Spring '09 Planting

[Cretebaby]

These shots are from 4/8/09

[Deere9670]

drilling oats???? Is that tractor a 10 series? Nice pics, keep them coming!

[Cretebaby]

drilling oats???? Is that tractor a 10 series? Nice pics, keep them coming!

Oats and Allalfa

The tractor on the disc is a 7210

The tractor on the drill is a 7420

[Gadgetman]

Farmers here are pulling their hair out. Corn should be in the ground,but the ground temps have been too cold. Hard freeze after hard freeze,now the rainy season is here. Rained 1 1/2" thurs. and calling for 2"-4" on sunday.

Funny, now they're predicting that much rain 3 days in advance?

[LonestarCobra]

That rain must be nice. We cant plant our sudan or anything right now due to dryness. The wildfires are burning us up now. One ranch a few miles from mine, is 10,000 acres plus, and it is 90% burned off as of today.

[Cretebaby]

Isn't the differences from one area to another amazing

I had fully expected to see the corn planters to be rolling here on Monday but now they are calling for rain and cold so we will see

We are doing prep work for corn but don't need to push the envolope that hard and will wait about 10 days yet before putting seed in the ground

[Gadgetman]

Haven't been up north for yrs. Has the no-till caught on up there? More and more are trying it here. Works for some,others went to a minimum till. Some ground just gets too tight.

I notice there isn't any terraces or waterways on your hilly ground. Our county is probably 70% terraced now,and most isn't as hilly as yours. Looks like you have a lot more topsoil tho.

[Cretebaby]

Haven't been up north for yrs. Has the no-till caught on up there? More and more are trying it here. Works for some,others went to a minimum till. Some ground just gets too tight.

I notice there isn't any terraces or waterways on your hilly ground. Our county is probably 70% terraced now,and most isn't as hilly as yours. Looks like you have a lot more topsoil tho.

No till is kinda hit and miss around here, there is some corn no tilled into bean ground and some beans into corn residue but very little corn on corn

Part of this is due to the fact that alot of farms near us are still livestock operations so the spreading of manure doesnt go to well with no till

Fall chisel plowing is the norm pretty much

Very few terraces but there is a couple right across the road from that one pic

Terraces on the steeper ground dont work to well as they take up to much ground and most of the ground in these pics are only row crops for ~3 years out of a ~8 year rotation

that feild behind the disc pic isnt ours but it probably should have some waterways. Guys are getting kinda lazy about waterways and I am not quite sure why. We have waterways on everything of ours that drains any amount of water

[Deere9670]

Haven't been up north for yrs. Has the no-till caught on up there? More and more are trying it here. Works for some,others went to a minimum till. Some ground just gets too tight..

We farm in Illinois, and are 100% No-till. We also do corn on corn. Its hit or miss depending on how wet of a spring we have. No-till beans are pretty much the norm around here, with a few guy still out wasting time and fuel doing work on bean ground. As far as the groung getting tight, one of our theorys to busting up the compaction is earthworms.......meaning that the longer that you no-till a patch of ground.....the more worms you will have out there decomposing residue, and helping out with putting nutrients back into the ground. We also have an inline ripper, which we will use to break up the compaction were the trucks and carts beat down the ground. Most guys laugh at me when I bring up the earthworm thing.......but its a true story;)
http://www.ces.purdue.edu/extmedia/AY/AY-279.html

[KMB83]

no-till has its place.

in general most of the guys in our area have moved to strip till, who tried the no-till system.

basically using the anhydrous knifes in the fall, with maybe a row cleaner to push the trash out of the way. some do other dry fertilizer down the row as well, then in the spring come back and plant into that strip of bare earth.

basically GPS has allowed this.


gets you the benefits of no-till = less work, less erosion, less HP needed

without the major drawbacks of no till = compaction, especially near surface, cooler soils, residue to sprout through, etc.

strip till does have a few issues = you have to accurately travel your strips, still doesnt deal with the amount of disease left over in last years residue, and if the strips run parallel with the fall they can erode so you have to plant contour.

conservation tillage is still king, but strip till is opening some eyes.

