Time to Sow!

Every year, the end of March brings about the time to sow our seeding.  "Seeding" is the beginning of a field of hay, consisting of oats, orchard grass and alfalfa.  If the seeding takes like it should, the field that is started one spring should last a good four years. 

The seeding can start much, much earlier than what is referred to as "row crops" (corn and beans) because its of the grass family.  Think of it like this: the grass in your yard greens up and starts to grow well before its warm enough to start a garden or plant flowers; its a different type of plant and requires different growing environments.  So the seeding can thrive in cooler weather and soil temperatures, while a seed of corn or bean will just sit in the ground (and deteriorate) until the soil temperature warms up.  Also, since the hay crop is a cover crop (it covers the land entirely) and it doesn't get normally get sprayed, there is an advantage of planting oats early to beat the weeds.  The sooner the seeding is planted, the more head start it has to grow before the weeds do, thus choking out any potential weeds.

Now, we are perfectly on schedule for seeding.  I think a lot of people would probably think "Oh, they are starting early because of the above average warmth!".  Well, not exactly.  If this were a normal year, Josh would be on the good ol' 4020, layered in multiple pairs of thermals, work clothes, gloves and his biggest winter chore coat, shivering cold while he works.  It just so happens that with these well above average temps of 80 (which, by the way, normal average is 48 degrees for the 16th of March), he can do it more comfortably dressed.  We're hoping that the weather will revert back to a nice, cool spurt... maybe even a light snow!... to get the seed good and settled in and started on a strong note. 

Now, without further ado, the how-to's of seeding:

Before the seeding can be done, the ground has to be prepared.  That could mean a couple of things: if its a completely new hay field being converted from pasture or crops, then it must be plowed, disked and cultivated;  if its just being reseeded, then it needs to be disked and cultivated.  Plowing is completely turning over sod.  Disking is breaking the huge clumps of sod we get from plowing into smaller clods.  And cultivating is breaking those smaller clods into even smaller pieces.  Each step uses a different piece of machinery.  I'll do another post about those pieces very soon, but in this picture you can see Josh cultivating.  This piece of land just happens to be my garden, but its the same thing he would do if it were hayground.  When I post about the different pieces of machinery, I'll explain more about the tank you see and the specific uses of each piece.

After the ground is prepared, its time to start the seeding...

If you ask any old timer farmer, he'll tell you that a good ol' 4020 John Deere tractor is THE go-to tractor for everything from choring to planting!  And this instance is no different. 

Besides the tractor (obviously), to seed one must have a drill, which you see here. 

A look from behind.  Looks kinda complicated when you're up close to it, but let me tell you how it works:

After greasing in all the zerks (the little greasing points that are lubed up to keep equipment running smoothly... every moving piece of equipment has them, and some has tens or hundreds!) and checking all the little check points for proper functioning, the preparation for the actual seeding is started.  First, the chains are hooked on to the drill.  These steel chain links are looped through the back of the drill to help disturb the soil just enough to cover the seed.  The seed is extremely small (as you'll see in pictures a little later), so it doesn't need to be buried TOO deep.  More will be explained about that in just a minute, but the job of these chains is to drag just after where the seed is dropped so they can scatter the dirt just enough to bury the seed with a dusting of dirt.

(I have to chuckle at Josh's less than enthusiastic showing of the chain... he was eager to get everything ready so he could start sowing and there I was requesting him to hold out a chain for a picture!  Despite his eagerness to get started, he humored me and my camera through the whole process!  Thank you, Honey!)

You can see here how the chains hook on to the drill and (if you look real close) you can see how they drag the ground.

At this point, I debated back and forth on explaining how the seed is filled or how the drill actually works.  How the drill actually works won, so imagine you've seen the seed go into the drill and then after this part of how the drill works, I'll explain how the seed is loaded.

Once the seed is in the hopper box (explained in the next section), it drops down seed into the seed cup and then into the seed tube.  The seed tube is the black, vertical thingy you see in this picture as the second item from the left.  The seed cup is the compartment directly above the seed tube (its green in this picture).  The seed cup measures and then dispenses the appropriate amount of seeding, dropping it through the tube to be planted.  Now, you see the coils?  Those coils are springs attached to the disc openers, allowing the parts to be somewhat flexible with the tillage of the land (kinda like shock absorbers on your car).  The disc openers glide along the ground to make a little furrow (a little "trench") for the seed to be dropped into.   Notice how the disc openers are directly ahead of the seed tube?  That's so the furrow can be made with the openers, the seed can be dropped from the cups and through the tubes, and then those chains located in the back that were just explained disturb the soil just enough to cover the seeds.

These parts are called press wheels. After the chains cover the oats and orchard grass seed, the press wheels tamps (packs lightly) the seed to secure it, just like you would do with your hand or a spade if you were planting vegetables or flowers.

