Shearing is over.. let the spraying begin

Earlier this week shearing was completed at farmerpj's shearing shed. Rain had interrupted shearing a few times, but with just half a day to go we were able to get it all out the way on Monday.

I now have quite a lot of white sheep running around and one the jobs I needed to do was to sort out which ewes (female) sheep I was going to hang onto for lambing again next year. Each year we "retire" the old ewes. The correct term is "cast for age", basically it means the old girls are too old and they get to go on a truck ride to... um... the market. We did this on Tuesday and moved the keepers into the paddock where they will spend the rest of the year. Actually they're quite lucky, only a stones throw from the beach.

With rains forecast (and some already been) it's a great chance to spray out some liquid fertilizer. EasyN contains high levels of nitrogen which promoted crop nutrition and growth. A little rain during or after spraying helps to wash the nitrogen into the crops root zone where the plant can easily access it.

So in the rainy breaks during shearing, and since then I've managed to spray a few paddocks of Duram with EasyN, using the Ford 8401 and the Hardi 4228b commander boom spray.

Prioritising is an important part of farm life, and the job that takes top priority today is to catch up with the farm bookwook and do my BAS statement. Yes it should have been lodged yesterday, but jobs that I actually like doing often get done first... and the ones that aren't quite so enthralling seem to get put off til after the last minute.

The rains over night were fantastic and with more forecast over the next few days the young crops will really be coming along nicely.

A cab view from inside the Ford 8401 while driving back from the paddock along the road

Shifting the mob of shorn ewes down to their new paddock at the beach

It's Shearing time

Now that seeding is all over we've started on our July shearing. It takes a little organisation to get underway with shearing. For instance I have to have the right mobs in close proximity to the shearing shed, and sorted into their correct mobs.. cause, you know sheep... they love to get out and join mobs that they don't really belong to.

Once they're sorted we need to leave them in the sheep yards for about a day to "empty out" and also dry off a little if their wool is wet.

The night before shearing the sheep, which by now really need to be dry, are herded into the shed.. they are "shedded". Our shearing shed can hold about enough dry sheep for one days shearing for 2 shearers. I personally don't shear too many of them, but hire 2 shearers. My job in the shearing shed is to sort the wool and press it into wool bales, and to make sure everything runs smoothly.

Keeping sheep dry has been a problem this time round. The rain is wonderful for growing crops, but not for drying sheep. We've had good rains this July so the shearing has been a little on again off again as showers seem to be rolling through quite frequently. Usually this shearing takes just under a week, but at this stage it looks like we're gonna be at it for over a week now.

New Seed Varieties

To keep up to date with the latest crops and varieties on the farm from time to time we need to buy new seed. This year we have actually started 3 new varieties, actually 4 if you include the pasture seed. Generally new seed comes in in 40kg bags and I usually buy a tonne of each new variety.

The four new varieties I have are;

• Garnet - canola (I started seeding planting the canola)
• Mace - wheat
• Commander - malting barley
• Bladder clover - the pasture seed

All but the canola was sown on the same day, which made for quite a tiring, fiddly day. See it's quite a task loading the bags into the air seeder, then calibrating for that particular seed, sowing roughly 10 hectares with the new seed and then doing a full clean out (which isn't real easy with a shearer airseeder). And repeat those steps for each new seed variety.

I have to admit that I was quite pleased when I had finished with all the fiddling around and could get back onto seeding the barley. Maritime barley is the last variety I have to go this seeding, so I am on the home stretch now, with only the 32mm of rain we had a coupla days ago to hold us up. A few more days now should see us out.

When things break down

There is an unfortunate principle in general farm maintenance that nothing ever breaks down when it's in the shed and not being used. So it's unfortunate that when the equipment is in full use that that's when the breakdowns happen, and can be quite time consuming.

Since seeding started a few weeks back I have had a few breakdowns along the way, but thankfully none too serious. Here is a list..

• broken share (pronounced shear) bolts on the air seeder tynes
• bent air seeder tynes
• broken airseeder boots
• split/broken airseeder hoses
• broken spring on air seeder tyne
• air seeder tyne fallen off
• knife points on air seeder either broken or just gone missing (probably because they broke).
• cracks in the air seeder box frame (they are still there... haven't been bothered fixing them yet... just hope it doesn't completely fall to bits)
• bolts on the A-frame (the tow hitch) on the air seeder broken. This could have been more dramatic if it happened driving along the road because these bolts are basically what holds the front to the back, and it could have all come apart.

and that was just the air seeder! The seed and super unit grouper has had a bit of a problem with one of the elevator chains. This has been quite a frustration for me because the chain is.. well quite old and has broken on numerous occasions. Not real easy to fix either, being on the inside of the elevator. It also jumps off the sprockets quite often, and bends the chain up a little - very frustrating because this is also quite annoying to rectify.

