Category Archives: Ohio Farming

Alfalfa and Soybean Updates

Leave a reply

I’ve been lax on giving you soybean updates. The road we normally use to get to the field has been closed since the beginning of July with a bridge out, so I don’t find myself going by very often. So, here is a picture of what the bean field looks like now. The leaves have been turning yellow and falling off the stems, so harvest is not far behind – probably less than two weeks.

Soybean field

 

The crew came in an mowed our fifth cutting of alfalfa the other day. They are merging and chopping this afternoon. My camera has a dead battery so you won’t see that for the last time this year!

Crop Update 09 23 13 002

 

Crop Update 09 23 13 003

Crop Update 09 23 13 004

 

 

 

 

Manure Spreading

2 Replies

The dairy crew is still putting on manure.

Silage Pile and Manure Spreading 09 07 13 018

This is a tillage tool called a Gen-Till. It pokes holes in the ground (at the left) so the manure being applied (on the right) will soak into the ground faster.

Silage Pile and Manure Spreading 09 07 13 019

 

Manure is applied at 1000 to 1500 gallons per minute.

Silage Pile and Manure Spreading 09 07 13 022

The black hose in the front is called the supply hose. The orange one nearer the tractor is a very heavy drag hose designed to be pulled by the Gen-Till.

Harvest 2013 - 09 04 13 037

 

This is the pump that is pumping the manure out of the 15 million gallon lagoon at 200 pounds per square inch of pressure in the supply hose. With a booster pump manure can be pumped three miles to the fields.

 

Silage Pile and Manure Spreading 09 07 13 015

 

Here’s the 15 million gallon lagoon of manure.

 

Silage Pile and Manure Spreading 09 07 13 016

Silage Pile at the Dairy

Leave a reply

The pile of silage at the dairy has grown immensely the past 10 days. They’ve started covering it with plastic and tires to protect it and help it ferment.

Silage Pile and Manure Spreading 09 07 13 002

The tractors are still packing.

Silage Pile and Manure Spreading 09 07 13 003

Silage Pile and Manure Spreading 09 07 13 004

You can see the plastic and tires better here.

Silage Pile and Manure Spreading 09 07 13 005

The buggy just emptied onto the cement and the tractor will start pushing it onto the pile.

Silage Pile and Manure Spreading 09 07 13 008

Silage Pile and Manure Spreading 09 07 13 009

There’s getting to be a traffic jam as the silage gets full. It’s as long as it will probably get, but they can make it higher on this end.

Silage Pile and Manure Spreading 09 07 13 011

Silage Pile and Manure Spreading 09 07 13 012

Silage Pile and Manure Spreading 09 07 13 013

Richard took this picture earlier of both tractors near the top.

silage pile

Tiling Fields

Leave a reply

Not only have we been chopping silage this past week or so, we’ve had some tiling done in a couple of fields.

The blue tile is for the smaller lateral tile lines and the yellow tile is for the bigger main lines. Each main has multiple laterals draining water into it.

Harvest 2013 - 09 04 13 001

Harvest 2013 - 09 04 13 003

 

Some of the blue tile is four inches and some are six inches in diameter.

Harvest 2013 - 09 04 13 004

The yellow tile for the main lines is 8 inches in diameter.

Harvest 2013 - 09 04 13 005

Harvest 2013 - 09 04 13 046

When the tiling crew first comes, they have to dig to find the old main lines so that they can attach new ones to them. Many of the old lines are made out of clay tile and are easy to break so they have to be very careful digging around.

Harvest 2013 - 09 04 13 006

Many of the old mains were dug in years and years ago by hand. We only have a pencil sketch map of where they are, if we have any map at all, so most of the digging is hunting, pecking and trying to find them without breaking them.

Harvest 2013 - 09 04 13 007

The line of these dirt piles is where the crew found the old clay tile main. The piles go horizontal and the main would go straight out from where you are standing.

Harvest 2013 - 09 04 13 048

Tile lines are usually 2 1/2 to 4 feet deep so they have to dig at least that deep to find them.

Harvest 2013 - 09 04 13 023

Here the crew is getting ready to put a new roll of tile onto the tile machine. It’s kind of like putting a spool of thread on a sewing machine and threading it onto the machine.

Harvest 2013 - 09 04 13 013

Harvest 2013 - 09 04 13 018

Harvest 2013 - 09 04 13 019

Now he’s “threading” more tile through the machine and hooking it onto where they ran out of the other spool.

Harvest 2013 - 09 04 13 025

Harvest 2013 - 09 04 13 026

Here they’ve duct taped the two ends together with a connector between them.

Harvest 2013 - 09 04 13 031

The tile machine driver now starts to plow the tile into the ground. See the yellow bubble on top of the red pole? That’s the GPS/laser to keep the tile “on grade” in the field.

Harvest 2013 - 09 04 13 021

Harvest 2013 - 09 04 13 034

Here’s is the tile plow out of the ground.

Harvest 2013 - 09 04 13 050

These guys are getting ready to connect the new blue tile to the old clay tile main.

Harvest 2013 - 09 04 13 052

He feeds it down through the black tile plow “boot”.

Harvest 2013 - 09 04 13 053

Harvest 2013 - 09 04 13 054

This is the connector that will go on the end of the blue tile and into the clay tile main.

Harvest 2013 - 09 04 13 055

Harvest 2013 - 09 04 13 056

The guy in the white shirt is breaking a hole the size of the connector into the side of the main tile.

Harvest 2013 - 09 04 13 058

Harvest 2013 - 09 04 13 061

Now the other guy is connecting the blue tile after the connector is in the main. [Notice the bare feet on the guy in blue. He actually works that way all over the field. He has for three years and loves it. Not for me! I’d rip my feet open on the corn stalks!]

Harvest 2013 - 09 04 13 063