The right moves at the right time

Stormont County farmer swaps cows for elevator and moves to no-till planting

By John Muggeridge

Farming, like life, can be all in the timing. Take cash-cropper Hans Kaack of Autumn Ridge Farm in Finch, Stormont County. In the summer of 1998 Kaack and his wife, Heidi, dispersed their 30-head dairy herd and sold the quota to invest in a grain elevator. The move made a lot of sense for personal reasons; but for Kaack, the new time constraints of running an 8,000-tonne-capacity elevator also meant thinking again about his cropping systems.

His decision to move to no-till in the '99 planting season had as much to do with scheduling as soil structure, he says. Yes, he "always liked the idea of soil conservation". Yes, he would need to maintain soil tilth without alfalfa in the rotation; and yes, no-till input costs are lower because "you don't have to go over the field ten times."

Main motivation behind his $40,000 overhauled, six-row, no-till corn-soy planter, however, was the time factor. Planting without tillage allowed him to park the plow and reduce his number of trips over the field, freeing up time to handle deliveries at the elevator.

Last spring, he had things timed to perfection. He would load a corn truck at the elevator and refill the planter from a 24-foot hay wagon cum fertilizer float holding 1,500 gallons of UAN, 500 gallons of Alpine liquid and a dry- fertilizer gravity box. The truck would set off on a delivery, he would head for the cornfields, and the two would arrive empty back at the elevator in a dead heat.

"Running a grain elevator, I'd never have enough time to plow, let alone get my corn home," he says. Heading into Year Two of no-till planting, Kaack plans some fine-tuning. However, he's satisfied with the planter's over-all performance in 1999 on 200 acres of corn and 130 of soybeans. Painted green and yellow so as not to clash with his Deere tractor, the frame was built by Dundas Machine in Winchester to the specs of David Acres, a local machinery distributor and designer. The new planter includes the fertilizer boxes and units stripped from Kaack's former planter, a Deere 7000 six-row.

The new machine has a "very heavy-duty" lifting system, four heavy flotation wheels, and the capacity to carry a lot of fertilizer -- a 300-gallon UAN tank, a 250-gallon tank for Alpine liquid fertilizer, dry-fertilizer boxes, and seed cups for soybeans.

A depth-adjustable toolbar in front carries two coulters per 30-inch row offset four inches down and four inches to the side of seed placement. Each coulter can inject liquid and dry fertilizer. "We're banding everything," says Kaack.

The hydraulic Rawson Accu-Rate system with electronic sensing radar on the tractor "needs some bugs worked out of it," and Kaack may opt for a Flexi-Coil planter monitor in 2000.

While his corn-soy yields were unavailable at press time, Kaack is resigned to a few sub-par years until tilth returns to continuous-corn land. He'll give it up to five years. "Yields will show the bottom line, but I believe that I can afford 15 to 20 per cent less yield, because of fewer passes, to be even with the neighbour who does conventional. It's basically once with the planter, once with the sprayer and once with the custom combine."

His '99 corn crop looked variable, but he was "really, really happy" about the way the planter laid the soybean crop down. Switching from planting corn to beans took minimal downtime. Fertilizer injectors were removed to reduce plugging in corn stubble; corn finger units were removed and replaced with soybean seed cups.

To improve efficiency further Kaack plans to go to an in-furrow liquid soybean inoculant application, so he can just "empty bags and go" next spring. He also wants to build a catwalk on the front of the fertilizer boxes to utilize a swing auger mounted on the gravity box. "I have tried and not liked cross augers," he says. "It's just another bother. This is just as quick if not quicker." To reduce the number of refills, soybean seed hoppers and dry-fertilizer hoppers will be extended.

Eventually, when the new elevator is established at Autumn Ridge Farm, Kaack hopes improved efficiency will free up more time for his family. But the 43-year-old farmer and father has no regrets about switching from cows to elevators, which he describes as a people business. "It's fun dealing with people a little more than just cows. It's a nice change. "

With the dairy industry heading for 80-cow freestall barns and parlours, it was "get out or get big," he says. " I chose to get out."

© copyright 1999 AgMedia Co-operative Inc..

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Christmas gifts for the handyman

By Keith Berglind

The gift that measures up

There are two things that are certain right now: your farm vehicles and machinery are becoming more electrical, and Christmas is coming.

So, now's the time to put in your Christmas order for a late-model digital multimeter. And I'm not talking about some little pocket sized device selling for under $20 at a local automotive chain store.

Let's look first at what your needs probably are:

1. DC voltmeter - for two decimal point readings in the 10-to-18 volt DC range,.i.e., 13.67 volts DC.

2. AC voltmeter - with reasonably easy-to-read scales in the common household voltage ranges, i.e., 120 and 240 volt AC.

3. Ohmmeter - high impedence for measuring very sensitive circuits. Must be designed for working with electronics. No room for error here.

Anyone who reads my columns or works with me in the shop quickly realizes that I like to measure first, before I make repair decisions. I'm the mechanical equivalent of a carpenter who "measures twice, cuts once".

Farmers need to be able to trouble-shoot the monitors and controllers they connect to tractors and other equipment. One broken wire or a bad plug-in may shut down a seeder, planter or sprayer.