[ATCOEQUIP]

This is a fascinating thread. I'm glad all you "planters" have got this figured out, 'cause all the rest of us need some beans to eat! :) My hat's off to all the guys and gals who work the dirt and put seed in it. :notworthy

[Cretebaby]

And corn has begun

One of the locals started with corn today

First of the season that I have seen

[Gadgetman]

200 miles north and you guys are going to be ahead of us,lol. Not sure what they'll do around here. Ground's soaked with more on the way. The corn that is in will prolly rot,some was froze off. We just made the call for a plane to start spraying our alfalfa ground,as we can't get on it.

KMB83, quite a few here doing strip till. We rent out some strip till equipment for knifing in liquid fertilizer. Along with pull between fertilizer trailers,or the pull behind's for those putting it down with the no till planters. We drop off 3200 gal. tank trailers,and deliver to those as they need it. Funny, just a few yrs. ago we would run our floater wheels off trying to stay ahead of the corn planters. Now most are putting the fertilizer down themselves.

[Cretebaby]

200 miles north and you guys are going to be ahead of us,lol. Not sure what they'll do around here. Ground's soaked with more on the way. The corn that is in will prolly rot,some was froze off. We just made the call for a plane to start spraying our alfalfa ground,as we can't get on it.

KMB83, quite a few here doing strip till. We rent out some strip till equipment for knifing in liquid fertilizer. Along with pull between fertilizer trailers,or the pull behind's for those putting it down with the no till planters. We drop off 3200 gal. tank trailers,and deliver to those as they need it. Funny, just a few yrs. ago we would run our floater wheels off trying to stay ahead of the corn planters. Now most are putting the fertilizer down themselves.

Price of corn dropped today solely on the news that planting begun in western Iowa:beatsme

I think it will be a good year to build a bin;)

[Deere9670]

Price of corn dropped today solely on the news that planting begun in western Iowa:beatsme

I think it will be a good year to build a bin;)

Never know what will happen.....alot of guys might switch to a majority of beans, making corn in demand, and driving the price up......but thats farming for you....its like going to the casino....just never know

[Andy Detwiler]

Havent planted here yet, the neighbor planted 300 acres three weeks ago, then the cold hit, still laying there. We keep getting rain here, but thats ok, we needed it, was dry as hell here. We also are 100% no-till, have been for about 10 years. Going to be nice this weekend, maybe the planters in this area will be rolling.

Andy

[Gadgetman]

We missed our big rain last weekend,luckily. Been in the mid 70's. Everybody is roll'n now. Corn's going in,fertilizer's flowing,and we've already knocked out 3000 acres of bugs.

Been busy building a new soybean treating system. That won't be far behind.

[Cretebaby]

My veiw this afternoon

[Feed Bunk]

Theres been a little corn go in the ground here, but its raining right now. Its frustrating for sure but there's still quite a bit of time left.

[Gadgetman]

I think we're pretty much done with corn here now. We just got dumped on. It'll be 2 weeks before we're back in the fields. A few were still frantically trying to mud it in yesterday ahead of the storm.

On to beans and milo......

[Cretebaby]

Theres been a little corn go in the ground here, but its raining right now. Its frustrating for sure but there's still quite a bit of time left.

We like to be done by the end of April but with the 3" we had over the weekend that isn't going to happen

[Turbo21835]

We just had guys get the sugar beets in the ground last week. About 2 weeks behind the norm. Things were just starting to get cranked up, until the 3 and a half inches of rain saturday and sunday. Looking like another toad drowner heading our way tonight into tomorrow

[Gadgetman]

Wow, that was a big system that just rolled thru, 3+" around here too.

Hard to "Spring '09 Planting" when in the last month you've had 14" of snow and 6" of rain. Maybe we should join Deere9670 and head to the casino. lol

[Cretebaby]

Wow, that was a big system that just rolled thru, 3+" around here too.

Hard to "Spring '09 Planting" when in the last month you've had 14" of snow and 6" of rain. Maybe we should join Deere9670 and head to the casino. lol

We havn't had any snow to speak of since January, a couple of 1.5" shots in Feb is all, a wet March but very dry April up until this weekend.

