Prepping the Cultivator

Spring planting involves many steps: preparing the ground, fertilizing, planting, weed/pest control, more fertilizer, more weed control, hopefully never REplanting, and it continues until the crop is well on its way to maturity and harvest.  I've already discussed preparing the ground in a previous post (plowing, discing,etc.), so its on to fertilizing and weed control. 

Farmers have a number of ways to accomplish these tasks.  Some fellas hire out the jobs to be done for various reasons: they don't have the equipment or the time needed, they prefer someone with more experience to do it, or sometimes they just don't want to.  The rest of us use different pieces of machinery to get the jobs done.  There are sprayers that apply herbi/pesticides and liquid fertilizers; whether its a tank with "plumbing" lines to booms (big "arms") maneuvered with a tractor or a "highboy" that operates alone, their sole job is to apply a liquid aid to the crop.  There are also dry fertilizer carts that spread dry pellets of fertilizer, sort of like a huge, tractor operated form of thing one would fertilize their grass with.  For weed control, a sprayer can be used, but there is also a piece of machinery called a cultivator.  It has rows of "shovels" that are positioned to be drug in between the rows of corn, loosening the soil and digging up any weeds that dare to peek their little weedy heads in the perfects rows of corn.

Now, there ARE ways to accomplish both of these tasks at the same time, eliminating the need for doubling over a field, which raises the cost of diesel use and compacts the soil.   Some cultivators are equipped with a space in the front for a tank, allowing the farmer to spray what needs sprayed (fertilizer or herbicides) and cultivate at the same time.   Unless you're lucky enough to find a cultivator all rigged up for the job (which is rare these days), the cultivator has to be all plumbed out and adjusted.  Once again, some fellas would hire this out.  But why pay someone to do what one can do themselves?  So was just such a job that Josh and Loren found themselves planning out and doing over the past several days.  Here's how:

This is a cultivator.  Its the last piece of equipment that preps the field before the planter plants the seed.

It has shovels that dig up the dirt.  The loosening of soil digs up weeds and also undos any compaction of the soil that has happened during the field preparation process, allowing the crop to grow a little freer once the seed has been planted.  The shovels are located in the middle of the piece of equipment.

These are the "teeth" on the harrow located at the back of the piece of equipment, behind the shovels.  They are intended to break up and smooth out the clumps that are left from the shovels.

And this is the tank.  The tank is obviously located at the front of the piece and holds the solution to be spayed.

Some farmers just use the chemicals alone, but some farmers choose to use the chemicals in conjunction with a cultivator because the cultivator incorporates the liquid into the soil.  The incorporation allows the herbicide to kill the weeds before they start to grow; this is called pre-emergent.

There are sprayer nozzles (you'll see in a later picture) intermittently placed along the cultivator.  Each sprayer nozzle has to have a hose leading to it coming from the sprayer.  All the sprayer nozzles have to be placed (welded on in our instance) with all the hoses leading to it and secured.  This process takes a while, in both planning out the how much and how manys, as well as the actual labor it takes to do it!

Now there's a happy camper!
(His dad actually alerted him that I was nearby with a camera and warned him he'd better smile!)
Anyway... the nozzles and hoses are all throughout the machine, so it gets the guys in some awkward spots.

Here's a look from the back.

And a look from the side.

 

Here's a picture of the sprayer nozzles.  In the lower right hand corner of the picture, right above the date, you can see a little red-tipped nozzle.  The herbicide comes out on the bottom of this nozzle.  Notice the black hose leading from nozzle to nozzle.

Just another view of the shovels, hoses and nozzles.  The cultivator has 51 shovels and eleven nozzles with many, many feet of hose leading between them all. 

The side wings of the cultivator fold up to make a compact unit for traveling, so there had to be preparations made to keep the hoses from being pinched in the hinges when this is done.  Josh and Loren, using VZM (Van Zante Modification) configured this little rig up, made from part of an old "tooth" from the harrow that was no longer usable.  The hose is led through it, keeping it safe from being pinched in two.

See how the wings fold up?

No job is complete without a little welding!

All the lengths of hose that are laced throughout the cultivator eventually go to the sprayer and then to a control panel on the tractor so the driver can control them. 

So many levers!  This control panel is electronically controlled inside the cab.

This is the pump on the PTO that provides the pressure for the .herbicide to be pumped into the hoses.

So there ya have it.  A plumbed cultivator, waiting for a nice pretty spring day to be used.

No blog post is complete without cute kid pictures.  And here they are:

The kids never cease having fun in the rocks.  They can play for hours, shoveling to create mountains to destroy with their toys.  Here, Caleb is preparing the bus and tractor with a chain so he can start demolition work.

Moose has just done the check up on this engine and says its purring like a kitten.
Ha ha.

Sarah showing off her new owie.  She fell and yes, there was blood and tears, lots and lots of tears.  But most of the injury was on the inside of her lip and she wouldn't have anything to do with showing it for the camera.

We decided it was finally time to get the big outside toys out of winter storage, so we enlisted Daddy's help.  The kids thought it was great to have something "new" to play with.

"Its dark in here!"
Starting the kid off early getting used to the welding helmet!
Heads up, Mr. Powers.... Caleb will be a star welder by Ag class!