soy beans [ done ], 13 acres cowpeas with sunflower and sorghum, 4.5 acres sunn hemp with cowpeas, and 13 acres of sunflowers with proso millet. { This is this summers plan. Total acreage planted is quite a bit more considering clover fields, vetch and Alyce fields, right of ways etc mostly in perennials or reseeding annuals }

Everything is running behind because of rain...and now broken drill.

[elgato]

How did your bees do this year?

Bees were a bust. They left the hives for no known reason. I don't know anything about bees so have no idea what happened. There are still lots of bees in the fields so ok there. I will try again.

[BIG BONE]

We got an 8' as well and it sure does take awhile don't it. We planted about 8 acres(spring deer mix) with our 8' firmiseeder and planted the other 36 acres (soybeans,cowpeas,mungbeans) with a 14' drill and it was a dream. We borrowed the no til. Now I want one bad lol

[Shallowater]

Bees were a bust. They left the hives for no known reason. I don't know anything about bees so have no idea what happened. There are still lots of bees in the fields so ok there. I will try again.

Absconded. It is a problem sometimes. If you buy again buy an existing hive from a reputable apiary, i.e. split from the previous year.

They are more expensive ($300 or so per three box hive), but they will stick around, be much more hardy and provide a decent honey haul the first year if conditions are right.

Let me know if I can help.

[elgato]

Absconded. It is a problem sometimes. If you buy again buy an existing hive from a reputable apiary, i.e. split from the previous year.

They are more expensive ($300 or so per three box hive), but they will stick around, be much more hardy and provide a decent honey haul the first year if conditions are right.

Let me know if I can help.

Thanks, I don't know anything about bees except I'd like to have hives around and we eat a lot of honey. Wish I could find a 'bee man' interested in working the hives. I'd provide the hives all over the farm if someone would just work them. Interested? I like the barter system.

[elgato]

The drill is repaired and back to work. Will finish the cowpea,sorghum, sunflower mixture today and start on sunflower field. Should finish that and the sunn hemp/cowpea field tomorrow.

For those accustomed to tillage planting here is what no till looks like. The first pic is and overview of a 16 acre soybean field. Then you can see the beans coming up thru the thatch. Lastly you see some 'free' volunteer radishes from the winter radishes that went to seed.

[elgato]

Ooops, here are the other two pics. First soybeans coming up thru the thatch then volunteer radishes.

[EastTexun]

Looking good! Did you spray the fields with gly prior to drilling or did they dry on their own?