A Great Day to be Plowing

[SCDolphin]

We have some red clay here and a friend of mine just subsoiled a field that had been planted for 40 years but never subsoiled. It would always hold water. We subsoiled the fool out of it and now no more standing water. Really an improvement.

 

[Robert_in_NY]

Well, 60 ton of lime arrived today at the new property. The second truck went to unload while the first driver was being shown the way out so he was un-attended. He ended up backing thru a ditch and had his axles crisscrossed across the ditch so the left side of the first rear axle and the right side of the second rear axle would just spin as they floated in the ditch.

Well, the only tractor we had there was the TN65 and the truck was partially filled still (10 ton or so) so the TN tried but didn't even budge it. We had to call in the neighbor who brought over his 120hp FWA John Deere to pull the rig out of the ditch.

The picture and video is from my phone so the quality is terrible but you guys get to see something rather then nothing

 

[mark.r]

Robert, is this all pellatized lime? How are you going to load and spread?

 

[Robert_in_NY]

Robert, is this all pellatized lime? How are you going to load and spread?

No, it is powdered lime. There will hopefully be pics of spreading tomorrow. I have my friend spreading it for me because I do not have the time to do it myself. I will be following behind with the disc.

It will be spread with a lime spreader and I will get pics of it. You load the spreader with a loader and the spreader (we will be using the narrow 4 ton model so we will fit in the vineyard also) is a pto driven unit with a chain drive feeder which drops the lime onto two spinners which spreads it.

 

[mark.r]

No, it is powdered lime. There will hopefully be pics of spreading tomorrow. I have my friend spreading it for me because I do not have the time to do it myself. I will be following behind with the disc.

It will be spread with a lime spreader and I will get pics of it. You load the spreader with a loader and the spreader (we will be using the narrow 4 ton model so we will fit in the vineyard also) is a pto driven unit with a chain drive feeder which drops the lime onto two spinners which spreads it.

Oh ok. Sounds similar to the truck mounted unit that was used spread the pellatized lime on my pastures.

 

[Robert_in_NY]

Oh ok. Sounds similar to the truck mounted unit that was used spread the pellatized lime on my pastures.

Yes, they are basically the same thing. I could have hired the other outfit to come down and spread this lime with their trucks but I would rather give my money to my friend and keep it local. He is going to send one of his guys over this morning to get started.

If you don't mind my asking, is there any reason you went with pelletized lime? Around here pelletized lime is around $90 a ton compared to $27 a ton for powdered lime. The powder also absorbs into the ground faster as it doesn't have to break down first like pellets.

The nice thing about pellets is you can have your lime mixed with your fertilizer and do everything in one pass. But for my applications pellets are not a cost effective option.

 

[slowzuki]

I've got to lime my fields too but the old drop spreader has seized up and a new lime buggy is lots of money! I'm hoping the lime company can rent one.

 

[mark.r]

If you don't mind my asking, is there any reason you went with pelletized lime? Around here pelletized lime is around $90 a ton compared to $27 a ton for powdered lime. The powder also absorbs into the ground faster as it doesn't have to break down first like pellets.

The nice thing about pellets is you can have your lime mixed with your fertilizer and do everything in one pass. But for my applications pellets are not a cost effective option.

No real reason other than it's supposedly less messy. Primarily though because I only have a broadcast spreader and my Coop won't bulk deliver the lime, they only spread it. Furthermore, I wouldn't have a way to load the stuff other than by hand.

 

[Robert_in_NY]

I have a few options here, there is a company that spreads bulk lime or I could rent their small trailer spreader also, or I can buy the lime thru my friend and use one of his spreaders, or I can rent the spreader from the mill I deal with or I can rent a spreader from one of the two fertilizer dealers here.

I normally spread the lime myself but this year I am short on time. Hopefully the rain will hold off and I will start planting corn tomorrow.

 

[Robert_in_NY]

Here are some pics of lime spreading. The tractor is a 3910 (or maybe a 3930 as I can't remember he has a dozen or so 3910/3930's). The tractor has 24" rear rubber which isn't ideal for spreading on rough fields as it will get stuck easily. I had to tug him out 5 times today while I was discing. There is around 15-20 ton of lime left to spread tomorrow.