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big farmers small fields

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INCase

Well-known Member
my wifes grandmother rents the farm (130-150ish acres) to a pretty big operator in the area.

his crops normally look pretty good and he's been farming if for a few years now

we were out there the other day and i noticed there were quite a few places where the would pull up to a road or fence or woods and stop and not plant all the way nor did they go back and plant across the ends like most folks do. I estimated that with his really large equipment he's probably loosing 1/4 acre per corner he has left unplanted. I'm sure farming 10000 acres and fighting Ohio weather its always hurry up and get it planted or harvested.

a 1/4 acre doesn't seem like much but start adding it up around small fields (one of which is only 4-5 acres) it ends up being quite a bit of land. Seems like a wast of rent or $ if you're buying it.
 
Funny you bring that up. I rented my farm out this year and that's the way he plants. Does not back the planter into the corner. I really don't like that. Because then he doesn't back the sprayer into the corner then. Every corner is weeds. And he is not that big of farmer.
 
I think some people underestimate just how big and cumbersome some of this stuff is. Even with my stuff, people want me to disc a food plot, get through a gate or farm a couple acre field with no idea how much of it I can't even get to. By the time I pick or chop the headlands off, go around a tree or stone pile, there isn't much of a field left to harvest.
 
Quarter acre of soybeans @ 40 bu / acre yield equal 10 bushel loss. 10 bu x today's price of 13.50 = 135.00 loss x 4 corners in field is $ 540 . Just in one field. That is on the renter. You get extra wildlife cover to deal with in the weed areas also.
 
We rounded the corners back in the days of four row equipment too. Planting tall crops like corn up into the corner at traffic intersections can be a traffic hazard.
 
All I can say is that time is of the essence at planting time. Wasn't that way so much back when but we planred 3 or 4 different crops at different times. Now BTOs usually have just one crop or maybe 2. Corn & soybeans come to mind. They are both planted at the same time of year in what is usually a pretty narrow window of time made even narrower by weather interruptions, planter malfunctions, etc. Takes a lot of time to fiddle with those little spots and if that delays planting the whole crop it will mean lost dollars. I saw one farmer simply bypass one of those narrow, pointed field ends for enough years that 40' trees are there now.
 
by the way... i wasn't venting. just think its odd to waste ground. especially as other noted below on the $ of the crop not sown on even a small chunk of ground.

but getting a big 4x4 articulated machine in a 4 acre field with a creek on one side, woods on one and pasture fence on the 3rd side makes it hard.
 
A 36 row planter is 90 feet wide. A 24 row planter is 60 feet wide. With the long tongue on the planter the tractor driver's seat could be 50 feet or more from the end row of the planter. It's very hard to judge whether the planter is 30" from the fence or not from that distance. The first time I drove a 24 row planter I had to start a new field and plant the end rows. The owner told me it's just a little wider than a 16 row, that it's no problem. He didn't realize I had never driven anything wider than a 6 row! I did OK till I was maneuvering into a corner. The planter nicked a wooden corner post and the post tipped over like it was made out of balsa wood. I didn't even feel it in the cab. Oh, sometimes if the planter is controlled by GPS the planter doesn't sense movement right away when the tractor takes off from a stop and does not plant for a few feet till the satellite communications is complete. Tractors with radar does not have as much of a problem with this.

This post was edited by fixerupper on 08/27/2021 at 10:37 am.
 
I have small equipment,,for small fields,,,,lol
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An LTO,,? Little Time Operator
 

When I was a kid in the 50s I recall Dad complaining about having to rode equipment two or three miles out of the way to get to a filed of only 40 acres. Everything else was at least a quarter section or half section but somehow he got stuck owning a 40 acre piece and sure didn't like it.
 
His machinery is probably too big to do the ends and corners.

It used to be around here BTO's were in a race to see who could farm the most acres. Now they seem to be obsessed with who has the biggest machinery.

There's a 40 acre field next to my house. A couple of years ago, someone showed up with a 24 row planter. He jacked away a half a day, getting the ends, getting lined up for each pass, etc. I could have gone in there with a planter half the size and been done in half the time.
 
I have relatives from an area where fields are 40 acres. When they were kids and visited our farm they were amazed . Hardly even ever have to turn around !
 
Looks good. Made me laugh. Your whole field may only take up up a couple of the corners everybody is bitching about, but has fed the whole neighborhood. Take care
 
Rounded corners are a fact of life here. Nobody is going to back a 30 to 70 foot air drill into a corner to cover every last square foot of ground. Its not possible and not worth the time trying. I can get in a little closer with my little 28 foot than the big operators can.
 
Renters only pay for plantable acres these days. And their GPS tells them how many acres got planted. So if you had 100 acre square plot, they should be able to plant 98-99 acres, having only 4 corners to round out. The same 100 acres sized parcel next door, divided into two, by a fence up the centre, will have 1-2 acres less the crop farmer can plant. Therefore he doesnt want to pay for acres he cant plant. I can understand from the perspective of the crop farmer, but the land owner gets less rent. So just another reason why fence rows get ripped out. You cant plant corn in a fence row, so why would you pay land rent on the fence row. Some fence rows get to be 30 feet wide with trees. And the trees shade crop and suck out moisture. So crop beside a fence row is not very productive yield wise. I like some fence row as shelter bed against wind and water erosion, but all things in moderation
 
I was giving a tour to an agriculture school professor from Greece. I gave him a tour of farms and crops in the St. Cloud area. Then we stopped of at Arnold's CaseIH. When looking at a row crop 390hp Quad track, and a 36 row planter, his comment was these are incredible. If we had these in Greece, we would drive them into the field and realize that we were already at the far end. They would need to be taken apart to get to the field, even if towed sideways. I asked a sales person if he could be given a demo. The sales person (whom I had met before) said no, but I can let him drive it!. He was so toasted when he got done that he was beyond words. And there is the reality check. Jim
 
I would like to plant something like pumkins or a nice tree or two, but with the spraying necessary, it would be fruitless (pun intended). So the little patch I rent get lawn mowed to control the ragweed and such. Leo
 
I've been hearing about some BTO that are now buying 8 row planters to do ill shaped small fields. They don't waste time trying to plant them with their 24or36 row planter and do other things with. As for the corners. You can't follow the rows with an 8 row head on a combine, around a corner without backing up, at least once to realign the noses with the rows. Or just flat knock it down. I figure if I raised it I want to harvest it. If my brother plants he just turns the corner. I raise it and back into the corner or just leave part of it. Partial turning then raise turn some more and let down before it get straight works pretty well without leaving a lot in the corner unplanted and fits the head to turn with pretty good also.
 
Some farmers around here have gone to squaring off the corners with 16 and 24 row planters. That inside row unit on a corner takes a tremendous amount of stress essentially pivoting in place. Not to mention the corn head can't get around a corner that tight anyway.
AaronSEIA
 
Gotta run bigger equipment when you've never been able to hire someone from within 45 minutes of home, and your help is coming from 5 hours away for the summer.
 
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