A little tractor work

I haven't been on the tractor much this spring and I kind of miss it!  Alicia has been burning most of the diesel the last few weeks, which has been welcome relief but I'm ready to get back to work!  I have spent the last few days on our Indy tractor, pulling the harrow across the field.  This is one of my favorite farm job and I'm happy that was able to a little this spring.

Here are a few images of what I did today!

My favorite Indy tractor with the harrow behind.  Such a pretty sky today too!

You may remember that we mow our stubble in the fall.  This is what it looks like now, having been through the winter.  Notice the thick layer of straw that is between the rows of stubble.  This is a good section of the field.

Not all our of our soil is like the previous photo.  We have several area where the soil is shallow and doesn't grow very good wheat, even if it rains.

The harrow spread the straw out to create a more even mulch.  Here you can see that the straw gathers in the harrow.

When I drive over the areas in our field where the soil is less than optimal, I "dump" the harrow, leaving piles of straw on these thin places.  This ultimately builds organic matter in the less productive areas.  You can see the piles of straw in this photo.

We like to go two different directions with the harrow to spread the straw more evenly.  The first pass I go with the furrows.  The second time I set the guidance at a 45 degree angle.

This is a pretty fast job.  I can go 8.1 mph and the harrow is 84 feet wide, so you can cover a lot of ground in a day.  

The left side of this photo is ground that has not been harrowed, the right side is once over.

Here's a close up of the first time over with the harrow.  

And this is what it looks like the second time over.  This nice blanket of straw will help retain moisture throughout the hot summer months.