Farm Progress Show Highlight.

There is always one product at the Farm Progress Show that seems to catch the eye of a lot of People.  This year it was the Tribine.  The corn head was folding, and instead of a grain tank, it fills its own Auger Wagon.  I worry about compaction, but it might be  an effective way to load trucks without unloading on the go. I could tell this machine was interesting to a lot of people because they were stopping to look at 3:30 in the afternoon to take a look.  Most people are just strolling to see what they missed at that time of day.  They don't stop very often.

Folding Corn Head

Drago demonstrated the 12 row folding corn head at this year's Farm Progress Show.  The advantage is being able to drive down the road without loading the head on a cart.  John Deere has an 8 row folding header available.

Sprayers

This my last feature on the John Deere tour.  The sprayer below has a 120 foot span.  It is equipped with nozzle bodies like the one below.  The body supports 5 different nozzle types.  The can be changed by switch from the cab.  I saw this demonstrated at Saale Farm and Grain Plot tour.  On a long boom, this must be a huge time saving.  With all the nozzle variation needed for various crop protectant formulations, this is an important feature.  I am not sure how much automatic shutoff control there is on the sprayers I saw.  John Deere was touting their Exact Apply system which controls each nozzle individually.  I have no idea if they are the only ones with this setup.  

120 foot sprayer

Multi Tip Nozzle Body 

John Deere Factory Tour

About a month ago, I was flattered by an invitation to attend John Deere's Media tour prior to the Farm Progress show.  I decided to accept the invitation thinking I might learn something valuable to my customers and readers.  I am not going to tell you to only buy John Deere.  I do understand that they were putting their best foot forward to impress the ag media in attendance.

We started off the day with a lurch followed by a factory tour.  We spent a good deal of time watching the sprayer assembly line.  The "factory" was clean and orderly.  The whole area was under roof and climate controlled.  Tour guides told us that all sprayers on the line were sold.  They said that John Deere keeps no inventory of any farm equipment.  No photography was allowed in the assembly line area.

Subject matter experts discussed "new" products available for maybe 3 hours.  We learned about a high capacity nutrient applicator, row guidance for sprayers, Starfire GPS receivers, and Maxemerge row units.

Of interest to me was the number of partnerships and cooperative agreements and joint ventures they discussed.

After a break, we went outdoors for some parking lot demonstrations and too look at some historic equipment.  I will share more about the equipment tomorrow.  We were able to mingle with the subject matter experts and ask individual quests during a reception and dinner. It was certainly an interesting adventure.

Sprayer Skip

Not all sprayer mistakes are this easy to see.  This field had several gaps.  If it was custom applied, I would invite them back at their cost.

Sprayer Skip

Are you using the Right Sprayer Nozzles?

You have probably already used your sprayer this spring, but did you check your nozzles before yo started?  Are you using the correct nozzle for your material.  Nozzle are not expensive, so replace them as needed.  No-Till Farmer posted this article on picking the right sprayer nozzles.

Combine Fire

I happened upon a combine that had caught fire.  You can see the burned spot to the right.  The white truck is the repair truck.  It looked like they would be able to get back to harvest today.  This is the second combine fire I have heard of this fall.  The other one was a total loss.  Be careful out there.

Capping Off Summer Celebrations

One of the highlights of the Witt Labor Day Celebration is the farmers showing off their restored classic tractors.  Below is a sampling.  Witt Labor Day Celebration is also notable for the number of politicians who show up.  Congressman Rodney Davis was working the crowd before the parade.  Witt Lions Club has the best corndogs and very good funnel cakes.  

Dale Darr's Ford 8N

Farmall Super M

John Deere 720

Oliver 77

Congressman Rodney Davis

Farm Progress Show

I spent most of the day on Tuesday at the Farm Progress show in Decatur.  As always there is lots of big equipment to see.  I spent the morning helping out at the soil pit near the conservation tent.  It may surprise some people how many foreign visitors we have for the show.  We had materials in Spanish, Portuguese, and English to hand out.

In the afternoon, I wandered the grounds sort of at random.  The bigger the company, the bigger the tent.  This is the "greatest spectacle in agriculture."  I meandered thru the varied  industry tent.  I visited with  friends, and I looked for "new" stuff.  The Crary wind header system was one of the most interesting products displayed.  It adds wind to reduce header loss.

