Farm Update

Wow, it's been awhile. Sorry, kids. I've started a few blogs since last I wrote, and I've scrapped all of them. I just haven't been in the mood. Combination of writer's block and little motivation. Anywho, since I last wrote, a lot has changed for Ben F Peters Farms, or whatever I call my operation.

I've wanted a liquid fertilizer applicator for a couple of years, but all the ones I've seen on sales went for way too much, and I don't want to pay for a new one. I priced new units, and they're about $350 a row, so to build an 8 row, I'd be looking at $2,800, plus whatever a tool bar would cost me. I'm going to say around $4,000 complete by the time I got it all put together. I found this one on BigIron and assumed I wouldn't get it bought. To my surprise, I did, pretty cheaply.

How it works is the coulter (the big metal wheel) cuts into the ground, and the injector behind it places fertilizer in the trench.

This way, we can put all of our nitrogen on in one pass, instead of with the cultivator and hiller.

I also bought a sprayer yesterday. It's 2 years old and has been taken care of really well. The guys I bought it from even offered to deliver it, so it should make an appearance in my shed on Friday. A brand new sprayer set up exactly like this one is $8,000 more than I paid for it. I've also wanted a sprayer since I came back home to farm, so I'm really happy.

It has a 60' boom and a 500 gallon tank. It also has boom shut off, so I can run the middle and both sides of the sprayer, or just one side, or the middle and a side, etc. That's nice for edges of fields, so I'm not spraying something twice. With a 60' boom, I'll be able to spray 20 rows at a time, so I should be able to cover quite a few acres in a day.

I've also wanted an implement trailer since I bought my planter, but usually when you find them on sales, they're beat to crap. Dad bought an implement from a retired farmer, and he brought it out on an implement trailer. I remarked that it was a nice trailer, and he told me it was for sale. So, Dad and I bought it. It's been repainted and has new bridge planks, and is in really nice shape. The wheels on these trailers lock and you can pull the deck forward. As you pull it forward, it will slide to the ground. I will be able to bring my liquid applicator home on it, but more importantly, I'll finally be able to park my planter in my shed. The doors aren't wide enough to get my planter in if it's attached to the tractor, but I can set it on this trailer, and back it right in. This makes Dad happy, as my planter won't take up space anymore in his shop and it makes me happy because my planter will be in my shed. And, we can use it to haul all kinds of cool stuff.

Also, most of our seed has shown up. We're still about 3 pallets short on corn and 1 on beans, but they should be coming. Here's the corn seed:

I've also been cleaning out my shed and rearranging. Thanks to Dad and Grandpa, we got the bean head put away where I wanted it, which opened up a bunch of space. I forgot to take pictures of that.