The most common electrical problems we see in vehicles are the battery/charging system failures. And the calls I usually get come after the battery or alternator has been changed and the problem has, within a few days, reappeared. No wonder: they never measured or tested at the critical points, choosing instead to waste a lot of money. Then they ask for help, after all the initial information has been lost.

A new battery will never improve a defective alternator. Measure first, then change parts.

The ohmmeter function has become very critical for a lot of vehicle and machinery repairs and trouble-shooting. The problem is with the sensitive components that can be damaged by using an old high-current ohmmeter. An ohmmeter works by sending a flow of current out through the part being measured or checked, and too much current can damage parts .

Most of us only use our ohmmeters for checking continuity. We're used to hooking the ohmmeter leads to the ends of a wire, or a bulb, to do this: a go or no-go situation. And any old ohmmeter will suffice. A meter can't hurt a tail-light bulb. The ohmmeter is just sending out a bit of current to complete the circuit and show on the meter. This is why ohmmeter (multimeter) has a small battery inside. Voltmeter functions don't need a battery. The AA battery in older ohmmeters has the capacity to hurt sensitive electronic parts.

The problem starts the day you're trouble-shooting a combine monitor or truck ignition system. These tests often include a lot of voltage and resistance checks. And there are lots of wires in some of these harnesses. One post in a cable end calls for a voltage reading. Next to it is the lead from a sensitive sensor. If you have your old meter set on ohms and touch the wrong post, or just do the wrong test, a sensor or circuit board component could be damaged.

Needle-style multimeters only work one way. You have to get the right lead to ground. A lot of time is wasted moving test leads around. With a digital meter, the scale is very accurate, and reversed leads just show up as a minus (-) sign in front of the numbers.

The old needle-type meters are actually best for many checks, because there are times when it's helpful to watch the needle jump, such as checking a signal light circuit. One of the quickest tests for alternator action is to put a voltmeter on the battery posts. If the reading or needle jumps about one volt when the engine starts, the alternator is working at least a bit.

Now: back to your new multimeter. I don't know what particular brands or models are available in your area, but if your Christmas shopper checks with the stores that sell to the auto mechanics, and specifies the need for a late-model, high-impedence multimeter, there are lots of choices in the $50 to $100 range. If it's only the size of a pack of cigs, that's about all its worth. Of course you can do the shopping/searching and drop the right clues.

© copyright 1999 AgMedia Co-operative Inc..

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Shop lighting is a key element

Repairs are enough trouble without resorting to a trouble light

By Ralph Winfield

If you are planning to build or renovate a farm shop, give lighting a high priority. At some time or other most of us have been obliged to work in a poorly lit area - where a trouble light was our constant companion.

Natural lighting should receive top priority. How you get it will be determined primarily by exposure to the south. If that side is common with another building you are in big trouble. If the south wall is available two choices exist. One is to install a large, translucent overhead door or doors in the south wall, if that is a suitable or desirable access direction. If not, consider a solar wall with windows.

Either way you will have a bright, cheerful work area year round during daylight hours. The translucent overhead door provides natural light whenever the sun is shining. Yes, you might save some heat in the dead of winter by installing an insulated door, but remember, you will collect solar energy whenever the sun shines. Equipment and the concrete floor both make excellent, no cost solar heat storages. They also store heat when the solar wall is installed on the south side.

But you say you can open the overhead door facing south to get sunlight. You sure can, but what if it is cold or the wind is blowing? Any significant air flow can create a very undesirable, dusty wind tunnel or swirl chamber.

If you want to consider a solar wall, plans are available from all OMAFRA offices. A solar wall with windows makes an excellent location for the work bench.

Unfortunately not all service or repair work can be done during daylight hours. We must be prepared for those unscheduled breakdowns that cause us to work into the night hours so that the tractor, planter or combine will be ready for the next day.

Various systems of electric lighting can be considered. Before choosing, a number of key questions must be answered.

Number one: How wide will the shop's work area be?

Number two: What is the ceiling height and reflective capability of the ceiling and wall materials? Number three: Which areas of the ceiling will be covered by overhead doors or other obstructions? For shop widths of 40 feet or less with reflective ceiling and walls, the double fluorescent fixtures on the walls are the "no contest" choice. This system provides excellent work lighting with very limited shadows under machinery.

On the other extreme, for large, wide shops with high ceilings and poor reflectivity, the large, high intensity discharge (HID) lighting units with diffusers do an excellent job. The diffusers are necessary. The next time you are in a large supermarket or arena, look up. Most of them are equipped with the energy-efficient HID units, but because of the very high ceiling height diffusers are not required.

Location of the HID units will be critical. Draw a ceiling and floor plan of your proposed shop area and take it to an experienced installer (electrician) or, better yet, find out where he has installed these units and go for a "crop tour". Your time will be well spent.

Regardless of your primary lighting system, you should consider a very basic incandescent system with light bulbs. Neither primary system starts up well in cold conditions, nor are they suitable for that quick trip into the shop to get the "whazit".

As with any major building project, draw plans, drive stakes and make visits well in advance of construction. Plans can be altered, stakes can be moved, but concrete is permanent. And yes, back to my other crop tour/visit philosophy. Do temper the enthusiasm of the first-year owner of any concept. It usually takes three years before our egos will allow us to admit we made a mistake.
Agricultural Engineer Ralph Winfield farms at Belmont in Elgin county.

© copyright 1999 AgMedia Co-operative Inc..

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