I have 15 acres of which 7 is a field in what has become a mostly residential area. Excellent cover, loads of deer including some bruisers, and excellent goose shooting. I am concerned I may lose my farmer as many of the property owners with 10-20 acres have eliminated the ag. on their properties and it may not be worth the farmers time to plant my field. I have never charged ground rents.

I have a 1947 8N tractor, two bottom 12" plow, 1 row cultivator, disk and bush hog.

If I were to lose my farmer, what would all of you suggest be my method of doing the farming myself, and what equipment would I need to acquire?

I'd like to plant a combination of corn, beans and sunflowers each year. Shooting doves over the sunflowers, then panting that section in winter wheat for goose shooting and winter deer feed.

Currently my farmer rotates corn and soybeans. I disk and broadcast winter wheat in a section for geese during the corn years.

Do I go no-till, buying equipment and would my 8N at 23hp handle it? Do I go conventional? That's a fair amounto f acreage to plow and disk....and a rough ride to boot.

Your input would be appreciated. I'm on Maryland's Eastern Shore with good soil. Thanks.

[quote]ORIGINAL: yeoman

I have 15 acres of which 7 is a field in what has become a mostly residential area. Excellent cover, loads of deer including some bruisers, and excellent goose shooting. I am concerned I may lose my farmer as many of the property owners with 10-20 acres have eliminated the ag. on their properties and it may not be worth the farmers time to plant my field. I have never charged ground rents.[quote]


Just curious, was he growing and harvesting a crop? Why didn't you charge him? Would he plant food plots if you paid him?


[quote]I have a 1947 8N tractor, two bottom 12" plow, 1 row cultivator, disk and bush hog.

If I were to lose my farmer, what would all of you suggest be my method of doing the farming myself, and what equipment would I need to acquire?[quote]

I would think you should be able to handle 7 acres with your Ford tractor quite well. Just don't try to do it all at once.

[quote]I'd like to plant a combination of corn, beans and sunflowers each year. Shooting doves over the sunflowers, then panting that section in winter wheat for goose shooting and winter deer feed.

Currently my farmer rotates corn and soybeans. I disk and broadcast winter wheat in a section for geese during the corn years.[quote]

I would suggest Round-Up Ready corn and soys if that's the kind of beans you mean. You'll look like a pro farmer by keeping the weeds out with the round up.


Isn't it fairly level now from the previous farming activity? And isn't it pretty well cleared out already? Using the round up you really shouldn't have to use the plow too much. Maybe just run the disk over it in the spring. I see no reason to invest in no-till equipment. You might need a seeder and something to spray with. I've been doing my spraying with a back pack sprayer but my bigggest opening is about 3.5 acres.

What the heck did I do above?[]

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Really you have enough equip to do it if you got a planter and a small sprayer, Your farmer probably wont bail out on you , if so find someone else that will take it, If he is going to give it up he must notify you with certified mail by Sept 1, Where in Md do you live....I know some Md farmers

Answerguy,

The farmer has been using no-till to grow and harvest soybeans and corn, alternating years.

I have not charged anything because the previous owner didn't, I ask him to leave some standing rows, and I didn't want to lose him.

He wouldn't plant plots because of the need to go back and forth with different equipment, multiple times.

The ground is very level and clean because it has been no-till for years.

You suggest I don't need no-till equipment, but maybe a seeder. To plant no-till beans and corn, I would need a no-till drill or planter..isn't that a "seeder"? They are very expensive and I don't know that I could pull even the smallest no-till planter with my tractor. How do you plant the 3.5 acres? Is it in corn/beans or a broadcast crop likeclover or oats? There I can see getting by with a "seeder".

Thanks for the input.

I plant my land with a hand seeder like this: http://media.doitbest.com/products/737119.gif
Broadcasting soys works out better than broadcasting corn, because corn doesn't like to be crowded. But it's my only choice until I can find something like a two row corn planter.

I'm thinking that 7 acres is going to be way too much land to use a hand seeder with because I'm right on the edge with my 3.5 acres.

I can't say that I know much about no till farming but couldn't you just disk under the accumulated trash with your tractor and then plant the old fashioned way?

I have a hand spreader similar to yours and a pull behind spreader. I could certainly lay soybeans down on disked ground, try to lightly disk them in, then cultipack the ground. I would probably get a pretty good stand this way. Then I would need to spay on the roundup. That would require me to purchase an applicator boom sprayer and I would be running over the beans in the application process, not a big deal I guess.

For the corn, I might get a decent stand using a conventional 2 or 4 row planter, which I would need to purchase. I guess the boom sprayer would work on the corn, but I might also need a nitrogen applicator, another investment? I may be able to apply nitrogen to the soil and disk it in, but the results would be less desireable than liquid application at the right point in the growth cycle.

I sure wish there was a single piece of reasonably priced no-till equipment which would act as a planter, sprayer and applicator, even if it was only a two row planter and 4 (between the rows) applicator/sprayer. Maybe I'll invent one.

Of course, none of this addresses the harvest of crops. I need a portion of the field open for goose shooting and I probably shouldn't be bush hogging standing corn then shooting waterfowl over it. That was one of the reasons I would plant the sunflowers, shoot doves, then bush hog them, disk and plant winter wheat in that section.

your field and equipment is similar to mine.

i started using a 2 row planter last year. 75 bucks on ebay.

also built a 10' boom sprayer, can cover an acre with 15 gallons in 15 minutes.

here's part of my dove field from last year.

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/paul67...=/9f83&.src=ph