Its good to be done – its been a big week.
I mentioned monday in an earlier post, so lets start with:
Tuesday: We took delivery of our first loads of fertilizer for the year . Truck drivers are like Forest Gump’s box of chocolate analogy – You just don’t know what (or who) your going to get. Fortunately we got caramellos 🙂 , not Turkish delight 🙁 (apologies for anyone who likes turkish delight)!!
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As a boy I remember going with Dad to town and picking up woven plastic bags of fertiliser. We had to load the bags individually onto the truck and then transfer them on our backs from the truck to the combine at sowing time. The bags weighed 50kgs. Dad also talks about the days where fertiliser came in by train to the local siding in Jute recycled ‘Potato’ style bags weighing approximately 80Kgs. There used to be great rivalry to get to the train first – it was much easier to load them from the top of the stack than pick them up from the floor. No wonder farmers have bad backs!! |
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Now, its too easy – we order it in B-Double truck loads direct from the port and auger it it into a special fertilizer silo for later use. Fertiliser is very heavy (high bulk density), so the trucks come in ‘full’, with the fertiliser only occupying 1/4 of the space available in the trailer. We had very good drivers in the two trucks today, how they are able to reverse a double articulated vehicle to the centre of a one meter round auger hopper (which disappears from their view as they reverse) is remarkable. First they unload the rear or B trailer (first photo) and then unhook it to empty the front A trailer (second photo). |
Wednesday: Airseeder maintenance. We have been working on welding up some mudscrapers for the airseeder wheels and cracks on the airseeder frame for over a week. But the Mig welder (lincoln 255C) was just not working – In the end I had assumed that we had broken the Mig and sent it to town last week for repairs. they had ‘repaired’ it saying that the transformer had browned out – and damaged some wiring. We started using it today and it was no better. To cut a long story short – I rang up our electricity provider who informed me that we had one of the old style 20amp max transformers on our electricity pole and that we were actually entitled to a 100amp transformer – so we have started the process for the upgrade. So hopefully that will fix the mig brownout problems.
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I also go to TAFE on Wednesday evening to learn how to be a better welder – So this is how to complete a six run, 3 layer horizontal fillet weld which I was working on. (just thought you would like to know the run order – you never know when you it might come up in conversation…..) |
Thursday: I think Dan is tired of greasing the individual tines on the airseeder. We also had two hydraulic RAMs which were leaking, so we took them to town for repairs. I did 250 Acres of spraying weeds in the afternoon. While I was spraying, Ginger Frame, our seed grader, rang me and booked some time next week to get our seed cleaned. Yes – its all slowly coming together for sowing.
Friday: Dan went to town for chemical while I was out spraying weeds- truly its a never ending cycle (buy it , use it, buy some more and use some more…). However, it is important. Studies clearly show that keeping control of the summer weeds allows us to make better use of the natural rainfall and minimises the amount of fertiliser needed to grow a crop. It really does help our soil – some of those weeds are very destructive. I will do a separate post on spraying as its a big topic with lots to talk about.
Anyway – most importantly… The weekend is here. Jenny, Bre and Dan will be home and the Australian GrandPrix is in Melbourne this weekend (and on TV). Hi to James and Emily up newcastle way!! All set for a good weekend. 🙂
NeilK