Gettting Equipment Ready

     It's finally starting to feel and look like spring.  This week's picture is of the planter in the shop.  We are a couple of months behind where we would like to be getting equipment ready but given the challenges we had this winter and having a late spring we will still be ready in time. 
    Each year we bring the metering units from the planter to the dealership to have them checked for accuracy.  In addition this year the planter needs new disks.  We are also putting the planter on a different tractor this spring so we have to get the fertilizer tanks plumbed and the pump set up.  There are two reasons we switched tractors on the planter this spring.  One is because it will be easier for me to drive this tractor while I'm still recovering from my accident.  The second reason is because we are using auto-steer for the first time this year.  We strip-till which means we only till a narrow band in the fall or spring and put the fertilizer 9 inches deep in the ground.  I'll explain more about the strip-till when we get in the fields.  Last fall Brent used the auto-steer when he made the strips.  We are hoping that using the auto-steer to plant will improve the accuracy in planting directly over the fertilizer.

Mixing for Heifers

We are trying to capture everyday life on the farm with this blog.  Our first post is mixing feed for the heifers.  This is dad's job.  He mixes balage, cornstalks, beetpulp, canola or dry distillers, and mineral for about 220 heifers and 30-50 dry cows everyday. On average it takes 3-4 batches each day. As you can see the mud makes this job challenging this time of year.