Sowing Oats

Well, we beat the rain, been real dry for 2 weeks or so. Started last Thursday, finished 50 acres worth last night, well I did with the Brillion double roller, the drill was way ahead of me and done Sunday night. 2 break downs with the Brillion, one where the bolt fell out, nut wore off, 2nd roller came off, broke the cast steel arm on one side, repaired same, got some good advice from y'all here. 2nd one was the darned tongue fatigued out, cracked and was bending where the 2 braces attach, right at the bolt hole, well the 3rd breakdown was the 1st, that bolt actually snapped, on the first field we did, at my place, put a 304 stainless steel 1/2" one in there, ran up the hill and dug one up. So the tongue, hitch or what you call it, is just C-channel, welded the crack, he wanted it straightened too, heated er up, blocked up the piece, backed the 3150 onto it, she bent back and started to crack the other way, but it held up that heavy tractor, and I just did one pass of 7018 to keep it from breaking, but leaving it flexible enough to move, well I then cleaned er up with the grinder, welded all around the channel, 2 passes, then put a thick plate 3/4" on top, welded parallel both sides, 3 passes 7018, next size up electrode from 1/8" 5/16" ? 150-160 amps, straightened the braces, put it back together, hung it from the bucket and back to the field, held up fine.


1st time out with the new to him 8350 drill, I rode the back on this field, seemed to work well, just need some new drop tubes, he got it at auction -lift cylinder which he had in the shop anyway, somewhere around $2000, so he saved from hiring it out and broadcast seeded like last year which came up well without being drilled in. We set it for about 3 bushels of seed per acre, well he had a hard time reading the chart without his glasses, so I helped him and adjusted the settings per what he wanted, don't know a darned thing about grain drills, but learned a lot on this gig.



Flare/gravity wagon with 5 ton of fertilizer, 1 ton per 10 acres is what I think went down.



Leonard, he's been at it his entire life, 71 years and a pleasure to work with/for, me on the 3150 running the auger for him. That's my place in the background and the little pond that is stream and spring fed, dug with the other D7 Caterpillar in the late 60's, don't mind the 115,000 volts above you in those transmission lines, hate being near that are when it's hot and humid, kinda scary, one really hangs too low, and they have been told and out here numerous times, nothing changes though.



My view, and do take note of the 3" victaulic pipe, which came from a jobsite in Brooklyn, NY circa 1996, first used to fire 3" mortars (fireworks), then the stack on my D7 Caterpillar, and now the 3150, as his brother knocked the stack off, while clearing those ice storm downed trees, tons of hardwood firewood to gather in all the hedgerows now. We will fix that now that this is done, and my D7 will get it's stack back ! Don't mind the cedar wedges, I figured the exhaust temp with that thick pipe would not burn, not even a charred mark, and better than the stub blowing soot in my face, still had to wear goggles and a dust mask the whole time ! Oh, and his 4440 with duals, new tires this year, pulling a harrow, she's a little tired and that new heavy disc he bought, seems to be a bit much for it, need to freshen up the motor according to him, $10,000 for that by the JD dealer. I think the harrow pulls up more rocks, but you gots to work with what you have, I got one heck of a work out while doing this.




My view again, you can see the packed area and unpacked area, really need that double roller for this soil with rocks, one pass does a decent job. He's got a rock picker, but that extra pass, compaction, I dunno, hard work by hand but 1 less pass in the fields.




The fun part of the job, handpicking rocks like these, hence the loader staying on the tractor, I picked enough by hand to fill a tandem dump or bigger, but he sure was pleased with how the fields look, hopefully nothing left out there to worry about the combine, this will get you in shape, I just about wore out the steps on the 3150 and the parking brake got a work out.




Drill and his late model JD on the largest piece we did, also the steepest on the backside, scary ride to get used to, even for me, big tractor on side hill, then you get a rock under the high side tire, makes yer stomach drop out like a boulder falling in water ! The pond way in the backdrop is ours, 20 acres worth of water there now, was marsh years back, till the beaver, rolling hills go to the mountains way off in the distance, was all farm land at one time.




Well, what's wrong with this picture, multi-story condos going in behind one of the remaining, (but now idle) family farms on this road, there were 13 small farms within a few miles according to my friend Leonard who was born here in '38 and where he still lives, he's the only active farm left here now, don' want to think what will become of the land when he decides it is time to retire, I enjoyed helping him get this done, hard work or not.



Out of the seat, you might be able to see the arm that holds the 2nd roller, (gray area with cold galv. zinc spray) the one I repaired and held up great.




Another one, tree tops should help illustrate that I'm at the crest of a hill.



Largest one I peeled out, and got to roll into the bucket, this was a combine stopper, hill in the background will be corn this year.

Nice pics Bill. Were are you in NY. Im not to far from Albany. Same here ROCKS and CLAY. How are the seed oat prices?

Great pics. You can really learn a lot working with someone that has that many years of experience. Most of the older farmers that I have worked with constantly try to teach the younger generations. All you have to do is keep your ears and your mind open.

Over here about 3-4 miles east of the Hudson River/Troy, N.Y. in the Town of Brunswick or as the Germans would call it "Braunschweig"

If I am correct, 1.5 bushel bags were $12.00 each, so 2 bags = 3 bushels so... that would be about $8.00/bushel or $24 per acre ? Might be wrong on that, but was putting down 3 bushels per acre. He finally got a drill to replace his old one, so seeding did not have to be hired out, less input cost, though he does the loan thing, so he's got to watch what he's doing there, made it all these years by doing that, so with some savings he was able to hire me on to help, and that packing & rock picking just ain't something you want to see a guy his age doing, open station cab, so in all it worked out, we're going to put in another 10 acres of oats, he's got another skid of seed in the shed, + he may do some winter wheat, some of these oat fields will go back to hay, he does a little of everything it seems, was sure glad my welding machine was handy, hung er off the loader and carted it over to his place, to the field etc. it kept this job rolling.

I am wheeled, taking today off, figure some photos might be enjoyed by y'all here, and most of this area, you can't ask for a better view from the seat.

No you cant beat that view, except the condos ha ha. Im about 25 miles North West of you, Schenectady County, Town of Duanesburg, Maybe you heard of it, isnt to far away. I think the Mohawk Vally is also one of NY best views all along 5 and 5s.. Good luck J

You sure can and I've maintained that attitude since I was a kid, always had a strong desire to learn, I will tell you, if you apply yourself you can do just about anything. Sheesh, he mentioned having me planting his corn this year, I said, "well those rows might be a little crooked compared to what you do", he says "you get more corn out of crooked rows" laughing all the while, also good when you work with someone that is good natured, his wife brought us lunch all week, was highly appreciated as I always take care of that myself, just when you're running hard to get something done, these little things sure are appreciated.
The thing I get the most out of this I think is to have been able to work in some of these fields, I've only passed by most of them, just see em from afar and 'cept for our place, they're all new to me, it's old news to him, his kids etc. but kinda new to me and without another able hand, this task would not have gotten done in 4 days, 1 day for repairs, total of 5 days.

Yes, know where you are, we have another place off RT 67, west of Ballston Spa, that Rt 5 and 5S is even better than here, or at least to me it seems, some really nice slate roof barns out there, been awhile, but I can remember when I drove trailer for the lumber yard, hauling out that way, when there was detour to 5, when that bridge section fell into the Schoharie River, I'd take it all the way out, just to see the area.

Love the pics! You're right, ground looks mighty dry. Said you beat the rain, so guessing the seed got wet after you got it in the ground.

Post more pics as it comes up!

It was raining as I was finishing up the last field, just enough for dust control, last night we got some rain, not sure if it was a soaker, but looks substantial enough to soak in and get those oats up. He's got a JD 620 in the shed, and wants to put it on the gravity wagon, so we don't have to stop unhitch and plug in the remotes, I have not been on a 2 cyl JD since I was a kid, we had a B and a JD spreader with the auger type beater. I took a bunch of photos so I can remember what the land looks like, + to share with y'all here. Nice to be off and rest up today, rock pickin sure is good exercise !

Last year at my place, seed was broadcast and packed with the Brillion double roller, I think it was a good stand, sure looked good, I had my doubts as it was not drilled, but there was an awful lot of seed down.

Do you know what kind of oats?

Over 10 yrs ago, I was getting steam rolled northern white oats for my horses. Beautiful stuff! Looked like Quaker oatmeal. Haven't been able to get them for many years now.

In the fall, I used to drag the pasture several times with a harrow, broadcast winter rye, then make one drag after seeding to have winter grazing for the horses.

It used to drive me crazy to see flocks of birds landing in the pasture gobbling up the seed. How do you keep birds from eating the seed?

With it drilled in, it's covered, have not noticed any problems when it sprouts, like what happens with corn and crows/geese sometimes. Last year it was broadcast, turkeys were out there too, but after it was packed, still came up nice and there was still a lot of seed on the surface, even then, I thought there might be problems. The worst problem is the geese from the 20 acre pond, they are just a real pain in the @ss, stubborn pest to deal with, will graze it to the dirt, have to speak with our DEC, Dept of Eviron. Consv. agent this week, not going to waste ammo flushing em out, just our field that is close to em.

I'll have to ask him what he's got, not sure what was last years and or this years seed.

Greetings from southern Cayuga county. Love your pictures. Been holding off on planting oats. Finished chiseling the ground Sun. PM, but it was really too wet to be working a lot of it. And I imagine you know what happens then- it's too dry almost immediately! Was hoping the lumps would get a soaking, but the rain here so far has been pretty much pretend. So we picked seven bucket(similar to yours) loads of rocks today off where we filled in an open ditch. You could use a bigger/better method of packing! We use a 15' cultimulcher with the teeth set to just scratch the ground, run at an angle to the drill, does a great job! Thanks again for the pictures.

Just curious- how wide is the drill vs. the packer? Can a guy put a hitch on the back of the drill to pull the packer?

We have 2 hitches on our drill, and we have 2 narrower crushers that we pull behind it. The one thing we need to watch is what way we turn- one has a longer tounge to clear each other, and it we turn the wrong way they collide and wreck the boards on the back of the drill.

This pic is a few years old- this spring after first crop we plant to plow it under and plant corn in it.



If we can't pull the crushers, we hook onto the 24' drag and pull that after the drill.

Donovan from Wisconsin

I'm going to say, they are the same, don't have dimensions, tires on the drill make it look wider, I was splitting the difference when rolling so as to not run in the same tire tracks, one field I ran a little diagonal to the path of the drill.

I was wondering if something like that could be made to work, few things to figure in too, length, weight, HP, tight areas, terrain etc., would be nice to get it all in one pass, but I am not sure how it would work with some of the terrain, rocks etc. I pushed many of the rocks back in low enough for the combine to clear, using the tires and the packer, that would be hard to do while pulling the drill.

On the flats with deeper/cleaner soils, wider would seem to work, but the uneven terrain, it would skip more, would be nice to cut down on the time though, think this is 12' or 14' never measured it.

We end up with very few areas that the crushers don't get, so I can't really imagine many missed areas doing it that way. We have used our Massey 165 to plant on a couple occasions, and even that pulls the drill with crushers no problem, though it does work up a little more of a sweat than say our 285 that we used this year, or the 1600 that I prefer to use on the drill.

It would be nice if the crusher was just a little wider than the drill so it would cover the tracks from the planter, but I guess that woulnd't be the worst thing in the world if it missed the wheels.

I stop and pick up rocks as I'm planting, but I ussually only end up with a handfull of rocks. If anything I drop them in the truck or bucket when I'm refilling the planter.

Donovan from Wisconsin