Old stories

[Flatlander]

i remember harvests as a school kid. I would come to the field after school and it seemed as though Dad and uncle had not done many acres. Uncle always told me the machines ran better at night. I just thought they needed a trucker. Anyway one day they said the auger is in a wooden bin,fill it first. We combined and I dumped several loads in it. That night when we quit, Dad said how's the bin coming along. I said I had no idea. He said well how many loads since you put the last door board in. I said what's that. While mumbling he marched over to the door and undid the latch. It flew open and a lot of grain came pouring out. I had a hard time not laughing as I thought the grain may knock him over. Door boards were on the floor by the way. I think I was about 11. I'm glad I started young or I would never have made it as a farmer. Dad had to teach me quick because a farm accident took him when I was barely ready for what was ahead. Only after he was gone did I realize just how much work he really did. I thank him for letting me make lots of mistakes with money, management, time, etc. for had I started as an adult this farm wouldn't have made it.

[farmaholic]

I probably shouldn't post because I don't think I'm as old as some of you. Cut my teeth on 4020s with poor cabs and a 5020 with out a cab. But the worst experience was a 403 IH combine with out a cab. Hot as hell in the day and a snow suit at night in September. But the real icing on that cake was at night when the wind went down and that dam dust would just billow up from the feeder house and hang there, no escaping it. Went to school the next day and I had American eyes, Red-White and Blue and could pick coal from my nose. Must have looked like hell. During the day if the wind was in the wrong direction it was hell too.

Another favorite of mine was making slough hay in a slough surrounded by bush with an opening in just big enough to get the tractor, baler and hayrack through. Hotter than the hobbs of hell without a breeze....drank lots of water, in fact it seemed like I couldn't drink enough. Mosquitoes and horse flies were the extra bonus there.

Picked my fair share of rocks by hand too and cleaned up pushed bush piles full of rocks my forefathers threw in when they went by while working the land. No such thing as getting heavy equipment in and digging a hole and burying it-unheard of on our farm.

And then there is the treat of filling and emptying wooden bins, bins so small you can't even fill a tridem with what was in them. Just think, had to shovel the corners full when it was close to full...had to squeeze that last 75-100 bushels in, then the joy of shoveling out the last 200 bushels emptying them.

My god, then the Industry wonders why we're bitter and cynical when they want to steal our labour(grain) for nothing. Bunch of whining bastards.....

[SASKFARMER3]

First combine I ran and hurt myself on was a 55 Deere.
Tractor was a R, and a M spraying.and 4010 for most stuff. First four wheel drive was 7020 Deere can't hear today but was fun. Before was G1000.

Ah the past if you still have a old guy around quiz him or her lots they have so much knowledge.

[AllisWD45]

Started at 9 years old with a 100 bushel hopper box and yup an Allis WD45 hauling grain from a 137 cockshutt. Started running that combine at 12 years old
Tractors after the 45 was a D17 then 2 D19's then a brand new 190 with a cab in 1964. The last Allis was a 7045 then switched to the green ones
Combined were the 137 then a 428 then dad switched to IHC first a 403 then the monster 503 and after that a 1500 NH probably one of the best combines ever made. When I started on my own I bought a 1500 used it for years
My best memory of combining was at 15 years old did some custom combining of flax with the IH 403 in November. Colder than a bitch no cab. Dad said I had worked like a man what did I want for wages. I told him get a cab and man were we kings the next year with that new Fibro cab on that 403

[blackpowder]

No shit a 7020?
That unit had this slow learner realizing that eventually you can fix too much. To be fair, we did wear it out.

[pgluca]

Blackpowder, It was amusing to see you mention hearing the 830 running at night in bed. I drove a combination 830 Front and 820 Rear pulling a 35' Graham cultivator, walking away at night when it was calm you would almost swear you never shut those units off.

[burnt]

Lots to relate to in the stories already told here - small tractors that seemed bigger than they were, picking stones, working around stone piles that previous generations had thrown together, usually over a huge boulder that they couldn't move...

I started driving tractors on a WD45 and a WC Allis Chalmers. If I remember correctly, the WC had hand levers by the fenders for engaging the brakes. They didn't seem to think of what might happen when a kid would try to stop quickly while still having to steer the darn thing with one hand!

So the 950 DAVID BROWN with a loader (still no power steering) seemed downright modern when we bought it used in 1964.

The WD45 had a narrow front end with a Freeman loader. Bad combination on unlevel ground, LOL! Only took a few minutes to pull it back on its wheels though.

Pulled a 3 furrow, 12" bottom plow and an 8' disc with the DB and I loved coming home from school and getting on that thing and working until dark. Couldn't work after dark because the lights never worked on any of Dad's tractors.

Then my oldest brother bought a Ford 5000 with a Selectomatic transmission - wow what an upgrade! Had a mounted 4x14" trip bottom plow that wouldn't plow cornstalks to save your life. Made millions of mouse houses with that plow over its lifetime trying to plow cornstalks. Front wheels were seldom on the ground when the plow was hooked up.

Eventually he got an 1100 Massey Ferguson and that was truly the best tractor we ever had on our farms. Ever. None since then have run as long or as trouble free as that old lad.

I bought a 5455 Massey w/loader with 1300 hrs on it a couple of years ago and it gave so much tranny trouble that the dealer eventually took it back!

