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Post by tylercheesey on Jun 14, 2020 2:01:20 GMT -6
Okay quick breakdown of what we have done,
Got some fertiler sprayed on the wheat fields.
Mulch harrowed our new grass field to get max fertilizing state.
Traded in the Lizard WM spreader for 2 Vicon spreaders.
Ordered through my favorite online machinery dealership a complete Fella kit, 2 mowers, tedder, rower for $70500, saving around $7000.
Picked up $152500 in contract work, mainly fertilizing but a bit of herbicide spraying too.
Another $15250 off the farm debt.
Till next time, happy farming
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Post by tylercheesey on Jun 15, 2020 2:23:46 GMT -6
 Test image.. Did it work? |
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Post by tylercheesey on Jun 15, 2020 2:24:40 GMT -6
Yay, Chester is learning to use technology, albeit slowly.
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Post by tylercheesey on Jun 15, 2020 9:24:48 GMT -6
We pick up a few more contracts spreading fert so me and chet took the truck and the Case out with the new Vicon spreaders.
They work great, no blockages like the last spreader I had.
It was still early when I got the call saying my Fella order had arrived.
We finished up the contract and headed over to check it out.
Wow it was so shiny and new, love the black/red colour.
As if it was meant to be, our grass field was ready for a 1st cut.
So I got stuck right in, mowers run remarkably well even in the early dew.
As it was still damp I had the perfect excuse to have a go at the new tedder.
Again its a great bit of kit, I like the function to angle it to left or right to throw grass away from fences or trees. I finished the field and decided to now around the wheat fields and the farmyard.
Sometime later I had mowed every blade of grass I could find and decided it was time for a rest while I wait for it all to dry.
$88,000 learnt in contracts, $8800 to debt
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Post by tylercheesey on Jun 15, 2020 17:44:49 GMT -6
Well its been busy, grass dried nicely so got to straight into raking. I went a bit mad mowing everything I could so it made for some messy rows.
About half way through I realised I dont have a baler, I did buy a new Vicon baler online but have to wait till it is in stock.
Didn't want to spend money buying a baler when I have one already ordered, local dealers had some for lease but their prices were to high.
I figured Chet might know someone with one, so gave him a call...
Turns out Chet knew of something even better, he recently got some work with a local builder to construct a hay and straw pellet palletizer hall for a company named Creative Mesh.
He swung by to show me a flyer they gave him.
Apparently, they have available
Class AXION 960 TerraTrac.
Krone BigPack 1290 Baler with Balecollect + twine holder.
Premos 5000 pelletizer with bale shredder.
Spino F bale grab.
The hall has the ability to further process the Presmos pellets into pallets, which are worth more $$$
They don't actually lease but offer the use of their equipment for a 10-20% (depending on quantity) cut of all product plus running costs of hall.
I sent Chet off to negotiate us using the TerraTrac and Presmos to pelletize straight from the field. Shortly after I finished raking Chet returned with a monstrous looking Class/Krone combo.
Even with the 450+ HP the pelletizer feel like a ball and chain, on the up hill runs it was sometimes only 5kmh but it was a smooth ride and a lot less hassle than baling.
Had only got one or 2 loads done when the weather forecast suddenly decided we had a 100% chance of 10ml in the next few hours. NOOOO!!
A change of plan was needed and fast.
Took the Presmos back and switched it out for the BigPack.
Just got it all baled up before the rain hit, however it was already dark and the rain was predicted to continue till morning.
So it was a rather late night trying to get all the bales undercover.
Some got thrown in the hayshed (in a very messy pile) some taken straight into palletizer hall storage did okay really, only a few that were in puddles got damaged.
After that madness it was time to zzzzzzzzzzz
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Post by tylercheesey on Jun 15, 2020 17:58:30 GMT -6
Another day another headache.
Decided to get in with some spray before the weeds on the freshly cut grass field, before the next lot of rain.
After that i t was time to get the hay processed in the pallet hall.
On the way over I stopped to check the wheat and it appeared more than ready to harvest.
