Friday Carnage

[Fishbonker]

Anytime I use machinery I usually break something. I plan on planting a food plot tomorrow (Friday) so it will be Friday carnage.

First off, the plot as it stands:

The plot is about 1/4 to 1/2 an acre. It was beans last year that I threw some winter rye into. The rye used the nitrogen from the beans to grow pretty tall. As you can tell I let it head out. The strip I'm standing in was mowed in the middle of June as a fairway for the Fishbonker Open. The weeds used what was left of the bean's nitrogen to get pretty big too.

A partial list of the equipment I'll be breaking:

I'm making a seed and fertilizer run in the morning. I don't know how many pounds of brassicas seed I'll plant or how much fertilizer I'll spread. I'm not even sure what fertilizer I buy, 46-0-0, 6-24-24, both or neither. It kinda depends on how rich I feel in the morning.

I'm not even sure how I'm going to spread the seed and fertilizer but one thing is for sure, I'm going to till half the plot and disk the other half just to see which method does a better job. I have a fear that I'll be laying on my back with a knife trying to cut the weeds out from the tines or the disc scrapers.

I'll find out how strong the slipper clutch and shear pins are on the tiller and just how dull the disk is. One thing is for sure, I'll break something I always do.

If you are in my area tomorrow afternoon bring a lawn chair and a cooler so you can have a ringside seat to Friday Carnage. Or if you prefer to play it safe and not have to dodge flying debris or my out of control tractor I'll be posting updates as I progress, or regress as the case may be.

Wish me luck.

 

[NWBuck]

Looks like I see the corner of a mower in your last pic…might think about using it first and your tiller will be just fine. Have fun!

NWBuck

 

[Daver]

...

A partial list of the equipment I'll be breaking:

...

As a fellow food plotter...at least you are a realist. ^^


Good luck!

 

[IowaBowHunter1983]

I hear you.... my next purchase should be a welder.

Good luck!

 

[JNRBRONC]

Maybe you need to add another piece of equipment to your arsenal: Flamethrower

 

[Fishbonker]

<HR style="COLOR: #333333; BACKGROUND-COLOR: #333333" SIZE=1> <!-- / icon and title -->"Looks like I see the corner of a mower in your last pic…might think about using it first and your tiller will be just fine. Have fun!"

When weeds get that tall and thick the mower piles too much stuff for the disc to cut through. The disc just rides over the cuttings. The tiller, no problem grinding the cuttings into nothing. I've just never tried to disc or till standing weeds this tall and thick. I'm just curious on how each implement will preform and will there be a difference in moisture retention between the two.

Like I said, my only for sure thing is to work the ground with the weeds standing then figure out when to spread fertilizer and seeds and how to work it into what ever mess I have. Will I disk in the seeds and fertilizer after they are on? Will I just run the cultipacker over it? If I don't disk in the fertilizer I'll lose it to denitrification. Do I till, spread fertilizer and seed, do a shallow till to incorporate the fertilizer then cultipack, seed and cultipack again? Or do I try something totally different? I'm not sure what I want to do except I don't want to change between the disc and tiller more than once. They both can be a booger to hook up. And I don't want to spread the fertilizer and seeds until after the ground is ready on both the disc side and the till side to try and keep the seed rate and fertilizer equal between the halves.

Well, I suppose it's time to get going. My equipment, much like myself, can't work before 10:00 so I'm going to sit on the front porch with a hearty farmers breakfast of mini chocolate donuts and a soda to watch the dew dry.

Anybody else having trouble quoting posts and previewing posts? Today and last night I had a heck of a time getting posts done.

 

[abrendes]

Great way to start my morning. I spit my coffee out laughing. This is my first year putting food plots in and I have broke something every time I have been on the plot this year. Keep us posted on the carnage. I like the welder idea as well, that will have to go on my list.

 

[Fishbonker]

150 pounds of urea 50 pounds of 62424 6 pounds of turnips 3 pounds of radish just under a hundred bucks now it's time to get to work

 

[Fishbonker]

first near breakage hydraulic hose is too short to pull from the three point I'll attach pictures tonight.

fix for this problem will be to swap hoses from a different implement who needs a timeline? it's hot out here

 

[IowaBowHunter1983]

150 pounds of urea 50 pounds of 62424 6 pounds of turnips 3 pounds of radish just under a hundred bucks now it's time to get to work

there was supposed to be a picture attached oh well

I'm guessing you already know this, but don't put all that seed on that one plot 1/2 acre plot. 5-6#/acre.

 

[Fishbonker]

okay that fix didn't work. hydraulic cylinder fittings from a fifties era disc and a modern hydraulic cylinder aren't even close.

