March Madness Farm Edition

It is the start of March Madness and while I'm getting excited to watch some basketball tonight and hope to see a few ISU Cyclone victories, we're also gearing up for spring planting which will start in just a month.

Getting the Planter Ready

We've been working on the planter in the shop

Even though there is snow on the ground, we've been working hard in the shop giving our planter its spring-time inspection, maintenance and adjustment done.

Just like your car or truck, farm equipment has many parts that wear down and this is the time of year that we take time to lubricate and get replacements for those parts.  This hopefully will help us to not have any breakdowns after we get into the fields this spring.

Planter Clinics

Getting our planter meters checked ensures
accuracy placing the seed in the ground

Yesterday, My Farmer went to our local tractor dealership for a Planter Clinic, where they learned how to calibrate and set up our planter.  This is essential for making sure our GPS and precision planting equipment are working properly.

Next week we will be getting our planter meters checked, as seen in the photo above.  Seed meters are part of our precision planting system that controls the seeding rate and population of individual rows on our planter.  Each row has its own meter.  This system allows us to start and stop seeding on individual rows, all on the go.  Our seed meters are checked for their efficiency by checking how many skips or double plants the meter gave through a test on the meter machine.  Making sure our meters are working properly is one way for us to make sure that our planter is putting seed into the ground accurately.

Corn and Soybean Seed is Here and Arriving

Our corn and soybean seed is stored in seed tender boxes

Most of our corn seed has arrived and is being stored in the shop (in fact if you look at the top photo of the planter in the shop, you can see the seed tender boxes along the back wall), and most of our soybean seed will be arriving by the end of the month.

We use tender boxes to store our seed because it allows us to easily switch between different varieties while filling the planter out in the field, plus the tender boxes hold a lot more seed.  Tender boxes hold an average of 2,500 pounds of grain, where traditional bags hold 50 pounds.

So, as you can see, we are having our own version of March Madness here on the farm.  If you are interested in getting a sneak peak at spring planting, check out some of these posts:

• Planting a Seed
• Signs That Spring Has Arrived
• Rules of a Farm Wife (Spring Edition)

What do you look forward to with Spring's arrival?  Remember to Comment for a Cause!

Farm Friday - Getting Ready for Spring

It is hard to think that we could, and hopefully will be, in the field planting corn in a month or less when our fields have a mixture of snow, ice, and puddles of water in them from melting and look like this:

But once you go inside our shop you know that planting is just around the corner.  We have seed tender boxes (these large boxes hold an average of 2,500 pounds of grain and are used instead of the traditional 50-pound bags) stacked three high along our back wall and we have our planter inside getting its spring-time inspection, maintenance and adjustment done.

You can kind of see the black bulk seed tender boxes along the wall on the left of the photo
and the planter is set up in the front of the photo

Just like your car or truck, farm equipment have many parts that wear down and this is one of the times in the year that we take some time, and be proactive, and get replacements for those parts, so hopefully we won't have any breakdowns when we do get into the fields this spring.  As the "parts procurement specialist" (aka head gopher) for the farm, I have gotten several new chains and lubricants for the planter in the last couple of weeks.

Getting our planter meters checked

Another thing we did this week to make sure our planter is ready to go, is that we had our planter meters checked.  We also offered this service to our seed business customers by having Joe from Brokaw Precision come to our shop for a day to run meters.

Seed meters are part of our precision planting system that controls the seeding rate and population of individual rows on our planter.  Each row has its own meter.  This systems allows us to stop seeding where we don't want to plant, all on the go.  Our seed meters were checked for their efficiency this week by checking how many skips or double plants the meter gave through a test on the meter machine.  Making sure our meters are working properly is one way for us to make sure that our planter is putting seed into the ground accurately, and in the end increasing our yields.

So it may not fully feel like spring yet outside, but inside our shop, things are definitely looking like spring.  What are you doing to get ready for spring?

Remember to Comment for a Cause!  And check-out the Country Fair Blog Party!