Sunday, October 24, 2010

Harvest has come and gone

Well harvest has come and gone. I learned a lot this year, and I am a little less intimidated of the combine. It actually did not break down at all this year, I just had some trouble getting the head to feed right. This year was a big success. I had really low inputs, and I got above average yield. This was the year to start farming!

Right now I am getting the shredder ready to shred around my field, and then I have 50 acres of CREP to mow. I hope that I can get that done before we get much more rain.

Its time to start thinking about next year. I am increasing my acerage by about 50%, and I will be planting both corn and soybeans.

I have already had my soybean ground for next year strip tilled and I look forward to seeing how well that helps the plants grow and if I can see a yield advantage.

Saturday, September 18, 2010

Less then 3 weeks to go!

Well I went down to the farm this evening and looked at the beans. They have really turned yellow, I may be in the filed as soon as 2 weeks. The crop looks pretty good, but we got some hard rain tonight and hopefully is went just north of the farm. Storm damage is the last thing I need right now!

I took my tractor in to the dealer to get the steering fixed (it would go craze on the road and you could only go about 10 mph) about a month ago. Well they are just now putting it back together. I really hope they hurry up, I need the thing to haul my soybeans to the elevator this fall.

Pics are not working right on this site so here is a link to Photobucket

Thursday, August 26, 2010

Combines are starting to roll!

Well I guess its that time of year. You go outside and smell the air and there is that hint of fall. The corn is turning brown, and the beans are just starting to turn. This year, it seems fall came early. I'm not complaining though, fall is my favorite season hands down.

Things have been really busy the last week. I have just a few things to do to the combine before I take it to the field. I don't think I will need it in my filed for a while, but it will be nice to know it is ready to go when the beans are ready to be harvested.

So far I know of 4 farmers who have started harvesting (some just opening fields). I think that in the next week you will see some more guys get going. I am wondering how this fall will go. It seems that everyone has some high moisture corn, with some lower moisture corn. This may be a year where we start corn early but it takes a while to get done. I just hope is is better then last year.

Well thats all for now, I will try to get some harvesting pics up here soon.

Jarzen Farms

Saturday, July 24, 2010

Getting caught up

Wow, I looked an I haven't posted since I finished planting.

Well about a month after planting I discovered some Frog Eye Leaf Spot in my beans. I got really worried! Well after a few weeks the beans put on more leaves and the disease has not gotten worse. I will have to wait till R3 when the pods begin to form to decide if I want to have a fungicide put on.

So far I have had the local co-op spray 2 times. A spring burn down and then a post emerge about 2 or 3 weeks ago. The beans are getting bigger and getting closer and closer to canopy. After getting the break out of the frog eye I put the pencil to the paper and decided that I need to look at getting my own sprayer. In a typical year I may have 3 sprayings done. This year I was worried about having 4 with the extra 2 being later round up and maybe the fungicide, and the other being a fall burn down. Well 4 trips at $6.50 an acre it adds up really quick! That would be $1,267.5 on a typical year and $1690. on a 4 passes year. I could pay off a nice sprayer in just a few year. So I am looking for a older self propelled sprayer, and I hope to have one in the next 2 year.

I did get the bat wing shredder going the other day. It has been under water at least 10 times sense this fall when I got stuck down by the creek. Well i greased it and made sure that there was no water in the gear box and I tried it out. It is working fine, I got some roadsides done today and I also mowed around part of the bean filed.

Also this week I purchased a bean head! I got a John Deere 220. It will need a little work before fall, but nothing to big. I will post some pics of it below.




Well that's it for now, I plan to get the combine out next week and get it washed and waxed for fall. I will try to grab some pics the.

Sunday, June 6, 2010

Plating is done!

I started planting on Sunday May 30 and ended on Tuesday June 1. We had our struggle of problems with the planter (broke two row cleaners) but we made it through it. From my first year of planting I learned some valuable information that some of which no one had ever told me.

1. planters can only go in one direction, FORWARD!!! I did that on accident 2 times and after that it never happened again. I spent quite a bit of time taking off seed disks and seed tubes to clean out the pact mud.

2. When plating Soybeans at a population of 150,000 an acre you go through a lot of seed. I started with 75 bags and had it get 3 more to finish. After the first 3 fills you start to get tires of loading half a bag, adding inoculant, adding the rest of the bag add the rest of the inoculant, add graphite and stir, Repeat 5 more times... I was really glad to be done with plating, corn should be a lot nicer putting down 1/5 of the amount of seed.

3. Just because its a 6 row planter does not mean it will be easy to pull. When I got on the hills of the farm and it was still a little wet I would spin out going up the hills. That Kinze planter is really heavy for my 806.

4. No Air conditioning stinks!

6. Plating a straight row is easier said then done.

That was about it, I made it through the 2010 plating season with the tractor that should not even be running. It did great, other then it was a little light. I plan on fixing up the planter this winter and getting it repainted to make it look sharp. I think next year will be a lot more fun and go a lot smoother and quicker.

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Ready to plant!

I did the final work on the tractor and planter today, I think I have them both ready to go for planting.

I talked to the guy from the co-op today and they said they were going to be putting on the Potash today so it looks like maybe Friday or Saturday I will be planing beans.