How agriculture works thread

[ovrszd]

No one does that here anymore. Just chiseled.

Minimal verticle tillage here. Even chisels are rarely used.

 

[ArlyA]

Minimal verticle tillage here. Even chisels are rarely used.

Ya, not much plowing here no more. (in North America) What it the reason they are doing that in Italy?

 

[5030]

Probably should have said 'S' tine chisels with a cultipacker behind.

 

[ArlyA]

Mitch in the red river valley (ND) did a really good video about harvesting and processing of sugar beets. I've not been around these so it was interesting to me and American crystal sugar corporation is a farmer owned cooperative.

 

[5030]

Sugar beets used to be a big crop here, years ago but not now.

 

[ptsg]

John Deere 8RX 370 with a 9 shank ripper going 2 ft deep uphill and down hill.

 

[cqaigy2]

Sugar beets used to be a big crop here, years ago but not now.

I believe they're still fairly big in the Sebewaing area. I remember when we were kids, we'd run around picking up sugar beets that would fall off the trucks. I don't know why but we thought it was a lot of fun.

 

[5030]

I believe they're still fairly big in the Sebewaing area. I remember when we were kids, we'd run around picking up sugar beets that would fall off the trucks. I don't know why but we thought it was a lot of fun.

That is correct but not down this way. Used to be until the cooker' closed in Findlay, Ohio. It's not transportation efficient to haul them up to mid Michigan. Sugar beets were a big crop here at one time. All gone now, replaced with cabbage and truck crops. Big cabbage here and getting bigger. Local farmers are double cropping it actually.

This used to be a big sauce tomato area as well but that is petering out as well due to transportation costs. Nearest large processor of sauce tomatoes is Red Gold in west central Indiana. There is a small cooker just south of Toledo but they have limited capacity. With on road diesel at over 5 bucks a gallon, everyone, including myself is cost conscious. Wile I burn off road (no highway use tax) diesel, it's still expensive. Typically around here abiut 50 cents under pump price for on road.

Cabbage is an interesting truck crop. The big growers here have built their own processing facilities (there is one down the road from me). Basically what they do is, the migrants pick them, they go in large skidded cardboard 'gaylords' and then off to the processing facility where they cool the heads down to 34 degrees and extract most of the moisture with a vacuum process. Then they go into a huge cooler and are shipped out on refrigerated tractor trailer to where I have no idea but it's a steady stream of trucks, day and night. That is a helluva lot of cabbage going out.

Most of the drivers are of the 90 day wonder drivers, I've watched them attempt to back up to the loading docks. Try and fail and the docks are a nice straight shot too.

My buddy that manages the seed farm is across the road from it so I can sit and watch the spectacle. He lives on the property but don't own it.

I make my own sauerkraut bit I quit growing my own cabbage years ago. it's basically free for the taking around here, green and purple.

 

[5030]

When I get some time, I'll take some pictures of his equipment and the operation from the outside as they won't allow inside pictures. You want to talk about huge equipment they have it. Most of their tractors are tracked machines of the green flavor and certainly 'nose bleed' in height.

 

[ArlyA]

Cole in Iowa doing beans and breaking things. This is how farming goes. I do like his videos.

 

[ArlyA]

Harvesting beans in SW Wisconsin. These guys are in and close to driftless country and when we see steep hills, that is where the glacier missed.

 

[JethroB]

Now this is the way to come to town for a Coke and check your mail. .

Peanuts are about all picked and cotton picking is in full swing now. Our little town is in its annual haze of airborne dust and lint from the cotton gin. Roadsides are littered with cotton that blows off the module trucks. But not nearly as much as when they used open top trailers decades ago. Modules and round bales are hauled in them now.

 

[Creamer]

Cotton picking has a long way to go - only six rows at a time.

 

[JethroB]

Cotton picking has a long way to go - only six rows at a time.

And they go pretty slow in the field to boot. Not all farming is done in hundreds to thousand acre fields with few obstructions like in the west and mid-west.

 

[ArlyA]

A 45ft draper head on a Deere X9 combine in England (I think anyway)

 

[ArlyA]

The Welker farm in Montana is breaking up some CRP ground that hadn't been tilled in 30 years. They are using their BIG Bud 525 towing a 50ft chisel plow. Then they picked up rock in his side-by-side.

 

[ArlyA]

Self leveling 4wd tractors made in NW North Dakota for a few years.

 

[ovrszd]

Deer hunting gun season opens tomorrow here in Missouri. My friends are avid hunters. They've had a very good harvest this Fall. Crop yields are good. Weather has been almost perfect. They are on track to finish before Thanksgiving. First time ever for them. They planted 18,000 acres of corn and soy beans this year. They have 1,500 acres left.

So they parked their equipment last night. Gave the crew today (friday) and the weekend off to hunt. They plan to give them next weekend off as well.

 

[5030]

I cringe looking at that and thinking how much in diesel they spend.

 

[ovrszd]

I cringe looking at that and thinking how much in diesel they spend.

I cringe looking at that and thinking how much in diesel they spend.

They contract their fuel in December. Last year I was in the office when they contracted red fuel. 250,000 gallons at $2.43 p/gallon. Curious to see what they have to pay this year.