Real farmer Qs

Mwal
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Re: Real farmer Qs

Post by Mwal »

Of most the big seed brands I wouldn’t say some are bad or good, just more like what works best in your situation. Some seeds work with different sprays and some just perform better in certain grounds or areas it’s kinda of a combination of what your plan is for that year and what worked well in the past. Also if you’re running a big drill with an auger it’s pretty common in the northern plains to see them getting loaded with a hopper bottom semi or dump truck with a grain chute.
Spardose
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Re: Real farmer Qs

Post by Spardose »

and dont forget depending on the weather you have during the year a seed which did very well last year might perform different this time.
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Yeahrightio
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Re: Real farmer Qs

Post by Yeahrightio »

LittleWatt wrote: Sun Aug 14, 2022 12:11 pm
Yeahrightio wrote: Sun Aug 14, 2022 8:32 am
LittleWatt wrote: Sat Aug 13, 2022 7:58 pm How likely would you be buying single pallets of seed and fertilizer? Obviously this depends on farm size, so for argument’s sake, let’s say a large farm. Would it be more likely to have seed and fert delivered by truck? Do you keep unused seed? Or would you only buy seed for what fields you’re using for that crop type? What about a massive dairy farm that’s chopping corn for cattle?

There isn’t any type of significant farming where I live. We have huge open pit coal mines with haul trucks tipping scales at nearly 200k pounds, and draglines so big they have to be assembled at the pit. But farming, no. A scattering of small foraging farms for supplemental food for beef cattle and horses in the cold winters. The climate is arid, the wind is strong, and irrigation is sparse so farming isn’t something I’m familiar with. Large ranches, yes. Some ranches over 80k acres. Teeny ranches of 1500 acres, all beef of course. Some sheep ranches scattered about. And seems like many beef ranches only need a fencing tool and pliers. Of course there’s more to beef ranches than barbed-wire fences, but you won’t see big corn fields for silage that’s for sure.
Well littlewatt, that is a good question. It really depends on what part of the planet you live on. Here in Australia we have one of three options. A. Being you buy it in a bulka bag which is 1000 kg for smaller paddocks, and you’d move them around with a Tele handler and a Ute, B. Being you get it delivered and dumped onto concrete from which you take out with a bucket conveyor. And C. Being you go and grab it from your farm supplier and have them put it into what smaller holdings call a “drill fill” which is a hopper with a belt that can fit on a table top truck most of the time although bigger ones to go on 40ft flat tops do exist. My old man used to be a bulka bag person because we had a mechanical combine ( seed drill) but now we an airseeder it’s a bigger man’s game so we go and buy it in bulk with our truck. Every seed counts and nothing is left to waste. Here it’s just to expensive unless you have it left over from last season. If you have to purchase say sorghum seed look out because it will hurt financially. A lot of time and planning goes into selecting which crop will give the most return in terms of grain output, ground benefit, pest/ fungal issues and value. Dairy farming is another great question, and that’s a whole nother kettle of fish. Here we don’t always grow corn, it’s very water hungry here and it’s bloody expensive, so we grow Sudan grass for example. It doesn’t have as much punch as corn does however it is more suitable to our climate. Although in saying that corn uptake in the southern irrigation regions is getting high.

Hopefully that sums it up for you 👍, or at least from an Australian perspective anyway haha 😆.
So, you would keep leftover seed and not return it as some have said happens in the States? Is there a seed quality? It appears there’s a bit of science in seed production, and there would certainly be a market for competitive seed manufacturers. Can you get a bad yield as a result of substandard seed?

A lot of questions. But we only mine coal where I live. Well, oil and gas drilling too. But farms, not so much.

I love you Aussies, btw. I met a lot of you in my navy years. Some of the best partiers on the planet.
We buy what we need plus maybe 100kg and they’re not having it back haha 😆. Nah the seed companies don’t need it back. Where I actually live is where pioneer seeds treat their seeds fun fact 👍, and they probably wouldn’t take them to be honest. The bio security rules here would probably deem them as contaminated so pioneer wouldn’t want them. Yes that’s right, seed quality in my books anyway is the germination rate. If that’s low the seed is probably getting a bit old. Some will grow but some won’t do anything so every now and then we buy new seeds to keep our germination rate up. Also to with seeds, if your growing certain varieties of eg. wheat the seed manufacturers and researchers will send you a royalties bill after harvest 😡, because they bred it. So if your using older variety’s such as suntop wheat they won’t bill you as much. You can get bad yields from crappy seed but it’s hard to put it down to seed, here especially cause of our climate. We have sandy soils here and they grow alright wheat, but some years we get terrible rust on the flag which is no good for hay making. Some seeds we’ve bought in the past oats being one of them performed worse than the oats from our seed stock, it rusted so badly we cut it for forage instead of hay which really made to much work for the output. Now I know rust is more or less to much rain but this oats had next to no rust resistance, and our coolibah oats did, even with some age. I’ll have to see if I got the photo still. So more or less some seed varieties, in my opinion based on experience, are more or less of a gimmick so the farmer can say I only use such and such brand seeds 🙃.

Haha 😆, yes we do love a bbq and a few alcoholic beverages after a hot day 👍.
G'day from Australia :hi:
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don_apple
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Re: Real farmer Qs

Post by don_apple »

Since I sometimes help out some relatives on their farm, and they also happen to have a small business where they sell seeds, fertiliser, animal feed, etc. to other farmers, I can provide some info on how seed is handled at least in some parts of Germany.

The area where the farm and business is located is right in the middle of Germany, and since it is quite hilly there are usually only smaller farms. The typical size is around 50 hectares, and a farmer with more than a 100 hectares is already considered a big farmer there.

