First timer- field prep for field grass

[Wagtail]

Good Lord! The price of lime over there is staggering!!! I'm in the queue for the "Limers" to come and do my paddocks (5 acres approx.) + my neighbours (additional 10 acres) sometime this Autumn... it's whenever they're in the area. My land has been fallow for over 25 years so I'm going to have 2 tonnes per acre applied to mine. The short story is that they've roughly quoted A$75 - 80 per tonne.

Like AKfish (although not on the same scale), Tasmania is an Island State and has a transport/delivery cost from the mainland + I'm at least a 3 hr drive from the shipping port. Yet the cost of my lime sounds like they're giving it away compared to yours.

What am I missing here? The Aussie dollar is only 5 cents higher than the US$.

 

[AKfish]

Good Lord!

What am I missing here? The Aussie dollar is only 5 cents higher than the US$.

I think that you're failing to appreciate one of the finer points of - GREED!

Smart business people invest the time and effort to understand their market and how/when/where/why customers are "recruited" to their businesses. They also recognize that it's not always a good long-term strategy to wrest every possible dollar from prospective customers because they don't typically continue to be a customer.

But, if you're greedy and dumb or your father gave you the business... well, you most likely don't give a **** if a particular customer keeps walking through your door. There's always gonna be somebody else.

AKfish

 

[sd455dan]

Figured out the problem, with the belt running off the idler pulley on the spreader. See anything wrong with the belt on the right?
At some point someone reversed the belt direction on the right side. looking at this picture PTO turns clockwise the lime would be hitting the back side of L during rotation, the left side lime would fall on the inside of the L (as it should) a few other problems solved and its ready to go.

Looked around locally and couldn't find the $3.99 for 40#bags . Gave up and picked up the 2 1000# bags, glad I did to, because they only had 3 and one was reserved for someone else. Still don't enjoy paying retail plus 38%? So got them home and got the spreader hooked up and tested ...so tomorrow going to go for it , and then get it disced in (4-5 inches..)
Still have to figure out the lbs. per acre at mph @ 540 pto (now if I can find the chinese Tractors gear KPH, to MPH conversion)

 

[sd455dan]

Lime is spread and disced in, Changed the color of the field again. Reverted after working the field with the disc, tried for about 4-6 inches depth. Need to pack and seed the field still, and then final pack. And it's raining lightly today so I may try a 2 x 6 drag i used for the garages site, if that fails I have some large diameter logs that I may try to (Flintstone car) by making one into a roller. and if that fails going to just drag the field with the log(s) Decided that the $75 is to much for one day rental for a small roller packer. Still smarting from the lime..

The extension educator said he likes to see the 1/4 inch imprint test when walking on the packed field ( i couldn't help busting out laughing, after thinking of how soft, the tilled areas were) after running an old spike harrow over the field and rain we got recently, I was pleasantly surprised to only sink in about 2 inches or so.. but know I need more compaction.. Will post back when I get the seed and get close to finished:thumbsup:

 

[AKfish]

Glad to hear that everything is coming together and you're just about ready to sit back and watch things turn green! Like to see some later pics on your fields when they're growin' and green. Hopefully, the rains will hold off just a bit.. and then give your new fields a good drink! :thumbsup:

Just finalized my fertilizer and lime order. Changed my final mix on the fert to 20-10-10-8s and it cost $848/ton delivered to a point about 20 miles from my place. The lime worked out to be $280/ton delivered to the same location.

AKfish

 

[sd455dan]

AKfish This definitely is an education in economics of field care, my wife and I used to complain about the price of hay.
Now when we purchase what truly is quality hay, I'm going to take into account what it cost us just to get a small field -part way to growing hay and remind myself what it costs the producer... and thank them.

Do you have to transfer the load and then do the application of the fertilizer and lime yourself?? Or do you pay a separate charge after completion by provider??

 

[sd455dan]

Well my flinstone roller idea got exchanged for a box blade weighted log instead,started to think the logs weight would not be enough so took this old log ,cut two blade widths on top of each other and then repeated them on the other end. It's kind of (backwoods) with the tie downs and scrap wood as insulators but it works so far
The first lap I just put a little weight on the log (old Gannon -weighs 1000#) and by the 4th lap could load it pretty heavy-the tractor started to hop a bit in 4x4, so just raised the 3 point a little bit getting dark and raining now, but would like to try the draft control and see if it can modulate the pressure... most places I walked on are at about 1/2 inch imprint so still a little ways to go but getting there. going to buy some seed tommorrow :thumbsup:

 

[AKfish]

AKfish This definitely is an education in economics of field care, my wife and I used to complain about the price of hay.
Now when we purchase what truly is quality hay, I'm going to take into account what it cost us just to get a small field -part way to growing hay and remind myself what it costs the producer... and thank them.

Do you have to transfer the load and then do the application of the fertilizer and lime yourself?? Or do you pay a separate charge after completion by provider??

It's a bunch of work and money... (Just think what it's like when you start with trees!!) Yeah, I'll go and pick it up and trailer the loads (2 probably) and apply both (fert and lime) to my fields.

AKfish

 

[sd455dan]

The seed has been picked paid for and now needs to be mixed, We ended up buying a 25 lb. bag of this
28lbs. of OrchardGrass Paiute
25lbs. of Climax Timothy.

The plan is to mix the three bags of seed together and use the pto driven seeder. Seeding the main field and then switching to the wifes horse field and then if some seed is left doing the small tilled area also.. the spreader lbs. per acre varies quite a bit depending on which seed is being broadcast.. so it will be an approximation for sure...but by the application lbs. per acre should be plenty.

We decided on the majority seed being the Timothy and Paiute after talking to the farmer we get our round bales from ( he grows his hay about a mile from our place) and the horses love his hay mix and according to him this is what grows best in this particular area..
I spent the afternoon dragging fields and got our lawn tractor and water filled roller ready if needed to pack the seed.
So if everything goes well and no other interruptions come up ( been a few lately) should be seeded and packed tommorrow. :thumbsup::drink: HOPE I am not forgetting anything...

 

[sparc]

You've probably found this by now but 1KPH equals 0.62138 (0.62137119223733396961743418436332) MPH

Microsoft Calculator Plus does all sorts of conversions for velocity, area, length, temperature, power, etc.

Another version, the XP Powertoys Calculator, is available here along with some of the other XP Powertoys. Image resizer is a handy one ot have too. Some of these will run on Vista, not sure about Win7 or Win8.

Windows XP downloads - Microsoft Windows