Questions about plowing implements

[cat fever]

I have a 400 acre field next to me, which has been rented for peanuts the last four years.

The renter, who is about 80 years old, zero body fat, pulls a Disc Harrow with about 26" diameter pans and some sort of smoothing implement behind behind his big John Deere tractor with quad rears. This is pretty common setup among "real" farmers in my sandy-loam area. He never moldboard plows but that 26" Disc probably tills 9" deep with the pans adjusted not too aggressively. This judging by the residual disc furrows.

When I am operating my Kubota, he always looks down from way up there in his cab, smiles and waves. He pulls at a high rate of speed. No foolin' around. ( I am 68 years old; I think he likes to wave at kids.)

Not to get off topic here but the age thing reminded me of a ride on my sled a few years ago;
We were around 10,000 foot elevation and one of the sleds in our group blew his engine. We pulled him back to the main trail where he would sit all day while the rest of us rode. These four older guys stopped by to see if we needed help. They said they were not much good for physical help but had lots of advice. The youngest of the group was 88 years old, the oldest was 92. Sure hope I'm in that good of shape at that age.

 

[Mearntain]

Don't take it personally. There's still a lot of people around who took Earl Butz seriously when he said "get big or get out". The idea of growing grain crops on small plots is almost unheard of in the US. It makes more sense that you're trying to feed hogs than if you were planning on growing field corn and beans to sell at the elevator on 3 acres.

Growing on this scale will basically entail lots of hand work, because you won't be able to purchase specialized equipment for such a small crop. That's fine, just a bit of foreign concept to most farmers. It's probably not news to you that a farmer with 500 acres can produce a bushel of corn with less fuel, less time, and less money than a small producer like yourself. In many cases, folks with small plots may choose to grow something that have a greater profit potential per acre. I'm not trying to tell you not to grow corn and beans, just explaining why people are curious about your project. I wish you luck in your endeavor, and think it would be cool if you started a thread describing your project and updating it with a few pictures as the season goes on.

Good luck,
Ryan

Everything I do on my property is mostly for for personal consumption and not for making profits. I can see how that may have confused some people since i wasnt clear when i posted originally, but no, im not growing this to try to sell, just purely for me, my family, and livestock/poultry The only "monetary gain" I get from them are the fact that I don't have to spend as much money getting my livestock to market weight. I am a registered hog farm in NC, but I only sell enough to help cover some of the feed costs. Same as the game birds - I just sell enough to cover the feed costs. The rest stay for me and my family to eat off of.

The hard work involved in doing a small tract is something familiar to me, as I've done this for several years without the help of a tractor. Planting and Harvesting a couple acres of wheat and oats in the past with nothing but my hands and a scythe has been interesting to say the least, but I'm definitely looking forward to have the help of a machine to help me this year. Whatever implements or equipment that I don't have but will need, luckily is just a phone call away. I've luckily gotten in good with a guy that farms about 1000 acres next to me and has offered to help anytime just for the cost of fuel.

 

[Mearntain]

That feed contains soybean meal, not raw soybeans. See my link to Mississippi State regarding the use of raw soybeans in swine rations. Here's additional info from Mississippi State dealing the use of raw soybeans in poultry and game bird rations:



Steve

Maybe I should have elaborated more when I said I was going to feed soy, but didnt see a need at the time since the topic of the post was about plowing implements. I'm friends with someone who runs a mill around the corner from my property, and all grains that I grow that need processing will be done there. The soy that I planned on growing will be processed there as well before feeding.

 

[IceStationZebra]

The renter, who is about 80 years old, zero body fat, pulls a Disc Harrow with about 26" diameter pans and some sort of smoothing implement behind behind his big John Deere tractor with quad rears. This is pretty common setup among "real" farmers in my sandy-loam area. He never moldboard plows but that 26" Disc probably tills 9" deep with the pans adjusted not too aggressively. This judging by the residual disc furrows.

Quads? I've driven tripples but never even heard of quads. Do you mean a pair of tires on each side? What most people call duals. ISZ

 

[jeff9366]

Yes. I should have written duals.