Hmmmm, That Didn't Work

Phooie!

Guess I gotta go over in the bottoms and bring home one of those bigger tractors. Darned 686 just didn't wanna tug this rod. Although, it was pretty wet out there yesterday.

Oh well, guess he's gotta stay in the hay fields for a bit longer this year.

Allan

"Darned 686 just didn't wanna tug this rod."
Not even down hill? ;-)

"Although, it was pretty wet out there yesterday."
Does your soil allow being worked wet? Our heavy clay soil certainly doesn't.
Seriously though, Dutch farming could benefit from using a rod weeder too. I do wonder why it was never exported to The Netherlands. (A rod weeder helps you in working a false seed bed, doesn't it?)

Have a nice day.

Is that a home made hay trailer? Looks like a shorter bed off a module truck.

Allan, Looks like it is time to get the 966! I know it will work We have have seen the pics of it hooked to that 4 bottom Spinner. If it handles that, then it should be able to pull the tongue out of that Rod Weeder! Might need your Duals though! Being it is a little wet. Have fun, When you have enough Rain send some my way!
Later,
John A.

LOL ...btdt ,go get the big CASE , Allen

Allan how deep and how fast do you pull that thing?

Gary

Hendrik,

On Allan's place, there is no "down hill".

Rod weeders are only used to preserve moisture in summer fallow- I'm thinking Holland gets enough moisture that you don't summer fallow, do you?

We had a couple rod weeders setting around the farm,I understand how they work but I never saw one operate. Can barely remember the new 806 and Flex-King V-plow. Is there much difference in the finished product of the weeder and the V-plow?

yeah and by the way....what is summer fallow?

Summer fallow is when there is no crop in the land, you let the weeds grow but before they go to seed you till them back in the ground as green manure.It is good land to put barn manure on also if there is no room elsewhere. Keep killing the weeds and next year there will be a lot less in the planted crop. It builds up the ground too.

Here's a good description w/ pix.
http://www.thecombineforum.com/forums/22-pictures-blogs/20430-using-rod-weeder.html

wHAT IS all that yellow stuff in the way off background? CRP?

No summer fallow in the Netherlands. They are getting too much rain now. Can't harvest the potatoes or small grains.

Mike,
I must confess that I don't know every detail of the USA's geography and landscape, but Allan's pics have inscribed in my brain that Ne is FLAT; hence my ;-)
Summer fallow is an interesting subject. We don't do it from an agricultural point of view. (Some 20 years ago however, some farmers were paid by the European Union to fallow their arable land because of overproduction.)
I'm wondering about the claimed moisture conservation of summer fallow. Bare/fallow soil, being worked looses a lot of moisture because exposed to the sun, while unworked, planted soil looses little moisture, depending of course on the "thirst" of the crop.
Could you explain why the balance is in favor of fallow?
Thanks, Hendrik

Out here in the arid west moisture conservation is the game. All tillage dries out the ground, including rod weeders. Discs and moldboard plows are the worst, rod weeder probably the best. With no till planters and herbacide almost no one summer fallows any more. The only time the chisel plows and field cultivators work around here is when the fields are to wet to plant, and that is not very often. I know I am going to take grief for this but spraying is cheaper, faster, better for the soil structure, better for erosion, air quality, water quality and things I am sure I forgot. Standing stubble saves moisture by protecting the ground from forces of the wind and the sun. It also captures water from snow melt. And if that is not enough some of these fields can be grazed after harvest. I don't miss mechanical tillage. Now days the only thing the big tractors pull is the planters. Not having summer fallow duty they are only getting a couple hundred hours a year and at that rate they last almost forever. What is a false seed bed ?

Don't know the operation but to me it looks like native prairie, pasture land. Things may look flat, but trust, it is a lot ruffer than you think. If it was ever broken it would just wash away.

Thanks for explaining this!
A false seed bed is a method of preparing the soil for planting while preventing the growth of weeds in the crop.
The soil is tilled for planting but planting is deferred. The weeds germinate and are killed by very shallow tilling, just enough to kill the small weeds and bringing as few weed seeds to the surface as possible. This process is sometimes repeated, after which the crop is planted.
I thought that a rod weeder was the perfect tool to do the shallow tilling aimed at killing the newly germinated weeds.
HTH, Hendrik
False seed bed

The crop, of course, is by far the biggest user of soil moisture. The way it was explained to me (40 years ago, when I was in college and lived in eastern Washington) is that it took about a year and half's worth of moisture to grow a wheat crop. Summer fallow would only lose about half its moisture, so by growing wheat every other year, you had your year and a half's worth for the crop.

They would disc under the stubble, and the ground would crust over in the winter, which holds moisture in. Rod weeder drags a rotating rod under the surface, to preserve the crust.

What I don't understand is why there is almost no summer fallow in eastern Washington any more. My guess is that with the advent of Roundup, they don't work the stubble down anymore, and that helps slowdown the runoff in the winter, and more water is absorbed. I do remember some hellaceous gullying and erosion from the worked fields in the winter back in the day, and you don't see much of that anymore.

I do know that in some of the poorer rainfall areas, they alternate wheat and barley, because barley doesn't take as much moisture, leaving more for the next wheat crop.

Wish I'd looked at Chris in ND post above, before doing mine- could have saved a lot of typing! He answered Hendrik's questions, and mine as well.

Thanks, I learned something. Back in the day of summer fallow we would expect to work the ground 3 times over the summer. This was all about weed control, not saving moisture. Each of the 3 times we worked the land we set the field cultivator (or chisel plow with sweeps, vibrashank ect) a bit less deep. I don't remember but I think we started at about 5 inches, them maby 3 inches and then 1 1/2 inches or so for the final trip. Of course it killed the weeds, but everytime we tilled we also brought up buried, long dormant seeds to the grow zone. With spraying we have fewer weeds all the time. Now we have some fields that are so clean we don't even have to spray. My neighbor used to till around the edges of his fields because he thought weeds were comming in from the borders. There were plenty of weeds for that 24 feet. When he quit farming the next guy just sprayed and the weed problem quit. A few other things I thought of. If you leave the land fallow that year you don't get a crop, if you are cash renting or have a big note at the bank you will not be farming long. Wildlife and other critter benefits. Stubble gives the ground birds like grouse and phesants a place to nest. It also provides habitate for things like field mice. Mice build tunnels that allow water to soak in, and tilling kills worms. A field full of worms is a productive one.