Sunday, June 24, 2012

Summer time on the farm

Well its officially summer, sorry I haven't had time to post any planing pics. I will get them on here soon. To summarize 2012 planting season I would say "interesting" sums it up pretty well. With switching the new planter from a finger pickup to a vacuum planter, it brought long some unexpected hiccups. All in all I am very impressed with the system. I was able to planter 5mph or faster all spring and still have a uniform stand. The planter itself has more issues then the vac system. As it is with most planters. The 1 year you have it, normally gives you the most trouble. It took about half the planting season, and 3 set of row cleaners to finally get it worked out. All in all I am very happy with the planter. There is a chance I will upgrade to something different for next year, but that is because our needs have changed for 2013.

In the field. The corn is coming along surprisingly, considering the lack of rain. I was walking our first planted field my the shop this evening, and we are probably 1 week for tasseling. There has been tasseling corn in our area for a few weeks now, but that doesn't concern us too much. I feel we have somewhat of a better chance of getting some crucial rains during tasseling. The stuff that is tasseling now, my not have as much moisture as it may need for a successful pollination. Its going to be an interesting harvest this year. I can't help but wonder what our corn yields will be. I know some areas of the US they are in a lot worse shape then us. I think that we will be in a simmer situation as last year. Not much we can do now, just pray for rain.

In shop. With as hot as its been the last few weeks shop work has slowed down some. I have been getting the combines ready for an inspection. I will have a friend look over the combines really well. He knows much more about these machines then me. He will be able to look at belts, augers, wear spots, etc. This will tell me what I need to fix, replace, or keep an eye on during harvest. I'm just trying to get everything set up for as little down time as possible. To help smooth things out for fall, I have purchased a grain cart. Its just a small 500 bu John Deere 500 cart, but I got a pretty good deal on it. I plan to paint it up for this fall, it will be pulled with the John Deere 4630. Using the cart should mean that the combines shouldn't have to stop as much, as long as I can find an operator to run it and then we can unload on the go.

I will get some Pics on here soon of planting, and a few of custom baling. I appreciate all those who read, feel free to ask questions.


Peter Jarzen