And so it begins....good luck.
Thank you!
A neighbor and good friend is a full time (young!) farmer. He also happens to be a flight instructor for a missions agency that trains bush pilots. He is super tech savvy and just posted a pic of his gps assisted system for planting. Wheat just went in and he was boasting that the seed/ kernels went in with precision down to the last 1/4 inch. He loves his job- his cab has a tv monitor for watching movies, stereo system and of course A/C and filtration systems. I think it's IH (red) and each year he lets Anara combine some rows of clover seed as a field trip (pun intended).
There is a lot of technology involved these days. We've got Autosteer and all that stuff in the planter tractor. Well, minus the monitor for movies. Who has time for that?
It keeps you busy enough just watching the seeding monitors and making sure everything's working. It really is impressive what we can do with all the technology and how precise seed placement is.
But... we're having massive headaches with our planter tractor this spring. With all the monitors, sensors, electronics, etc. you're kind of at their mercy. Our seeding rate monitor wasn't working, and needed recalibrated, so we couldn't do anything for a day. This is the kind of thing you really can't even test until you get to the field and start trying to plant. They brought us a loaner monitor to borrow, but we're having trouble setting it up. Basically, we should have been planting for about 2 days now, but have nothing in the ground because we're having trouble with the technology. Oh.... and the autosteer/GPS on the tractor is screwing up on us too. About 10 or 12 years ago, there was just a monitor that just told you if you were planting or not. It didn't monitor how closely the seeds were placed or every minute detail, but it beeped if something screwed up and seeds weren't dropping. If there was a problem with the monitor, you either ignored the beep or unplugged it and drove on. Now... well, we've been down 2 days because of problems with technology and a new software/monitor system that is just a year old. I'm starting to question the return on investment we see on a lot of these tools. They're handy and they help when they work, and they do actually make us more efficient in seeding rate and placement. But as for showing a return to the bottom line? I'm not convinced yet.
I'm the one on our farm who has a smartphone. I've got GPS and satellite maps that I can access from anywhere. I can pull up rain charts showing what each field has received. I do basically all of our tech and computer related work.
And I'm also the one saying some of this stuff is a waste of money and threatening to rip the @(*$ things out of the tractor.
Anyway, we're well familiar with the loooooong days/nights with farming and understand the extremely tough seasonal schedule. Hang in there and get enough sleep to be safe driving home from the day job, Andy!! And bless you for what you do. We need more good, honest, butt-busting farmers like you. Thanks for raising our food!!
I appreciate the... um... appreciation!
Funny... and sad, but true.
Yikes! I can't imagine being in that chaos!
It was nuts. I just couldn't believe it!
Sounds like an addition DH would approve of!
I know I liked it!
I'm going to start asking stupid questions now ...
I vaguely know what a tractor is (and not just from when Lightning McQueen and Mater go tractor tipping). But I'm a city girl, so when you say planter, I think of a rectangular box outside the window with assorted small plants. So what exactly is a planter and what is the purpose of each vehicle in the farming process?
Also - I'm guessing the seed rate monitor monitors the rate at which seeds are planted (probably by the planter?) - am I close to right on that one?
(I really know nothing about farming other than that some of my food grows in the ground and then eventually makes its way to me ... so this is going to be very educational for me)
The tractor I was driving was pulling a cultivator. The purpose is to till the soil and leave a loose, smooth seed bed to plant on. It is also the oldest, biggest, and lowest technology machine we use in the spring.
I'll try to get some pictures later, but the planter has tanks on it that you put the seed into and it uses a vacuum system to pull the seed from the central tanks to each of the 16 rows to drop the seeds into the ground. For corn, the planter has 16 rows spaced 30" apart. Each row has a disk that slices open a seed trench, the seed then drops down a tube into the trench where it is pushed down by a plastic arm called a seed firmer, to keep it from bouncing out. Then there are 2 wheels at the back of the row unit that run at an angle to push soil back into the seed trench and cover the seed.
And the monitor I mentioned, it sits in the cab of the tractor. It basically ties into a sensor on each row and records the seeding rate to ensure that we're getting the placement that we want. It also has the capability to record that data to a GPS map so that if we change seed varieties or population in a field, we can come back in the fall and see exactly where those changes were made and see what, if any, difference it made.
And the population is the seeding rate (seeds per acre). It depends on the variety we plant, but we're typically planting somewhere between 30,000 and 35,000 seeds/acre.
It's so cool that you live on a farm!
I definitely enjoy it. I wouldn't want it any other way. But it is also why I will likely never see F&G, F&W, or
MVMCP at Disney World.
) but the rider swap info is right on the park map! 
