# Prepping up a new hayfield.



## SidecarFlip (Mar 25, 2021)

Been pulling posts and cutting hi-tensile wire for a few weeks now. Hotter than heck today but I had some weed trees along the old fence line that needed removed so I chainsawed them and was gonna drag them to the burn pile but I remembered the Landprode batwing chopper was rated for 3" diameter wood so I said what the heck, cranked the pto up to 540 and drove right over the trees. Shazam, that shredder ate them right up like nothing (some were a bit bigger than 3" in diameter too). It talked a bit but it ate them anyway. Nice to have almost 100 pto ponies. Saved me the sweat labor of dragging to the burn pile. Normally shred about 450 pto rpm but for this stuff, I went to rated rpm and ran on the low side of the gearbox 3 high on the low side.

Must have at least 100-150 8 foot long .40 retention 4x4 posts and 4x6 posts most all are perfectly straight and I cannot give them away. Bet I'll have a semi load when I'm done.

Strange.


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## pogobill (Jan 31, 2012)

it is strange. Posts are difficult to find around here, and the if you do find them, they are priced out of my range!


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## TX MX5200 (May 12, 2020)

Good business in the chopper…I guess it’s the humid climate here, but we can’t use square cut posts for fencing as they bow quickly. Gotta use rounds.

Wish I was close cuz I come get all I could haul for sure…would run em thru a plainer and get to cutting a bunch for 1x4s and 1x6s. I have a world of projects I could find for them.


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## SidecarFlip (Mar 25, 2021)

They are here if you want them. I have a boatload of tube gates too. from 4' to 15 foot. I quit boring holes after I got the post pounder. Should probably sell that too. Don't need it or the auger digger anymore. My Shaver will drive railroad ties. Takes a pretty substantial tractor with a lot of hydraulic flow to run it.


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## SidecarFlip (Mar 25, 2021)

Not quite done shredding it yet. Having an issue with my M9 open station. If I shut it off, won't start back up unless I wiggle the F-R hydraulic shuttle lever. Called my friendly Kubota tech. He said there is a microswitch under the dash that cuts the start circuit when the shuttle lever isn't in neutral and it sticks so I need to take the dash apart and give it a shot of WD 40 I guess. If not, I'll replace the switch.

Got my KLR 650 ADV bike back together today. Carb got gummed up from the e-gas and I said hell with it and let it sit for 3 years but with gas prices what they are, I figured I'd start riding it. Gets 80 mpg. Took it apart, ran the carb in the heated ultrasonic cleaner with Berryman's B12. Pulled the overhead and adjusted the valves (shim over bucket), changed the oil and put it back together today. Put a load of Seafoam and fresh gas in it and I've been letting it cook in the driveway. Probably overdid the seafoam, put 12 ounces in the tank with half a tank of gas. Running a bit rough.

Gonna finish the year with the old (and sold) NH450 round baler. When I'm done, the M9 cab tractor and the 450 goes to the dealer so they can remove the NH electronics and install the Kubota electronics for the new bailer I purchased a month ago. One thing I'll need to do is extend the mirrors about 6" on each side so I can see around the new bailer. it's quite a bit wider physically than the NH 450. New M's have adjustable mirrors, mine don't. I'll have to cut the mirror arms and weld in a sleeve to extend them. Always something.

The Berryman's B12 Chem tool is amazing stuff, especially when heated in the ultrasonic cleaner. It 100% cleans everything in a carb. Mustie on You Tube uses it when he rebuilds carbs on old engines. I have the same setup he has. You run the parts in the heated bath for 30 minutes, take them out, rinse with warm water and blow out with an air gun and viola, good as new.

Once I get done with the shredder, I'll let the field sit a few weeks and then I'll spay it with 2-4-D to kill of the invasive weeds and broadleaf and then I'll apply 46 granulated and in the spring overseed with vernal alfalfa and Brohme grass and set it with my Fuerst Tine harrow. Should get a late summer cut.


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## deerhide (Oct 20, 2016)

SidecarFlip said:


> Not quite done shredding it yet. Having an issue with my M9 open station. If I shut it off, won't start back up unless I wiggle the F-R hydraulic shuttle lever. Called my friendly Kubota tech. He said there is a microswitch under the dash that cuts the start circuit when the shuttle lever isn't in neutral and it sticks so I need to take the dash apart and give it a shot of WD 40 I guess. If not, I'll replace the switch.
> 
> Got my KLR 650 ADV bike back together today. Carb got gummed up from the e-gas and I said hell with it and let it sit for 3 years but with gas prices what they are, I figured I'd start riding it. Gets 80 mpg. Took it apart, ran the carb in the heated ultrasonic cleaner with Berryman's B12. Pulled the overhead and adjusted the valves (shim over bucket), changed the oil and put it back together today. Put a load of Seafoam and fresh gas in it and I've been letting it cook in the driveway. Probably overdid the seafoam, put 12 ounces in the tank with half a tank of gas. Running a bit rough.
> 
> ...


