The Rural Voice, 1980-11, Page 10Conserving Energy
Energy conservation results in more efficiency and less costly farming
BY DONNA THIEL AND
IISELE IRELAND
Energy is a vital part of the working
farm. Besides conserving energy for the
future, the cost of reducing waste will
show in profits saved in fuel or heating
bills.
What are the energy savers farmers
most often forget?
"Often maintenance guidelines are
forgotten. The fuel mixture should be
adjusted so the tractor is running
smoothly. Avoid leaving a tractor idling;
if left idling for 10 minutes a day, 60
hours a year that wastes about 30 gallons
of fuel," said Helmut Spieser of Ridge -
town College.
"If fuel lines, a fuel pump or the
carburetor are leaking, then one gallon to
half a gallon of fuel is wasted daily or 15
to 45 gallons a month. Dirty sparks plugs
and dirty air filters cut down on
efficiency of the tractor. The restricted
air flow results in incomplete fuel
combustion."
Operating tractors with all the weights
on is also an energy eater. When the
unneeded weights are removed 10 per-
cent to 15 percent less fuel would be
used.
"This should be stressed that the
matching of size of tractor to machinery is
essential to energy saving. Having the
comfort of listening to music might not be
worth the extra energy used to pull a
smaller implement," Helmut Spieser
said.
Fuel can also be conserved by examin-
ing tillage practices on a farm.
"Machinery that is not finely tuned
and set uses more fuel. Plowing too
deep is not necessary but the points of the
plough should be at the same setting. The
blades on the forage harvester that aren't
sharp add extra wear on the machine as
well as using more fuel. Sharp blades and
proper maintenance help keep repairs to
a minimum. All machinery should be kept
in good repair to work efficiently"
according to Jack Underwood, who
teaches at Centralia College.
DON'T DISC PLOUGHED FIELDS
"It is also a waste of time and energy to
disc the plowed fields in the fall, with
the hopes of cutting down on the spring
work. The discing breaks up the soil and
therefore does not allow the frost to break
down the clumps of soil during the
winter. This fine soil becomes a mass of
mud and does not allow the drainage that
plowed soil does. So time is lost in the
spring waiting for the land to dry," said
Mr. Spieser.
Every time a farmer runs a machine
over a field it costs him fuel and wear and
tear on the equipment. Some farmers in
the Teeswater area have come up with
unique energy saving solutions to
different problems concerning land types
and conditions.
Julian Smith of Teeswater has rolling
land which means erosion problems.
Conventional plowing and working of the
lard resulted in more and more top soil
lost. For a couple of years the Smiths
used a two way disc and disced the land
twice before spring planting. They found
this method unsuccessful. The disc did
not work the ground deep enough and the
resulting crop was not rooted properly.
CHISEL PLOW
Julian now uses a chisel plow. It has
big curved teeth and goes over the land a
couple of times before planting. The
chisel plow leaves narrow furrows in the
soil allowing the water to seep into the
soil instead of washing over it. Behind
this chisel plow he pulls a Flex Coil
packer which breaks up the big lumps
and leaves a compact seed bed. A
minimum tillage planter is used with this
method and it has big fluted colters which
go four inches into the soil to allow proper
root formation of the seed. Julian stresses
that a good fertilizer program and crop
rotation are a necessary part of his
operation. He grows corn for three years
and then plants barley. The fifth year he
plants winter wheat with the straw being
incorporated back into the soil.
Making each trip count works well for
the Ireland brothers of the Teeswater and
Gorrie area as well. Their land is plowed
in the fall with a mould -board plow.
When planting begins in the spring the
furrows are broken up once with a
cultivator. The second time the disc goes
over, they apply their weed spray and
PG. 8 THE RURAL VOICE/NOVEMBER 1980
nitrogen (liquid) at the same time. The
spray tank is mounted on a wagon behind
the disc and hooked on behind the wagon
is a pony trail set of harrows which
incorporates the nitrogen and weed spray
into the soil.
When planting, the fertilizer is applied
with the seed. The disc mounted spray
and nitrogen system has worked well for
six years and is made from easily
available parts. The only time these fields
have to be driven on again is harvest
time. One year they ran into a spray
resistant type of weed and had to respray
where it proved to be a problem.
A RECENT CONVERT
Bruce Shillinglaw of R.R. 1,
Londesboro is a recent convert to the
chisel plow.
The farmer said last winter he decided
another tillage method was needed to
speed up his operation, as well as
reducing fuel costs. Also, "we are trying
to give our land more protection by
having some organic residue on the
surface," he said.
Bruce Shillinglaw has already used the
chisel plow this fall on land where he was
growing his soybean and barley crops.
The farmer said he's really pleased with
the stubble left on this acreage and hopes
it will reduce erosion on the land.
Mr. Shillinglaw said he'd been
concerned fall plowing was pretty severe
on the land, and that he was overtilling.
Now, he's not only reducing costs, but
has left a protective covering of trash on
the fields,
The farmer said he has neighbours who
are watching his experiment to see if this
might be the route to go on their own
farms.
ENERGY EFFICIENT BARNS
Farmers can also save on their energy
costs by evaluating energy efficiency in
the barn.
Barns are now being insulated, but
they must also be ventilated to keep the
animals as comfortable as possible and to
circulate the stale air. The maintenance
of the ventilator is often neglected. If
the blades are dirty, then the stale air
isn't moving. But the blades are still
using energy inefficiently. The shutters