Monday, March 7, 2016

We continue the repair of gauge wheels on the JD soybean planter.  We got some advice via Twitter from another farmer who used his press to install bearings into the wheels.  That was a big help!  The weather is a bit warmer today, but it is quite windy, and we have not received the sunshine we were promised!  We should wrap up this task today.

The drill sits outside again today… it’s too big to fit inside our shop.

We use the press to push the new bearings into the plastic wheel.

Some wheels dot the shop floor as one-by-one we take apart the old gauge wheels, and assemble the new ones. We re-use the tire on most.

We are meeting today with Greg Anthis, our CPS and Monsanto representative, to get set up with FieldView plus.  We have come to understand that this will be a good way to get the CaseIH and John Deere information systems’ data compiled into one platform.  We can have the C-IH or John Deere as-planted information in both combines this fall, to read instantaneous information about yields–attached to the variety.  We are hopeful this will improve our digital records.

We are also considering changing the furrow-closing wheels on this drill.  We have ordered 3 different kinds of spiky closing wheels, and will test them as soon as a field will allow.  Then, we’ll know which to choose.  If you look carefully in the above drill picture, you can see one such spiky closing wheel on the left end of the drill.

New things to learn each year…makes farm life interesting…