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Post by Foggy on Aug 19, 2021 7:46:43 GMT -6
I'm gonna try my cultipacker mounted on that plate......and / or my flail mower as said above. But I am going to keep an eye out for a roller crimper. I have one hell of a good idea on how to make a roller crimper and or a cultipacker. I am too old to do this. But if someone like WHIP or SD or. would want to go into this biz.....I do have an idea for you. I think this idea would be patentable.....and my neighbor here in MN is a Patent Attorney. I think someone could get himself into this biz with about $50,000 in capitol outlay. Use forums and internet to market direct to consumers. Ship across the USA to plotters and farmers.
Look me up if your interested. I would serve as a consultant and possibly as an investor if I like the way you would operate. The best I can do. .
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Post by sd51555 on Aug 19, 2021 9:40:22 GMT -6
I'm gonna try my cultipacker mounted on that plate......and / or my flail mower as said above. But I am going to keep an eye out for a roller crimper. I have one hell of a good idea on how to make a roller crimper and or a cultipacker. I am too old to do this. But if someone like WHIP or SD or. would want to go into this biz.....I do have an idea for you. I think this idea would be patentable.....and my neighbor here in MN is a Patent Attorney. I think someone could get himself into this biz with about $50,000 in capitol outlay. Use forums and internet to market direct to consumers. Ship across the USA to plotters and farmers.
Look me up if your interested. I would serve as a consultant and possibly as an investor if I like the way you would operate. The best I can do. . Not for me. The only real advantage I see of crimping over flail mowing is erosion control. And at that, erosion is only a problem in dead fields. The whole concept of regenerative land management should lead us to lower costs, less work, and fewer gadgets, potions, and magic pellets. Most importantly, it should outperform spray/till systems in all situations (like a biblical drought or flood). If it doesn't outperform, then nothing else matters, because it doesn't meet the primary objective. This stuff takes time, and most aren't even aware of what crimping is yet. But there is already an evolution past it too.
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Post by Foggy on Aug 19, 2021 16:45:41 GMT -6
Today I finished my last seeding with the Tar River Saya 505 Drill. That makes a total of eight acres. I could do about two more acres with some rye tommorw.....and I'm thinking on that. The soils in those locations are very weak....and I suppose I could get started on building them with rye. It's been a bit of a race to get this set up and get the work done before the chance of rain tommorow. One can hope. Couple of observations on this drill. *. I think the narrow one like I have is hands down a better size for food plotters. Reason being it stays tucked behind the tractor and no exposed to getting damaged by timber. Also the hoppers hold enough seed for an acre at a time Iwith a heavy seeding rate like I am doing: 134 lbs/acre). *. The drill pulls really easy. I know most 25 hp machines can pull this. I was thinking my old JD 790 would have know issues. I think an 8N would pull it....but I dont know the lift capacity off hand on an N ford. Gotta be able to pick up about 1200 lbs or more. *. It does take a bit to calibrate.....but if you follow the instructions I posted above....it will meter the seeds very accurately. I think it took me two or three tweaks to get the setting perfect for my land. The rates and operation were flawless for me. The seed depth seems perfect and I got good covering of the seeds. *. My soils are sandy / loam. Mostly sandy. But I have no problems penetrating in previously tilled soils.....and had little problem in virgin sod and trails. I tested this in a number of situations on my land.....and it is reliable no till for me. *. Solid value. I paid $5400 for this machine which is the MSRP. I was glad to get it. It does take a bit to set it up correctly....but time spent in this area will yield good results. I wish I had known about these drills last year. I'd buy this again in heartbeat. * I can only do the work.....now Mother Nature has to do her part. I used a paint mixer to blend about 5 varieties of seeds for the rear box. Worked slick and saved time. My neighbor usually hunts a day or two at my place each year. He gave me that paint mixer above and made me some boards to fit inside the hoppers. Quite useful to keep seeds in place for calibrations.
Here is what 134 lbs loaded into those two hopers looks like. I could put more in the rear hopper by changing my blend.....But I strive to keep similar sized seeds together to prevent them from flowing through the hoppers.
A good operator will stop before lifting he drill out of the ground......and prevent seed from spilling on top of the soils. I lifted the drill real slowly as I drove forward at the end of a row.....just to be able to show the seeds distributed in a trench. Good visual.
If all you got is a hammer....then everything begins to look like a nail. As all the grasses are dry and dead....I decided to plant just 20 feet or so into this sod.....just to see what happens. This is located on a trail that takes us to a different stand. So It will be easy to check on the germination and performance of this little test strip.
this is the poorest soil I got on the place. I need to build the soil here and I really like this location for a future stand. Somehow the gophers like this location....not sure why?
After 8 acres....I am starting to get some shine on the coulters.
