Harvest Time!!!!

[mustardman]

I remember driving truck after school in a '49 chev 3/4 ton with 60 bushel ,race like hell to the dinky bin and if the auger didn't start on first pull you'd be late picking up next load. Dad sitting in the dust picking up swaths on old cockshutt 'combine',the fur lined glass googles sorta kept the dust out of his eyes. We moved up to a ih 403 with jobber cab Big improvement. Amazing how big augers and trucks and bins have made it Much easier on truck drivers

[hobbyfrmr]

Free wheat,

I had a caseih 725 and it was a great pt swather. It laid the nicest, easiest to pickup swath than anything. I changed to a sp swather for the pickup reels and still miss the 725.

I still run with one set of old stuff. Harvest has changed completely here. Parents are gone now, wife works, I juggle farming between her shifts and watching the kids. Nothing is organized and I am usually 3 -10 days late for any projects.
I have a part time retired helper who is exceptionally valuable. He farmed all his life, he can run ...and fix....anything. He trucks when doing cereals. I go solo when harvesting hemp.
The hired man has a bachelor friend who is 72, he really wants to help but often there is not much to do.
Last fall this friend wanted to drive truck. At the end of first day he was asking me to change the steering wheel on a 77 ford 3 ton because he is too fat to fit behind the wheel! Ummmm...no!
I don't get the thrill of harvest like I used to. I don't listen to radio or forecast because somehow I am always 25% behind the provincial progress report and the announcers are talking up the exceptionally favourable provincial harvest weather when it's drizzling on my head.
Thrash it, bin it, sell it. I do get a little thrill when the cheques arrive. Half a crop, twice the price. The net is near same as anyone probably less.
I am satisfied. To each their own.

[mustardman]

Did was around 40 at the time and 40 years later he was straight cutting with 30 ft honeybee and 2166. He loved combining

[fjlip]

Dad started with Deere's first 55 in 1947, combined last in a 9600 in 2001, 54 years. Prior to that of course was all the threshing machine years from 1937 or so. Those fellows seen massive change. They have stories to tell, we should listen more before they are gone. He still needs to come watch, tests grain samples, checks dryer if running. Harvest is special for that generation.

[mbdog]

Nitty gritty dirt band...Lonesome loser cranked up at midnight on our old dodge, trying to keep up to combines. Filling small bins, moving augers, topping up in the dust, in the dark. Lots of work in the dark....nobody seemed to get hurt....I think those days made some pretty tough people....."he's a loser but he still keeps on tryin....
Seems like it was funner then. Today just seems like going thru the motions....maybe a function of ignorance is bliss when you thought ag was important....that is before one found out everyone's feeding off you. Anyway, can't wait to be done, given a year like this, but long way to go. And I hope I never have a bumper crop again! twice the work...half the pay is the way it seems to work out.
Miss the lights of harvest....everyone/all the neighbors givin'r....
Used to like when went over to help neighbors, or vise versa, and things really got rolling. Happy times.
It was fun at one time....

[mbdog]

Developed a lifelong paranoia about old wood bins to....shit you never knew if there were coons, rats or hornets in there when you went to use them.....

[fjlip]

Or MICE scatter every time you opened the door! Full of cob webs and that wood/grain mix smell, still strong in my mind. Hammer the door boards and crawl out the top hole. Shovel in dust to fill corners! The good old days, simpler, slower, low cost, yup ignorance was bliss.

[farmaholic]

LOL. Dating ourselves. But I've been there done that. IH 403-no cab, go to school the next day with the reddest eyes in the grade. IH 4000 cabless swather, swatted alot of bugs and ate allot of dust. Wooden bins, shovel corners full. 1 ton trucks. NO air conditioning anywhere. And sometimes I ask myself what attracted me to the living. Things have gotten remarkably better but our "awareness" of the parasitism has gotten in the way. It isn't the most enjoyable time of year for me, stress. Do your damnedest to get it off in good shape and have someone pick it apart or offer piss poor prices.
Gotta Go....

[freewheat]

HaHa! Good stories guys. Keep 'em coming.

Yep Hobby, I swath only canola and straight everything else. I use a macdon 1900 pull type, which indeed lays a nice swath, and since I got the roto shear it is pretty fail proof. slower, and round and round is never fun, but for a total capital outlay of about 3 bucks an acre for this machine, I think I am competitive with the new sp guys.

Heading out right now in fact to cut my first field. I hear you on the whole always behind on stuff. A one man band does this to you. Except my neighbor who farms about 900 acres. He has more and better equipment than most anyone around. He never gets behind, cuz he is quite wealthy, and has enough machine power for probably 4000 acres, no joke!!! lol! Not having to buy 7 quarters of land, but have it given to you allows a lot of leeway in this business...

[blackpowder]

Any of u guys want, I got an excellent 1920 PT for sale.
Did Thoreau say "we are the sum total of our experiences"?
Envious of some of your stories, not so much of others. I have occasional help that are my senior by a generation, but not related. I get enough laughs working with them to get through. I just feel honoured their helping me. Hope I'm as funny to the younger guys I hire sometimes.
The stress changes as you make none or all of the decisions.
I know what no crop is like, but getting stuck 3times a day would put me over the edge.
However, if your family is with you, and your ratios are good, my sympathy bucket is leaking.
I was taught there is nothing more in life than the farm. My kids will have no idea of what a farm is.
So I try and pass something on to a 20something who's interested.
Play safe and laugh a little!

[Choice2U]

Grew up in west central Sk. Remember swathing flax in the late 70's (high school) in October with a versatile 400/4400 with no cab. Froze going against the wind and sweat with bugs biting your head going with the wind. Sister 2 years younger drove the 1960 chev with wooden box with role tarp under the unload auger of our 750 Massey. Told her she was too close so she backed up and ripped off the metal role tarp cover. I still haven't told her to this day that I should really be blamed for that one. Started "farming" 6 years ago by myself (now 53) and finally got a friend/neighbour to help the past year as doing it completely by yourself is not alot of fun when you have to fix stuff or move equipment. Sept 1, 2014 at 6 PM will be 30 years after my dad was killed in a farm accident. I have fantastic and awful memories of harvest. Please play safe out there.

[hobbyfrmr]

Everybody had a mf 750! Or a 760. We had a 1953 2 ton and a 1956 2 ton. I retired them around 1992.
Similar thoughts as others. Growing up around it was pretty exciting. Trouble is i didnt know about the industry. After 13 years and a few management classes behind me, I could clearly see the industry motives. I really got disgusted with all of it. I made the shift to organic an no regrets. Its a "kinder" market. Not encumbered anymore. Balance sheet is tipping towards me.
I cant recall the specific year 2005? I had seeded 1800 acres, I was combining milling oats at $1.85 . It was a respectable 110.bu/acre. I was still counting trucks to see my living profit. The last 2-5000 bushel bins before taxes were mine to live on.
Not my exact words at the time, but, when I get nostalgic I think, "**** all that"

[Hopperbin]

What do you mean **** all that?

[hobbyfrmr]

Piles of grain, building bin yards input creits maxed workng old machines over more acres chasing economies of scale in a low price environment , no financial backing and no assets. Then the elevator shmo looks at the samples like he just put his hand in a pail of battety acid! All for 1000.00/month take home.
Followimg AV suggests the industry has not changed. I do understand large scale operations and it looks like its working well around here.
Farming can be fun, but its a hard way to make an 'easy" living.
Basically Im lazy.

[mbdog]

choice2u...my point was not to diminish safety or farm accidents, cause they happen. Won't try and explain myself further, but I will echo your words "play safe out there".