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Post by Oatking on May 11, 2022 6:08:26 GMT -6
Well , I think we all had at least some degree of a blunder along the way during our farming career! I thought maybe this thread may be a helpful reminder for some of our member to point out incidents and hopefully help other avoid mistakes.
My biggest problem is probably oat dust building up on my meter rolls and eventually after a period of time it can slow the metering down. This spring I thought I would get a generator or use my tandem air line to blow out the meter rolls in the morning.
The worst mistake was a dang bird getting into my seed tank, ohhhh that peeved me off and cost me time double seeding. It was worse because the guy seeding across the road was probably wondering what the heck is oatking was doing!
Seeding all night is rare for me but it does worry me if a hose rips off or something else happens. I tend to stop every few rounds and check the drill at night and also slow down the speed.
I have seen custom seeders seed a whole field without turning on there electric switches. Oh was my neighbor ticked at that mistake.
What is some other advise you guys can give so we all have a perfect seeding season!
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Post by kevlar on May 11, 2022 7:01:18 GMT -6
Make sure you latch down the hatches on the tank, they work better that way.
I seldom seed after dark unless to finish up the last few rounds of a field, seems like that is when you have the most blunders. When I was young and full of energy I thought I would keep going after dark, turned out about the time I should have quit, a hose on one section of the air seeder came off and the way it was laying I never noticed it. Did about 60 acres with 8 foot strips of nothing.
Also seeded into mud for 8-9 years, that was a big mistake.
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jvdl
New Member
Posts: 46
Likes: 13
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Post by jvdl on May 11, 2022 7:30:10 GMT -6
Make sure your auger/conveyer is latched and secure before transport, learned that the hard way yesterday
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Post by kenmb on May 11, 2022 8:10:46 GMT -6
Learned what not to do after watching dad do things for many years. The technology changes but old habits gget carried over and don't apply anymore.
For example, don't drag a drill through any mud hole your big, expensive, high flotation equipment will allow. Back when seeding with discers you could never get that close. Then with air-seeder and sweeps and 4wd you could get closer but the sweeps tearing into mud left seed on the ground and it would root and grow. With drills the seed is put into mud and rots before it grows.
When seeding through high yielding low spots, shut off the nitrogen. You likely don't gain extra bushels and instead get a crop flat on the ground and green when combining.
Didnt latch the air tank a couple times. With peas I actually couldn't really tell at harvest time even though rate was about 40% less. Next time it happened I paid attention to the monitor and fixed my mistake.
Another one that could have been bad but wasn't was mixing up my drive and driven gear ratios for seeding flax. Dad was running the rig so he didn't check anything. I check up on him after 60 acres and tank level hardly dropped. Realize my mistake. Flax went on around 8 lbs ac. Couldn't tell yeild or difference until after harvest when you looked at the stubble and saw a plant every 4 inches or so. Still did 35 bu/ac on clay hill. There again, I ignored the obvious signs like where you run the drill over top the ground with cart going to check seed on ground. Couldn't find much flax, thought that was odd, then told dad to go seed. That was the stupidest thing of it all.
My take away is, when you do your checks, and something isn't right, then spend more time sorting it out. Seems simple and common sense, but I made that mistake a few times in recent years. Complacency is a bad thing.
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Post by shmiffy on May 11, 2022 11:47:27 GMT -6
Lower or higher seeding rate might be a mistake. But it’s a good learning experience.
Was calibrating a jd 1910 years ago. I spun the meter into the collection bag and weighed set meter and went. Tank of 11-52 should have did 160 acres. Ran out at 80acres. Under the primaries there was some caked up crap so only half the fertilizer made it to the bag but still went out the primary. Could see the difference for three years.
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Post by Oatking on May 11, 2022 13:51:47 GMT -6
You know that caked up crap in the meter or in the hopper must screw up a lot of guys! Glad I am not the only one! I always run my conveyor well at the start of season and before a fill to make sure no birds nest are somewhere. Even in my seed bins at the farm. Those pesky birds can build a condo nest over night if they are ambitious enough. Oh man! I hate bird nests the most.
Another important tip is to bring a 2 by 4 as a marker to back up or have a back up camera on the tandem for the air seeder loading hopper. Last year I seen a fairly new JD hopper at Enns bros squished flat apparently from an over zealous farmers estimation on the where about's of his hopper location. ehhhhh! On a year of shortages I would be worried the hopper might not be in stock like last year!
My worst mistake was probably when I was 20 years old and I was in a hurry to bring the tandem and haul- all back to the yard. Well, it was raining so hard that afternoon , I forgot about the high augers sticking up from the haul -all so when driving into the farm yard the haul-all auger hit the load-out westfield auger which tipped over and hit my dads case tractor which bounced off the tractor and landed on our other chevy tag axil hood. I felt like $hit that day and was worried what dad would say!
The auger was totaled, the case fender was bent up and the old c65 chevy hood was dented. I dont know how the haul all tank augers remained undamaged!lol
Dad was not upset at all and was glad the 7 inch auger was totaled! Back in the day it was a big step up going to an eight inch auger from a 7 inch! he he he!
OH and always put a safety chain on your caddy wagon or air tank! I ll save that story for another day! ehhhhhhhh!
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Post by OptimallyDismal on May 11, 2022 21:33:14 GMT -6
Had an end section hose in the Bougault plug for most of a tank full before I got blockage monitors😐
My dad has always hated air seeders, figures a double disk press drill is the best, well the miss was the same width as the old press drill, so I said to him it was his chance to shine, so we did the misses with the drill and I wondered how it would compare in the fall, turns out you couldn't see hardly any difference, except for a few wiggles from hand steering and the old drill was 7" spacing and the air drill was 8".
Sure beat the strips of shame though!
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Post by SWMan on May 11, 2022 22:27:05 GMT -6
Watch no part of the canola seed bag falls into the tank when dumping them(string/paper/etc.)
Lids not latched equals nothing out the bottom, seen that a few times.
Even with full run blockage make sure hoses are still in the boot, could be flowing but not into the row.
Canola in too early has been a mistake for many years now since Lindane taken off the market.
Any time I have treated cereal seed there has been zero yield increase and sometimes a yield drag.
Banding heavy rates of nitrogen same direction as corn rows at too similar a depth to seed.
I've not latched an auger before and bent it, so I feel jvdl's pain.
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Post by serffarmer on May 11, 2022 23:02:27 GMT -6
Leaving a tank lid open is a classic move that has happened a time or two. I’m the same as u now Oatking I let the auger rattle a bit near every time before filling every since I angered a bird nest in that managed to perfectly cover over the sump blocking off the meter. Of course it hadn’t blocked it right off when it was calibrating time. That one had me some frustrated. Way before the days of tank cameras. Another time we filled early morning in extreme fog conditions which was a piss poor idea to start with but then it showered a bit so left and came back in an hour. Every tank even the wheat had gotten sticky and damp and nothing was coming out. Cameras caught that one though.
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CTS2
Junior Member
Posts: 74
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Post by CTS2 on May 12, 2022 4:00:15 GMT -6
How many airseeders actually really need the lids shut?
Dad sowed about 50 acres with open lids on our Bourgault 3165, and it still sowed. Whether it was full rate or not is unknown, but there was no difference seen in the crop. This was straight after filling up, and therefore may have been different towards the end when there wasn't the weight of seed above helping out, if he had kept going.
However an old John Shearer airseeder wouldn't sow a single grain if the lid was open, full or not.
Then there's the Alfarm conveyor belt type airseeders, no pressurisation at all, lids only to keep the rain out. I've often wondered why this design wasn't more widespread?
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Post by Oatking on May 12, 2022 6:22:05 GMT -6
I was in a hurry and left the seed lid open on my 1910 a couple of times in the past and the problem is the seed will still meter out unevenly but the oats were only directed out to one side of the drill. Pressurization is very important.
Another mistake I encountered was when I commonly throw some extra canola bags on my 1910 catwalk. Unfortunately for me the bolts on the plastic tank cut threw a couple of 800 dollar bags of canola and the seed poured out steadily in a narrow path while seeding. When I got out to check my seeding depth behind the drill , I said what the heck! I tell you, I scratched around for almost an hour trying to figure out why this narrow trail of seed was there. I checked my drill over head to tail until I climb up on top of the tank and saw my bags empty. Yes , I felt pretty dumb. I often wonder what the neighbor is thinking when they see us stopped for awhile or double seeding over our mishaps. Now I put a couple of empty bags down and than the full bags on top.
Holy molly, when I think of some of the silly mistakes I made in the past , I think if I was an employee would I have been fired ? lol One of the guys who helps me has a funny line when he makes a mistake on the farm! I say to him "what happen here" His reply " I HAD NO CHOICE" ohhhhhh, that phrase haunts me something fierce sometimes when trying to fix the blunder! In my head I am thinking "I had no choice, ......my ass you did" !!!
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Post by kevlar on May 12, 2022 6:58:12 GMT -6
I did about 100 acres a couple years ago and forgot to latch the lid on the phosphate tank while doing canola, it didn’t put down a single pound of fertilizer. I would have thought being heavy it would have still come out the bottom, but no. Fortunately it froze and I got a second shot at it and got it right the second time.
Sowed flax once. That was a mistake.
It’s better to catch your mistakes and fix them right away, even if it’s embarrassing or your neighbours wonder what you’re doing. I’ve seen farms go over every acre with something not working right that should have been easily caught right away. Fortunately I haven’t made too many mistakes while seeding .
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Post by kenmb on May 12, 2022 7:42:27 GMT -6
Good question about the conveyor belt system CTS. We had a Leon S45 and S105 (same tank just different numbers on side) that had conveyor belt under each compartment. Conveyors designed to dump in a central point into plenum. No air presurization and lid was just a rain cap. I suspect the central dump into the air plenum was designed as a venturi effect. Fan at front of cart blew air past the grain entry point and then to distribution manifold on back of tank. It was a detail I never paid attention to back when we had the equipment. Like those vacuums you can attach to your shop air comoressor hose.
Pressurized carts and leaving lid open is a function of weight of grain and pressure in plenum. High fan speeds and restrictive distribution system means high pressure in plenum blowing up through the tank dump port. Light seed and high pressure means no grain drops. Low pressure and high product weight means more product drops.
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Post by meskie on May 12, 2022 8:55:44 GMT -6
Had a John Deere drill and tank out for a demo a few years ago. Salesman was talking up how the tank had a pressure gauge on it so you could tell if lid was left open. Well it still wasn’t sealed properly on the 46-0-0 tank so the first 80 acres got no nitrogen.
Funny part was the blockage was saying no product flow also. But thought something was malfunctioning so he shut it off.
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Post by SWMan on May 12, 2022 22:47:30 GMT -6
My New Holland(Flexi-Coil) tank will basically meter nothing if lid is not latched, which is actually good because you simply go back to where you opened the lid and start over and nothing is double applied.
The best thing I have found to make things go smooth, with seeding and other jobs, is to develop a pattern and stick to it. Most of my mistakes happen when my phone rings in the middle of a job and I lose track of things.
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