Sorry I haven't posted the past couple weeks -- we've been kind of busy! Today we finished planting corn!! I think I've said it in each of my last several posts but it bears repeating again -- What a difference a year makes! Today is only the 2nd time in the past 40 years that we have finished planting corn in the month of April. Last year because it was so wet and cold we didn't start planting corn until May 4th.
These pictures were taken last week. Before we can plant first we must prepare the seedbed by leveling and mixing the soil several hours before planting. We use a field cultivator (above photo) to accomplish this task. After this spring tillage pass, we then plant the field using a 24 row John Deere bulk fill planter (top photo). With this setup we can plant anywhere from 250-350 acres/day depending on field size/shape, road-time and how long we want to work. Usually we put in around a 14 hour day. This year we didn't have to push too hard. With the advent of auto-steer (see previous posts), dust, darkness and operator fatigue are no longer serious problems.
With larger equipment, more acres and fewer people, we have moved away from individual seed bags (roughly 50lbs. each) to bulk fill seed. This reduces handling, speeds filling the planter and helps reduce operator fatigue. The seed corn is loaded in large boxes (above photo) on a specially designed trailer that weighs and conveys the seed into the large yellow tanks on top of the planter. A fill takes about 15 minutes. Once filled the bulk planter can plant around 200 acres. Before bulk, we would have to spend 1/2 hour every 75 acres to fill the planter. Bulk saves A LOT of time!
We plant the corn seeds about 1.75" deep and about 6.5" apart within the row. Each row is 30" wide. It always amazes me when I think about how many seeds we will plant in a single season. This year we will plant about 34,000 seeds/acre. That's 75 million corn plants on our farm this year!
The first corn we planted (on April 14th) is just spiking through the surface today. Planting conditions have been nearly perfect this year and we expect a very high emergence (survival) rate.
Beside planting we have also been busy delivering seed to other farmers (a sideline business is seed sales) and spraying herbicides to keep our weed populations under control. Yes, we use chemicals and are not an organic farm. Done properly it is a safe and efficient way to maximize the production of a healthy and affordable food supply. I plan to write more on that topic (and discuss the Jamie Oliver Food Revolution t.v. show in an upcoming post).
Cheers!
Great posts Jamie! I'm curious. I hear you mention autosteer... and I see the markers all folded on the planter. Are you planting pretty much all by autosteer?
ReplyDeleteYes -- other than the headlands we plant nearly everything w/ autosteer. Currently we are using the free SF1 satellite signal provided by John Deere. While the "official" word is that the SF1 signal does not provide accurate enough pass to pass accuracy, we find that it is nearly always w/in 1-3" of the target path. I think Deere would rather sell SF2 subscriptions, or RTK hardware. Personally, I'll save the dough. I can tell you for sure, if I was trying to follow a marker, I'd often be less than 1-3" accurate. Thanks for your question!
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