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George

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Started burning diesel at a fast pace yesterday and by nightfall we had 185 acres of corn and 160 acres of soybeans in the ground! We started spraying Monday and have the burn down on all the ground going into beans on.

This was our first experience with "Auto Steer" We put it on both 4650 JD Tractors ( and the sprayer ) and planting after dark continued easily with both the planter and the drill, We have planted after dark befor but keeping on the markers can be hard on these old eyes!

We bought the "cheap" version of auto steer but it is supposed to keep us within 4" and I feel that is much closer that I was doing before and it sure takes the stress off!

We will probably be caught up with the dry ground tonight or tomorrow but we hope to get 1/2 done ( 2,300 acres total ) before the next round of rain then we can rest a little and wait for dry ground. We were done with corn 20 April and beans 28 April last year hopefully we can just be a month late this year.

We got our last rain saturday night and it was only 0.2 " so things are drying
 
We finished planting corn on May 9th and we just got 1.35 inches of rain. Put the last of the cows out to grass this morning. Life is good.

Looks like you might have another wet weekend George, hope you are still making progress.
 
Just back in as we got rained out but 145 acres of corn in the ground today and 60 acres of beans.

If the rain does not continue we still have a few acres that could be planted this weekend.

I'm sure glad we got the 9170 and a 32' finisher a couple of years ago as it can keep ahead of the planter with ease.

We are consentrating on the corn and then we can hit the beans full force.
 
George what kind of auto steer system did you get? I just put on a trimble 750 with the easy steer on our 4650.
 
We bought "Outback" brand (about $4,000.00@) and after three days of hard use on the tractors and about 8 days in the sprayer all I can say is we should have done it years ago!

My son and I felt they might be a help in some conditions but that we could probably do as well without them but there is no comparison. I feel we will probably break even on them this year and might even make a little with savings on inputs but we can definitely get done faster and that will mean more yield.

We are at sub 4" guidance as I did not want to pay a monthly subscription fee but my son is thinking next year we might go ahead and pay the fee and get down to sub inch guidance and strip tillage to lower fertilizer usage even more.

Installation took almost a day per tractor and the instructions were very good except the main hydraulic lines were not marked on the instructions as to which port to which line (only two lines so how hard could it be) and on each installation we got them backwards first which was easy to find out as the tractors turned complete circles the first time activated. Swapped the lines and calibrated the systems and love them. It is about a 5 minute learning curve and you are ready to go.

We had to adjust the "buffer" on one tractor as the front axle wanted to correct in one manner or another about every 4" across the field but the directions were clear and to took about 3 tries over a 10 minute period and now is smooth as silk!

A long way from the JD "H" ( 18 HP on Gas but after you got it warm you switched to Kerosene and got 25 HP ) and AC "WD" ( 40HP untill I put in an M&W power crater kit and got up to 45 HP ) I started farming with!!

Then I got an AC "D 17" ( 56 HP ) with POWER STEERING and could not believe the differance, My next move up was a JD 4010 ( 85 HP turned up to 100 HP ) which we still use to mow raodsides and other chores!
 
We got 2 1/2 " of rain in 15 minutes on some of the ground we farm north of here but only got about 0.2" on some of the south ground so we might get back in the fields later today or tomorrow.

My son was planting about an 90 acre field and was on the last pass when the sky opened up and lifted the planter about half way to the road and still almost not got out of the field. We will probably leave that unplanted this year as by the time it dries enough to go back we would do damage to the crop that would be up. Well 89.5 acres is planted and if the water goes down quickly it should sprout quickly!
 
George said:
We got 2 1/2 " of rain in 15 minutes on some of the ground we farm north of here but only got about 0.2" on some of the south ground so we might get back in the fields later today or tomorrow.

My son was planting about an 90 acre field and was on the last pass when the sky opened up and lifted the planter about half way to the road and still almost not got out of the field. We will probably leave that unplanted this year as by the time it dries enough to go back we would do damage to the crop that would be up. Well 89.5 acres is planted and if the water goes down quickly it should sprout quickly!


Come summer folks that fly are going to be reporting crop circles/rectangles in your field. :lol:
 

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