Did anyone watch the video that Chris put on the thread ? Having done the Silage Pit thing, growing a Sorghum and Corn and cutting it, and having a JD 95 combine that I cut fescue and orchard grass and Red Clover seed, I was thoroughly impressed seeing a 24 row @ 20" spacing, combine cutting the corn.
Biggest grain head I ever saw was a 24' for soybeans and wheat. This was all in Arkansas Delta, mine was in the hills.
The old timers would laugh at me for trying to raise a crop for dairy supplement. They would brag how they "wore that farm plumb OUT" years ago. Mined it they did. Never put back anything.
I have neighbors right next to me, with way more dairy cows than their little acreage will support. They are mining the ground as we speak. They never put fertilizer or lime on the ground, and, flush most of the manure right into the spring fed creek below their barn. The sudan type grasses they grow, get up to 8-9 feet tall, but now, after I mentioned to them 4 years ago, to put stuff back onto the land, there are patches of weeds and the grass is shriveled up, not open and doing well. THIS is what they feed the cows with. I have watched the production steadily decrease, by how long the bulk truck stays at the tank room.
SOOooo, they just went in debt at over $200,000.00 to buy a few more acres and put the cows over there. Now, the grass is sheep short, the tall grass is shriveling, and, the rainy season is still 2 months away with daily rains, that will start sloughing off what's left of the top soil.
Some just don't get it. It takes money to make money. OH, now, the 3 boys are "Camioneros", truckers, with 2 stake side Bob trucks, hauling hay bales and sacks of yucca trimmings, that stink worse than hog poop, to feed the cows, and sell some of the goods to area farmers. ??
Well, THIS thread got a severe thrashing of OT info.
Thanks to Chris for the education.