Spring Farming Update

I have been terrible at updating about the farming operations these last few weeks.  Here is a really quick over view:  we started and now we are done!  This is the earliest that we have started and finished planting that anyone in our family can remember.

Tanker Trailer

Tractor on low boy trailer

This year we did things a little different.  Brad started spraying at the end of March down south before any of the ground was worked.  He was spraying a pre-emergence herbicide and fertilizer.  This is to decreased the number of weeds in the field and provide fertilizer for the corn that will be planted.  After Brad sprays, the "tillage crew" (this year there wasn't a team just 1 person) goes behind him and starts working the ground.  The planters then go behind the tillage crew and plant the corn or soybeans.  We use GPS so we can have controlled traffic patterns which basically means everyone is running in the same path in each field.  This helps us to minimize compaction in the field which is better for the crops.  That is a really simple explanation and maybe I will post more about it another time if anyone is interested in the finer details of it.

Tractor and 36 row planter

When I say "behind" they aren't just sitting there in the same field waiting for the next person to be done.  Brad went down south several days ahead of everyone else to get started.  The tillage crew started not long after Brad had started and it was about a week or so until the planters really got started.  The first seed went into the ground April 7th but they really didn't get started until April 9th.  Around home they did a little bit of planting on the 21st but really got going on the 23rd and finished up last night.  Brad also finished his spraying last night.  If the weather man is right then it was perfect timing because we are supposed to be getting some much needed rain this week and it is supposed to start warming up!

Sprayer and Ranger on low boy tender trailer

All three planters in the same field.

For those of you who wonder what type of equipment we are using here is a quick overview of our spring equipment:

Main equipment
2 Case IH 24 row planters pulled with CAT MT 765
 Case IH 36 row planter pulled with CAT MT 865
 Hagie 1400 gallon 120 ft boom sprayer
 62 ft. Sunflower field cultivator pulled with CAT MT 875 (south farms)
 60 ft Case IH field cultivator pulled with CAT MT 875 (home farms)

Support Equipment
New Holland bidirectional tractor they used for rock picking
Bobcat mini excavator used to fix field drainage tile
Volvo excavator used for clearing out tree lines and drainage ditches
Gravity wagon converted to seed tender with a grain vac for delivering seed to planters
Liquid fertilizer semi trailer for supplying starter fertilizer to planters
Low boy with tanks to supply fertilizer, water and chemicals to sprayer
Additional tanker trailer to supply fertilizer to sprayer
Low boy to move equipment around from location to location

Yellow tractor hooked to planter, blue tractor hooked to rock picker, red pickup hooked to seed tender, and other odds and ends support equipment

Left to right: fertilizer trailer, low boy to haul equipment, dump trailer, tanker trailer, tile plow, mini excavator, flatbed trailer, tractor and 24 row planter.