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?

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My Wisconsin Neighborhood and a Triple Crown Winner

'...and don't come back!!'

A sassy red winged blackbird that was annoyed with us for enjoying a late-afternoon walk past his territory. He wasn't shy about voicing his opinion.

Good morning, friends. This morning I'm sharing some photos from the weekend. We had a couple long rains in between the sunny days, so the gardens in the area are doing great. We attended a beautiful wedding on Saturday and a great concert at our church on Sunday. In between, we got a couple nice walks in. Farmers are scrambling to plant the last of the crops.

On Fifth Avenue

Poplars, ferns, and a lone horse?
The ferns are especially for Sandra (MadSnapper)

This is the time of year when any fields that aren't already planted are worked from early morning until late at night. Eager to get the soybeans in, presumably. It's way too late for a corn crop.

Our high bush cranberry, or rather, what it will look like in another month or two.

Right now the cedar waxwings are eating the berries leftover from last year's crop.

Cedar waxwings, top, in our cranberry bush

Red winged blackbird, bottom, atop an elm

Irises, including a lovely gift of iris and hosta leaves (great idea!) in a darling sheep glass

from Carla of The River Flowing blog.

She knows I like love sheep! :-)

Way to go, American Pharaoh!!!!!
I am so thrilled with Saturday's Belmont Stakes.
It's about time we have another Triple Crown Winner!

 KentuckySportsRadio.com

Do you know how long it took me to remember the RIGHT way to spell 'pharaoh'???
What were they thinking.
I guess it can be spelled any way they want. He's one terrific horse!

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This post is linked to some of the following:

Mosaic Monday and Make it Pretty Monday and Amaze Me Monday and Our World Tuesday and  Roses of Inspiration and  Treasure Box Tuesday and KatheWithAnE and Tuesday with a Twist  and  Tweak it Tuesday and It's a Party! and Wild Bird Wednesday and  Good Fences and  Home & Garden Thursday  and Saturday Critters and Home Sweet Home and  Freedom Fridays  and Vintage Inspiration Friday

 Check out my handcrafted, vegan soap!

Buy any 5 or more, Get 1 FREE

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Large 4.5-5 oz. bars

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

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and at

Our ETSY Shop 

 

Have a great Monday, friends!