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.