I've Got a Problem Here...

we finally got a nice day today after a spate of bad weather and so we're gonna feed the cows some hay and then i got a lot of manure to spread and in between we're gonna take a look at some other stuff this is all we've got left for hay one of our own sad looking veils in the corner and then a couple of four by four rounds we bought from a neighbor we're going to get some more hay today but it's small squares small squares i thought we were done with them we're down to buying square bales there's no rounds to be had anymore and this wagon loads got a hundred on it and five bucks a bale for first cutting and i consider myself lucky to be able to find it so that's 500 bucks a load 100 bales winds up being a week or a week and a half worth of hay for us so we're paying at this point 45 50 bucks a day to feed the cattle i'd much rather be making my own hay when hay season comes around this year i'm stuffing that barn full of as much hay as i can buy as well as the hay that i make it's like going through the great depression and stocking up in your pantry and never want to run out again for anybody in farming one of the real tests of driving skill is backing up a four-wheeled wagon it's a whole different ball game than backing up a two-wheeled trailer i heard tell farmers in the old days that could actually back up two wagons hooked to each other with one tractor i'd never try that i'm gonna back this wagon into the barn here and i gotta get around this stone pile which doesn't make it any easier the thing with small squares you want to handle them as little as possible when we loaded this on at the neighbors he had an elevator and just dropped him in there it was really easy i'm going to back the wagon in there and then i'll just unload them as i feed them to the cows oh and by the way those who ask about narrow front tractors and their benefits this is one of them the tractor turns on diamonds so much easier for backing in wagons than a wide front tractor [Music] and that's why i love zero front tractors well there's one problem solved you know i went to the bookstore the other day and i found a book called how to solve fifty percent of your problems so i bought two and now i'm all set the winner before we quit making square bales i built two of these wagons on running gear that i had with old wagon frames on it and i built a lot of pressure treated white oak was always the material choice for rot resistance and strength on wagons but it was really expensive so i built it out pressure treated it's held up fine some things i did i made these special latch plates where you just pull this pin and then the apron flips down you can stand on the apron to unload it i also put steel reinforcing these are angles that go down and fixed to the mainframe underneath to keep the sides from loosening up which is always a problem with hay racks unloading a wagon from the side when it's been kicked full like this in a jumbo bales can be a pain too so what i did is i made another apron on the side that flips down you can stand on the apron and unload the bales this door also flips open on the other wagon i made this out of chains but this one's got a door that way when we're side unloading into the barn i can flip this down stand on it and chuck bales off the side of the way it makes a lot easier to stand on the ground the cows want what's in the wagon but they aren't getting any until they clean up the four by fours that are over there as well as working on the md engine i've been busy this past week whenever we get a nice day i'm out here dealing with manure and i got the two cattle pens cleaned out uh late last week and that's a big job i'm glad it's done and now it's time to continue spreading manure on the fields i don't know i don't think any book's gonna teach me how to solve my problems [Music] well it's time to spread the crab she needs two glow plugs warm-ups this morning it's kind of cold [Music] i always like to see those little wigglers in compost that means it's getting broken down well worms are underappreciated oh i got a problem here looks like a pin sheared oh it's a rivet chief it only lasted 70 years my gosh i thought the warranty was at least 100 years i gotta fix that this is the pin that sheared off actually it was a rivet that sheared off that holds the arm that drops the chain there we go you know i have people that comment all the time oh this is a mechanical video i'm not going to watch it or i want to see a farm video there are two sides of the same hand i can't imagine having a farm without doing mechanical work and i just don't get that take a 3 8 inch bolt with a washer on it and some red loctite to keep it from spinning off aaron we're back to the races that squeaking you hear from the loader is because there's no grease fitting here where there should be it looks like they repaired it and replaced the sleeve in here didn't put a new zerk in i gotta take care of that sometime now it's time for fun with math when we had our soil test done last year the lab came back and recommended between 20 and 40 pounds per acre of npnk but mostly pee and that's nitrogen phosphorus and potassium so to put that much on per acre you've got to do the math if you buy a hundred pounds of triple 17 fertilizer you're getting 17 pounds of each per 100 so you've got to buy that much more fertilizer manure has always been