June 2-4 2009 Finally dried up enough to get spraying again. Did the last day of burning down the no-til soybean ground and then switched back to corn. Also a photo of the pipeline excavation in one of our fields. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ June 6th 2009 Finally the last day of seeding. Had a good run. The 1990CCS performed well in the 40ac of nato beans. With the meter rolls set and slow as possible the rate was almost perfect for the very tiny seeds. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ June 7th 2009 Went back to custom seeding beans. This was our first time ever seeding into sod and it worked pretty well. It required more down pressure than is normally used for that soil type but the seed trench closed well. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ June 8th 2009 Last day of custom seeding. Wasn't a lot of work, only a 18ac field for a dairy farmer. We began prepping for NH3 by bringing home the 11 row machine and fixing it. In the afternoon we moved the excavator and dozer to the area they will be clearing in free time over the next few months. First time using the dozer was a great success. It can push a great deal with the rake. No-tilling beans into sod video ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ June 9th 2009 Another day another shower. The first of the duals came off the tractors. Unfortunately the rear window of the T7060 broke while closing it. That is the 3rd rear window in the NH tractors so far to break. There is a massive design flaw with them that I hope NH will address. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Insert Date here Burning day! Gotta love fire. We burnt a fence row worth of piles over the course of the day. Fire video ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ June 12th 2009 We finished getting the 18.4r46 tires on the T7060 and headed to the field to start NH3 with the second machine. Everything worked right off the bat. In the late afternoon we put fungicide down on our winter wheat. The field is very uniform and looks like it will be a huge crop. Spraying proline on wheat video ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ June 13th 2009 NH3 is progressing well. We have 6 tanks this year and have managed to get that much on each day. The fields are drying up nicely now and the slots are closing well behind the knives. The corn is still quite small so speeds are below 5 mph to prevent burying the corn. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ June 15th 2009 Another small shower fell over night. NH3 is still going as well as fence row removal. The dozer is a real time saver in this setup. Instead of the excavator tracking all the trees to a big pile, several smaller piles can be made and pushed with the dozer. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ June 17th 2009 More fun with spraying and side dressing. T7060 side dressing NH3 video ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ June 18th 2009 Finished another section of fence row before a heavy shower shut things down just after noon. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ June 19th 2009 Rained most of the day again today. We cleaned out the feedlot and I took the duals off and moved tires on axles. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ June 22nd 2009 With the promise of a few good days of weather, we started chopping haylage. The 11 row NH3 applicator kept going while the 9 row sat idle. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ June 23rd 2009 Another day of chopping. Around noon while switching farms one of the front tires blew out the sidewall. Fortunately we had a spare and were back in action within an hour and a half. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ June 24th 2009 The final day of chopping first cut. The silo was full up to the unloader the night before. We let it settle and were able to put another 4 loads in to fill it up to the unloader again. The silo was leveled and the unloader switched around again before noon. We also cut a few other fields that will be chopped and used as bedding for the feedlot. The hay in those fields was far too mature to be used for decent feed. NH3 is in the last stage, only a few more farms to do and that job will be done as well. Hopefully the weather holds out for us. TS130a cutting hay video Unloading a forage wagon at the blower video JD 5440 sp forage harvester chopping haylage video ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ June 25th 2009 NH3 is finished. Both applicators finished in the same field. Actually the same field both finished in for the last 3 years. This was probably one of our best runs for side dressing corn. The ground was never too wet or too dry and the corn was for the most part at a good height. Some years the corn is 3ft tall before the NH3 gets on because of rain but not this year. Washed both tractors and applicators and took an early day. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ June 26th 2009 Cleaned out the feedlot before the weekend. The hay we cut a couple days ago was dry enough to chop so the 1270 was put on the rake and fluffed up the windrows. The yield was quite high and we got enough bedding for 2 weeks off the 2 small fields. The 9 row NH3 applicator was taken off the T7060. As you can see it is a tight fit to get it backed into its spot in the shed. The 2wd White was nice for this as it turned extremely sharp. 1270 raking hay video ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ June 28th 2009 I was bored and wanting to play with the dozer. Went over to the field and found it to be too wet to effectively separate the remaining roots and sticks with the rake, so I decided to try out our new to us chisel plow. It worked great and loosening the soil and ripping out the compaction caused by the heavy equipment. It isn't a very wide tillage tool, but it will only ever be used for this job so it is wide enough. The T7060 had no issue what so ever pulling the tool. Hopefully the rains will hold off for a while long enough for this section to dry out. T7060 chisel plowing a fence line video ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------