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So approx. 5k acres of lentils?

5k total the rest will be durum. Put in a little barley and a little peas to start

Boy, you guys dont screw around up in the north east!

Nice looking operation.

40' with 12" spacing, old Concord drill. But it's as big as I'd want for the little bordered strips(fields) I was on today.


No auto steer.


C would love our little loading auger. And there's only one hopper bottomed bin on the place and it's full cow cake....



Luckily we don't seed that many acres. Maybe 1100 total this year? Chem fallow another couple hundred, some summer fallow.

Couple hundred acres of alfalfa but of course it comes up all by itself.


The big guys up in the hills go anywhere from 5-15k acres. Massive farms.

Great pictures everyone.


I will try to get some tomorrow.


Got some 47 degree shovels to try. Maybe we will get in the ground then.

The place next door to us was owned by two bachelor brothers. We always called them the Smother’s Brothers. Apparently when their mother died this big fat woman moved in. My Dad said they shared a girlfriend. The whole place was falling down around them. The brothers died within a few weeks of one another when I was 12 or so. They were in their nineties.

I would say around here the average farmer probably in that 3500 area lots of guys smaller and lots of guys bigger. We just a two man operation me and my dad still.

Sam what model and year is that versatile.

We still run a 975 to harrow. And we got an 835 with a dozer still use too.

We have planted a bunch of ground back to hay and grass over the last several years. We needed a hay base worse than 20 bushel spring wheat ground!


We will plant 1800 acres of cash crops this spring. Conventional wheat and organic wheat. Maybe some flax. Sorta ran out of pulse crop ground!

600 acres of peas, oats and barley for hay....hopefully. More hopefully followed by sorghum sudan grass.

600 acres of a full season cover crop.

No summer fallow or chem fallow.

Will hay 1000 acres of dryland grass and alfalfa.

I think I can make all that work....if we get a rain!

I wont bitch though. I know you guys over east of me are a lot drier.

That 600 acres will make for some awesome hay. We are always short trying to scrounge up bales. Usually end up feeding a lot of poor CRP type crap. What are you running for a baler? I just traded to a 569 Premium last winter and we have been running Vermeer for the last few years. Just wondering if anybody has heard anything.

Jim, there's a lot of Summers around here as well.


Good sprayers.

It's crazy how much equipment costs.



Now everyone has new conveyors setup out in the field for loading the drill with bean seed.





C, that is a 1981 875 that has been turned up a skosh. It'll blow a little smoke out of the turbo when you hit a soft spot.....grin

I love those old tractors, my dad still has an 835 he bought brand new back in '83(?).

Great machines but they getting old and the hoses and hydraulics are getting a little leaky. We spent a couple afternoons replacing lines/hoses on the 875.

That is exactly what we need to be doing.


But we are also way behind the curve(equipment wise) when it comes to the pulse crops(rotation).

I wouldn't mind seeding all the dry land back to grass.


Of course that would guarantee the cattle market would crash and wheat would hit $9 again......

I like old stuff too Sam.

I about cried when the Steigers went down the road.

These Challengers are good though.


C Hell, we are running a 569 standard baler.

I was a Hesston guy for years and years.

Would never go back.

C, I know guys would love both Vermeer and JD balers.


We use a pair of NH 7090's and they are good balers. Little trouble once in awhile with getting a clean cut on the net wrap.

I threaten to seed grass every year Sam!

In fact we have 1000 acres planned here shortly.

Would tear out some old tame grass though for organic farming.


We bought a land roller several years ago and a flex head last year Sam.

Seems you can get by with even less for pulse crops.

That 975 of ours really is a nice tractor still don’t mind running her. Our 835 on the other hand. No AC. Shift sticks. Leaks oil everywhere from every hole engine gallops when it runs. But she always cranks right up. Those old versatiles were some tough old buggers.

We ran a 605M before and it made awesome bales had a lot of bearing issues in the last few years and I think ended up
Changing like 9 bearings and 3 rollers both axel stubs broke. Belts were getting worn. It was just time. We had a 535 JD before that and our main problem with that was the damn kicker. So I’m scared going back to the kicker on the JD versus the ramp on the Vermeers

I have had to do a little work to the kicker but not much.

One weld was bad from the factory. It never broke as I found the crack in time.

I also had to replace a little spring.

Not a huge amount of use, but I think we are at 12,000 bales in 4 years.

I sure liked the ramp on the Vermeer never really had any issues with that at all.

That is more bales then we make. We usually do 1500-2000 a year.

Good Lord... Got enough remotes there, Butch?

pic from yesterday, pumpkin from seeds cleaned out of the kids Halloween pumpkin, that were thrown in the front flower bed.