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| I don't think owning a combine on that size patch will pay. That you will pay as much each year replacing rotted hoses, battery, and belts as it would cost to hire it done. I did it that way (hired a custom combine operator) for a about 20 years. My tenant hasn't owned a combine in 15 years farming a couple thousand acres. He leases the combine and head each year. A used combine can be a blessing to you or to the parts suppliers and a curse to you fixing all its ills.
While its nice to plant the same number of rows as the combine head, its not absolutely essential in corn and absolutely not a consideration in beans. If you control the guess rows between passes to a couple inches there won't be loss at combining corn when the row counts don't match, and a bean table doesn't care much where the rows are so long as the ends aren't splitting a row and that can be controlled by the experienced combine operator.
The 7000 will notill just fine with the addition of trash whippers. Neighbor where I lived for 40 years farmed most of that time about 440 acres with a 4 row wide 7000. He didn't coast along at a conservative 5 mph while planting though. Many a time I saw row units bouncing as he planted in a hurry to get spring tillage and planting done in one week of good weather.
You don't have enough ground to afford a strip till machine but in your latitude, I think strip tilling is a good compromise between full tillage and no till. At least 2/3 the ground is protected by stover from the previous crop and 1/3 is blackened to dry and warm up in the spring.
Go to Nebraska extension and acquire all their pamphlets on modern farming practices and learn much from them. Plowing, disking, and running the field cultivator still work but expose the soil to lots of erosion by spring rains and winds. More of the plowing around here is by chisel plow than moldboard plow which leave the surface rough to help hold stalks and water.
Opening up CRP has many opinions, I've not tried it. Likely a burn down followed by serious tillage or no tillage planting in the dead grass will both work. But without testing the soil and amending it, the process can be a financial disaster.
A sprayer WILL pay big dividends, probably a three point or a moderate sized pull behind unless you can latch onto a working small self propelled for little cash. You have plenty tractor to use it for many tasks and won't work it hard. I'd plant 100 acres with my MF-135 on less than one tank of gas. Your tractor won't cover that patch on 4 or 5 times as much fuel even when not working hard. My 4 row 7000 isn't a load on my 135, I run the tractor at a fast idle and gear up.
Gerald J. | |
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Extreme Newbie......So Bare With Me Please