I had nuked this nasty mix of weeds with roundup about two weeks ago. This is only 1/10 acres size patch...but it will be interesting to see if my seed mix will control these weeds. It's been a thorn in my side since owning this land.
I put down 134 lbs to the acre. I think that comes out to 1070 lbs or something like that. I'd have a hell of a lot of work using a bag seeder to do this project.....and my herd seeder and drag and cultipacer would get a real workout to do this job (as I have done in prior years). This makes it a pleasure. Rough math says I got over 230 dollars in seed/acre riding on this work. Plus the herbicides and time spend and machine purchase. Sure am hoping for rain tommorw. Grin.
Took a picture of the old "air strip" that adjoins my land. Two years ago this was a private airfield....but the past two years they had it planted in corn. This year the corn never grew an ear....so they chopped it. Dry, dry, dry. Com'mon rain.
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Post by Foggy on Aug 19, 2021 19:31:15 GMT -6
I'm gonna try my cultipacker mounted on that plate......and / or my flail mower as said above. But I am going to keep an eye out for a roller crimper. I have one hell of a good idea on how to make a roller crimper and or a cultipacker. I am too old to do this. But if someone like WHIP or SD or. would want to go into this biz.....I do have an idea for you. I think this idea would be patentable.....and my neighbor here in MN is a Patent Attorney. I think someone could get himself into this biz with about $50,000 in capitol outlay. Use forums and internet to market direct to consumers. Ship across the USA to plotters and farmers.
Look me up if your interested. I would serve as a consultant and possibly as an investor if I like the way you would operate. The best I can do. . Not for me. The only real advantage I see of crimping over flail mowing is erosion control. And at that, erosion is only a problem in dead fields. The whole concept of regenerative land management should lead us to lower costs, less work, and fewer gadgets, potions, and magic pellets. Most importantly, it should outperform spray/till systems in all situations (like a biblical drought or flood). If it doesn't outperform, then nothing else matters, because it doesn't meet the primary objective. This stuff takes time, and most aren't even aware of what crimping is yet. But there is already an evolution past it too. After you posted this....I spoke to my new Bother in law over the phone on my way up to my land. He told me to not take advice from a guy that blows seed onto his land with a weed blower and to not put too much stock into flail mowing the rye. Said flail mowing this defeats much of the purpose of the crimping action on the rye and will present another set of issues. We talked at length about using a cultipacker too.....no dice. The rye needs to be terminated by crimping (but their is a variety of rye that can be chemically terminated without damaging the other crops. I dont know about this....too new?) Now this Bil is no ordinary dummy. He operated a very large farm sucessfully in Iowa.....and knows the guys at Green Cover Crop and has written papers for the Ag university on cover cropping. He was an early adopter of these methods.....and he Knows whereof he speaks. He told me how to do a home spun crimper.....but I am not going there. I have a line on a Goliath roller crimper.....and I think I will own one in a few more weeks. I'm going to be running over 10 acres two times a year (for those JPS of you keeping score at home....that amounts to 20 acres).....and I dont have time for seed blowers and bullschmidt.....grin. Ain't got time to bleed. .
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Post by sd51555 on Aug 19, 2021 20:35:46 GMT -6
Not for me. The only real advantage I see of crimping over flail mowing is erosion control. And at that, erosion is only a problem in dead fields. The whole concept of regenerative land management should lead us to lower costs, less work, and fewer gadgets, potions, and magic pellets. Most importantly, it should outperform spray/till systems in all situations (like a biblical drought or flood). If it doesn't outperform, then nothing else matters, because it doesn't meet the primary objective. This stuff takes time, and most aren't even aware of what crimping is yet. But there is already an evolution past it too. After you posted this....I spoke to my new Bother in law over the phone on my way up to my land. He told me to not take advice from a guy that blows seed onto his land with a weed blower and to not put too much stock into flail mowing the rye. Said flail mowing this defeats much of the purpose of the crimping action on the rye and will present another set of issues. We talked at length about using a cultipacker too.....no dice. The rye needs to be terminated by crimping (but their is a variety of rye that can be chemically terminated without damaging the other crops. I dont know about this....too new?) Now this Bil is no ordinary dummy. He operated a very large farm sucessfully in Iowa.....and knows the guys at Green Cover Crop and has written papers for the Ag university on cover cropping. He was an early adopter of these methods.....and he Knows whereof he speaks. He told me how to do a home spun crimper.....but I am not going there. I have a line on a Goliath roller crimper.....and I think I will own one in a few more weeks. I'm going to be running over 10 acres two times a year (for those JPS of you keeping score at home....that amounts to 20 acres).....and I dont have time for seed blowers and bullschmidt.....grin. Ain't got time to bleed. . Is this another one of those things that only works on my property?
