hello welcome to Kate's Ag today is very exciting because i am driving
the harrow again and breaking the field and spreading all the straw around
so that when we go to seed the field the drills go through
the ground very easily i hope you enjoy the video i also have Darcy here my wonderful instructor
so put the steering wheel down clutch clutch and brake i guess or no just touching it
put it up there this is seven okay sixes you can start six
the tractor is driving itself right now on auto steer
so i just have to manually make the corners and then hook it back up to guidance with the
button i have right here it's running full rpm which is 2 000 and we are in 12th gear
going 8.3 miles an hour so a lot faster than when i drove combine and even seating
combine is around two miles an hour seeding five miles an hour baling i got to go super
super fast i love that it was like race car driving in the tractor yeah and then now i get
to go 8.3 miles now with the hero it's a very windy day in Montana although that's the usual
and breaking the field is very weather dependent so we have to make sure that it's not too cold
out or else the straw doesn't spread and it leaves a bunch of piles which is not what we're looking
for because those piles of straw get stuck in the drill when we go back to seed the field and
the point of harrowing or raking the field is to spread all of the straw out and around so it's not
getting stuck when it comes time to see it again this monitor right here was for cd for the air
tank attached to the drill so we don't use that we just use our tractor monitor that has guidance
and gps so the lines and it paints it new where you carrot and then also a small tractor monitor
to show the speed we're going and the rpms of the motor darcy harrow's in 13th gear because he's a
pro but i go in 12th just to give myself a little more time to do corners and think about things
that are coming up do i make my corner going this way yeah okay engage guidance oh that was a big
yeah you gotta watch your spacing here then you kind of guess what your distance would be that
won't jerk you so much yes and also while turning i have to really watch these big cables back here
so i don't get them caught on the tractor wheel and completely ruin everything that would be very
bad yeah the guy knew that one time he was one of the guys working for harvey she called my driver
oh really we had some rainy time and they put him on track to the air that was we had tracked with
three triples on it we got it on there that bent a bunch of the frame up on the brake and actually
snapped the cable oh that's always bad we got the snap cable that shed but it just ripped it apart
everything seems to be going very well in the tractor so far i think i'm a little bit
more comfortable because i did drive the same tractor our john deere 96 30 when i learned how
to seed and also did seating by myself driving the different machines helps with everything i'm now
seated with this tractor heroed with this tractor and disc with this tractor so i've had a little
bit of time in the seat not nearly as much as combining though this tractor has 4 842 hours
and it's actually our new tractor that we got to the farm even though it's very old and used it's
still new to us so you'll have to check out my new tractor to the farm video to learn a little
bit more about the tractor we're using today all of the hydraulics for the implement are right here
and we don't use any of them while harrowing in the field and you use a lot more of them while
seeding because you have to lift your implement up and down to make corners but this is really just
for travel with the harrow and then putting it back on the ground this tractor has a power shift
but it also has a clutch for when you stop and start again but you don't have to shift every time
which is very nice and that's right here so you bump back to shift down and forward shift up and
then you move this lever back to park it's always a big learning experience on corners and you get
a little bit more proficient at it the more you do it but then the next year you already forgot again
so you go have to relearn yeah you start to become really good at it right when you're about to
finish that job for the year and then you have to relearn the next job and the next one after that
now darcy is out of the tractor and i'm driving all by myself so i'm very excited and a little
bit nervous so clutch in rpms up a little bit i don't want to start out in too high of a gear so
i'm in six now that's good let the clutch out easy and then raise my rpms up a little bit
now i'm shifting into a higher gear now i'll increase my rpms a little bit
darcy's going to follow me in the field to make sure everything's going to go
okay i'm not sure it's always hard to find past you we're on oh it would be i missed it
i missed the path this cast right here i think so i didn't miss it i ended up finding it i'm going
12th gear full rpms now and i'm officially driving the tractor by myself i really love
learning all the different operations on the farm everything seems to be going well although it is
the first pass so it's hard to tell at least i know how to stop the tractor this time if you've
watched my seeding video called runaway tractor you'll know that my first pass in the tractor
i couldn't stop i had full tanks of seed running downhill super fast and a rock in my packer wheel
so i was trying to stop the tractor and that's the one part that i wasn't fully able to do
so i've gotten better in that area now i'm just looking behind me and checking the harrow or you
can also call it a rake to make sure everything is working properly and nothing looks too wrong
you can't always tell if you have an issue but visually checking
everything is very important and critical to having good equipment and keeping it running
i have a big coulee up here that i have to make sure i turn before and because it's on an angle i
have to slow down and turn a little bit earlier so that i can line up with my next pass without the
rake going into the coulee and the other field and going off the edge you never want that i will have
to turn here pretty soon i like to slow down a bit just to give me more time because i'm not very
skilled at turns yet and i'll start my turn now i'm launching the cable to make sure not to hit it
not a perfect turn but better than my last ones have been
