Saturday, May 4, 2013

Rain.

It’s light so far, but stops us from planting.

To report the planting progress, I have operated the new air drill for parts of 3 days, and the screen reports 663 acres planted.  Ross tells me this morning that the corn planter has passed 850 acres.  We feel pretty confident about the acres that have been planted so far.  We will see how this rainy spell affects the planted and unplanted acres.  The West Fork of White River has gone back into its banks, and we wait for a full dry-out of those 6 locations.

This was the JD 9330 tractor and the new soybean planter (air drill) on a beautiful Thursday afternoon.

Ray was here this morning from Wright-Stemle to service the electric clutches on the 1910 air cart.  They were not fully disengaging when shut off, and causing some problems with the seed meters under the big yellow tanks.  He has them working smoothly now… and fully disengaging.  Thanks, Ray.

Yesterday, we were delayed starting our field work after a light rain event on Thursday night.  We got going about noon.  I moved to the new Burke farm, and it planted very well.  Finishing there about 730pm, I was able to move back home just before dark.  What a good day; it was a pleasure to plant the new farm location.

Planting at the new Burke farm Friday afternoon. The skies were cloudy and sometimes threatening rain, but stayed dry and windy all day. You can see in the distance the last remaining structures on the place. One grain bin remains; the buyer has not removed it yet.

Check out our YouTube Channel for a short new video of the soybean planter.  An even better video of planting is one produced by Philip last spring.

Have a good weekend!