With the impending rain i had to get it off ASAP.
On the way home I called up Chet to come run the harvester while I took care of the grain truck and baling up the straw with Creative Mesh's Class and Baler.
Got half of our smaller field done before showers began, so pulled up and did a little in the pallet hall while we prayed for a break in the rain which eventually came then waited for crop to dry.
By the time it was dry enough to thresh more rain was forecast (come on nature give us a break) but we got the field cut and straw baled just as first drops fell.
Larger field can wait till we have a day or 2 of nice weather.
Time to pallet some pellets
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Post by tylercheesey on Jun 15, 2020 20:52:30 GMT -6
Well I don't know what happened.... Had a mahooosive pile of hay pellet pallets and a handful of bales left to process, then everything went black. So it was a rather late night trying to get all the bales undercover. Some got thrown in the hayshed (in a very messy pile) some taken straight into palletizer hall storage did okay really, only a few that were in puddles got damaged. After that madness it was time to zzzzzzzzzzz Why am I in bed, what day is it? No it can't be? I seem to have traveled back in time... Did i hit my head on the crane?? Fumes from running the Claas and Presmos in an enclosed space?? Or maybe it was all just a dream?? Whatever it is this is no time to give up and rest on my laurels. There be farming to be done!! Again |
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Post by tylercheesey on Jun 16, 2020 19:51:21 GMT -6
Well still not finished but have about 45 pallets of hay pellets waiting to be moved from the pellet hall as they are severly slowing down progress, if you know what I mean. However I will get back to that later. Some nice weather gave us a chance to get stuck into the second wheat field with the TX32. I got Chet to run the harvester while I got the truck and 2 Strautmanns changed over to grain bins (previously configured all 3 to hold bales). Took that over and parked it up for Chet to use then headed of to find the trusty Case5250 aiming to get the first field prepped to sow next season. Mulched in the wheat stubble, then liming took a bit as the D754 was busy with the harvest so had to make a few trips to refill the little Vicon spreader. Worked that in with my Case disc (thanks FarmerCaseIH & @fscommunitytrader for that). Another pass with the other Vicon to put down some dry fert, now the plan was to wait till next season but I have a small window to get some Cotton in and ready to harvest before winter.... so I took a chance and got the planter out and put some Cotton down. Chet was still plugging away at our big field so I decided to do a pre emergent spraying. Now that should see a good yield, well prepped seedbed, fully fertilized,limed and weed free. Now just calling Chet in for a bit of lunch TTYL |
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Post by tylercheesey on Jun 17, 2020 2:45:56 GMT -6
During our lunch we had a look through the local paper found and found 2 local farmers wanting experienced people to run their harvesters and grain trucks. We immediately gave then a call and secured $19000 worth of work. Chet took if to sort out those, earning us an extra $30000 in bonus crop that was excess to farmers demand.
Also noticed an add for a heating plant that is utilizing loose straw and hay pellets as a fuel source who have an increased demand so are willing to pay more per litre.
With the heat plant in mind I went to Creative Mesh to borrow the Premos (sorry for prior misspelled Presmos) to make some loose straw pellets out of our wheat swath to sell. 15750 l of pellets only made just over $17000 @ pellet heat plant.
Next load I took to the barn sell point and got $33000...
I don't think the heat plant will be in business much longer.
Needless to say there is still lots of straw to be picked up and sold... To the highest bidder.
Let's say $10,000 for debt plus $8000 for 3rd payment on the D754
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Post by tylercheesey on Jun 17, 2020 2:50:02 GMT -6
Note that Creative Mesh earnt %20= say $10000
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Post by tylercheesey on Jun 30, 2020 21:29:52 GMT -6
Okay Chet and I have been very busy.
Lucas, the farmer I met when I first arrived in town needed us to cut some canola with our TX32 as his was in the shed being repaired.
Chet said he would get that done as I had to go to the shop because the Vicon Fastbale and Windrower I ordered arrived so I was keen to get the straw baled.
Chet finished the work for Lucas and was excited to hand me $3000 plus a bonus $6000 from excess crop.