Now the boom spray... Well my Dad is the boom spray operator during seeding (do I need to say any more???). Damage is often done to the outside nozzles, triplets, support brackets, boom lines when the outer wing on the boom hits the fence, or tree, or stobie pole. It has been a frequent problem. Yesterday I was operating the boom spray and I had a break in the outer wing. The outside for metres of the wing is hinged in a way that is designed to "break away" when it hits something like a fence for instance. It has, what I call, a break away clutch. It swings back and then returns to the working position. Well yesterday for me it really broke away. Let me stress that I didn't hit anything with it, the clutch just gave way, with the bottom mount completely breaking off while I was going along. It meant that the outer wing was left dragging on the ground. It was a bit like a door would be with only a top hinge. Oh yeah... I also had problems with the fuel gauge in this tractor the other night. It told me there was some in there... but I think there actually wasn't. I discovered that the tractor runs better when there's actually some fuel in the tank.

So there we have the fun part of seeding. Seeding is rolling on, while some farmers in the area are starting to finish their seeding programs I'd say that we'd probably have about a week to go.

First signs of life

The most nerve racking time in the farmers year is right about now. It's the time between when the crop has been planted and when it can actually be seen coming up out of the ground. (The other time is in lightening storms in December during harvest, but that's another story). Well I'm happy to report that yes our first crops are now starting to emerge, and they seem to be looking ok. The reason it's so nerve racking for me, is that I'm never absolutely sure that it's gonna come up at all, or if there were problems during planting and there will be big blank gaps in the crops where no seeds were planted (yes embarrassing I know, but yes it does happen - 2 years in a row for me in one paddock once. Believe me, I made sure that same spot wasn't missed the 3rd year running). Planting a crop each year is like taking a huge gamble that it is going to be successful, the crops actually coming up out of the ground is the first part of the journey. Whilst it is a nerve racking stage it is also a good thing that this stage happens while seeding is still going on so I generally don't have that much time to think about it. So the cropping program is still continuing and I'd say that I'm about 2/3rds the way through our 3200acres. All the canola and wheat has been planted, I'm just about finished the peas leaving only barley after that and a little pasture seed. The weather had been quite good for us in the last week or so. The wind is the main thing that holds me up as I cant get out there and spray the paddocks if it's too windy, which it has been today, so the seeding operation grinds to a halt. The rain also slows us down... but you wont hear a farmer complaining about any rain in the growing season

Well seeding has been going at full steam ahead of late, with very little time off for anything else, including eating or sleeping. Yep that all happens on the go - well the eating part does, maybe not the sleeping part, even though at times it's quite difficult staying awake after hours on end in the tractor. The John Deere 8200 (eighty two hundred) is the main seeding tractor, pulling the mk III shearer air seeder box, and the John Deere 2200 cultivator bar. So far the good old Johny hasn't missed a beat. I'm over 1/3rd the way through the cropping program now, having clocked up over 1000 acres and all the canola and durham is planted, and within a couple of days I will be finishing off the wheat (that's what I'm working on now). That will leave peas, which of course are field peas, not the green peas you can buy in the shops for eating, and barley.

Farmers always have their eye on the weather, and so far the weather has been pretty kind to us too. We've had good follow up rains and I think I have only lost one day seeding due to inclement weather. Yes we love the rain so we don't complain, but it can get too wet to continue seeding. The wind also has to be taken into consideration as it effects the spraying, which is also a big part of seeding. If it's too windy most of the spray that is supposed to be killing my weeds would end up on the neighbours paddock... possibly killing their new crop that has just come up - not the best way to keep up friendly neighbour relations.

All Systems Go for Seeding

Well today was finally the big day, I finally got the air seeder out into the paddock and started seeding. I've burnt.. well.. just about everything that needs burning, I've serviced everything that needs servicing, repaired everything that needs repairing, so it's all systems go.

Having a quite handy 15mm (that's 60 point in the old scale) of rain sure has helped too. All the paddocks are nice and damp now, and the weeds are all germinating so they can be sprayed out.

