Time to do some farmin'

As summer approaches, it's time for me to hop in the tractor and begin farming. One piece of equipment I'm extremely familiar with is the sweeps. I have been running these behind the tractor since I was in high school. I didn't realize, however, until I lived in a 4-H scholarship house in college that not everyone in farming knows about sweeps.

Different areas of the country require different equipment to farm. For instance, in western Kansas the way we farm is designed to conserve every bit of moisture we can since we don't get as much moisture as other areas. Now, my family is moving towards doing more no-till farming (meaning we do more spraying and less physical moving or "tilling" of the soil). However, we still have instances that require us to use sweeps. Sweeps are designed to disturb less of the moisture in the soil because they just barely go under the surface.

These triangular blades skim under the surface of the soil and basically pull the weeds up by the roots. 

After the weeds have been pulled up, the "pickers" that spin behind the blades grab the weeds and flip them over so the roots are exposed, hopefully guaranteeing that the weeds will die.

The field I worked yesterday was chiseled earlier in the year because it was blowing badly during our high winds. If we were not to work the ground again (or basically run any type of vehicle over it), it would be extremely rough. So, we were partially using the sweeps to kill weeds, but also to even out the surface for future use.

You can see the deep tracks from the chisel before I use the sweeps over them.

This is what the sweeps look like behind the tractor. The strategy is to barely overlap your last round with the outside tire of the sweeps. This way you don't miss any weeds/ground, but you also don't overwork an area causing it to lose even more moisture.

 

Farming requires a lot of tight turns and when the soil is loose, the front tires tend to slip through the soil instead of gripping like you want them to. To counteract this, there are two sets of brakes on the tractor. If you want to turn right, you press on the right brakes. In some cases I'm nearly standing on the brakes trying to get the tractor to turn before I run over a crop in the field next to where I am. This picture shows the clutch on the left hand side of the picture and then the left and right brakes. I'm using the right brake this time.

Finally, probably my least favorite part is cleaning off the blades after I stop for the day. This is done so the blades don't rust from the moisture in the dirt that is stuck to them. If they rust, or if the mud/dirt is left on them, they don't slide under the surface of the soil quite as easy. They would eventually clean off, but it's just good practice to clean them. This is the tool we use and this is how it is used.

School is almost out for the year, so I am looking forward to more "bonding" moments with our tractor and sweeps on the farm. Have a blessed week!