Baler works great, unsure how many bales we got but I stacked the D754s bed and the 2 Strautmann trailers dangerously high twice. Sold one load at barn, other at vegetable warehouse for a total of $27000.
We got busy reprepping the field for a canola crop (hoping that and the cotton should make some good $$)
Mulched,limed,plowed,dry fert,harrowed, more fert,seeded and finally preemptive spray. That field is done till harvest.
Plenty of work came in, a few large harvests got us a bit over $80000.
Some spraying played $30000.
I think all up we totalled about $150000 income. Bank balance sitting happily above $200000 so I after discussing with Chet I have decided $150k is being payed off the debt.
All future payments will be a minimum of this amount as the bookkeeping side of things is giving me headaches and we are now making enough money to hopefully be able to keep up weekly payments of that amount.
So $150k is coming your way Bryan.
Also the 4th payment on the D754, 8k?
You should have also received payment for the Vicon order.
Till next time, happy farming
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Post by Bryan83 on Jul 1, 2020 16:21:08 GMT -6
$150,000 leaves your account like this,
Paid: $234,050.00
Owed: $1,265,950
Making good progress!
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Post by tylercheesey on Jul 1, 2020 18:38:20 GMT -6
Alrighty its been busy, always is around here. Its late Summer and its only going to get busier.
43 hay pellet pallets sold, they got us $80000 after pellet guys took their cut.
Helped Lucas out with some liquid fert on his corn crop, picked up a few other contracts fertilizing and cultivating, all up earnt about $150,000.
Money didn't hang around my wallet very long, decided to put in some storage for seed,lime & fert @ $32000 it didn't break the bank, what did the damage was...
Field 5, next to the last field we purchased @ $110,000 with a nice crop of beets, just about ready to harvest.
The grass around the boundary of the new field looked like it really wanted to be turned into pretty pink silage bales so we got stuck into it.
I was surprised when we counted 15 bales, loading was awkward as I only have pallet forks and didn't want to pierce the wrap. Slow n steady I got there in the end, only had to use 2 rolls of tape to patch holes.
Chet mentioned the vacant lot just south of his house was overgrown and attracting pests. So we decided before heading back to the farm we would mow bale and wrap it for silage.
This turned out to be a bad idea, apparently the neighborhood was not happy about the silage baling in the middle of town.
Council took us to court and the judge issued a $5000 fine for noise pollution, another $5000 for possession of stolen property (for the grass we took).
Better keep off other peoples grass in the future.
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Post by tylercheesey on Jul 2, 2020 19:32:50 GMT -6
Decided to expanded our fields I didn't want to work to close to the crop so will have to do a lap around to join it all up after harvest. We gained a lot more ground, well worth the effort, also a handful of trees need to be removed too.
Lucas who is a retired dairy farmer, decided to step back into it after he got a great deal at a recent sale. As he has only been growing cash crops he has no feed and sources he had were expensive.
That's where we come into it, he seen the rather messy stacks of straw,hay & silage in the shed. I agreed to help, haven't worked out what I want for them yet, which is OK he has enough feed for a week.
Got a great deal on a 2nd hand Anderson round bale collector from my fave online farm shop $38,150 saving around $13000.
Chet got us a huge contract harvesting corn worth around $30,000, can't start that till tomorrow as the harvester the farmer leased won't arrive til then.
Think its time for a rest tomorrow is going to be big!
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Post by tylercheesey on Jul 2, 2020 23:24:32 GMT -6
Cotton has just popped so i instantly contacted the online trader, who through his contacts at JD got a great deal on a JDCP690 3 work hrs over 3days for $18200 which saved my bacon as there is no way i could get such a good deal myself.
Cut and sold the 3 pesky trees taking up valuable land behind the hayshed, making $12,000.
Anderson bale collector arrived, but that has to sit in the shed for now.
We had corn to harvest, a lot of it!
The NH CR10.90 with Capelli Quasar HS16 and a Lizard Hulk with Wilson Pacesetter were the farmers weapons of choice.