The process to actually get the seeding operation up and running is quite complex. The paddock has to be sprayed first with the boom spray, being pulled by the Ford 8401 tractor. And the mix of chemicals that goes in that tank is rather... exhaustive! Besides the water (which I'm surprised that there's any room for) we put in;

1. ammonium sulphate (which is in "salt" form and is dissolved by the water)
2. adjuvant oil (helps the plants absorb the chemical better - well least I think thats right)
3. two different insecticides (not sure why there's two)
4. oxyflurafen (helps the other chemical do a better job)
5. trifluralin (stops new weeds from germinating)
6. glysophate (is the main "knock down" chemical that kills the weeds, common name is Round-up)

So quite a complex operation just loading up the boom spray. I also have to load the seed and super grouper which is on the back of the Atkinson truck. That's how I get the seed and fertilizer to the paddock. Then the air seeder has to be loaded out of the grouper. And calibration of the air seeder. That's where I hand turn the delivery system on the air seeder and collect either the seed or super and weigh it so I can calculate the correct rate per hectare. I started on canola today which needs to run at quite a slow rate of 5kg/ha. This is really slow for the poor old Shearer air seeder so to get it down to that took some doing. After all this is done, and the paddock is sprayed it's time to pull her in and start sewing the seeds.

I need to burn more stuff

Looks like it's been a while since my last post... must mean I haven't done much work lately!

Nah not really, just lots of little jobs. The couple of major jobs that I have done is lamb marking. That is where I bring the ewes and lambs in and draught the lambs off so they can be counted, given and ear tag, immunised and tails removed. I spent about 3 days on the lamb marking.

The other job was finishing off the alterations to the airseeder bar. I widened out the row spacings to 12inch to allow for more trash flow. After hearing from the neighbours that they had done a test run in some of their stubbles... and ended up blocking up their machine, I thought I'd better do a test run myself. The same thing happened for me... the straw blocked up the bar. I still had the option of moving a few tynes around to see if that opened it up a bit more. I did that and then took her our for another couple of test runs. The result was still the same. I couldn't get all the long straw to clear the bar, and in one test I managed to completely block up one side of the bar... that was alot of straw stuck in one place. So hence, I need to burn more stuff!

I've pulled out the old hay rake (of which I should have included a photo, but haven't - maybe next time) and started running it over the stubbles to put all the straw into large rows ready for burning. I'll need to do all the wheat stubbles that I used the prickle chain on earlier in the year.

Stone Rolling

In this area we have quite a considerable amount of limestone in the soil. Both loose stones and solid sheet rock. One way to deal with these stones is to run over them with a stone roller (pictured below behind the John Deere 4440).

I only rolled one paddock that was particularly bad for stones. I has a few really rocky reefs and had a lot of larger loose stones on the surface. The stone roller actually smashes up the rocks as it rolls over them leaving just gravel really. It did a nice job of the whole paddock.

KI-KI Engineering stone roller

The stone rolling was done yesterday and the day before. Today more seeding preparations took place, including a test run of the air seeder bar in a heavy wheat stubble to see if it would actually be able to get through it without blocking up with straw. The test was unsuccessful, I have to move a few tynes around to allow more trash flow through the implament.

Tractor Servicing

Just like we have to get our cars serviced regularly, I also have to service the tractors regularly to ensure they keep running throughout the important seeding season. The John Deere 8200 has just ticked over 4000hrs so there was a bit more involved in her service. I changed all the filters:

• engine oil filter
• hydraulic (transmission) oil filter
• primary air filter
• secondary air filter
• fuel filter
• fuel water separator

I even bought a primary fuel filter for her, and spent quite some time looking for where it goes... only to find out that this tractor actually didn't have one, so now I have a spare that I can't use.

The service also includes changing the engine oil and coolant, and checking the transmission (hydraulic) oil level, grease the king pins on the front axle and the steering linkage, checking the tyre pressures and the oil level in the hubs on the front wheel assist.

Three of the filters that were changed. From left to right; fuel filter, fuel water separator, engine oil filter.

Where the filters are on the 8200 with the guard lowered down for servicing

The Ford 8401 was also due for a service, and is used extensively during seeding as the spray tractor pulling the boom spray. The 8401 is quite a bit older than the 8200 and has done over 9000hrs, but not due for a "special" service this time. The service on the 8401 included changing the engine oil and filter, checking the coolant level and the transmission oil level, and greasing the front axle and steering linkage. I should really wash the windows sometime too.. it's much easier to drive the tractors when you can see out the windows.

and this is a quick snap shot looking over our play ground at dusk.

You know you live on a farm when...

... a lamb starts sucking on your toes while you're having tea at the kitchen table. At lambing time it is not uncommon to find young lambs abandoned by their mothers.. or worse, the mother dies during or just after giving birth.

