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  • From: KAKerby AT aol.com
  • To: market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] root digger implement options
  • Date: Sun, 19 Aug 2012 01:45:25 -0400 (EDT)

Thanks for this; I had always seen different implements in the field for different root crops, but never a straightforward guide for which tool to use for which crop. I suspected different shapes/depths/growing habits would need different implements.  I wanted to stay away from specialized machines which could dig "this" but not "that".  Never occurred to me that it wasn't really the machine per se, but rather the shape of the digging portion and/or how it "throws" the crop out of the ground.  From the sounds of it, I might be able to get a wide multi-row toolbar with a variety of tools (shanks vs disks vs spades, etc) and just mix-n-match as I need to for each crop. I like that idea a lot.  Simple, cheap, flexible, and probably reasonably efficient.  And yes, it was the manual labor which killed us when we grew our first big plot of potatoes.  I knew we could never get away with that again.  Hence the desire for some digging implements.
 
I also very much like the idea of selling the best, feeding the rest.  I was thinking along the lines of "all of X crop for this vs that purpose".  Simplistic, but limiting.  No reason I have to be so narrow-minded with the planning.
 
As for books from 1860, I'd dearly love to know if you have any favorites which talk about either root crops and/or non-grain veggie crops (squash comes immediately to mind) as fodder for livestock.  I have two early editions of Morrisons Feeds & Feeding, but I'm always interested in other titles/authors.  Feeds are so heavily geared towards grains these days, probably because they can be dried down further than anything else, and thus are easier to ship long distances.  I'm trying to find a variety of crops we can feed as fodder, but the root crops had me stymied in terms of efficient harvest.  Now I've got some options for that part of things.
 
Thanks again!  And keep the ideas coming!  They're all welcome!
Kathryn Kerby
frogchorusfarm.com
Snohomish, WA
Ruminations - essays on the farming life at frogchorusfarm.com/weblog.html
 
In a message dated 8/18/2012 9:22:56 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time, MAsteveINE AT 207me.com writes:
FWIW   Potatoes are dug with a spade which lifts the row and sends the vines one way
and the potatoes another after sifting out the dirt.
Carrots are harvested by running a coulter or shank on each side of the row and then
picking up the crop by its tops.
Beets ..red or sugar, are topped in the field and then lifted by concave discs which
send the crop into devices which load them into trucks.
 
My favorite books, the books from 1860, which talk of feeding stock on all manor of nutrient produced on the farm
emphasize that what you have is what you should feed. They loved roots, but took the steps to market the
finest part of a crop and feed the lessor quality.
 
I am thinking it would be interesting to see some fact finding on the callories per acre comparing grains and vegetables.
 
One thing I know for sure............the cost of labor will be the killer on any small operation; you cant dig
potatoes with a hoe as cow feed for profit.
 
MAsteveINE
 
 
 
 
 
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Saturday, August 18, 2012 10:34 PM
Subject: [Market-farming] root digger implement options

We are considering expanding our root crops next year, for livestock feeding purposes.  When I say "root crops" I generally mean potatoes, mangels, rutabagas, parsnips and/or large turnips.  Maybe some of the larger carrot varieties, but these will definitely be for livestock feed, not for market.  So "pretty" isn't important.  But harvesting them quickly and cost-effectively is very important.
 
The last time I planted potatoes, I spent what seemed like the next three years manually harvesting them.  The first harvest was to get them out of the ground that October, and it seemed to take forever.  But we had volunteers coming up for several years later, which tells me that I really didn't do a good job digging them up manually.  It was such a distasteful job the first time around I swore I'd never grow them again other than for occasional home use.  But now here we are, thinking how nice it would be to be able to grow them on a larger scale, IF we can figure out how to harvest them more effectively.
 
I Googled "potato digger" and got a wide variety of implements, ranging from black-and-white photos of what Grandpa used "back in the day", to shiny new looks-about-the-right-size imported from China, to industrial-sized monsters that could eat my house.  I'm looking for an implement that will efficiently harvest a wide variety of root crops, be small enough to pull behind a 20hp tractor with Class 1 three-pt hitch, large enough to comfortably harvest a few acres of any given kind of root crop, without costing the amount of a small country's yearly operating budget.  Oh, and since we're fantasizing here, it should be readily available on the used market for not-very-much-money, with easy-to-find replacement parts, and be simple enough that we can service in our own workshop or hire a local skilled mechanic, rather than exporting it back to whatever was its distant country-of-origin for repairs.
 
Any suggestions as to make/model/manufacturer?  And if my fantasy machine doesn't exist, what are my options from amongst the tools that do exist?  Thanks all.......
Kathryn Kerby
frogchorusfarm.com
Snohomish, WA
Ruminations - essays on the farming life at frogchorusfarm.com/weblog.html


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