Late Fall Field Work

This week we started our late fall field work.   We've gone through a few equipment transformations for this operation, ending up with this John Deere "ripper".  It's a narrow piece of equipment, that penetrates to 14 inches below the soil surface.  The purpose is to break up the compaction layer that is about 10 inches down.  It also helps to capture precious water that can run off and not be absorbed in to the soil, particularly if/when the ground is frozen in the winter.

Another benefit to loosening the soil like this is that the wheat roots can go deep for water, which is always scarce in this country, especially this year.  We are headed in to the third year of drought here.  We are trying to give our little plants every chance possible to survive and thrive.

Here's what it looks like!

This is how every day starts.  Filling the slip tank on the pickup from the bulk fuel tank.  Then it's off to the field to fill the tractor fuel tank.

K, this is the coolest invention ever.  A battery powered grease gun.  In the old days you used to have to pump the grease gun with one hand, and hold on to the tube with the other, while holding the grease zerk attachment to the zerk.  It was a three handed job!  This is so much easier and faster!  The green tube is more grease.

Every day you have to grease certain wear points on the machine.  And look who showed up this morning to help!  It doesn't take long at all to grease this implement.  He just stopped by to see if I needed any hydraulic oil, and I didn't.  But while he was there, he greased for me!  Reynald has his own machine that he is running, doing the same thing that I am.

Here's the whole machine.  

This coulter slices the ground so the shank can go in the ground.  Then those two wheels that you can see behind the shank, gently pack everything back down.

This is Indy and the John Deere ripper. I really really love this tractor!  I have nine shanks on my machine.  Reynald has 11 on his.  

This is what it looks like after you farm over the standing stubble.  Not much disturbance at all.

This is a closer look.  You can see the slice in the soil.  Most of the work the shank does is well below the soil surface.

Here I am farming.  You can see how narrow this is.  25 feet wide!  

And this is how fast I am going, most of the time.  5.4 mph.  It takes forever to do this operation.  It's a real exercise in patience!  

Such a beautiful sunset this evening.  

The days are getting noticeably shorter.  The sun sets shortly before 6pm now.