Here are a couple of examples I prepared earlier. The older lamb is 10yrs old (actually getting quite old for a sheep). His name is Parsnip and he's definitely part of the family. You also know you live on a farm when you are woken from your Sunday afternoon nap by the hot breath of a sheep, because someone left the back door open and he's wandered right through the house to the bedroom. This is little Pauly. He is a teeny tiny little lamb that, sadly, we found huddling next to his mother who died shortly after giving birth.

It's sad that his mum died, but it's happy that we found him because otherwise he would not have survived for very long at all before crow or maybe a fox would have killed him.

So we are hand raising him now, feeding him bottles of special lamb milk formula several times a day. He often wanders around inside and even at meal times, under the table sniffing and sucking on any ones toes.

Today's jobs on the farm included sheep feeding, and continuing to work on the air seeder to prepare it for the seeding season. It is now all but ready to go.

I now have fertilizer

As the seeding preparations continue a few of the important jobs have now been done. I had to pick up my new seed and super grouper, seen below. I bought it second hand from my cousin and still have to get it set up properly on the back of the Atkinson truck.

Just about all of the chemicals I'm going to require for seeding is now of the farm too. This is a picture of some of it.

I also removed a fenceline across the front paddock, but that also included moving a water pipeline. You can see in this picture two utes tied up to the poly pipe about to drag it across to the other side of the paddock.

Tied on ready to go. So with a little re-plumbing of the water line, plus moving a water trough and pulling out all the posts, what was two paddocks is now one.

A quick trip up to Ardrossan the other day in the Kenworth and now I have 25tonne of DAP fertilizer. I've backed the Kenworth into the shed (mainly because the cab is too tall to fit under) to keep the tipper out of the rain so the fertilizer doesn't absorb too much moisture. I backed the Atkinson in there as well.. not only does it make for a nice picture, but I've also got seed grain the the shed behind it which I will just put up on the back behind the seed and super grouper.

Work also still continues on the airseeder making sure the tynes are all set at the right spacings and ready to roll.

Slowly getting all the jobs done before seeding starts

I just noticed that my last blog was on Monday... it's Thursday now... it looks like I haven't done any work for a few days... but don't worry I sure have been.

The snail bait spreading is the big one, or the urgent one that I finally got out the way yesterday and this morning. I guess a farm is like a giant garden and the snails on the farm need controlling too.

I've also been organising the Atkinson truck so I can go pick up a seed and super unit to go on it. That should happen tomorrow, but before I could put anything on it I had to get the old grain bins off it. So over the past few days I've been working on it. A push off with a fork lift seemed to be the easiest way.

There were 2 bins on the truck, this is the back one coming off

and the front bin

and now outside the workshop with no bins.

Had another small problem I had to fix up before the Atkinson was going to go any further too. The water hose coming off the bottom of the header tank down to the radiator had a rusted out fitting which actually broke off completely. So I had to take the header tank off and take the old fitting out, head to town and pick up a new one (which I was surprised to be able to get) and then put it all back together and top it up with coolant again. She should be right to roll in the morning.

A few odd jobs done today

The day started with sheep feeding again. Most of the ewe mobs seem to be doing quite well now. One of the mobs wasn't doing so well before I started feeding them and a few of the ewes died in the lambing process. But now they seem to be ok.

A few sheep from a different mob managed to get out onto the road this morning so that was another early job putting them back in their paddock... and fixing up the fence they knocked down.

Later on I moved another mob, a mob of wethers this time, back up to my place to "greener pastures".

This is Andy and Elly working the sheep along the road heading south.

I had a couple of my vehicles in town for the past week or so for repairs and today they were both finished and ready to come home. This morning I picked up the supalux (toyota hilux), and then this afternoon brought home the Kenworth and trailer.

This year during seeding I am going to be using a seed and super grouper and will need to have that on the back of the Atkinson truck. I haven't used, or even moved, the Atkinson for quite some time now... 2 or 3 years in fact. I had a few minutes to spare this afternoon so I decided to get her going again and take her for a bit of a run out in the paddock.

Here she is where she's been for the past probably 3 years

After checking oil and water the next step was to put 2 batteries back in her.

I'd like to say that she just fired up and was good as gold first pop, but I did have a little bit of a problem with the electrical connection to the starter motor for a start. I'm hoping the problem was just because it hadn't turned for so long. When it did eventually turn over (which was the result of a few quick words to God) then she fired up first pop. I drove her round and took her for a run out in the paddock, tested the air horn and then parked her in front of the shed rather than behind. Next step is to re-register her and take the bins off, then go collect my new seed and super grouper.