Posted by Bill VA on March 14, 2016 at 14:56:30 from (67.130.51.170):
Me and the boys have been putting down some fertilizer of late and the old Lely spreader has suffered mightily over the past some 40 years at the hands of every family member. I thought it was scrap metal when I pulled it out from under the barn last year - but after pricing a new spreader, I found the Lely a diamond in the rough....
So much lost metal from rust over the years makes this spreader want to let out more, maybe much more fertilizer than desired.
Soooooooo - to save $$$'s on a new spreader, $$$'s on using to much fertilizer or to little fertilizer - costing us $$$'s on the yield, we broke out the math to calibrate it.
Here is some, not all that we did:
Knowing the PTO speed, we knew the throttle speed and with that the ground speed for a given gear. Measuring the width of the spread - and how to interpret that (based on the Lely manual). Measured how long it took to dispense an specific quantity of fertilizer, i.e. 50 lbs - we knew the distance traveled. From the length and width we knew the area covered, we knew the pounds we put down (in bulk) and could correlate that with an acre. Then we could multiply the percentage of actual fertilizer content, say for nitrogen and calculate that back to how much fertilizer would go down on an acre (hopper would be full vs a sample of fertilizer).
Being as I spearheaded the effort, it took us 8 our of 10 settings to the one that match or was close enough to the ground speed I wanted to travel - but we have 80% of the settings on this #%&@ spreader mapped out!
The good news is - all of this info applies to any bulk fertilizer. If the percentage of N or P or K changes, we can now choose the right setting to put down that amount. If the ground speed needs to change, we can adjust that too.
Couple all the above with calibrating sprayers, seed rates, etc.
IMHO - farmers must be mathematical minded.
We had a great day showing my boys that there is a useful place for math on the farm and the Lely spreader is now a precise fertilizer spreading instrument - kind of sort of.....
Upload one or more videos to your post. Photo filesizes should be less than 300K and Videos, less than 2MB. Formats allowed are gif, jpg, png, ogg, mp4, mov, and avi. Be sure to use filenames without spaces or special characters, and filetypes of 3 digits lower case.
We sell tractor parts! We have the parts you need to repair your tractor - the right parts. Our low prices and years of research make us your best choice when you need parts. Shop Online Today. [ About Us ]
Today's Featured Article - Product Review: Black Tire Paint - by Staff. I have been fortunate in that two of my tractors have had rear tires that were in great shape when I bought the tractor. My model "H" even had the old style fronts with plenty of tread. My "L" fronts were mismatched Sears Guardsman snow tires, which I promptly tossed. Well, although these tires were in good shape as far as tread was concerned, they looked real sad. All were flat, but new tubes fixed that. In addition to years and years of scuffing and fading, they had paint splattered on
... [Read Article]
Latest Ad:
2022 John Deere 5045E, 4wd, front end loader and 3rd function with grapple. 120 hrs, 55k new, must sell
[More Ads]
All Rights Reserved. Reproduction of any part of this website, including design and content, without written permission is strictly prohibited. Trade Marks and Trade Names contained and used in this Website are those of others, and are used in this Website in a descriptive sense to refer to the products of others. Use of this Web site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy
TRADEMARK DISCLAIMER: Tradenames and Trademarks referred to within Yesterday's Tractor Co. products and within the Yesterday's Tractor Co. websites are the property of their respective trademark holders. None of these trademark holders are affiliated with Yesterday's Tractor Co., our products, or our website nor are we sponsored by them. John Deere and its logos are the registered trademarks of the John Deere Corporation. Agco, Agco Allis, White, Massey Ferguson and their logos are the registered trademarks of AGCO Corporation. Case, Case-IH, Farmall, International Harvester, New Holland and their logos are registered trademarks of CNH Global N.V.
