Farm Machinery Question...

Tractor and discbines

I don't often post on Saturdays, but as I started to reply to a question asked about the farm machinery, it was taking up entirely too much space in the comments section. I decided to put this into a separate post, in case anyone else is interested.

So, in the comment's section of Wednesday's post, Nancy wrote,  "This former farmgirl is curious about the apparatus on the front of the tractor. It doesn't look like a loader. Do you have any idea what it is?" After discussing it with Mr. C., who seems to be an veritable encyclopedia of knowledge of all things related to farm machinery, I have the following information to add:

The apparatus on the front of the tractor is a discbine. There are three of those - one on the front and two others, one on each side. I had thought that it was a 'just' a mower and that the other thing was a crusher. When I said that to Mr. C., he responded, 'Pffft, that is SO yesterday!'  Okay, fine. So... the three things you see mounted to the tractor are called discbines. They cut and condition (fracture the stems so that they will dry faster) the hay in one operation. The tractor with attached discbines prices out at about $250,000.  Got some spare change??  They can cut about 40-50 acres an hour with that, and on a big field that doesn't have as many turnarounds, even more than that. It's GPS guided to discbine the field as efficiently and quickly as possible.

But we're not done yet. There are also the mergers and the self-propelled choppers.

 Merger

The merger gathers the dried hay from a 50 foot area and puts it into windrows for chopping.

 Self-propelled chopper

Now that the merger has put the hay in windrows, the self-propelled chopper comes along and chops it and blows it into the truck running alongside. When that truck is full, the next one is ready to take its place.  They will fill one of those trucks in about 4 or 5 minutes.

Incredible world of farm machinery we live in.
 
And now I have to include the cartoon that I'd put in a previous post about harvesting the alfalfa:

 Might this be a less expensive option?

***

 Check out my handcrafted, vegan soap!

Buy any 5 or more, Get 1 FREE

'Highland Tweed'

...and more! Check out all my handcrafted soaps at

HomemadeSoapNSuch

and at

Our ETSY Shop 

Good Fences, Gates, and Farm Machinery

Ah, May in Wisconsin. It's finally here...

...although I'm really disgusted with winter for killing my apple trees. After years. Dead as a doornail. I am so annoyed.  I'll be replacing them with two new McIntosh trees, for those are my favorite. So what killed them this year? It had to be the exceptionally beastly winter.

This is what my trusty McIntosh used to look like in the late summer.

and a closeup

I never used insecticides or anything on that tree. It bore perfect, wonderful apples year after year - and not without words of praise to God and encouragement to the tree.  It was amazing!

The grass IS greener on the other side of the fence.

Poor cows are on the corn stubble while the grass gets a tad longer.

The bottom pipe of this gate is actually about 2' off the ground.

I wonder if the cow is thinking about a way to flatten out and crawl under.

Ready to go!

I thought those chopper boxes looked so pretty all in a row.
I love red machinery. Not meant to be a slam, my John Deere friends.

And in case the irrigation system gets out of control,

the farmer's all ready with two canoes on top of the old wagon.

***

Join Tex at Run*A*Round Ranch

for

***

Check out my natural, handcrafted, vegan soaps

Buy any five or more, Get one FREE

'Frosted Apple Spice'
With real dehydrated apple peel from my McIntosh apples
(I better hurry and get those new trees planted!)

...and more! Check out all my handcrafted soaps at

HomemadeSoapNSuch

and at

Our ETSY Shop 


 ***

This post is also linked to
From the Farm 

More Farm Machinery

 Neighbor Bill's Barn and Disk

It seems like forever since I've posted anything, but I guess it's only been a few days. A lot has been happening. None of it has to do with sorting and packing, unfortunately. Right now we're waiting on the ICF block for building the the main structure of the addition. 

I thought I'd post these photos taken earlier this month (with the exception of the disk, which was taken in June.) Taken in late afternoon, I loved the way the light shone on the old red barn and John Deere disk, just across the street from our house.

 Perfect Timing

This was the last time the alfalfa was taken off the field north of the house. They get a crop in August and then let the field sit during the month of September, so that the alfalfa can prepare for the long winter ahead.

From Pioneer.com:

'As fall approaches, remember that it is strongly recommended that alfalfa fields in the upper Midwest and Northeast not be harvested from September 1 to October 15. Alfalfa needs six weeks of uninterrupted growth to be fully preparing itself for winter. This winterizing period is important to help maintain the stand's health and productivity the following year...The main advantage of this winterizing period is that it enables the plant to go into winter with adequate levels of root food reserves. These reserves help the plants to effectively survive the winter and maintain high root energy levels that are required for vigorous regrowth in the spring. 

Harvesting alfalfa fields during the September/early October time period can result in alfalfa plants going through the winter and early spring period with depleted root energy reserves. When alfalfa is cut, plants will instinctively start to regrowth. Energy reserves stored in the plants root system are used to initiate this regrowth. Plants will continue to 'pull' stored food reserves from their root system until there is about 6-8 inches of vegetative top growth. At this stage of growth, the plant will then start to move food reserves back into the root system to build them back up.'

More interesting than video games!

Notice how there are so many pallet projects out there in blogland?  I found the perfect one for me.

Enjoying looking at the wildflowers growing up around and through it.
How could anyone improve upon that.

***

Check out this special offer available

only at our Etsy Shop:

Natural, Handcrafted Vegan Soaps 

...and more! Check out all my handcrafted soaps at

HomemadeSoapnSuch

and at

Our Etsy Shop

Have a great weekend, everyone!

This post may be linked to one or more of the following: Mop it Up Monday  and Get in My Tummy and  Cure for the Common Monday and  Clever Chicks Blog Hop and  Barn Charm and  The Marketplace  and  Mix it up Monday and Make it Pretty Monday and    Making the World Cuter Mondays and Make the Scene Monday and  Something I Whipped Up Monday and  Motivate Me Monday and  Making Monday Marvelous and Get Your Craft On and Efforts and Assets and   You're Gonna Love it Tuesday and Creative Showcase and Memories by the Mile and Crafty Texas Girls and  Tweak it Tuesday and  Coastal Charm Tuesday and  Take a Look Tuesday and  Tasty Tuesday  and Love Bakes Good Cakes and Mom on TimeOut  and Adorned from Above and Wildcrafting Wednesday and   Cast Party Wednesday and  We Did it Wednesday  and All Things With Purpose and Home & Garden Thursday and It's a Party at Creative Princess and Artsy Corner Thursday  and The Girl Creative, Thursday and  Creative Things Thursday and Be Inspired and Time Travel Thursday and Thrifty Things Friday  and  Friday Fences and  Thursday's Inspiration and  The Self-sufficient Home Acre and  I'm Lovin' it Thursday and Creative Things Thursday and   Mandatory Mooch   and Foodie Friends Friday and Freedom Fridays and From the Farm and   Anything Blue Friday and Junkin' Joe and  Serenity Saturday and Get Schooled Saturday  and Inspiration Friday(ThursNite) and Vintage Inspiration Friday and Photo Friday and Share Your Creativity and   A Favorite Thing Saturday and Sunny Simple Sunday and Sunlit Sunday and  Market Yourself Monday and  Saturday Nite Special