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Post by Foggy on Aug 19, 2021 20:54:10 GMT -6
After you posted this....I spoke to my new Bother in law over the phone on my way up to my land. He told me to not take advice from a guy that blows seed onto his land with a weed blower and to not put too much stock into flail mowing the rye. Said flail mowing this defeats much of the purpose of the crimping action on the rye and will present another set of issues. We talked at length about using a cultipacker too.....no dice. The rye needs to be terminated by crimping (but their is a variety of rye that can be chemically terminated without damaging the other crops. I dont know about this....too new?) Now this Bil is no ordinary dummy. He operated a very large farm sucessfully in Iowa.....and knows the guys at Green Cover Crop and has written papers for the Ag university on cover cropping. He was an early adopter of these methods.....and he Knows whereof he speaks. He told me how to do a home spun crimper.....but I am not going there. I have a line on a Goliath roller crimper.....and I think I will own one in a few more weeks. I'm going to be running over 10 acres two times a year (for those JPS of you keeping score at home....that amounts to 20 acres).....and I dont have time for seed blowers and bullschmidt.....grin. Ain't got time to bleed. . Is this another one of those things that only works on my property? Dont get "cute" with me. You dont even have a flail mower. I think your more "smoke and mirrors" and youthful exuberance......than wisdom and experience. Just sayin. .
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Post by sd51555 on Aug 19, 2021 21:06:46 GMT -6
Is this another one of those things that only works on my property? Dont get "cute" with me. You dont even have a flail mower. I think your more "smoke and mirrors" and youthful exuberance......than wisdom and experience. Just sayin. . Imagine if I did have a flail mower, I might break science altogether! I know my 20 years of plotting is just a start, but I’ve seen some stuff.
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Post by benmnwi on Aug 19, 2021 21:16:50 GMT -6
I'm interested to see how the no-till drill works. Can it plant soybeans as well?
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Post by Foggy on Aug 19, 2021 21:22:12 GMT -6
I'm interested to see how the no-till drill works. Can it plant soybeans as well? YES. Read back on this thread. Beans, Corn, and you name it.....it will plant it in row widths and rates determined by YOU.
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Post by Foggy on Aug 19, 2021 21:22:49 GMT -6
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Post by Foggy on Aug 19, 2021 22:33:21 GMT -6
Dont get "cute" with me. You dont even have a flail mower. I think your more "smoke and mirrors" and youthful exuberance......than wisdom and experience. Just sayin. . Imagine if I did have a flail mower, I might break science altogether! I know my 20 years of plotting is just a start, but I’ve seen some stuff. My dad had a saying I always remember when he would disagree with someone: "I know you mean well....but..." I think I will just leave this there. Your on the right track for you....and I am on the right path for me. We both mean well. You chose to go the low road (and seed with a frigging weed blower)....and I will go the high road. It's all good. Different scales of operations I suppose. Different strokes for different folks. FORE! I remember it was TOM Petty that sang a tune: I Won't back down.....wont be turned around....you can stand me up at the gates of hell....but I won't back down. heeeey. baby.....their aint no easy way out.....I won't back down. NO....I won't back down. .
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Post by Sandbur on Aug 20, 2021 4:05:08 GMT -6
Foggy, do I understand that you planted into some sod that had not been sprayed? Please keep us informed on that area. I wonder if grasses are dead or dormant.
I was going to stop by yesterday afternoon, but it didn’t work out.
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Post by Freeborn on Aug 20, 2021 5:01:32 GMT -6
I’ll be interested in your results for corn and beans. As you and I talked I always thought beans were planted at 2-2.5” and corn at 2.5-3” which my Kasco really struggled doing. Foggy you were saying 1” was plenty for corn or beans. If that depth works it will help my Kasco greatly as it plants small seed in shallow rows very well but large seed in deep rows poorly.
I’ll also be interested to see how you do with trash in the field. Currently what you have planted into has been burned down to almost nothing. Corn trash particularly is impossible to deal with.
If you have completely gone to brassica rye mix you may have hit your sweet spot. For my area soybeans are best and corn is second, a cover crop of rye for soil health but only radish for a brassica works here, the rest just rot.
From-my experience planting into soybean stubble went very well as long as you don’t cut the stubble and just allow the drill to pass down the rows. Corn had to be flail mowed and tilled under for my Kasco to plant into.
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Post by Tooln on Aug 20, 2021 6:09:37 GMT -6
Looking good there Tom. Can't wait to see more pics and your story.
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Post by smsmith on Aug 20, 2021 6:14:43 GMT -6
10 acres of plots is more akin to farming than to plotting in my mind. I wouldn't want to do 10 acres using SDs methods, especially if I was as old as Foggy
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