considered a pretty weak fertilizer and i went looking around on the web for values and it varies somewhat but let's take cow manure cow manure straight per ton is about seven four seven so per ton it's got seven pounds of nitrogen four pounds of phosphorus and seven pounds of potassium chicken manure is much more nutrient rich it's 46 53 36. now our compost is not only cow manure it's cow manure hay pig manure chicken manure and chicken awful or chicken guts and feathers from processing so chances are it's a bit better actually probably quite a bit better than that original 747 number that i gave you for straight cow manure okay here's the staggering math when i ran the numbers this spreader holds about a hundred bushels it's a 90 bushel spreader but i heap it up pretty good so if i figure round number 100 bushels per load work it back at 75 pounds per bushel per for manure i've got 7 500 pounds in each spreader load i put 25 loads on this 5 acre field that i'm standing in so running through the math 25 loads is a hundred and eighty seven thousand five hundred pounds or 94 tons of manure on this field if i work through just that base 747 number for fertilizer value and work it down to per acre coverage i'm putting on 131 pounds per acre of nitrogen 75 pounds per acre of phosphorus and 6 and 131 pounds per acre of potassium that's like five times what the lab recommended in chemical fertilizer because remember the lab recommended 20 to 40 pounds of each and manure is so much better to use than chemical fertilizers you put on a chemical fertilizer your money goes out the door and your fertilizer value is gone after 30 to 60 days and you've got to reapply mid season manure is a gradual taper it has the most impact when you put it on and then it's a very gradual taper through the growing season so you're continuously feeding the soil it also has other benefits it helps improve the structure of the soil as worms and bugs work through the manure and turn it into the soil you're loosening up the soil structure improving water retention having all kinds of good effects and did i mention it's free and i guess that the real kicker for me is that chemical fertilizer is like a drug once you start using it you need more and more and more of it because the more you put on the soil the more it's hurting the systems and the life in the soil that provide ongoing health and soil and nutrients that are accessible to the plants the more fertilizer you put on the more you're hurting that life the more you're killing those systems and it's a vicious cycle you got to put more and more on all right enough of me ranting i got to spread some poo i got about 60 loads left to go the doctor told me i was going deaf man i'll tell you the news was really hard to hear of course it occurs to me in my manure nutrient analysis that i didn't account for the wetness of the manure what did they include in that weight really wet manure dry manure i don't know mine's kind of [Music] medium why are bacteria so bad at math because they multiply by dividing good stuff on the ground there well that's it for manure today i gotta finish spreading this pile and this is the pile from the barn that i cleaned out last week so that'll stay another year i've hauled out 37 loads of manure so far i probably got another 40 or so in that so i'm halfway there now i got to go out and get another hay wagon so hillary and i can pick up another load of hey tomorrow i'm going to use the h to go out and pick one up chickens are taking dust baths today and the cows are sunbathing the grass is starting to wake up out here see these new shoots coming up from the clumps i like to see that at 40 a day and hey i'm getting the cows out here just as soon as i can this spring oh yeah that grass is waking up for sure clover growing we're gonna go back by the road this time i've been practicing that double clutch in the fifth i'm getting pretty good at it these wagons been sitting in the field for about two years so i gotta blow up the tires and grease them before i take them down the road well it's afternoon chore time so we'll see how doc and his mom and the other ladies are doing doc where are you what are you doing up there hey buddy you're busy eating today huh yeah you're wearing your dinner how are you doing oh okay oh my shirt don't taste very good tastes like manure they're flying all over me today you can see that dock is starting to get ready for summer see that fuzz on the outside of his coat he's going to start shedding and get a summer coat pretty soon he won't be so woolly all right doc i'll see you later i gotta go feed the piggies what are you doing pigs are you guys thirsty you got a lot to say what do you got to say listen to that guy he goes thirsty pigs well that's it for my day pigs are watered cows are fed everybody's happy nor piles a little bit smaller i hope you enjoyed this video and i'll see you next time

Channel: Just a Few Acres Farm

Views: 158,959

Rating: 4.9643917 out of 5

Keywords: farm, farming, hobby farm, hobby farm guys, hobby farming for profit, homestead, how farms work, just a few acres farm, life on a farm, dexter cattle, dad jokes, pigs, dexter calf, spreading manure, I've got a problem here, day on the farm, hay wagon, backing up wagon, problem, spring on the farm

Id: GwqtGE-xiXs

Length: 16min 31sec (991 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 02 2021