Things were going great until I got the call from Chet saying Pacesetter was full.
I nipped over to haul it to the vegetable warehouse however they would not accept the corn from Pacesetter, I got into a rather heated debate involving controller chucking tantrums. Meanwhile the harvester had filled again so I left the trailer in the middle of their yard and headed home to grab our trailers to get Chet going again.
Went back to get the pacesetter as Chet suggested storing it in our empty silo until we sort out the issue at the warehouse.
Lucas has contacted me to arrange the delivery of bales, he wants 15 straw, 10 hay and 10 silage and will pay $27500.
That's all folks
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Post by tylercheesey on Jul 3, 2020 0:07:39 GMT -6
While sitting in the truck I got a call saying the JD cotton picker had arrived so I left chet to it to go get started on the cotton. Hoping for a good yield so the account is looking healtier.
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Post by tylercheesey on Jul 7, 2020 4:16:42 GMT -6
Update time.
Chet got thru the corn in a timely fashion, as per usual. Lots of excess crop so ended up nearly doubling our payout.
Meanwhile I got 2 full 10k cotton bales plus 2 half bales @ 7777 & 2594 so just over 30k of cotton to be sold soon.
Got the cotton field egdes plowed to join up our extension then reprepped the lot for some winter wheat.
Then... Some fool (ME) signed us up for a 45.5acre potato harvest.
2 days and a non stop night with 5 acres left I had run the wheels off our Fendt, when I got the call on the two way,... "Boss, um, I think I've done a bad one" ....
"What do you mean?"
"Just come see, its not good!"
....
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Post by tylercheesey on Jul 7, 2020 5:04:14 GMT -6
Well, we are in the brown river without a paddle ATM..
Chet fell asleep and the Varitron took on a tree...
Tree 1 : Varitron NIL
Hoping to source parts online to get it repaired and finish the contract, otherwise we will be in deeper brown with the farmer.. No one likes people who break their expensive things.
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Post by tylercheesey on Jul 8, 2020 2:51:22 GMT -6
Thanks go out to Bryan for sending his guy out to see what can be done about the Varitron, Under $15000 in repairs but it will be out of action for 2 days. Luckily the farmer we were contracting for had an older topper and harvester he gave us (at a cost) to complete the harvest. Ended up with $60,000 payment and 300,000litres of potatoes stored in a hastily erected potato storage.
Also got some winter wheat sown in the empty field and delivered Lucas' bales.
Oh and BTW Chet finally got some rest.
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Post by tylercheesey on Jul 8, 2020 22:29:17 GMT -6
With the potato problems behind us, we ended up with another willing worker so Chet isn't pushing so much.
(Johnno, who helped with taters is more than happy to work whenever needed)
With Johnno, Chet and myself we have become way more productive.
Johnno was more than happy to do some fertilizing contracts in the D754 so Chet and I got time to get a 2nd cut on our little grass patch, wrapped the bales for silage to get some extra cash.
The recently purchased beet field decided it wanted harvesting... Yay! More root crops... Got some builders in to add a beet storage alongside the taters as I want to hold them to get best prices (all my crops will be only sold at peak times)
Time to login to the good ol FSCommunityTrader. A quick chat and shortly thereafter in rolled the truck with some shiny new Grimme gear, I went for the PTO driven option s as opposed to an expensive self propelled (Although luckily there are NO trees near our beets).
Before we could head out Johnno returned having finished all the spreading contracts we could find. I made a few calls and got us a big sowing contract for 10k decided to use their gear as ours is waaay to small. But first Lucas asked us to do a favour and disc one of his fields, Johnno took the Case to knock that over.
So Chet headed off in the Fendt with the beet gear while I emptied and washed out the truck. Grabbed the 2 Strautmann trailers also as I figured we would need the extra space. By the time I got to the field Chet already had a full basket from then on it was flat out racing to keep the harvester running. All up got a nice yield of 73,000 l. Returned the beet gear, without running over time, happy days!!
Gave the guys some time off while I got the sowing contract done.
