"Plenty of power for dryland farming"

Plenty of power for dryland farming

Chuck Bezona says he sprayed 1,800 acres with the TJ375 tractor/Flexi-Coil sprayer combination using only one tank of fuel.

Cummins engine "can't be beat"

When Kansas farmers Pete Bezona and his son, Chuck, talk about dryland farming, they mean dry. "Everything up here north of the Arkansas River is dryland farming," says Chuck Bezona. "In the Dust Bowl days, this is where the dirt blew. You've still got to watch how you farm."

Pete and Chuck seed approximately 2,000 acres of winter wheat near Syracuse, in western Kansas. They also do some ranching, with about 200 commercial cows.

Most years, conditions still are dry to very dry. But modern technology helps them cope even as they continue the 50-50 crop and fallow, all wheat, farming practices. Soil on the wide-open flatlands is a highly erodible silty loam, with some clay.

For 20 years, Pete Bezona relied on a Model 895 4WD tractor for the heavy field work. At the end of 2003, he and Chuck traded it, along with a John Deere tractor, for a 375-hp New Holland TJ375 4WD tractor.

Kansas farmers Pete and Chuck Bezona rely on New Holland equipment to help them get through tough, dry conditions.

"My father purchased that 895 tractor new in 1982," Chuck says. "The Cummins engine in that tractor sold me on the Cummins engine in the TJ375."

Pete says, "We put a new transmission in the 895, we replaced two hydraulic pumps, we turned the differential at 4,000 hours, but we never worked on that engine."

"The biggest selling points on the TJ were the Cummins engine and the 10-year warranty," adds Chuck. "That's for the whole tractor, running gears and everything. I've got 389 hours on it now and the dealership is standing behind its warranty. They're a pretty good bunch of guys."

Ample power

With the arrival of the new TJ, the Bezonas solved a power problem. The old tractor had maxed out when it pulled the chisel plow.

"We couldn't even pull it 2-3 mph," Chuck recalls. "Now we can pull at whatever speed we like. I like to pull at about 5 mph. It's the same with the sweep; I won't go over 6 mph with the sweep, but I can pull at whatever speed I want."

The Cummins engine in their 20-year old New Holland four-wheel-drive tractor was a determining factor in the Bezona's purchase of a new New Holland TJ375 tractor.

The 40-foot chisel plow comes out in early spring. The chisel plow "pulls pretty hard," he says. Its job is to break up hardpan at 8" to 10" deep. It's pulling 2" openers with 12" spacing. "When we want to bust something up, we take out the chisel," he says.

Later, they tackle weed control and seedbed preparation with a set of 9 x 6 Flex-King sweeps with pickers. The undercutter saves moisture, but it takes power. This sweep has nine 6' blades. Each V-shaped blade is 6' long. When it's moving along at 4 - 5 deep, it's cutting the roots off anything above with a 54' swath that does little soil disturbance.

With the TJ tractor, they no longer needed the second tractor they'd used just to pull a set of 5 x 6 sweeps. Their John Deere tractor, he says, "would pull half as much as the 895 and use the same amount of fuel in a day. I just couldn't see keeping it around. With this big tractor and the sprayer, there's no way we'll miss it."

A third job for the TJ375 emerged when Chuck Bezona decided to purchase an 80' Flexi-Coil sprayer with a 1,500-gallon tank. He's been very impressed with how the big tractor handles the big sprayer.

"I looked at my fuel economy, and I can idle that thing down to 1,500 RPM and run at 11 mph. In fact, I sprayed 1,800 acres with it, and I only filled the tractor up with diesel fuel one time.

"And, I'm working in comfort. I don't ever feel a bump or anything. I just ride in comfort and spray all day," he says. "I don't have to worry about the sprayer rocking, either. The TJ's got radial tires with about 6 lbs. of air. In the field it just floats. I can't even feel anything. Everything is accessible. It's just handy to drive. You climb in and you can see real well. There are no blind spots.

"I love spraying with hydraulic motors. You lay your arm right there on the rest and you've got all four boom controls in your hand. You sit comfortably, run the tractor without having to turn, twist and move to grab handles or move levers."

Gradually, Chuck and his wife, Joy, are moving the farm toward a reduced tillage system so that one day their five-year-old son, Hayden, will be able to continue farming if he wants.

"My Dad and I are going toward minimum till," Chuck says. "We're trying to figure out how to get our fertilizers on economically and stop having weed escapes. We've got some very tough weeds in this area."

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