Fireman_dcb
Bronze Member
- Joined
- Apr 3, 2002
- Messages
- 62
- Tractor
- John Deere 790
My wife and I bought a 10 acre farm 5 years ago. House and one acre were in need of serious work (and a 2 story addition and a big deck on the back). The front 4 acres were thick with 6' tall weeds which I was able to knock down with my JD and brush hog where my wife's 2 horses now reside in the post barn we had built and RAMM Centure fencing (great stuff).
The 6 acres in the back were another story - 4 acres were put into pheasant pens, one large pen divided up into 8 smaller pens where the birds would be seperated by age and sex until they were ready to be sold. The netting that covers the top (to prevent pheasants from flying away and keep hawks/ owls from snacking) should be let down in the winter after the birds are sold off to keep the nets from ripping under the weight of snow, then raised in the spring to keep birds in. Unfortunately the previous owner went belly up and for two years let the nets stay down - all the while weeds and grass were growing up into the nets making them impossible to rip out with my 790. We rented a JD 510 and had a friend tear up the netting, pull up the 2" chicken wire (that was buried 1' in the ground to keep foxes out) and pull out the cedar posts (one about every 8'). But, we got half of the pens ripped up last year we rented the 510 again pulled up the rest of the cedar posts then rented a JD 550 bulldozer and pushed the posts, netting and chicken wire to the back corner of the property. Finally - after 4 years we could see from one side of the back field to the other, but due to my FINE bulldozing skills there were a lot of uneven sections - I didn't even want to brush hog due to the amount of bouncing around. This year a farmer came up and asked if we were working the back lot - we weren't and we barted with him; he clears and levels the field for a rent free year of using the field for soybeans. He did a **** of a job with fertilizing with liquid manure (that smell and a cup of coffee REALLY wakes you up in the morning) then came the 6 bottom plow to turn it over, next were 3 passes with an 18' batwing disc then rock picking, a final discing, planting, compacting and shortly he'll spray Roundup to kill off the weeds/ grass which won't bother the genetically engineered Roundup loving soybeans.
For next year I'm looking to either rent the field to him (looking at 60 bucks an acre?) or get into the LIP (land owner incentive program for 150 bucks an acre and put it into cold weather grass like Timothy and have him mow it after July 15th.
Its just nice that the land is being used rather then growing up in weeds. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
Take care - Doug
The 6 acres in the back were another story - 4 acres were put into pheasant pens, one large pen divided up into 8 smaller pens where the birds would be seperated by age and sex until they were ready to be sold. The netting that covers the top (to prevent pheasants from flying away and keep hawks/ owls from snacking) should be let down in the winter after the birds are sold off to keep the nets from ripping under the weight of snow, then raised in the spring to keep birds in. Unfortunately the previous owner went belly up and for two years let the nets stay down - all the while weeds and grass were growing up into the nets making them impossible to rip out with my 790. We rented a JD 510 and had a friend tear up the netting, pull up the 2" chicken wire (that was buried 1' in the ground to keep foxes out) and pull out the cedar posts (one about every 8'). But, we got half of the pens ripped up last year we rented the 510 again pulled up the rest of the cedar posts then rented a JD 550 bulldozer and pushed the posts, netting and chicken wire to the back corner of the property. Finally - after 4 years we could see from one side of the back field to the other, but due to my FINE bulldozing skills there were a lot of uneven sections - I didn't even want to brush hog due to the amount of bouncing around. This year a farmer came up and asked if we were working the back lot - we weren't and we barted with him; he clears and levels the field for a rent free year of using the field for soybeans. He did a **** of a job with fertilizing with liquid manure (that smell and a cup of coffee REALLY wakes you up in the morning) then came the 6 bottom plow to turn it over, next were 3 passes with an 18' batwing disc then rock picking, a final discing, planting, compacting and shortly he'll spray Roundup to kill off the weeds/ grass which won't bother the genetically engineered Roundup loving soybeans.
For next year I'm looking to either rent the field to him (looking at 60 bucks an acre?) or get into the LIP (land owner incentive program for 150 bucks an acre and put it into cold weather grass like Timothy and have him mow it after July 15th.
Its just nice that the land is being used rather then growing up in weeds. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
Take care - Doug
