How agriculture works thread

[ArlyA]

Before BT corn, the stalks would rot down fairly fast on their own and you could run a planter through them just fine. Now most corn is BT. So you don't need to worry about corn borer anymore..... but now the stalks are healthier and they take longer to break down. Enter Precision farming. With the accuracy of today's GPS driven tractors they can plant directly between the rows of stalks and not have to deal with the planter bouncing over them. Or they just plant on a slight angle as the previous year's corn so that each year's current row only passes last years row every 20 ft or so.

This video is pulling or slicing out the previous years corn plants.

 

[sixdogs]

It's surprising they slice corn stubble considering the fuel, compaction and equipment cost. Around here, corn on a 30" center gives way to soybeans on 15" centers that leaves the corn stubble standing. When it's time for corn again after the beans, the old corn stubble is pretty much flat and starting to break down. They must be planting beans on a narrower center maybe? Their soil is high enough quality to handle it.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

It's really not what the OP is referring to, but today I was in the grocery store looking at the desiccated corn they were selling. Until the chain was bought out by some foreign company, they used to bring in local produce which even had it's own section. As I looked at the dried silk I thought "I know where I can get some REAL corn." On the way home I stopped by a stand where he goes out in the morning to pick what he's going to sell today.

AH, it's on the stove and as I wrote this I started smelling the fresh corn... nothing says "summer" better.

Best corn we had this summer, wife stopped at a farm with sign along road. Guy picked it fresh, gave us 18 ears for a dozen. My later corn did ok, what the coons didn’t get. had some last night.

 

[Jstpssng]

Best corn we had this summer, wife stopped at a farm with sign along road. Guy picked it fresh, gave us 18 ears for a dozen. My later corn did ok, what the coons didn’t get. had some last night.

If we don't get frost before Thanksgiving I'll be able to enjoy my first picking along with the stuffing and cranberry sauce.
It's coming slow but in the worst case scenario I'll pick some of the immature ears for my turkeys before they go away, and run the rest through the hammermill so that I can feed it to the pigs.

 

[Creamer]

This video is pulling or slicing out the previous years corn plants.

You really do not want the cornstalks to break down too fast. One of the secrets for never-till in the dryer climates is that the trash keeps the top of the soil moist. This does a few things - keeps the sun from hitting the soil directly and therefore cooler so it doesn't evaporate moisture directly out, inhibits runoff because of all the trash giving the water more time to soak in, keeps a hard rain from pounding the soil to form a crust that then sheds water, and probably the most important is that with the surface of the soil moist earthworms and insects will come through the top surface creating vertical holes in the soil into which rain can run into and go down in the soil and absorb horizontally exponentially increasing the surface area of absorption.

Bare dark soil is negative in almost every way. The only positives are the soil warms up quicker in the spring for earlier planting, the soil is easier to plant into evenly, and there is no trash in your way to cultivate although I do not know who would want to go back to that.

The other thing that a lot of people are starting to talk about is that a lot of carbon is sequestered and retained for plant growth in that trash. The faster the residue breaks down the faster the carbon is released. This is the natural carbon cycle.

 

[ArlyA]

Farm hand Mike at the 2021 Farm Progress Show in Decatur Illinois. The footage in this video shows combine, corn head and grain cart demonstrations which were held daily at 11AM during the show. Corn looks a tad green to me! I have a hard time imagining how fast they can go and not plug up.

 

[Buggs67]

Old equipment

 

[Buggs67]

This was interesting

 

[Diggin It]

I don't understand the economics of it. Guy that lives a few miles away works a 20+ acre field next to me. He spent several days, all day in the spring preparing and seeding, then had it sprayed a couple of times over the summer.

He came in Saturday and spent all day cutting, literally 8-12 hours running. Today, he and another are out there raking and baling. I don't know what he planted or if he's selling or using it himself, but with the cost of fuel, I don't see how he makes any money.

The tractor is a JD cabbed something he bought new 2-3 years ago. Looked like a brand new discbine he was cutting with and a newer rake he's using. Not sure about the baler.

 

[ArlyA]

This was interesting

Interesting to move to other locations!!