Raining just a little as we speak, it is all good though we needed it and none of it run or washed anything

[Deere9670]

Flooded out here in northern IL, looks like it will take a good 7 days of no rain,sun, and wind, just to dry up. Weather forecast doesnt look good though anyway. I want a rig like this guy, so that I can just sit back a chill a beer, while my tractor does all the work!! If you look close, you can see that there is no driver!!!!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zU4liQvrcm4

[Gadgetman]

Lol, cheers buddy! :drinkup

[hvy 1ton]

Gadgetman, I went to Hutch with one of my friends before that storm. I made the mistake of riding with him in his Altima coupe, i figured we would beat the snow.:Banghead
Woke up the next morning and there were bulldozers plowing downtown.:eek: After some skillful driving in a truck we made it to his friend house on the edge of town where there was a snowdrift to the bottom of the windows on a f350 on 35's.:bash The truck was white so all you could see was the tinted windows floating the mid air at first. 28" in short period of time will sure make a mess of things. Never seen so much snow in my life.

[Gadgetman]

I hear ya. I say 14" as the low side of the reports,also heard 18". How the heck could you measure it? It was all in big piles. I had to crawl out a window of the house in the morning,and dig both the front and backdoor out. Have a fenced in backyard for the dogs that had 3'-4' in it. Poor dogs couldn't even do their morning squat. lol

I was out in that storm at it's worst,rescuing people getting off a second shift at 2am. Cars were stuck everywhere blocking roads,streets and driveways,some in the parking lots where completely buried. I'll never forget it,a complete white out at times. 50 mph winds would cover your tracks in just a few minutes. I remember thinking to myself,now I know how people die in that weather.

[thejdman04]

Nice pics, was hoping to get some ground planted first part of april with corn, way too wet around here though

[Cretebaby]

Starting to green up

Plenty of moisture now we just need heat

[RocksnRoses]

I hope you fellers keep this thread going, because I am interested in following your cropping cycle, as compared to the cropping cycle here in South Australia and it seems there is not a lot of difference. While we dont have the pressure of working around the snow, planting has started here and will continue until the middle of June. We have had a good opening rain, varying from 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 inches in different areas, which makes it one of the best starts to the season, that we have had for years. The main crops grown here are wheat, barley, canola, beans, chick peas, field peas, oats and lentils. More and more farmers are going to direct drill and a lot are moving from tined planters to disc planters. GPS and auto steer is being used more, as well.
I would be interested to know what sort of rainfall you have through the growing season and what would the melting snow equate to, in rainfall?

Rn'R.

[Gadgetman]

Hmmm, the wheat,barley,beans (I assume soybeans?),and oats I'm familiar with,but not the peas or lentils. In central KS (mid US) we're in the wheat belt.Secondary crops consist of milo,soybeans,corn,alfalfa,and brome. A few dabble in oats,cotton,and sunflowers.

Average rainfall for us + or - 30". Our snow is usually fairly dry here,maybe 4"-6" to one inch of rain. However,this winter we've had wetter snowfall that would melt down 3"-4" of snow to an inch of rain. This season is unusually wet for us. Normally don't fight the mud this long,and our unplanted corn is 6" tall by now.

[RocksnRoses]

Hmmm, the wheat,barley,beans (I assume soybeans?),and oats I'm familiar with,but not the peas or lentils. In central KS (mid US) we're in the wheat belt.Secondary crops consist of milo,soybeans,corn,alfalfa,and brome. A few dabble in oats,cotton,and sunflowers.

Average rainfall for us + or - 30". Our snow is usually fairly dry here,maybe 4"-6" to one inch of rain. However,this winter we've had wetter snowfall that would melt down 3"-4" of snow to an inch of rain. This season is unusually wet for us. Normally don't fight the mud this long,and our unplanted corn is 6" tall by now.

Now I can understand why everyone over there seems to be working in mud, farmers and earthmovers. Our average rainfall here is 16", but last year we only received 9" through the growing season and about 11" for the year. The beans planted here are Faba Beans, more of a broad bean. The peas are a field pea grown for the split pea market, but are virtually identical to the garden pea. Lentils are also a legume with a slightly smaller seed than a pea and are a major food source in countries like India and the Middle East.

Rn'R.

[Cretebaby]

Fixed a ravine today

[Gadgetman]

Conditions look good for the dirt work. How deep is your topsoil,Crete?