It was a very hot day, so my favorite display was the misting fan at the AGCO display.  Thanks to all the vendors who had free water.  I drank 6 bottles and only had to pay for one.

Home Made Air Seeder

By Glenn Savage - Conservationist and Firearm Safety Instructor

Attached is a photo of my friend cradling a leaf blower fitted with a piece of plumbing I call a "T" fitting.  The fittings are directional.  

One dribbles in seed through the top hole and a powerful stream of air distributes the seed.  My friend helped me plant two acres in less than two hours using the "Seedinator". 

 I confirmed with Justin and Simon of M&M service that they offer "airflow" distribution of seed.  They mix the seed with potash {pelletized} and sling or use booms to distribute it on the surface. 

If you know anyone who needs to seed now or is waiting for spring to plant, encourage them to "do it now!"

The advantages:

•  ground is frozen so you won't have to wait in the spring for the ground to get firm
• planting now saves our no-till drills in the spring
• Air flowing is much faster
• The seed is layered (conditioned to germinate) naturally

Sprayer Tracks

Which sprayer travel direction causes more yield loss?

Parallel

Perpendicular

20 Inch Row Nitrogen Applicator

By Randy Darr, President

Soil-Right Consulting Services, Inc.

Many of our clients like to build their own equipment.  One of our clients built his own liquid nitrogen applicator utilizing the frame of an old John Deere row cultivator.  This client plants his corn in 20 inch rows and did not like the prospects of buying a complete system for $40,000.  So he built his own for about $3500.  He built it to apply nitrogen every 40 inches, therefore one knife will supply two rows.  Not really fancy but very effective.

Snow Pusher

I am a bit off topic today, but what the heck, it is winter and we have had a lot of snow.  I got tired of shoveling snow and decided to see if I could make something inexpensive to push my snow.  It is a 2 X 4 sheer of plywood and some 2 X 4's bolted to the hitch on my 4 wheeler.  It needs a bit of perfecting but it worked OK till I hit some of the ice piles that were still around from the last snow-fall.Yes I still had to shovel some, but it certainly made things easier and faster.

Soybean Harvest Going Well

   Soybean Harvest is underway and I had time to get some great photos. 

Combine in a cloud of dust

Headed to the Auger Wagon

Unloading Soybeans

Soybeans on the Auger Wagon

Back to Harvest

Celebrating Labor Day in Witt

Witt Labor Day Celebration is the last summer festival in Montgomery County.  Farmers and retired farmers love to show off their restored antique tractors at such events.  Four of my best pictures are shown below.  Allis-Chalmers was probably the best represented, but I am giving equal time to the represented makes. 

New Machinery that Caught My Eye

Some machinery that caught my eye at the Farm Progress Show is shown below.  The Landoll vertical tillage tool will actually do vertical tillage.  Some who want to mix in more soil might go for a rolling basket on the back, but my regular readers know that I am not a big fan of rolling baskets.

Vertical Tillage Tool

 Marion Calmer continues to lead the way in harvest of narrow row corn.  His heads work on Red or Green equipment.  calmer believes that we need narrower rows and higher populations to break the 300 bushel mark as a matter of routine. 

Calmer 30 row 12 inch spacing corn heard

 The disk below may not be entirely a new idea, but it could prove useful in managing high residue in certain situations. 

residue disk

John Deere Chevy

This Chevy pickup was one of the highlights of the Hillsboro Old Settlers Car show.  The paint job is awesome.

Sprayer Tracks.

When I see sprayers taking out long parts of rows of corn like this, I am persuaded that it would be better to run the sprayer perpendicular to rows.

Red Tractor

I spotted this International Harvester 1456 one day last week.  It appeared to be unrestored but in top condition.  This was a hot tractor back in the day.  Still looks like overkill for an auger tractor. 

International Harvester 1456

Shallow Vertical Tillage

One of my clients recently purchased a new vertical tillage tool show below.  The idea of vertical tillage is to leave a lot of residue on the surface while creating a seedbed.  The tool below is capable of that goal.  I like the straight disks and it is running at a 5 degree angle off perpendicular to the rows.  It is doing a good job cutting up residue and leveling off the field.  The straight disks minimize compaction.  The producer is planning to plant soybeans in the stale seedbed.  This is a big change for him because he has used a DMI Tiger in the past to really churn things up.