2012-4-30
We received rain over the past 2 days. Not much happening in the fields, but the bin is going up.
2012-4-27
Last night one of the telescoping drive shafts on the planter got stuck and bent a bracket, which crushed one of the rotation sensors. After a trip to the factory for parts, we were rolling again around 9 AM this morning. Today was another good day of metering seed. It rained a bit tonight and there is more rain on the way. It looks like we'll be shut down tomorrow.
2012-4-26
The bin crew is making quick work of this bin. Corn planting continues, we're somewhere around 50% done. The last picture shows a one-row planter that my dad built for planting sweet corn. Planting sweet corn with the 24-row Kinze was a little ridiculous.
2012-4-25
The airplane in the first picture - that is Air Force One.
2012-4-24
More corn planted.
| Video Tillage with a STX500 QuadTrac |
2012-4-23
Started planting corn today. The dirt is still pretty moist, but a pre-plant tillage pass is helping dry it out in addition to killing the weeds. Some of these fields are looking quite green from all the weed pressure. Oh, and there was a stray QuadTrac around today for some reason.
2012-4-20
More rain last night, so more corn hauling today.
2012-4-18
Putting cups on the grain leg belts.
2012-4-16
Rain has halted the field work for a few days. Hauling corn instead.
2012-4-11
We took the planter out for a bit of testing today, checked that the row clutches were all working and that the autosteer system has the right spacing between passes. A couple of the neighbors were planting corn today.
2012-4-6
I saw someone planting corn today, which is quite early for this area. At this point, there is still a high risk of a freeze killing the plants once they are germinated and up. I've heard reports of corn planted over a week ago in OH and MN, and in both cases, the corn is already up. This warm weather has the soil temperature up and germination happened fast. With the abnormally warm spring, it appears a lot of people want to get started even though the calendar says it is a high risk. If a large portion of the corn belt starts early and we have a hard freeze in May, there will be a lot of acres that would need to be replanted. The major issue then is seed availability. I'm also hearing reports that seed availability is already tight due to the unexpected increase in corn acres this year. In short, we're going to wait for a week or two yet so that the risk of frost is significantly reduced. We did start spraying and tillage today though. The chemical being applied basically prevents weed seed from germinating, and it has a slow release so it will be effective for weeks.
2012-4-5
More cement.
2012-4-3
2012-4-2
Packed fill inside the second bin, wired up the rebar, and poured the cement. This will be the wet holding bin, which means it will have a hopper bottom. All the weight will be on legs around the outside edge, so the pad in the center doesn't have to be that thick.
2012-4-1
Finished the rebar grid on this bin finally.