it doesn't really matter if you don't rake a little portion of the field on your corner
because there's not huge excess amount of straw in this field that we need to move around
and not as important as seating because seating you want every area to be covered
raking it's just important you get the majority of it i have my rpms all the way up again my
auto steer engaged and the track is driving itself there's a big rock here in the field so
i was just watching to see how it went through the harrow if it affected anything always a windy day
in montana 20 mile an hour wind is just a slight breeze i'm very thankful darcy has stayed in the
field to watch and make sure everything's going well the only way you really learn is being by
yourself in a tractor having the pressure on you and being able to experience everything that
could go wrong but it's always great to have your breaking and harrowing mentor in the field just in
case something does go wrong you have them right there to help you now i'm going to wave at darcy
it brightens my day and i think everyone else is when you wave i just puts a smile on my face
i'm now thinking about my turn coming up and trying to plan it out my head so that
i hopefully do a little bit better come back make sure you give us a lot of space between you and
the bed okay thank you i will i always like to think about my turn before it comes up so i can
do a little bit better of a job i'm going to start it now darcy just radioed to me to let me know
that i should leave a space between me and the grain bins here obstacles in the field that
could very much hurt this harrow always leave lots of distance between you in the big tractor
and the obstacle that could be very bad for the big tractor i always love our beautiful montana
sunsets because they are incredible as you can see where we farm there's big wide open fields where
you see all of the trees is where homesteaders planted the trees and had their homestead
that was a bump and there is a little bit of a draw in the field
here so i might slow down on my next pass when i go through that
i'm going to make my turn the other way because i don't have enough room to turn this way without
basically running off the hill that would not be good so i'm going to turn this way
and kind of do an odd loop and make my own pattern in the field so that everybody driving by in the
road can see so this might be my last path i'm just driving over to my guidance line and now
i can have guidance up oh no this isn't my last pass so i'll just have to keep doing these turns
this direction when you harrow at an angle the field becomes very wide at one end and
not wide at another end so you just have to make more corners over here i have the
tractor at full rpm now but because i'm coming up to a decent sized drawer cooling the field
i'm going to bring it back a little bit and then also turn my head back and watch the implement
both and then implement is anything behind your tractor or equipment that you're pulling
that was a little bit of a bump there was a hard bump in the tractor it's definitely going to be a
hard bump for the equipment now i can bring the rpms back up i'm kind of looking at the
grain bins and gauging when i'm going to have to start my next turn i will have a little part
that i missed up there but it's more important to miss something than to run into something
i'm starting my turn now so that i don't get too close to the grave and i might have started it a
little bit early but better early than late i'm now back on guidance and good to go so i didn't
hit any green bins this time that is always a plus it feels weird to be in the tractor
with it getting dark so early because combining and harvest we go till 9 9 30 and it's not even
dark out i'm coming up to this cruelly again it wasn't quite as big of a bump because i
wasn't speeding through it this time if i continued on this guidance pass i would be
dropping off the hill into the neighbor's field wrecking the tractor so i'm really
watching to the edge of my harrow and the edge of this field for when i have to start my turn
i'm not really slowing down with my rpms anymore i feel pretty comfortable driving the tractor and
i just make sure i watch this big cable here it's hard when all the dust is blowing to see
where your next pass is going to start but you do have guidance lines here and that does help
okay now i'm on my guide it's fast again that was a little bit confusing it feels like you're going
this way when in actuality the guidance pass is headed this direction that's why i should
be looking at my screen and not out at the dust covered window dad and darcy are now both
watching me in the tractor so i have to watch this side to make sure the harrow doesn't hit
the grain bins and then this side to make sure the tractor wheel doesn't hit the cable our farm
was homesteaded in 1912 by my great grandfather who immigrated to montana from denmark some of his
farming practices are still used on the farm today because he taught them to my grandfather who then
taught them to my father and uncles and they're now teaching them to me so some things you improve
on as technology advances but there are little methods that stick with the family and that's
what differentiates family farms and makes it so interesting to learn about other people's stories
yes that's what i'm doing thank you dad was just explaining that this area of the field is going
to be a bit more challenging i'll have to make some corners oh i see what he's saying never mind
the coulee that i've been going through goes like this if i kept on my guidance i would be
driving off the field into the ditch i guess i didn't notice that thank you dad you might want to
cruise over kind of by the bins the sunset is absolutely gorgeous tonight
because it is time to end for the day i'm going to shut the tractor off
here are the bins i was trying to avoid this is what the harrow looks like it is 70 feet
long i'm outside of the tractor right now and i'll take you for a walk around to show you
what the harrow looks like and all the straw and twine in it here's the straw some of the twine
these are called tines and they're basically big metal rods that move the straw around
and i am done harrowing for the day thank you so much for watching i really hope you enjoyed
today's video make sure to like and subscribe to learn more about how your food gets to your table
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