The new cylinder has O rings and fitting like I haven't worked with in the past. Notice the hydraulic fluid puddles under both cylinders. That's gonna be around forever.

I thought about swapping just the cylinders but one is 12 inches long and the other is 24 inches long.

I know that disk pulled from the drawbar will not work properly the weight distribution jack is long gone so it looks like I'm going to use the tiller on all of it. now the question is do I mow first or just have at it with the tiller.

I think I'll sit in the nice air conditioned cab and contemplate it for a while.

talk to text sometimes puts in funny words

 

[arm]

Wish I would have takin up the lawn chair and cooler offer

 

[goatman]

Face it you really don't care what happens. The Cubs are on a roll. Side note I just got done mowing a mess just like the one your working on. Tilling next.

 

[gundog870]

I would just leave the weeds for cover and broadcast the brassicas. Maybe broadcast a few pounds in the woods as a kill plot.

 

[turkeyriver]

Let me guess. It was too hot out for you and you went in to watch the Cubs, had acouple silver bullets and fell asleep?

 

[Fishbonker]

Let me guess. It was too hot out for you and you went in to watch the Cubs, had acouple silver bullets and fell asleep?

Hot, yes. Silver Bullets, yes. Watch the Cubs, no. Fell asleep, yes. Working on the update.

 

[Fishbonker]

Here was the first pass down the middle. Looks pretty smooth.

Next pass was through the jungle

It took several passes to smooth everything out. Where the weeds were thickest the trash would catch on the side skids and leave big piles. I had the cruise control set at 0.4mph and had to cut it back to 0.2mph for the thickest stuff. It took forever. When I was going back over it I was able to go 1.0mph. I had the PTO set to economy mode so the engine only runs at half speed but still has 540 PTO RPM. The only problem with economy mode is you only have half the torque and horse power. I still had plenty of power for this job but I have had issues when running the rough cut mower over thick brush and small trees.

Note to self, MOW IT NEXT TIME. The disc would have been useless in this situation either mowed or unmowed but I could have gone quite a bit faster with the tiller and had a more uniform seed bed, but I just wanted to try it once on really tall, thick and tough weeds.

Next I spread the fertilizer. I have a Moultrie spreader that was giving me problems last year. I hooked it up today and noticed the 12 volt plug was loose. I just wedged it in there and it worked great. One thing I would recommend is getting a strainer/sieve to catch fertilizer chunks that would other wise plug the spreader. Digging through a hopper of 46-0-0 on a hot muggy day with sweaty arms ain't no fun.

With no rain in the forecast until MAYBE Monday plus to get the Rhino tracks out of the plot I tilled it again to get the fertilizer burried.

The next pic shows that I made the top link longer to set the tiller at a more front up position. I like to run it more level than that but it helped clear the trash from the skids.

I remember Dbltree pulled a cultipacker behind his tiller so I though I'd try it. Worked pretty good but I couldn't back it up worth beans. By this time the plot is powder.

Oh yeah, I left the bags of seed in the sun. When I was ready to spread them I noticed water in the bags. It must have condensed. I wasn't going to use both bags but I didn't think wet seed would last so I spread one bag along with the fertilizer. They were tilled under too. I'm assuming they will be too deep but perhaps they will be deep enough to have what moisture is left in the soil help them germinate.

I used a cheap hand held spreader on its lowest setting for both the turnips and radishes. I still had to run to get the plot covered before the seed ran out. It would have been worth the price of admission to see an old fat guy running through powdered dirt.

I couldn't decide if I wanted to pack again after I sowed the seeds. Then I thought "What would Paul do?" I packed again.

The finished plot:

Beer time:

Lessons learned: mow first, don't leave baggies of seed in the sun, get a better hand seeder so I don't have to run in powder, only use the twisted clevis to hook up the cultipacker to the tiller, my smartish phone won't post pics anymore.

Machinery broken: none but I need to figure out the new fangled hydraulic fittings and get longer hoses.

I wonder what is going to happen first; a Cubs loss or I get some rain? I'm taking a gamble that it will rain and I'll have some brassicas. I've been known to lose a hundy at the bones table in less than 10 minutes, it will take me longer to lose this hundy, it all depends on rain.

 

[NWBuck]

Looks like an awesome plot…that tiller really does a great job considering the jungle you started with. Now do your rain dance and you'll be set.

NWBuck

 

[goatman]

You have to be happy with that. Great looking plot. May many turnips be bestowed upon you.

 

[Fishbonker]

You have to be happy with that. Great looking plot. May many turnips be bestowed upon you.

I was going to try for Mr. Big Turnip this year but I'm a little late planting.