Currently account is sitting nicely above 200,000
Time to pay some bills.
So sending another 150k off the farm debt and the last??(correct me if I'm wrong) D754 payment of 8k
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Post by tylercheesey on Jul 23, 2020 6:57:24 GMT -6
After a brief break or holiday, all work no play is no fun at all!!
Plenty of contracts, a trade in on a windrower, payment for potato harvester repair and purchase of a new (larger) grain bin module for the D754 later we are sitting at $165,000.
Time to crack on and annihilate this debt, with Chet n Johnno as wingmen im sure we can get it done!
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Post by tylercheesey on Aug 6, 2020 14:10:34 GMT -6
Well we have worked our butts off for so long it is now spring again.
Loads of contracts, some woodchipping, plenty of hauling crops and bales to sell points... And some failed snowplowing work later, we have survived the first year..
The winter crops are coming along well and will be ready for an early harvest.
Have a nice account balance ATM so sending over $500,000 for the debt to Bryan (hopefully this covers any missed payments).
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Post by tylercheesey on Aug 6, 2020 23:58:21 GMT -6
With Chet and Johnno on the team we have made a cracking effort getting plenty of early spring fertilizing contracts. Basically I have been kicking back in a management role, lining up jobs for the guys to knock over.
I do the odd bit here and there each day helping Lucas (who has recently had health issues) with his dairy herd until he is better.
I was considering upgrading to a Big Bud and a ++ truck but realised I had nothing big enough to warrant that. So I am going to focus on the debt instead.
Sending through another $115,950. Which by my calculation should leave a neat $500,000 owing??
Fingers crossed by the time our next harvest is sold we will be out of the red and can focus on upgrading our equipment.
Till next time, Happy Farming
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Post by Bryan83 on Aug 7, 2020 22:44:00 GMT -6
Congratulations, you've reached the $1,000,000 mark. Indeed, $500,000 to go, and then the farm is yours.
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Post by tylercheesey on Aug 26, 2020 22:56:24 GMT -6
Been a while since the last blog.
Things slowed down for a while.
Just feeding the chickens and Lucas' cows for the most part.
We did however get asked to dismantle the now unused palletizing hall (the price for pellets tanked so they went bankrupt). Didn't get paid much but we did find a Class Terratrac they couldn't sell back to their dealer, we offered $100,000, they accepted.
So we now have a nice looking Class to keep or sell on, not sure what to do yet.
Any suggestions?
Till next time, bye
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Post by tylercheesey on Sept 7, 2020 2:47:49 GMT -6
Summer time and all the Winter Wheat and canola is in the silo, waiting for Winter demands to cash in and hopefully be able to clear the debt. Fields are being turned to prep for corn and soybean.
The Claas is proving useful however a recent online auction resulted in the acquisition of a beasty 500hp BigBud.
Been knocking out a few harvesting contracts to keep the account healthy between $100-200k. Which will be needed as we needed to purchase a new, much larger seeder to put the Bud to work and speed things up.
Till next time, happy farming yall
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Post by tylercheesey on Sept 24, 2020 21:59:56 GMT -6
Huge shoutout to Bryan for hooking me up with a new Stara drill for the Bud to drag around. $160k after trading in my old seeder/planter and front hoppers. Got it just in time too, one day left to get some corn in before summer. Might regret it later during harvest as I'm sure it will be ready rather late, fingers crossed nature is on my side.
As always we have been doing a lot of contracts, mostly harvesting ATM but for now we need to focus on our planting.
So I will get Chet running the Bud and I will follow up with the Claas Terratrac putting down some pre emptive herbicide to keep those weeds down.
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Post by Bryan83 on Sept 25, 2020 18:04:24 GMT -6
Pictures, man! Let's see that Bud in action!
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Post by tylercheesey on Sept 25, 2020 19:45:33 GMT -6
I will get onto that, always forget my camera
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Post by tylercheesey on Sept 26, 2020 4:27:08 GMT -6
 Bud rolling out of the dealers in the early hours with our new bit of kit |
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