Farming progress

[Mobuck]

For those interested, we've had some favorable weather since the 7" of snow 2 weeks back (4/16) and are within hours of starting the planter. Finished pre-plant spraying this afternoon, moved the planter home from storage at the north farm, and hooked up the seed tender. After the morning conference calls and other work related demands, we hope to get started by 9-10 AM.
Most likely, we'll have to skip a few acres and/or skirt some wet spots but not too much. Our 8 row planter is small by current standards but gets over a lot of ground regardless. We've upgraded our seed handling system which will speed the planting by as much as 10% while making things much easier on the "ground crew". No more filling the planter with 5 gallon buckets. No more lifting & dumping 50# seed bags. The seed tender system is sitting on my "little" gooseneck trailer and will transport up to 4500# of seed from dealer's loading dock to planter w/o mess, waste, or significant physical effort. Just push a couple of buttons and pull a couple of levers and air does the work(so says the advertisement).
If luck holds out, we can plant the home place and move to the next farm in 2 good days. Two more days at that farm and then another move to the north farm to finish up.
As with any other "battle plan", said plan only lasts until the first bullet flies. We'll see how it goes on the morrow.

 

[Achigan]

Good to hear Mobuck. Thanks for feeding us!

 

[Bayouhunter]

Good luck Mobuck hope everything works out this week. It’s time for ground to warm up.

 

[BROKENBEAR]

Happy planting Mobuck ..not sure where you are in Missouri but i would be interested in what your soil temperature is where ever you are ...I'm in southeast Missouri and we already have some hill ground showing corn ..not a lot of bottom ground action yet due to moisture ..burn down and pre-merge is happening as well as fertilizer buggies crawling around like ants

I'm small potatoes ..more hobby farm size patches I have left that I work with and have the serious AC rented out or in CRP/CP33/filter strip Etc.

I've given up on corn as the raccoons absolutely destroy an unbelievable number of acres when I plant corn

This year it will all be in Liberty Link beans (fighting water hemp)with Milo strips for a bit of winter food to leave behind

Have a good season
Bear

 

[Taterman]

Good luck with your season Mobuck.

 

[Mobuck]

Soil temps are into the "OK" range. Six of the last 7 nights the air temp stayed above 50* overnight and daytime temps were high 50's to low 60's. Bare dirt is absorbing a lot of sun these days. Conditions went from "no go" anywhere to "sort of" go most places to "good to go" most places in 48 hours.
He did have to hit the 4WD lever a couple of times yesterday while trying to swing the booms over some swampy spots. We spent a couple hours last week getting that cable unstuck figuring we might need that feature at some point. Until yesterday, we hadn't had need of 4WD.
Those swampy spots will be detoured today in hopes of them drying up over the next 3-4 days. If it works out, I'll hook the drill to one of the smaller tractors (the whole combination weighs less than the big planter alone) and get that done. If I get that rig stuck, it's less of an issue to extract it than the bigger tractor and planter. I had planned to drill some beans and milo in my food plots anyway.
Our recently added cropland is turning brown from the burn down spray so should be ready when we can get there. North MO isn't like one of the "I" states where farmers pick a date to plant. We go when the conditions allow and try to get as much done as possible before weather knocks us out.

 

[Mobuck]

Another good day, we got finished at home except for 3-4 acres of wet ground. Moved to the next farm and got the "easy" 1/2 done. The other 1/2 has lots of short rows so will take most of tomorrow to finish that. Maybe we'll get lucky and make the move to the north farm which is only a few acres tomorrow evening.
With our new seed handler, the process is way easier than what we had to do in the past. I can take 100 acres worth of seed to the field and "shoot" it into the planter w/o lifting a single bag. It's more stable and easier to load than manufactured seed tenders and removing 8 bolts allows the entire outfit to be lifted off leaving the trailer available for other use. It took 6 months to acquire the components and 3 hours to get if fitted just right. I'm really pleased with this set-up.

 

[RSIno1]

"we hope to get started by 9-10 AM."

Boy this ruined my image of up at the crack of dawn til dusk farming. Good luck with the planting.

 

[Mobuck]

"Boy this ruined my image of up at the crack of dawn til dusk farming."

A fact of life in today's world. Son has a full time job and I have a "most of the time" part time job but currently we're both working from our at home offices. His morning calls often run 7-9AM and my employee supervision is usually done early morning to distribute assignments or pass on info that showed up the previous day.
I'm trying to get my people to follow the schedule of checking emails and refreshing their work iPAD first thing every morning.

 

[Mobuck]

We finished planting(except for one 2 acre wet spot) yesterday before the drizzle began. Still have 10 acres to spray but that can be managed with a total post emerge application.

 

[toysoldier]

The wheat is already knee-high around here.

 

[Mobuck]

"The wheat is already knee-high around here."
Hopefully not at a growth stage that will be hurt by the predicted cold snap. We're hoping our beans don't come up before the 30* weather passes.

 

[bobski]

hail came thru here in s.central mo. destroyed the strawberry crop. peas are ruined. racing the clock farmers are going to have to replant squash and cantalope to break even this year.
a f1 hit south mt grove on 95 south. down went a few dozen ancient trees and unearthed some burial plots in the cemetery where they were.
wiped out a few brand new warehouses and littered miles of barbed wire fence with debris too. its bad enough twisters destroy, but they leave their graffitti everywhere. it snapped t-poles like toothpicks.

theyre calling for frost tomorrow.
curious...do farmers have crop insurance for things like this?

 

[gramps]

I grew sheep for wool, and meat market, Rheas for sale and meat market, goats for their milk/cheese, and the meat market. I told my mentor(an older gentleman) I enjoyed it so much I would like to farm full time! His comment: “ Farming has never been full time! In my area, unless you are milking, the farmers drive trucks, log, work for factories too!
gramps

 

[Mobuck]

Your mentor wasn't far off the mark gramps. I had a good job for 30 years that supported the farm and paid the bills. I still have part time jobs that provide a buffer against those blindsides that occur.