Howard Rotovator
Fun with Machinery
I twisted in to the pto shaft in to on my 50 inch Howard rotavator that mounts on a 3 pt. hitch behind the tractor last fall before we went to Italy. This is a general idea of what it does. Ours is 19 years old and looks more like this. My dad took it upon himself to fix it while we were in Italy. Which we are grateful for. I noticed that a bolt had sheared on the rotor axle which was puzzling. How does one bolt on a four bolt hub shear when the rest of the bolts are tight?
Two weeks ago, I decided to replace the bolts and went to Bowers Equipment in Albemarle, the John Deere place.
One of our CSA work sharers, Kevin, and I spent a couple of hours trying to replace the bolts on the drive hub. Apparently, the bolts had been loose enough to wallow all the threads off. We were only able to tighten one bolt of the four, 2 of the bolts were sloppy after been run in all the way, and the fourth was the sheared-off bolt. I was looking at replacing the axle and hubs, which would of cost around $1500, just guessing or hundreds of dollars to carry it to a machine shop and have them re-bore the holes slightly larger and re-thread them. Not much sunshine there.
The following Monday, another CSA work sharer, Joe, came by to help we were looking at the tiller and I decided to go with option three… Arc-weld the bolt holes to the hub. Joe hack-sawed off the heads of the bolts and screwed them into the holes and we took the tiller over to my Dad’s where the arc welder is. I can stick two pieces of metal together but I am no welder, I melt rods mostly. Joe had taken the welding class at Stanly Community College and was eager to try. Joe said he had maintained a high D in the course and his teacher kept telling him he was looking forward to Joe finishing the class…
So far, it appears Joe did a great job! I tilled close to two acres and the tiller is still in one piece.
Manure Spreader
I have been looking for a used manure spreader for for over two years. Every time I see one advertised in the NC Agricultural Review, it has been sold by the time I call. Used manure spreaders are hard to come by in NC. By the way, if you would like a hard copy of the Agricultural Review, they are available for free at the Charlotte Farmer’s Market. They are in the rack in B building down by the Coke machine.
My Dad’s had an old manure spreader that we pulled out last spring and figured it was not worth fixing.
This spring, he decided it was worth fixing and started working on it. It is a New Holland 331, made sometime between 1958 and 1966. I was a little skeptical that that rusted hunk on wheels could be made to work again, but my dad is much better mechanically than I am.
As soon as I got home from the farmer’s market last Saturday, I went to a gathering of local farmers in Mount Pleasant that intend to re-start an old feed mill. More about that in the bit.
It was dreary and raining all day last Saturday and on the way home from the meeting, all I was thinking about what a perfect afternoon for my traditional post market nap.
As I passed my dad’s place, I noticed my brother’s truck parked in front of his shop and I knew what they were up to; working on the manure spreader… So I pulled in.
They had it looking like it might actually work again. I spent a couple of hours there helping grease the fittings and re-packing the wheel bearings.
My dad and my brother Mark are good at figuring out how stuff works just messing with it. I am a bit slow in that department. When I got home, I googled New Holland 331 manure spreader, ended up at Ebay, and ordered an original operating manual for $10 bucks. It arrived on Wednesday.
I had told my dad that I would buy the apron chain for the manure spreader if we got that far. The apron chain is pretty important. It is what moves the load from front to back into the beaters that discharge the manure. Without an apron chain, you have a manure wagon you have to fork off by hand to unload.
I did that years ago. Overloaded an ancient manure spreader, broke the apron chain, and had to fork off the load. That spot in the garden was the fertile of the entire farm for 3-4 years.
I figured an apron chain would be $150-$200. I gulped when I found out the price was $500. Still, I find it amazing that I can order online an apron chain for a manure spreader that is more than 40 years old.
Mount Pleasant Mill
The gathering I went to last Saturday with my neighbor Carl Wagner was held at the old mill.
Local feed mills, along with hardware stores and farm supply stores are the backbone of the infrastructure needed to support locally grown food.
The guys spearheading the project are Danny Safrit and Aaron Ritchie. They were dis-satisfied with the quality of feed available for their pastured poultry and pigs and decided to do something about it. They are working closely with Jeff Mattocks of Fertrell in Pennsylvania.
I use Fertrell poultry nutri-balancer when I grind chicken feed. It is an organic vitamin and mineral supplement containing probiotics and kelp. I am convinced that nutri-balancer is one of the reasons our eggs taste the way they do.
Danny and Aaron have there work cut out for them just to get back to the quality of livestock feed ingredients available 10 years ago.
90+% of the corn and soybeans in NC are GMO/Round-Up Ready.
This year, they will have to use the grains local farmers have in their bins, which are probably gmo but it is a step in the right direction. They plan to roast the corn and soybeans before grinding into feed. That may not sound like a big deal but it is. Soybean meal is the most common protein source for livestock feed in this area. The oil from soybeans is extracted in two plants in in Raleigh and Fayetteville using benzene. What is left over is the meal.
The next step is lining up farmers to grow non-gmo corn and soybeans but still using herbicides. There is strong interest among local farmers. Step three is reducing or eliminating herbicides to grow corn and soybeans. That is a huge step.
No-till agriculture rules around here. Plant into existing residue, don’t disturb the soil, and use herbicides to control weeds. No-till works. It build humus, earthworms thrive in a no-till, and water quality is improved. Before no-till, when everyone plowed and harrowed their fields, a heavy rain would turn creeks the color of red clay from run-off.
I am always amazed that people think that agriculture is a fixed and static discipline. Growing stuff is an amazing field to be involved in. We know nothing. This is our 20th year market gardening and in another 20 years, I hope to maybe have a handle on what we do.
Farm Work
We love the rain, but let’s save some for June and July… We got 1.8 inches last weekend. Tuesday, with the forecast of more rain, I tilled up two 300′ strips and we put a lot of transplants in the ground. The soil was borderline dry enough to be working.
I had 4 CSA share workers lined up for Wednesday to cut up the 595 lbs of seed potatoes that were due to arrive on Tuesday. If the potatoes did not arrive on Tuesday and almost certain forecast for rain on Wednesday, I would be wasting everyone’s time and gas to drive out to the farm. Our UPS driver showed up around 6:30 pm on Tuesday with 13 53# boxes of potatoes. I assured him it was only a once a year delivery.
Heather and Kevin were there at 9 am, Pam showed up about a 1/2 hour later, and then Jonathan arrived. They were slicing up the seed potatoes like mad, it was all I could do to keep them busy.
We were done by 2 pm. What would of took Jenifer and I two days to do was accomplished in about 4 hours. The conversations were priceless.
Even though it was misting and raining, I had 4 folks gung-ho to work. I checked the field across the road and thought I would be able to till and we could transplant lettuce. It had only rained about 1/20th of an inch. That was enough to make it too sticky in already moist ground to plant in. I only tilled about 20 yards, and headed back to the greenhouse . Those guys had already loaded my old Toyota truck and Kevin’s toyota truck with flats of seedlings and headed over to the field. They were amazing, I am going to have to get used to having willing hands around.
As much as I wanted to utilize the four people willing to get muddy transplanting lettuce, I could tell our red clay soil was too wet to be kneeling on and transplanting into. We would of paid for that soil damage for the rest of the year and probably into next year.
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