Today at work

[Chae1]

First bit of haylage baled up this morning before the rain
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Like your swath press, did you make it yourself?

Think I'll need to get something rigged up for straw this year the way crops are looking.

 

[stuart]

Like your swath press, did you make it yourself?

Think I'll need to get something rigged up for straw this year the way crops are looking.

Thanks yeah just some old car wheels that were on the silage pit I welded a plate in them for the shaft to go through nothing fancy

 

[Jerry]

Haylage done...

 

[Shovelhands]

Well.....this was ‘different’....
Got asked by a good customer, to build him a “play mountain”, new one on me, with some big twin wall pipes, for kids to play in/on. He runs a kids activity thing in the holidays, along with a Maize Maze, in conjunction with his garden centre. It’s becoming more and more popular every year. And fair play to him, he tries to do something new every year, adding something else to keep them coming. Last year we did a go cart track, this year it’s this!
I’d promised him I’d do it, but unfortunately we are flat out bushy on another job, and as this really needs to be done, I said I’d do it on a weekend for him, so got my machine moved in Friday night and got some dirt shifted, and this is Saturday and today’s efforts.
Had a rough brief of what he wanted, but it was mostly left to my imagination on how it turned out

We are both pretty happy with the result, going to look good with some grass on it

 

[sticky]

Today at grass. My father on the rake.

 

[Princess Pooper]

Someone's in trouble. The pigeons are Prince Pooper's pocket money generator! He wouldn't let me take it from him (he's the only tame cat) but at least he didn't get it into the kitchen!

 

[Muddyroads]

Spent yesterday at our village fete promoting the farm and industry. Difficult to evaluate the benefits, especially when there’s grass on the ground that could have been baled,

 

[TripleSix]

4.30 am start on Saturday to be in Newcastle for taking generators to and doing electrics and minding the stage at a little family festival.

Got off site at about 7.30 pm, luckily the wagon driver was persuaded to bring a genni back with him so I didn't have to do a second trip.

Reversing trailers up into the new warehouse takes a bit of skill and nerves!

Not done a great deal today, am currently farm sitting, checked the pigs and bundled the dog into the van and went home to see the Mrs and other animals.

Added some bars into a gate to hold pigs back,

Decided the lawn needed cutting, 2nd cut silage, time to get the old self propelled double chop out!
@Will 1594

Got back, ended up helping to wrap some stupidly soft bales, the stacking is not pretty...

Walked round and fed the pigs...

 

[Muddyroads]

I hope my contractor knows how much I appreciate his customer service. With rain due at lunchtime, the baler arrived before 10, immediately followed by another! Just glad I was far enough in front with the rake. All 160 bales wrapped up soon after 12, and of course, virtually no rain this afternoon.

I’m not sure how many of us appreciate what it must take to organise the staff, kit and farmers on a big scale, let alone finance it all.

 

[Fendt516profi]

I hope my contractor knows how much I appreciate his customer service. With rain due at lunchtime, the baler arrived before 10, immediately followed by another! Just glad I was far enough in front with the rake. All wrapped up by 12, and of course, virtually no rain this afternoon.View attachment 813402 View attachment 813400I’m not sure how many of us appreciate what it must take to organise the staff, kit and farmers on a big scale, let alone finance it all.

Did you tell him?

 

[Muddyroads]

Did you tell him?

He’ll be getting a phone call from me first thing in the morning (always the best time to get hold of him).

 

[Fendt516profi]

He’ll be getting a phone call from me first thing in the morning (always the best time to get hold of him).

And hopefully a cheque when he sends you the bill

 

[Muddyroads]

And hopefully a cheque when he sends you the bill

Payment online!

 

[Adeptandy]

This ones turning into Triggers Broom

Motor out for new brushes

New pump, as the old one was starting to grind a bit

Then a new door seal

and finally, 2 new buttons as the on/off had broken

Then started reclaiming another bit

Yep, more plastic, string and net wrap

......and of course, wire

Rotors got to come out to sort it, it’s got into the bearing, rotor jammed solid [emoji24]

 

[TripleSix]

View attachment 813432

This ones turning into Triggers Broom

View attachment 813434

Motor out for new brushes

View attachment 813436

New pump, as the old one was starting to grind a bit

View attachment 813440

Then a new door seal

View attachment 813442

and finally, 2 new buttons as the on/off had broken

View attachment 813444

Then started reclaiming another bit

View attachment 813446

Yep, more plastic, string and net wrap

View attachment 813448

......and of course, wire

Rotors got to come out to sort it, it’s got into the bearing, rotor jammed solid [emoji24]

The buttons on those whirlpool washers are the weakest thing known to man...

