Pretty bad rainstorm here today, just barely finished the spring wheat late last night, once it dries out again lentils are all that is left to seed. Ran the D4D and drill 5 am to 1 am nonstop except to fill up, 21st year of running that cat and drill combo and have never seeded that many acres in a day before.

Tried to spray the notill winter peas a couple days ago but that ground was the slimiest thing I have ever seen. The straw just keeps the moisture and cold locked in the ground and it wont dry like a tilled field. Not sinking in but just spinning out on hills and got stuck twice on the first 20 acres and had to call it quits.

Non-existant user wrote:

larstog- what county are you located in? I have heard of a few of those hotrod D6s, saw a D6B that had a wet deck and a 3306 dropped in. The way you do it sounds like it would work fine. The issue comes when people take those high hp cats and try to pull a load that requires 1st and 2nd gear on the hills. People have destroyed final drives quickly doing that.

NIF-I'm located in The Potlatch area in Latah county.In the late 80's I drove through your area quite a bit to get to Dworshak dam to load out logs that I had rafted 45 miles down the reservoir from a timber sale I purchased in the Gold creek area.Recognized a lot of the area your pictures showed.This has to be the best thread I've seen on here,great pictures and very interesting.

Rained out again so time for more pics. had 1.2 inches of rain on the 15th-16th so when we got in the fields again the wet spots were even wetter. Putting fert on the spring wheat ground there was water standing in places that we had seeded through a week before. Almost no one has finished seeding spring crops here and the deadline to plant and get crop insurance is May 25th so I am sure a lot of the acres left to seed in this area will be summerfallowed and declared prevented plant for those with CRC insurance. We never get crop insurance so it doesnt matter to us.

First two pics are the COOP sprayer getting unstuck on our lower elevation wheat ground and the floater (which fertilized some of our winter wheat) pulling it out. We have yet to get a Cat stuck in the mud this spring but that is because we dont push our luck, I counted 9 wet spots I went around in one field.












Got the old Melroe danish tine cultivator out to work some the lentil ground, this was in CRP and had a wheat crop notilled into it and was really rough. The melroe is good at leveling ground but because of the spacing it does not handle residue well so we dont use it on most fields.

We had a few nice days, weather change this afternoon--rain on the way again. We got a little over an inch on the last one. Someone said this is May 25??

Hi all I have enjoyed this thread tremendously. We have been very wet in south west ohio and it is raining here again. Sunday was the first that i had been able to work any ground, it still was a little sticky anyway after about three hours the rain started and was approaching the 4 inch mark so far. The forecast is for warmer and dryer we need it. By the way i work ground with a stieger that has a 3406 coupled through an allison 5 speed auto trans and is dueled up on 30.5 x 32 rubber pulling a 52 foot field cultivator. I can get over 20 to 25 acres an hour. I hope it dries up for those that need it and rains where you need it.

Just got this picture in tonight and had to share. That is my Grandad on the Cat and my Aunt on the truck (she is 82 this year) unfortunately no-one knows the fellow on the combine. The Cat is an RD4, the combine, a Model 33 John Deere and the truck a 1940 give or take Studebaker and the picture was taken around 1945 or 46 at the head of Gillis canyon, East of Shandon. The RD4 is still owned locally and it would be great to be able to someday buy it back. Tad

That is a nice picture tad, lots of history in it.

chuckb- I like the look of those steigers as far as 4wd tractors go. They look easier to work on than JDs of that vintage. Several neighbors have them mostly series II and IIIs with cat 3306s and 3406s and like them.


We have had 35" of precip for the water year (starting Oct 1st). The guys over towards the area where Bruce P is are enjoying the moisture from what I hear. The weather looks like it may turn around and let us finish our spring seeding and get some spraying done this weekend. Better late than never.

You should keep an eye on the Missouri River starting at Sioux City, Iowa going to the Mississippi. The're predicating a 500 year water level. They say some of this will last until July. It's the release of water from the damns in South Dakota. All that Missouri River bottom in Iowa an below will not be farmed they say. Alot of it is under water now and adding to the problems in the Mississippi. So planting isn't really a concern with those people. They are moving everything to hi ground. It's just really bad all over the country. Hope you guys can get your planting done out west.

When you want Peak Performance.........tracks.........and Yellow Paint:

Tried to spray the notill winter peas a couple days ago but that ground was the slimiest thing I have ever seen. The straw just keeps the moisture and cold locked in the ground and it wont dry like a tilled field. Not sinking in but just spinning out on hills and got stuck twice on the first 20 acres and had to call it quits.


Yo NFI..............got the surefire way to get around the slime:



The hard working crew from Shearer Sprayers at work heading off the
latest rust outbreak: