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Friday, May 13, 2011

Planting 101...

So I've been a blog slacker again.  Not on purpose though.  I tried to update last night, but blogger was down.  I tried to update this morning and blogger was STILL down.  And somehow with all the blogger fiasco, my Wordless Wednesday post was deleted along with the comments.  I re- posted it, but was unable to retrieve the comments which makes me a little angry because I LOVE comments and since blogger was down, I wasn't able to read them before they were deleted.  Ugh!

Okay, now down to business.

  It's been a little busy around here because it FINALLY stopped raining.  I have been gardening and the guys started planting corn on Tuesday.  I made a couple of "seed runs" yesterday and decided to snap a few pix and explain a little bit of the planting process with all of you.

This pic has nothing to do with this post, but I was sitting in the truck waiting for Brad to make it to the front of the field and I got a little bored, so I snapped this photo.  I like it.  It's interesting to me...


Loading the planter with seed corn...
Who says girls can't farm in dresses??...
All of these boxes have to be filled with seed corn.  There are sixteen to be exact....

The seed corn already has the insecticide on it.  It's easier that way because it is one less bag to handle...
He makes it look so easy...



This is what it looks like under each planter box...
The seeds drop down into that rectangular shaped thingy which is called a seed tube.
The seeds drop out of the seed tube as fast as a machine gun when the tractor is going 5mph.  That is pretty fast!


Because the seeds drop so fast, the Keeton Seed Firmer is needed to set the seed in place in the bottom of the trench.


This gadget allows you to set how deep you want to plant the seed....
and it is attached to this wheel...
I asked Brad if the 1,3,5,7 on written on the side referred to inches. 
He looked at me with a look that said, "Come on Sarah, you know this stuff."
I looked at him with a look that said, "Okay then, tell me what a white balance, aperture, shutter speed, and ISO are and we'll call it even."

He knew I had him on that one, so he said, "No, it's just for reference."
This is the planter monitor...
It is mounted in the cab of the tractor.
It tells you the population, spacing and everything else you need to know about the planter.  It also alarms if one of the planter boxes quites working.
After all the boxes are full, he squirts graphite on top of the seed.
It keeps the seed meter lubricated....

This is the planter mascot...
Brad found her on the side of the road while planting a few years ago and placed her on the top of the planter.  She has kept her place since then.  We got a new planter this year and he made sure he put her back in her place.  I think it motivates him some days.;0)

Have you ever wondered how farmers plant such straight rows?
Well, that thing in the left of the picture is called a guide mark...
It tills up the dirt and makes a line in the dirt...
like this...
and you follow it like so...
Brad is VERY anal about straight rows.  And that may be an understatement.  Plus, straight rows make it a lot easier on the combine driver in the fall.  He's always looking out for the other guy! ;0)

Brad planted close to 230 acres yesterday.
As of this morning we had about 420 acres planted, but then we got rained out today.
Whoo hoo!  Almost halfway done with corn!  Then come soybeans!

Happy planting everyone and remember to watch out for tractors on the road!  Please be patient with them!

Have a great weekend!

17 comments:

  1. Brings back memories, growing up helping load the planter up, all that fun farming type stuff. Getting busy at home with planting too.

    Thanks for sharing!!

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  2. I love that photo of you in the rear view mirror!

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  3. Thanks for sharing a day in the life of a corn farmer!
    Love the photo from the truck:) I like to take that view shot from the truck as well....they always seem to turn out great....love the black and white.
    Have a great weekend!

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  4. Love the first photo.
    This was such an interesting post! I look forward to reading more. Fun to add a new blog to my Google Reader, too. :-)
    Thanks for stopping by my blog!

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  5. When I saw your post entitled "planting" I thought maybe a few tomato plants and some herbs or something.

    But you guys are hard core! I enjoyed reading this...I learned a lot! Hope you have some nice weather and get everything done.

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  6. thanks for your sweet comment on my blog! :o)

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  7. I love seeing all the farm action. Makes you all feel not quite so far away...hugs to all! :) And I love the mascot...that's so Brad to do something like that. Love him!

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  8. Oh, yeah....I want to see YOUR planting process and garden, girl! I know you've got to be hard at work on that also. Pics please!

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  9. Thanks for the seeding post! I love seeing that someone else is in the field, since neither my parents nor my in-laws are in the field yet. I guess I should say, they both got some spraying done. They both tried to go out yesterday, but it seems that not only Mother Nature wants to keep them out; they both had drill issues. It's not going to be a golden year here in ND (as in, not much golden wheat in August). Hope all goes well for you guys!
    P.S. Love your mirror picture :)

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  10. Hello Sarah, thank you so much for your comment on my blog - it's always a lovely surprise to receive a comment - so thank you for stopping by my little space : )
    It looks like your life on the farm is a whole world away from my life in a city in England!

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  11. I love seeing farming equipment out in the fields! Here's hoping that the 1" of rain we've seen in the past few days doesn't hold our planting back. I've been tossing around the idea of picking up a bag of sweetcorn seeds to fill the planter bin on the end row with... just maybe...

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  12. I love reading your farm posts. It's amazing to see bits and pieces of how everything works. I hope that the weather starts to cooperate for you- I know that we've had at least a month of rain here too! I've had enough rain.

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  13. OMG! My farmer just came in, and I was showing him how much he and your husband have in common, when he wanted to know what your mascot was. TOOOO FUNNY when we blew up the pic! "Neked" Barbie! HA!!! He is still chuckling about that one!

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