22 November 2010

Garlic begins: fertilizing!!

At this time, we have finished sowing cereals and the following task is sowing garlic, although before that, we must fertilize appropriately the fields. So, we have been pulling the first fertilizers with the following features:
This activity allows the garlic to grow with total warranty, however during their life we have to continue fertilizing but we will talk about this item when the time comes. We have used about 400 kg/ha of this fertilizer. I think it is a good fertilizing!

We have used Cleris AD 4000 fertilizer spreader that has a hopper volume of 3,55 m3 (loading capacity about 4.300kg). Sometimes we have used Cleris AD 6000 fertilizer spreader which is more modern but with a similar performance. The big difference is it has a hopper volume of 5,25 m3 (loading capacity of 6.300kg). Other key features are: reinforced gearbox, easy and simple adjustment, stainless steel spreading discs, robust and reliable construction, independent hydraulic opening and closing, working width from 10m to 18m. These fertilizer spreaders are well know in my area, they work very fine and allow us to work a long time without uploading them again. Our Agrotron 85 can work very easily with them and we can get a working speed of 12 km/h without problems and with a PTO configuration of 540 r.p.m.

You can watch two videos from here: Video 1    Video 2


















17 November 2010

Sowing time!

Starting to show cereals and legumes. During the month of November, in our area of center of Spain, we do farming work particularly sowing. We have a good weather conditions (perhaps with too much fog) and we can sow from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.. The work is easy but you should be concentrated if you want to get straight rows. Maybe, we must roll fields in the next days if it doesn't rain.

This year, we are going to sow (Wheat and Vetch were bought in Provase and Rye was bought in Cecosa):
  • Hispanic, Regalia and Volley Barley. They are long winter cycle for feed. We are using 240kg/ha.
  • PR22R58 Wheat. It is soft wheat for bread and we are using 240kg/ha too. These seeds have R-2 certificate.
  • Marianna Vetch. It is very resistant to cold winter and it is half cycle. We are using 150kg/ha. These seeds have R-2 certificate.
  • Triticale. It is for feed and we are using 220kg/ha.
  • Fugatto Rye. It is hybrid seeds and it is for feed too. We are using 60kg/ha.

As you can see in my pictures, we use a JD 5720 with Solano-Horizonte SV 300-3-22 Seed Drill. This sowing equipment is used without speed variator but with volumetric distributors and it has 22 rows. There is a distance between the rows of about 12.5cm so, there is a working width of about 2.75m (total width is 3.35m). Its capacity is about of 696kg and weight of 550kg. JD 5720 can work very fine and we can get a speed average of about 9km/h and 1.700 r.p.m. when we are sowing. We use hydraulic markers set too that make it easy to work long hours.

You can watch a video from here: http://www.youtube.com/user/jtcpg#p/u/14/i6e8YXJ2pJA