Rotor Box issues

We had the Case 2388 Rotor Box throw a hissy fit and threw a few teeth and punched a fist size hole out of the rotor box housing.
The photo is of us removing the rotor box with the telly handler, off to an engineering fellow in Nairobi, had him make two new teeth (i didn't even realize that was possible), weld the two big chunk's back to the two halves of the housing, we then put the rotor box together and realized the replaced teeth were binding, pull it apart and Polish and grind the new teeth, we did this 5, yes five times, so 48 hours after the event, we were ready to put the gear box back in.
It is amazing what you can do and learn when you dont have an option.
 

Our Workshop and Office (upstairs)

Aussie Wheat

I was at a flour miller's during the week, they were unloading wheat from 90kg Bags direct out of a trail from Mombasa, 12.5% protein, origin Australia. Interesting I thought

Barley going well

We had some Eland in this paddock of Barley and they ate a few Sunflower plants in the trials, so I had to rid the field of the beasts. We have just recieved 20mm of Heaven sent rain last evening on the barley, this photo was pre rain so it will only get better.
 

Hannah Barden's New Blog

For all those people who have had machinery and crops up to the neck, Hannah our oldest daughter has started a blog that shows much more of our family life than my blog.
There is a link on the right side of the screen near the top. Enjoy Hannah's photos.

First harvested Sorghum for 2014

I harvested the first box load of our latest sorghum crop on Friday, the grain moisture was 18% so need to wait a while longer, I weighed it over the weighbridge (in the truck) and when the weight was adjusted down for the high moisture it was yielding 2.2 t per ha. A bit better than I had expected and I was in about the average of the crop, obviously very hard to tell if it will average a bit more or a bit less.
In Australia a Harvester (combine, header) is also know as a lie detector, as this machine reveals the true yield, as it will in our crop shortly.
The grain quality is excellent, this 6.6t is now drying on our shed floor in a thin layer.
 

Day 56 for the Barley

The top photo shows Annie,James, John (or little boss as he likes to be known) and Wiz.
The 180mm paired rows which are 750mm (30 inch's) from the center of the pairs has almost closed the rows in completely.

59 tiller barley

Theses photos of the barley were taken today (25th April 2014) The bottom Photo has my boot in it if you click and look close.
The Top plant was in the row where the plant population was a bit lower, it had 59 tillers, not sure that is what is best although it does tell me they are happy plants.

Some photos from the President of Kenya and his Deputy's Visit to our farm a few months back (just found these photos today)

Trials up and away

These are some of the trials, from the top, local variety of beans,then local green gram (mung beans) then sunflowers at the bottom, John and Wiz are at the other end calling out, "we are the farmers, this is our shamba" (Farm), click to get a better view.

Barley (and James) 19th of April

Wis"s 7th Birthday (James assembling Wis"s gun)

Sorghum Progress

The Sorghum has been on the slow road, it rained about 140mm in February which is out of season although can happen (obviously), this has meant the later tillers have hung on and filled, due to us being in a wet month, I have decided to play it safe and wait to spray it out (desiccate it) at the end of April.

Field Peas up and away

These Field peas were planted on the 1st of April,planted at 50kg ha of seed (only had 40kg of two varieties) plus 70kg ha of MAP fertilizer. Only planted .65 of a hecatre to each variety.

Barley (photos taken 12th April 2014,same place as the photos taken on the 30th March)

John and Wiz Playing

John and Wiz pretending to be a jet at 7am complete with Pajmas and wellington boots.

Barley Up And Away (photos taken on 30th March 2014)

Fun at the Dam

John and James Boxing

 

Barley harvest and Planting

 The Above photo is of harvesting the 60kg ha of seed planted trial, the next run on the left of the photo is the 30kg planting rate, the barley yielded just on 2t ha, with the 30kg ha seed planting rate out yielding the 60kg by 8% and also out yielding the 90kg seed planting rate by 15%.
Just looking at the crop prior to harvest I would have backed the 60kg rate, I guess that's why we need trials. The Barley missed the benefit of some out of season rain that fell in the firts half of Feb, so it effectively did not have any rain for 8 weeks prior to maturity.

                                                      The above is the 60kg ha seed rate

 Into our grain bay with the Barley, I am in the harvester when I took this photo using the 9m front to pick up the barley and run it through the machine again, I just took the drive off the knife and made the necessary changes to the sieves ect,when you don't have a grain cleaner there is not much option. It did a pretty good job,not perfect although it was good enough to go through the planter.
The team are using our 400lt cement mixer to apply a fungicide and insecticide in 160kg batches, it took a couple of days although it was very well coated.

The next day, we were out planting Barley into our other field that was harvested last Sept (sorghum) and left fallow to accumulate moisture, it is a very full moisture profile now and we are planting on paired 200 mm rows with 750mm between the center and next pair.
I planter during the day and Samson at night,we just got caught with 50 ha unplanted when we had 60mm over two nights,still the majority is in, just have to hope we can get the last little bit in soon.

Barley Almost Ready to Harvest

 This photo shows the barley planted at 60kg seed per ha on the left with the crop on the right being planted at 30kg seed per ha. The 60kg seed rate was planted on paired rows with about 45cms between the pair and the next pair on 75cm center to center of the pair.(hope that makes sense)
The 30kg seed rate has only about a 100mm paired row (using the depth coultor and the planting tyne offset to the max setting, with the same 75cm center to center of the pairs)
These spacings are not optimun although we have only one planter and in time will close the rows up to most likley 37.5cm even rows on a single disc planter.
We plan to harvest this barley in the next 10 days then plant the other 400ha field to Barley that is now a full profile of moisture straight away (as soon as we can clean and treat the seed)
Growing Barley in Athi River over Nov/Dec/Jan is not the best time of year as it is slightly warmer and so I expect the barley will like the April/May/June period more, wait and see.
This current 25 hectares of seed increase has done well all the same. 

Three Boys

James, John and Wiz looking worried , I was just about to take a photo of them in the crop and a lion roared in the distance (not sure how far) that is why they all look a bit concerned, all fine though no one eaten, all boys accounted for, we did not actually see it although we did hear it again about 30 minutes later. 

If you click on the photos you will get a bigger version (not that easy to see as is)

Photos from Saturdays Visit

Some Pictures from The President of Kenya, his Deputy and five of his Ministers visit on Saturday