After the process explained above, the oats and orchard grass seed have been planted.  But if you remember, I said that we sow these two grasses as well as alfalfa.  The alfalfa seed is so delicate that it can't take the roughness of the machine that the other two seeds can, so its is broadcasted.  Think of broadcasting as taking a hand full of seed and just tossing it out to let it land on top of the soil where it may.  Of course, the drill is mechanically made to broadcast just a little more organized than a random tossing of seed, but it still just lands it on top of the soil.  So, the farmer must then make another pass over the ground with a harrow to lightly cover the alfalfa seed with dirt.  That is, of course, unless you have mastered the fine art of  "VZM" (Van Zante Modification!) and created a makeshift harrow to follow along behind the drill!  With diesel being as expensive as it is (if you thought gas was high, take a look at the diesel pumps!) and time being of utmost importance, who wants to make yet another round around the field?  So Josh and his dad modified this hog panel and a cattle panel along with a few spare 2X4s to make a makeshift harrow.  It drags along the ground behind the drill to cover the alfalfa that has been sown.

And its hooked to the drill with a roller chain to allow it to flex with the turns without getting caught up in a tangle.  A roller chain is a chain made from solid rounded links instead of the oval links most of us associate with a chain. 

 Just a look of what the whole front side of the drill looks like.

The drill has to be regulated up and down to allow it to be picked up for travel and maintenance but to be put down on the ground to actually plant.   This is done hydraulically.  This is the hydraulic cylindar.   It uses pressurized hydraulic oil to lower and raise the machine via a lever on the tractor.

Here you can see the cyclindar and how it has attached hoses leading up to the tractor.  The oil runs through these hoses back and forth.

Now time to load up!

The seed is loaded by several bag fulls into hoppers in the main compartment of the drill.  There is a ratio of oats to grass to alfalfa per acre.  Once the math has been done to figure out the ratio, its as simple as using muscle to dump the seed in without tearing the bags or missing the hopper.  The seed usually comes in bags of about 50 pounds, so it does take some coordination to do it safely and without spilling.

Every job needs a supervisor!  Sarah Rose assumed that role on this particular morning.  She got quite the thrill being able to stand on the wheel to watch.  Speaking of wheel....

If you look at the drill's tire, you can see that it doesn't have the normal tread that a regular tire does.  Instead of the tread, it has two ridges alongside each edge of the tire.  Can you see them?  Sarah Rose's shoes are in the hollow spot right between the two raised ridges.  The reason for this is that those two ridges creates a path in the dirt as it goes through the field so the farmer can tell where exactly he has already been over with the drill.  When its time for the next pass, the tire is overlapped with the marks already made so that there isn't any spot that's missed being seeded.  So simple, but so brilliant, huh?

Doesn't she look like a great supervisor?

But even supervisors have to do a little physical labor every now and then.  The great thing about raising the kids on the farm is that we get to start teaching a strong work ethic at a very early age. Don't misunderstand me...we don't push the kids to do hard physical work, but they are given little jobs that they are capable of doing at the ages of 3 and 5.  They understand that it takes the help from everyone to make things run smoothly.  Like this morning, Sarah Rose had to gather and stack the empty sacks and their strings that were blowing around. 

And usually they don't mind at all... even finding fun in the work!  I love Sarah's hair in this picture!

This is what the seed bags look like.  The bags are sewn shut across the top, so when its time to open them for use all we have to do is pull the end of the hem and the top comes undone easily.  Not cutting, no knives... easy peasy.

The hoppers are filled with the seed...

...occasionally with the help of a furry four legged visitor.  Everyone say hello to Smokey!

The ratio calls for several whole bags of oats, but smaller portions of orchard grass (since, as you'll see below, the orchard grass seed is much smaller than the oat seed, it doesn't take a whole bag at a time).  The orchard grass is very meticulously and technically measured out in an ice cream bucket (please notice sarcasm!!) and poured in.

And then the mix is combined.

Remember the alfalfa seed is very small and more fragile, so its broadcasted?  Because of this, its loaded in its own hopper bin in the front of the drill.

The drill isn't just used for hay seeding.  There are multiple crops that can be planted with the drill, each crop having a different setting on the drill to be planted correctly.  The drill has this permanent chart inside the hopper lid that tells the farmer just how the drill needs to be adjusted for each crop.

This is the orchard grass.

And the oats.

And finally the alfalfa.

Since the alfalfa is loaded in smaller increments at a time, it must be refilled more often.  So, once again thanks to "VZM", there's been a platform built to carry seed throughout the field to have handy whenever its needed.

Once the drill is all loaded up, its time to get started.  Back and forth across the field until the whole thing has had a pass over it.  Sounds simple, but its not as easy as just driving around.  The farmer has to keep an eye on the seed to make sure its still full, as well as keeping an eye on the mechanisms to make sure they're working the whole time.

And when one field is done, its down the road and onto the next until all the fields for the year are planted.  Every year is different, but this year we're hoping for a nice soaking rain to get the oats going.  The ground is very dry and dusty at this point, so we really need rain! 

And so begins the planting season!  From now until harvest is wrapped up with the baling of corn stalks, it'll be one eye on the sky while the other eye is checking crops with every trip up the road.  (There is a reason I drive when we take a trip!)  Its a busy, busy 9 month season, but we love every minute of it.