I planted a field of Brome / alfalfa years ago. Timothy is better, in my opinion. It's not as 'hungry' and you can make pretty good hay even when it's made later.


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## SidecarFlip (Mar 25, 2021)

I plant what my customer wants. He dictates the the percentage of alfalfa and brohme grass, not me. He prefers vernal alfalfa so that is what I plant. He's been buying all the hay I make for over 5 years now. I never have anything left over, he takes it all. I run 4x5 rounds in net for him and he brings his semi trailers in and I load the rounds. His drivers secure the loads and off it goes. Very turn key for me. Pays me at the end of the year for everything I make that year. He wants no preservatives on it either. I'm set up for proprionic acid but never use it. All I do is spray 24D-B for broadleaf and fertilize it with 46 granulated.

Sold my 575 New Holland high capacity square bailer this spring on Tractor House in 2 days. Sat in the barn unused but completely serviced for 5 years. No point in keeping it. Got 13K for it cash in 2 days. No more idiot cubes for me. I run my own ground and 44 acres of long term leased ground as well. I have it on a rollover 7 year lease. 2 Kubota M9000's and me. One man operation. 2 tractors because I don't like switching equipment all the time. One runs the disc mower and the new Kubota round bailer, the other handles to rotary rake and tedder if I need it and the broadcast spreader. Just bought a new Kubota (Kneverland) Premium 4x5 varible chamber round bailer. Traded in my 450 New Holland. My dealer gave me a deal I could not refuse. I got a 2021 round baler with every option except bale slice and it cost me 10 grand all in and Kubota financed the balance at 0 percent on quarterly payments.

here you go....


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## deerhide (Oct 20, 2016)

SidecarFlip said:


> I plant what my customer wants. He dictates the the percentage of alfalfa and brohme grass, not me. He prefers vernal alfalfa so that is what I plant. He's been buying all the hay I make for over 5 years now. I never have anything left over, he takes it all. I run 4x5 rounds in net for him and he brings his semi trailers in and I load the rounds. His drivers secure the loads and off it goes. Very turn key for me. Pays me at the end of the year for everything I make that year. He wants no preservatives on it either. I'm set up for proprionic acid but never use it. All I do is spray 24D-B for broadleaf and fertilize it with 46 granulated.
> 
> Sold my 575 New Holland high capacity square bailer this spring on Tractor House in 2 days. Sat in the barn unused but completely serviced for 5 years. No point in keeping it. Got 13K for it cash in 2 days. No more idiot cubes for me. I run my own ground and 44 acres of long term leased ground as well. I have it on a rollover 7 year lease. 2 Kubota M9000's and me. One man operation. 2 tractors because I don't like switching equipment all the time. One runs the disc mower and the new Kubota round bailer, the other handles to rotary rake and tedder if I need it and the broadcast spreader. Just bought a new Kubota (Kneverland) Premium 4x5 varible chamber round bailer. Traded in my 450 New Holland. My dealer gave me a deal I could not refuse. I got a 2021 round baler with every option except bale slice and it cost me 10 grand all in and Kubota financed the balance at 0 percent on quarterly payments.
> 
> here you go....


Sounds like you got a good thing going. Here we can only lease land from the provincial gov't.The lease is for 50 years and renewable as long as it is used for agriculture....... $94.00 a year!


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## deerhide (Oct 20, 2016)

I run my 1979 MF135 at 1700 'all day long' with the 7' bushog or 2 meter tiller, no sweat. Your new one should handle 2000 ok.


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## SidecarFlip (Mar 25, 2021)

I'm within the required PTO power for the new bailer. My cab M9 outputs 85 PTO and the bailer at full chamber requires 60 input. Interestingly, my open station My outputs 93 PTo which is well above the Kubota spec. 85 is specified PTO power.

I leas the land so I have a payment as well and tillable ground here leases for anywhere between 100 and 150 USD an acre. I know the land owner personally so what we did is he gets half and I get half the proceeds from the bales. He pays 1/2 for the fuel and 1/2 for the inputs, I pay the other half. Of course my owend ground is all mine minus the inputs and fuel but I write off that as a farm expense anyway.

I purchased the M9's way back in 2002 and 2004 because they were large enough to handle what I use them for and they are 100% trouble free, minus required maintenance of course.. and they aren't T4 final of course. I'd never even consider a T4 final unit. The Kubota VTE engine are well capable of 10-15K hours without any internal rebuild, more, way more if you maintain them which I do, I take better care of them than I do anything else I own.


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## SidecarFlip (Mar 25, 2021)

If for some reason I lost this customer (highly unlikely), I'd sell everything and just grow a garden. I do it because it's 100% turn key and I need no outside help. Why I quit running small squares (idiot cubes) because they require hired labor and selling them is always a PITA. So happens my customer owns and operates a professional rodeo company and raises bucking bulls and we also sponsor him at rodeo's. Goes both ways.


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