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| Hi all. Finally regained access to some of the pictures that were locked up when this computer quit. So now I'm missing some pictures of the middle of this experiment, but here's what I'm trying.
In late august I took the flail shredder out to a field that we were going to rotate out of and removed the depth stops. I lowered the flail into the crowns till I basically hit dirt, and then lowered a small amount more. I made a few passes at different heights to get an idea of what the flail was doing. I then took the lawn rake and scratched off the shredded chaff and bulk residue to see what was happening. I really liked what I saw, so I bought and installed a set of 5 groove pulleys and powerbands for the flail to upgrade from the 4 grooves to better take the power and abuse. Here's an idea of whats going on right now. Again, I'm missing the pics of the actual flail job that was just done a few days ago during and in between rain showers.(thank you microsoft, you blasted s...o......) Because the rain took place before I had the official go ahead to take the field out, the flail job I am drilling into is not as nice as these pics of the trial flail pass back in august.
A view of my trial area.
Another view at an angle. That's Jewett Cameron seed cleaners in the background left, and VanDuyck grain elevators to the right just barely visible to give a location.
After scratching the residue away to see the result, here's what the crowns look like. It took the croen right down to about an inch or so of the true soil surface level. This also removed maybe 90% or so of the lateral stems and foliage which is what I was hoping for.
A sort of close up comparison to see what actually took place. This is the pass I prefered. It was the slower ground speed pass, once over.
Skipping over the flail job pics, and going on with the start today, I left a 60" strip of grass unflailed for a test strip. I called a friend that wants to learn all he can too about this no-till stuff, and he came over and took a few pics of the drill as it is moving along. Of course you cant see much difference from moving or stopped in a still photo, but everything is in its operating position, and if you look close, you can see that one Martin row closer is grabbing some of the lateral plant material and basically riding up over the soil it needs to be closing. This left some seed uncovered, or insufficiently covered. But,........that's why I left a test strip.:-)
The drill setup moving along in the unflailed stuff as I get the field started.
Other than my marker, which I need cause the raven cruzier is pos, (gotta get my digs in where I can;-), you'd never even know I was in the field with a drill.
I thought this was sort of humorous when I opened the small box which is metering Metarex slug bait. The back side of the box has a single layer of the bait pieces just sort of racked up along the angled box sheetmetal.
I'll have more pics sunday as I finish the field and have more time to take pics.
Thanks for taking the time to look. Comments and tips apreciated.
EDIT: Can you all see the pictures? I hope I used the right link to them.
Edited by Old Pokey 11/16/2008 00:11
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No-tilling wheat into rowed fescue experiment. (pics)