Well,the rest of our corn planting is probably going to be written off. The wheat is headed out,and we're gearing up for bean and milo planting. Whenever it dries up that is.:rolleyes:

Wheat in our area is really looking good. Hope we can stay ahead of any fungus,with all this wet weather.

[Cretebaby]

Conditions look good for the dirt work. How deep is your topsoil,Crete?

Well,the rest of our corn planting is probably going to be written off. The wheat is headed out,and we're gearing up for bean and milo planting. Whenever it dries up that is.:rolleyes:

Wheat in our area is really looking good. Hope we can stay ahead of any fungus,with all this wet weather.

Topsoil averages about 2' but right where that 963 is it had silted in and he cut about 5' down and still wasn't to the bottom of it.

Even dryer here today, we finished our corn tonight and will do beans tommorow if it doesn't rain tonight.

[Gadgetman]

Thought that looked deep. That's why we have so many fields with waterways and terraces. Most of our's is less than 12".Can't afford to have it running down the creeks.

Milo and beans going in here now,and we're getting our spray rigs back in selective fields (still bugs and roundup work). Also have 2 planes dropping fungicide on wheat.

[Turbo21835]

Well, looks like everyone has gotten back in the fields, and are trying to beat the possibility of rain this weekend. Been pretty dry since the last big rain. This guy was cooking along, paced him out on the road while he was working the field, anywhere from 10-15 mph in the dirt.

[Cretebaby]

Well, looks like everyone has gotten back in the fields, and are trying to beat the possibility of rain this weekend. Been pretty dry since the last big rain. This guy was cooking along, paced him out on the road while he was working the field, anywhere from 10-15 mph in the dirt.

15 mph is flying pulling tillage tools. :eek:

[Turbo21835]

15 mph is flying pulling tillage tools. :eek:

Yes sir. Im happy to get 5th gear in our 3155 when im pulling seedbed tools.

[Deere9670]

15 mph is flying pulling tillage tools. :eek:

Yes....10 is about tops....and thats quick:eek: I would bet that the cultivator would ride up out of the ground at 15mph!

[Cretebaby]

Yes....10 is about tops....and thats quick:eek: I would bet that the cultivator would ride up out of the ground at 15mph!

Thats kinda what I was thinking

If I pull our finisher at 8 mph the dirt is flying everywhere LOL

[thejdman04]

Yeah 8mph is about the tops around here. We just cant catch a break. 2 or 3 days of sun and rain. Last 2 days it was nice and sunny, rain today, tomorrow and friday sunny and nice saturday rain, sunday and monday dry tuesday they are calling for rain. So wet around here, probably be wishing we had some of that rain in august. Going to have to start switching some ground to beans. I get real skeptical planting corn after june 1st. Not saying it cant be done, I jsut hate to do it. No way with this weather pattern we will get ground dry, worked up and corn planted all by june 1st. We had some winter wheat that was looking very poor. Hired a floater to come in yesterday and burn it down with chemical, as it is too wet to get it in and plow it, had to get the 4wd out to pull the floater out. Hopefully this wet spell breaks.

[Feed Bunk]

We're just like jdman here. Its starting to get real frustrating.

[nextdoor]

Gday all, please, oh PLEASE send some rain over here to West oz! Its really dry around here and we havent turned a wheel (or a track in our case). We normally crop around 10000 acres (wheat mainly) and it would be nice to get a start. There is a old saying around here that you cant make money from dust! Oh well thats my winge, I hope you blokes get the sun that you need. Cheers.

[Cretebaby]

Gday all, please, oh PLEASE send some rain over here to West oz! Its really dry around here and we havent turned a wheel (or a track in our case). We normally crop around 10000 acres (wheat mainly) and it would be nice to get a start. There is a old saying around here that you cant make money from dust! Oh well thats my winge, I hope you blokes get the sun that you need. Cheers.

I am sure some of the IL buys would share their rain with you.

We where only 15 acres of beans away from being done for the season when we got rained out Tuesday evening. We got a nice rain though about an inch spread out over 24 hrs.

We have an old saying that goes plant in the dust and your bins will bust :tong

[Deere9670]

I am sure some of the IL buys would share their rain with you.

