[ethalernull]

hey Kristin,

where did you get your finger weeder/how is it mounted?

thanks,
evan

[ethalernull]

Hi Jared,

what agencies have you been dealing with?

thanks,
evan

[ethalernull]

put 400 taps in at the end of january here in columbia county ny, earliest i’ve ever tapped. caught some good runs over the past two weeks made almost 5 gallons so far, warming up very quickly now…

[ethalernull]

anyone in NY have any luck with logging insurance? I’m getting crazy high rates everywhere I look, $1500/yr+

[ethalernull]

hey jared,

where did you end up finding logging coverage? i’m in the same boat right now, high prices from farm family and other carriers. we are in the same region would love to know who u found…

thanks,
evan

[ethalernull]

thanks that’s super helpful…

as far as seeding, can you tell me more specifically any do’s or dont’s for seed incorporation? when seeding a grass/legume cover i usually lightly disc in the oats or rye and then broadcast clover over the top…would sudex benefit from this slightly deeper placement?

does sudex mow kill at any stage?

thanks again!

[ethalernull]

hey erika,

can you tell me a bit more about your sudex/crimson clover experience. looking into that this year seems like a really nice aggressive long-term summer cover. are you seeding at the same time? what time of year? do you need to be careful of sudex not getting to big/shady for crimson to pull through after mow-down?

thanks,
evan

[ethalernull]

seems to me that using the traditional mcd or JD 2-horse straddle cultivator would work on raised beds. just set the wheelbase out as far as possible so the wheels don’t ride on the raised bed, but make sure the evener/neck yoke are 48in to keep the horses centered in pathways. i would suggest that three 1ft V-sweeps (row crop or goosefoot sweeps) in a staggered pattern accompanied with hilling discs at a 30″- distance apart or greater (to account for scooping/throwing soil) and angled so that they are not very aggressive. i think that would give you quite a range of bed renovation possibilities. the 1ft sweeps work very well for stirring/conditioning the soil for seed bed prep, and if there is enough space for trash to move through the sweeps i have had decent luck tilling under beds with slight residue like lettuce/salad greens post harvest. you could drop down to smaller width sweeps/shovels that could go deeper and catch less trash for experimenting with handling larger residue volumes. mounting several individual hilling disks together, maybe up to six total could be possible on the cultivator frame for chopping up residue and blending.
then I would just consider a smoother/roller option to build onto the back. a section of chain link fence weighted with rebar or some heavy boards could be a simple option, or a rolling type, or the pioneer crumbler if you wanted some heavy metal on it.
the old cultivators would probably be a great place to start and to me seem like a really good option. you’d have big sturdy wheels in your paths and even a steering system, while keeping lots of weight off of your bed-tops.

[ethalernull]

hey richard,

our row spacing for most crops is 36″, and we use a straddle 2-horse cultivator. however, to save space and conserve soil exposure, we grow our onions, leeks, and celeriac with 24″ spacing. i cultivate these crops with a walk behind cultivator and my most reliable belgian (16H, 1700#). I use a walk behind cultivator with the outside tines removed and narrow evener and short hitch to keep hardware farther from the crops. I am planning on replacing the tines with lely-style wire weeders rather than the C-tines that are original to it, to reduce ‘throwing’ soil and be able to cultivate closer to the crop.

david fisher at natural roots farm uses a 32″ bed system with an older mcormick straddle row cultivator. though I recall he believes any tighter with a two-horse cultivator might be tricky for his belgians, but I would think you’d be fine with fjords, and practice!

best,
evan

[ethalernull]

i’m in the process of swapping out wheels/tires on a used log cart i bought.. any opinions out there regarding what shape the tread is in on tires for a log cart? I have some options lying around the farm that are a bit bald that I would think might lend themselves to sliding sideways on slippery hillsides.

[ethalernull]

mower is sold

[ethalernull]

hey anthony,

what kind of sweep setup do you use with the riding cultivator? with my slopes and channery soil up here I can have some challenges too. i’ve found the best strategy to be very thorough bed forming/leveling (post-springtooth, with riding cultivator and homemade smoothing device) combined with very frequent cultivation to maintain tilth and allow those rocks to easily float/slide around the cultivator tines. I use 1ft V-sweeps from agrisupply, they’ve withstood some pretty big rock moving. still I don’t believe I have the size and quantity of rocks as you do and I wonder what you might think of renting a rock picker to come through. Little seed gardens in chatham is selling their picker as they don’t have ANY rocks anymore after 2 years of use. I bet you could rent/pick your fields in a day or two. here’s a photo, it’s a PTO powered picker…

https://www.facebook.com/LittleSeedGardens/photos/a.501332903267808.1073741829.500832536651178/932528786814882/?type=1&theater

[ethalernull]

Hi Tevis,

I had imagined winter wheat, rye and oats to all be too rich for our work horses to eat, have you not found that to be the case?

Thanks,
Evan

[ethalernull]

I now own the single-horse mower that Ed had, has 4′ bar. It’s all original and users manual indicates 4′ bar length on all of these footlift models. Not too big a pull for my 16.2 belgian either, seems easier for them than tillage work just covering more ground. THIS MOWER IS FOR SALE, TUNED AND FIELD READY!

-Evan

[ethalernull]

Hi Michelle,

I’m about 3hrs straight south of you in Columbia County NY, and I’ve got a field ready single horse mower for sale. They’re hard to come by in my experience, and I would hold on to it if you are interested for your future orchards. Let me know… abodecsa@gmail.com

-Evan

[Author]

Posts