Since the farms are small most farmers also only need small amounts of seed, so seed is typically sold in single bags. Depending on the crop type there can be different sizes of bags, for example canola/rape is typically sold in 10kg bags, where as barley or wheat are sold in 25kg bags. Typically farmers only buy a small number of bags for the seed they need, but sometimes farmers collaborate and buy a whole pallet of seeds (which is typically 20 * 25 kg bags) together.

The "large" farms might also buy their seed in big bags (normally either 500kg or 1000kg), but right now this is still not very common. But since more and more of the smaller farmers give up or retire, it might be more common in the future that seeds will be sold in big bags since there will only be a few large farmers remaining.

In other parts of Germany this is most likely handled differently. For example in the north-east of Germany there are a number of large farms with 1000 hectares or more, and they will most likely get their seed either in big bags or directly delivered by truck.

Unused seed is typically not returned, since farmers either try to calculate the amount of seed they need as close as possible before they buy it, or they keep the seed they don't use for next year. The only exception is if a farmer has unopened bags of seed leftover, since these can then still be resold to other farmers.
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Cmtaylor
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Re: Real farmer Qs

Post by Cmtaylor »

don_apple wrote: Tue Aug 16, 2022 10:39 am Since I sometimes help out some relatives on their farm, and they also happen to have a small business where they sell seeds, fertiliser, animal feed, etc. to other farmers, I can provide some info on how seed is handled at least in some parts of Germany.

The area where the farm and business is located is right in the middle of Germany, and since it is quite hilly there are usually only smaller farms. The typical size is around 50 hectares, and a farmer with more than a 100 hectares is already considered a big farmer there.

Since the farms are small most farmers also only need small amounts of seed, so seed is typically sold in single bags. Depending on the crop type there can be different sizes of bags, for example canola/rape is typically sold in 10kg bags, where as barley or wheat are sold in 25kg bags. Typically farmers only buy a small number of bags for the seed they need, but sometimes farmers collaborate and buy a whole pallet of seeds (which is typically 20 * 25 kg bags) together.

The "large" farms might also buy their seed in big bags (normally either 500kg or 1000kg), but right now this is still not very common. But since more and more of the smaller farmers give up or retire, it might be more common in the future that seeds will be sold in big bags since there will only be a few large farmers remaining.

In other parts of Germany this is most likely handled differently. For example in the north-east of Germany there are a number of large farms with 1000 hectares or more, and they will most likely get their seed either in big bags or directly delivered by truck.

Unused seed is typically not returned, since farmers either try to calculate the amount of seed they need as close as possible before they buy it, or they keep the seed they don't use for next year. The only exception is if a farmer has unopened bags of seed leftover, since these can then still be resold to other farmers.
Correct unopened bags of seed normally do go back to the seed company or have it given to another farmer because they might want the seed type/variety they need and the one that has the seed is given back the money they spent for that seed.
LittleWatt
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Re: Real farmer Qs

Post by LittleWatt »

Is there a restocking fee for this returned unopened seed?
Illinois Farmer
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Re: Real farmer Qs

Post by Illinois Farmer »

No
1300 acre farm, finish out just about 10,000 hogs a year, 200 cattle, and xbox one and pc user.
Cmtaylor
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Re: Real farmer Qs

Post by Cmtaylor »

Never has been most times when one has to replant or some doesn't have enough seed returns pay for them selves and the seed company doesnt has to make more seed so in turn it saves seed companies money to take the unopened bags back with out a return fee
LittleWatt
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Re: Real farmer Qs

Post by LittleWatt »

More questions. After doing a little research I wanted to ask what time of day is best for harvesting crops. I read two articles, one on corn, one on barley, which suggested harvesting at night. What do you real farmers do? Let’s assume it’s grain for sale not silage or popcorn or whatever.
crash
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Re: Real farmer Qs

Post by crash »

Depends on where you are in the world
Here, eastern norway, it can be around 0c in the morning and 30c in the afternoon. So a lot of dew, stuff have to dry up, and the dew comes back in the evenings. If your unlucky with the Weather you might harvest 30% oats with frost in the in november, lets just say that that crop dosent make the cut to be made into muesli🤣 Animal feed it is..

But un general crops soak up moisture, you want it dry, wet stuff sticks to your combine, and makes a hell of a job cleaning it. Another circumstan thats totally oposite is alfaalfa, if its to dry all the leaves fall off, so if its to dry some use steamers to add moisture to the alfaalfa before it goes into the baler..
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LittleWatt
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Re: Real farmer Qs

Post by LittleWatt »

So is moisture a bigger factor than time of day? Something that needs a lot of moisture would be best a few hours before daybreak? And dry, late afternoon air for dryer crops?
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Re: Real farmer Qs

Post by Illinois Farmer »

Most of the time here we can start combining corn by 8 in the morning in the fall and go until we get tired. With beans though, as soon as night hits they can get tough.
1300 acre farm, finish out just about 10,000 hogs a year, 200 cattle, and xbox one and pc user.
LittleWatt
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Re: Real farmer Qs

Post by LittleWatt »

Tough? As in the beans themselves or the harvesting? If you can’t get all the beans harvested by nightfall do you finish the next day?
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Re: Real farmer Qs

Post by Illinois Farmer »

Yes the steams can easily plug the combine if they have dew, wet or at nightfall. Yes. Harvest takes like a month and half straight to compete, of course that depends on acres and changes for everyone.
1300 acre farm, finish out just about 10,000 hogs a year, 200 cattle, and xbox one and pc user.
LittleWatt
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Re: Real farmer Qs

Post by LittleWatt »

Thanks for all the answers. I appreciate all the education you are all providing.

Next: how much or what kind of field work can be done during rain? I’m assuming very little. And it would depend on your soil and the amount of moisture?
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