We where only 15 acres of beans away from being done for the season when we got rained out Tuesday evening. We got a nice rain though about an inch spread out over 24 hrs.

We have an old saying that goes plant in the dust and your bins will bust :tong

Id pay you to come take some of this rain......

Good for you on the rain...hope she wasnt too hard for ya.....nice to keep the top wet for good emergence....

As wet as were are, our bins wont be busting, and our fields wont be dusting......still not late enough to call it a day on a bumper bean crop.....but it looks like our chance at a great corn crop has gone down the crapper....:mad:

[Feed Bunk]

We got 3.5" of rain friday and all the rivers are out. We wont be pulling a planter for a while.

[hvy 1ton]

We got 3.5" of rain friday and all the rivers are out. We wont be pulling a planter for a while.

Friday was the worst flooding i have seen in 10 years. At one point our mini weather station was reading almost 8in/hr into saturated ground. We wound up with 5.6" of rain in 2.5hr. If it had rained another hour it would have been a real mess.

[Cretebaby]

It finally got calm enough to spray this morning and we will be able to sneak in and finish the beans tommorrow

That should give us just a little break before it is time to make hay

[Gadgetman]

Yup, lots of hay going down here. Aught to be beans going in tues. or weds.

[Cretebaby]

Well we are done with planting

All of our corn is up, now we just need some heat

Saw a guy just tonight cutting hay, kinda early, they are most likely going to plant corn on it yet

[thejdman04]

Weather just wont let up for us. Heres a few stuck photos. When we pull the tractors out of the holes, more then once there has been water in the hole. Thats how wet the ground is round here. Especially in the sandy soil we have around here, you dont get a second chance it just goes down.

[Turbo21835]

Isn't it wonderful when the bottom falls out from underneath you? You at least have a chance, we usually use a 3 point field cultivator on our 3155. When you find soft, your cooked

[Feed Bunk]

We got 4" of rain yesterday. Stuck out cat challenger sunday evening. Fun fun fun

[nextdoor]

Im still waiting for some rain. We had about 8mm a couple of days ago and put in about 2200 acres but we need a bit more to get finished. It would be nice to get 20mm or so we could get the rest in. We still have about 7800 acres to go. We have an Mt865 challenger and would love to see it bogged Feed Bunk !! Ill try to remember to take some pictures of our seeding rig and post them shortly. I just had a thought that the rain that you guys were going to send me must have been quarantined with the swine flu! Cheers.

[KMB83]

jdman,

you farming bottom ground?

your describing a similiar set of circumstances as guys in our area who farm near the IL river. been over 20' for 2+ months (flood stage being 14'). keeps pushing the water table higher. we have an irrigation depth meter, went to our low farm and it had the water table at 2' feet!

anybody figured out a plan to get across ground like this?

we flew on beans with a plane once. it didnt work. you had to harrow them in.

we are hoping to get a small/light tractor and a drill and maybe get across that 160 of quick sandy ground. should be a treat.

[thejdman04]

jdman,

you farming bottom ground?

your describing a similiar set of circumstances as guys in our area who farm near the IL river. been over 20' for 2+ months (flood stage being 14'). keeps pushing the water table higher. we have an irrigation depth meter, went to our low farm and it had the water table at 2' feet!

anybody figured out a plan to get across ground like this?

we flew on beans with a plane once. it didnt work. you had to harrow them in.

we are hoping to get a small/light tractor and a drill and maybe get across that 160 of quick sandy ground. should be a treat.
No, that isnt even bottom ground. As you say, the water table is so high even on ground that isnt near any rivers. We do have some bottom ground we havent even got near. We got a bit ahead of the planter on tillage, :Banghead:Banghead for once we thought wed get ahead well with the rain 2 days dry rain cycle, by the time we get ready to plant it we will probably have to go over it again to break the crust that is on top up and to bring some of the "wet back up". The top 2 or 3 inches gets dry but it is very wet under that. Some of the ground had winter wheat on it but had a VERY poor stand so we spray ed that to kill it. Double disced it to get it worked down half way decent and then went across it with a culvator and drag. Might have to go across it again with the culivator and drag. Good luck to everyone on a year like this