Sad face for the flail wire disaster.

 

[mixed breed]

Another week gone by
Mot soon.. Abs problem on dads runabout.. took some finding ... wire broken 

sold some lambs

lost neutral on the one tractor, the circled bit is the neutral microswitch and the selector finger is worn, 300 squid built it up with some heatshrink sleeve for now.

mowed

chopped

and clamped

raining nicely again now

 

[sawdust]

Oh the shame of it... don’t think I’ll ever manage live it down , spent the weekend on a couple of Puma, 1 was a CVX

 

[Fendt516profi]

Payment online!

It's amazing how many appreciate it when you go to do it but forget how much they appreciated it when they get the bill. I have one chap won't let me leave the farm without paying me even if I've forgotten invoice book and there's always some food. Needless to say he gets very prompt service

 

[Two Tone]

2 wrappers and 1 baler? Did someone sleep in this morning? In the pre Fusion days we ran 2 balers and 1 wrapper.

It was first day out for the one behind the IH and she had a few teething problems with the jaws and knife. So to get done before it rained, my neighbour came to lend a hand.

 

[Farmer Roy]

Great photos and very interesting How any years will a cotton plant produce cotton for . Does cotton require much fertiliser and fungicides
Also how do you plant a cotton plants
Sorry for so many questions

Thanks. Just trying to show something from another farming environment. Thought some might be interested in something a bit different
Cotton is a perennial plant, but we grow it as an annual.
Part of the regulations / legislation of it being a GM crop is it must be terminated at the end of the season, to help prevent insects building resistence to the genes

Fertiliser ? How long is a bit of string? There are effectively 2 cotton industries here. Irrigation, where yields are high, cotton is the dominant or only crop & inputs are very high. In those situations, then yes, a lot of fert is used.
Dryland ( ie, no itrigation ) cotton tends to be just another crop in a varied rotation of both cool season & warm season crops. Yields are lower because obviously water is the limiting factor, but inputs are very low. Fert rates are quite low or depending on rotation / history environmental conditions there may be no fert. Most of what we've been harvesting is dryland or very limited irrigation, which is where strippers are far better suited than pickers
I'm purely dryland on my own farm.

We have very little fungicide use here. Never heard of it being used in cotton, although I'm assuming there is some on the seed dressing - would have to check a bag label. I've never used fungicides on my wheat & that is quite normal here . . . Used to used fungicides on legumes prior to rain events, but I avoid doing that now. I really don't like fungicides / try to avoid there use at all times
Cotton is planted as a seed, once soil temps are high enough. 14 C & rising at 9.00am, in our spring. Harvested autumn / winter ( been doing this since March, about 2 weeks to finish )
Row spacing is generally based around 1 metre rows. Irrigation is planted "solid" - ie every row planted. Depending on stored soil moisture, geographical / environmental location, seasonal outlook, attitude to risk etc etc then dryland can be planted in any configuration from solid 1 m rows, single skip, double skip, 2m or even 3 m rows. The skip rows / wide rows are all about conserving stored soil moisture till later in the growing season as the roots grow across to access it. We rely on stored soil moisture, rather than expecting rain when we want it.
All dryland is planted zero till, most often into standing cereal straw, to conserve moisture.
I generally plant my cotton on single skip, but based on what I've seen this year & facing the fact our environment is getting hotter & dryer, I think I'll go out to 2 m rows in the future.
The planters use double disc openers ( for the most precise seed placement & minimal soil disturbance ) on a parallelogram, using precision seed boxes to singulate seed for precise seed spacings. Most common boxes are the JD vacuum meters, Kinze brush meters & you do see a few Monosem vacuum meters as well. But the JD boxes, either on JD Maxemerge planters or on other locally built machines, are pretty much the industry standard
I have posted detailed pics here before of both the seed meters & the disc openers, but don't have any on my phone now. The pics are my planter. A 12 m Norseman bar & parallelogram disc units ( built locally ) with JD vacuum boxes. It also gets used for all my summer row crops & I recently planted my chickpeas ( cool season legume ) with it as I wanted the wide row spacings to get greater airflow between the rows, minimising disease & hopefully avoiding the use of fungicide ( chickies are vulnerable to fungal diseases ) by creating a dryer micro climate around the leaves.
Hope I've answered all your questions