Farming in NY state

I really appreciate how good we have it for farming in the Midwest after spending a few days in New England.

You have a LOT of rocks.

should be where I am
I figure I get 1 lb. of dirt to every 100 lb, of rock

A former neighbor of ours used to say "on Wart Road there are two rocks for every dirt." When I tried to rent a post hole digger a few years ago the rental company man said "We don't rent them to people in Orwell because the ground is too rocky."
Zach

When I was a kid, I was out with one of my buddies, that lived on a farm in the valley that was all bottom land. He asked what I did that day, and I said picked rock - he said what's picking rock?
I told him - the worst job on the farm - you don't know what you're missing..
Pete

We do, more in some fields than others, but it could be worse. Most is tolerable, but I do know some fields that have some dense areas of those hard round rocks and stones. It would be the strangest thing during spring tillage, not to hear a disc harrow or other secondary tillage clanking along through these soils, its enough to overshadow the sound of a tractor at times, they are synonymous to tillage work. I never found it all that bad to be picking the fields, removing larger ones, it will keep you fit, and those piles at the end of the fields, + larger ones, may just bring some money. I dug out a huge boulder with an '02 JD 450 dozer in '09. The farmers son, has a landscaping business, and I believe he sold that one. I tried with the loader, no sense trying any further, had to stop, was not worth damaging something on the tractor or loader. Next morning, took all of 10 minutes to get it out and pushed off the field. Guy that owned it, was bringing clean fill to a low area, a ravine, NYSDEC permitted dump site, so the dozer had been left on site to periodically push it off, here's that boulder 150 yds away, owner was gracious enough to allow myself and any of the farmers sons the use of it.

Some areas in the mountains, nothing but boulders, yet much of the land was in crops or cleared into fields at one time, given the miles of stone walls.

I've lived in Kansas all my life and grew up farming in western Ks and now farm in NE Kansas. I hate to say this, but I have never picked a rock up out of any field. Some places have some, but not where I farm. I've got rock in some pastures but that is it. I sometimes have to look hard to find enough rock or broken concrete to fill in a wash out.

I'd imagine you also wouldn't want to hear that many of the disks on the disk are the originals (it is 25 years old). I'd call this soil mellow.

I'm on clay and rocks, every time you plow or till you get a new crop of rocks, I wish there were a market for rocks, I'd have plenty to sell! Lol

Depends where you are. The Genesee River flats are essentially rock-free. But move just a few feet uphill and it's like there's "99 rocks for every 1 dirt".

Incidentally if I had a nickel for every rock I've picked up the last 50 years I'd have more money than Bill Gates!

got lots of rocks at my place in Ma.--some really big ones that need a dozer to push out. Amazing how a century ago the farmers cleared the fields and built rock walls on all the boundary lines.

Rock?

spend a few days picking rocks from a freshly plowed field and you'd appreciate it even more!

Quite a few areas here in NY are either rock free or have a minimal rock presence.

If you think our rocks are bad, try our taxes... :roll:

We got a few rock out this way. I spent a couple of days at my BIL's place last falls digging some out with my TLB. Year before that I dug out over 50 rocks in a 15 acre field of his that were too big to pick up by hand. Biggest was about 4' across.

Rick