But one of the most memorable stories that show what kept this country together over the years and made this country what it is today puts most of our hard times stories to shame:

My wife helped out an old couple in town for a couple of years and occasionally the old gentleman would tell stories of his growing up years.

At the tender age of 14, Cliff was delegated to taking care of the family farm when his dad had to go to Guelph (a 1 hr. drive from home) to work to support the family in the Depression Years. In addition to doing the chores at home and looking after the fieldwork, Cliff worked long hours at the neighbour's place as well.

After he had put in several weeks of hard labour for the neighbour - and all labour was hard in those times - Cliff received his pay.

His pay was a little gilt piglet - maybe 40 or 50 pounds. There was no money so goods where traded for labour.

The real payday was a long time in coming because that gilt piglet was raised for a brood sow and formed the base of their swine herd.

Cliff always had an eye for a good horse. He would tell stories of his hours behind a team as we drove down the road past farms where 7 furrow plows and 50' cultivators were doing far more in an hour than he could cover in a day...

Cliff died a couple of months ago and I wish I had written down the stories that he told us. They were a treasure trove of the history of farming.

RIP, Cliff. You were, and remain an inspiration.

[farmaholic]

When some of you long-timers look back at where you came from and where you are today and see progress, you have to wonder how much better can it get? But I suppose that thought entered your minds some where along the way before as well. There is some very technologically advanced and comfortable machinery out there right now... what's coming next?

[farmaholic]

I thought I read somewhere robotics were a fairly big feature of Agritechnica in Hanover Germany.

[burnt]

Got me remembering again with this thread - I could rightly be accused of being stuck in the past...

Here is a piece that I ran in the Ontario Farmer 5 years ago -

Original Design

“Staggering Figures”

"Neil held out the invoice for the newly bought calves. “Buck twenty out there,” he stated, “plus the freight. It works out to about a buck thirty”. At 485 pounds weaning weight, the rancher that produced those calves received a grand total of$582 per calf in the fall of 2010. As a cow calf operator, I could only shake my head.

Even with their lower overhead, the western cattle producers must have a hard time penciling a profit with those prices. Here in Ontario, it is disastrously short of breakeven.

When I recently presented a Member of Parliament with the Canadian cattle producer’s request for mediation on the BSE class action currently in progress, the Member pointed out that some calves were again bringing “a buck thirty” per pound.

Under my silent stare, he falteringly stated that while the cow-calf operator might not find even that improved price to be overly profitable, the feeder/finisher will have a hard time penciling a profit with the higher priced calf. “There are just not enough dollars in the finished animal”. I pointed out that that was not my fault so why should I work for nothing to subsidize the consumer.

The actual value shortfall was sharply highlighted by a farming account my long-retired uncle recently described to me. His early farming experience gave perspective to today's prices.

Soon after marrying my aunt in 1947, he bought my Grandfather's Zurich area farm including 6 cows, about 20 head of young stock, grain and machinery all included. They milked Durham cows, he said, “Because they were dual purpose and milked better than the Herefords”.

The main piece of machinery was a “B” Allis Chalmers tractor. The total package cost just above ten thousand dollars.

After the move, Grandpa’s love for the place compelled him to visit the farm almost daily to check on things. Thus, when Uncle Harold shipped two finished steers to Toronto Stockyards in 1951, Grandpa noticed and asked about their absence.

"Shipped them to Toronto", Uncle Harold replied.

"How much did you get for them?" Grandpa asked.

"$900" Uncle Harold told him.

Grandpa was literally staggered by the news and just stumbled in a small circle for a few minutes mumbling to himself "Nine hundred dollars, nine hundred dollars . . ."

Uncle Harold was locked in paroxysms of laughter as he relived the moment, "$450 each", he chortled. In about 1950 Uncle Harold paid $7500 for one hundred acres and roughly $3000 for the livestock, feed and machinery. And shortly thereafter sold two finished steers for almost $900? “I just hit a good market” was Uncle Harold’s assessment. He had received more than double the $200 Grandpa was accustomed to receiving for butcher steers just a few years previous.

So, whether one uses the $200 or the $450 figure, and even taking into account our increased productivity, it is staggering to extrapolate those values into today’s economy. And then remember that after 2003, in the depths of the BSE crisis, many steers sold for less than $450.

A business that survives only by cannibalizing its production base will necessarily and inevitably fail. So indeed, “a buck thirty” seems a bit skinny and could use some fattening up, all things considered. Staggering figures, indeed."

JES/9/2010

[LEP]

Farmaholic maybe we are headed to where all this technology will work reliably for more than a couple years. One can hope.

I drove a lot of hours in a 705 Minnie, G1000, 1350 and up.

But for a lot of years we used wd9 ihc to Harrow, hay, swath. We have three of them.About 15 years ago I put 200 hrs on that tractor haying and swathing. There's a muscle right between my shoulder blades that still burns when I think about that tractor.

[blackpowder]

Gee, didnt want to infer I ever had it tuff. I did not. Heck, driving tractor kept me out of the cow barn!
Now, my moms parents had it shittier than the neighbours of the day. No decent water. No equity. No money for medicine when granny was sicker than hell. My mom quit university early to help them out till she married dad. The original 3R generation. Enviros today dont know jack!