Saskwatch

[Bob Loblaw]

lol I just had to use this title somewhere. I can't take credit for it though I came across it in an online game I like to play called destiny.

Anyways I figured we needed a local "head" count after all it is legal right? I do 4 plants & that should be plenty for me, my location shouldn't matter if I stay legal. Some will probably shy away & that's fine too, as I'm sure we will get some foreigners in here as well.

Content for the thread? How bout some tips and the such, how did your cab smell this spring? Varmints in there... try putting some Irish spring original in there next fall it keeps the rodents out.

Seeding time... I've an old write up on my thoughts for seeding with the question being east/west or north south.
My theory on seeding cereal crops,

East & west or north & south? East & west is the best way to go in my mind and here's why.

Think of the sun, it is hottest we are told at 12 noon, at 12 noon the sun is to the south, all plants need sunlight... well crops need sunlight for sure anyway. Now think of how the crops are seeded, in a row they are one beside another with literally no spacing between them, however there is a 4 to 9 inch spacing between the rows. So in one direction no spacing but in the other direction there is at least a 4 inch space or more...right? So now if the sun is hottest at noon and our crops are seeded north & south at noon every plant will be partially shaded by the one next to it. However if our crop is seeded east and west then at 12 noon when the sun is hottest each individual plant will have better access to the noonday sun, at least until the crop is tall enough that the spacing will allow.

Part 2; East west - once the crop is tall enough that the next row over be it 4 or 9 inches once the plants are tall enough the shade provided by the taller plants will now shade the ground as opposed to shading the plant beside it. Shading the ground will conserve moisture at least I would think so.

North south - In the case of wheat or barley even after it is full grown & headed out seeding north and south will expose the ground to more sunlight at noon when the sun is at its hottest therefore drying out the soil of much need moisture for filling the plants out.

That's my theory and I'm sticking to it.

 

[The Celt]

I believe your reasoning to be spot on mate and would hold true for most crops, not just grain crops.

If I could grow on a south facing side hill, I would do it in a minute, with the hill being terraced so each row was 2 to 4 feet higher than the previous and plants offset so the back row plants were between the front row plants, maximize peak sunlight hours

 

[Bob Loblaw]

A short story while I'm here, I can't say if it's funny or sad I'll let you decide. **You can skip to the last 4 pargraphs if you're familiar with farming.

This is my "Little S Case" story.

To begin first let me tell you a little bit about the S Case. The S Case is a bright orange small but heavy gas tractor made by Case. It has a steel seat mounted on a steel bar, underneath that bar about half way up there is a spring to give the seat some bounce to make things more comfortable for the operator. There is a hand clutch and pulley on the right hand side just in front and below the steering wheel behind the brake. The air breather and the exhaust pipe are situated about mid tractor on the left side and they stick up above the hood about 1 foot and 2 feet respectively.

The front end is cast steel as is most of the tractor and the radiator cap again cast steel is centered and about 10 to 12 inches back from the very front of the tractor, it also has a ridge on the top kind of like a vane or a sight.
On our S the headlights were on the front sides, if you were to draw a line from one headlight to the other that line would pass through the radiator cap. The headlights were also very near the top of the tractor, about 8 or 10 inches below the radiator cap.

Now that you have a mental image of the tractor let me take you to my story. It happened to me when I was about 12 or 14 years old so that would be somewhere between 1973 and 1975. It was fall and my father was harvesting wheat on the home quarter. After school I would go out to the farm to help with the harvest. Things were going good and harvest was coming along well, we were close to finishing and it was a very nice evening. Being a new moon though it was also a very dark evening. The darkness of that evening is something I remember well because it made things difficult for me.

My job was hauling the grain from the combine to the bin in the yard. I was using our S case and a hopper box. The hopper box is basically a metal box mounted on a trailer. The combine dumps the grain into the hopper & then it is pulled to the bin where there is an auger waiting to transfer the grain into the bin. Our hopper boxes were new so they were mounted on very nice trailers with larger wheels than most others, also a little bigger than most.

Everything was going good for me but it was very hard to see therefore I was moving slowly especially in the yard. It was getting late probably about 11pm and we usually did not go much later than midnight, however we were close to finishing. I had just finished dumping a load of grain into the bin and headed back out to the field for the next load.

When I got past the trees in the yard I could see out into the field, at that point I noticed that the combine was not moving. It was stopped and out in the farthest corner of the field. I should have realized that if he was full and waiting he would have waited somewhere closer but I guess I was not thinking that way. I thought because I typically move slow plus the fact that it was dark making things even slower for me well I thought that the combine was full and that he was waiting for me.
** Most of the field had been harvested to that point, I had a clear path and the whole field to cross. Well I put the tractor into road gear and opened the throttle, off I went across the field. Lets pause here and remember my description of our Little S Case. Heavy, cast steel, bouncy seat, ridged radiator cap.

So here I am flying across the field full throttle...well when I hit that V ditch ( a shallow V shaped ditch used to drain water) well I was airborne my friends. I can recall hanging onto that steering wheel with all my might but I was no match for the forces involved. I flew clean over the steering wheel, over the airbreather and the muffler and I landed on my face on top of the radiator cap, my ass was bouncing off the back of my head, my feet were dangling assbackwards in front of the tractor but luckily I had caught the headlights with my arms.
Meanwhile this tractor is still going full throttle road gear across the field. Because my arms were hooked behind the headlights I was able to somehow manage to straighten myself up and came down on the right side of the tractor. I walked on top of the steering rod that goes from the steering wheel to the front wheels, stepped over the pulley and around the hand clutch sat down and pulled the clutch out.

I was shaking like a leaf in a hurricane as I just sat there. I have no idea how long I sat there I don't think it was very long and I'm positive I geared down before I drove up to the combine. It turned out that the combine was plugged and we were quitting for the night.

The next morning while we were having breakfast my father asked me what happened to my face because I had a scar. I told him I tripped and fell against the bin. That day after school I took the tractor out to the field to see what I had hit and to pick up the pillow that was on the seat.

 

[The Celt]

Not a farmer mate, but I have sat many an hour in the seat of old farm tractors in the woods logging when I was a kid lol

I now own the old woodlot and also a ‘72 DB 880 I bought for in the woods.