The farmer has a small window of time to.plant the crops and a small.window of time to harvest the crops. There isn’t time to spend working on the equipment in the field. I am certain John Deere knows this and knows that if the service isn’t good, the farmers will go to a different manufacturer. My wife’s cousin is married to a farmer, owns 1000.acres and leases an additional 1000 acres. He has a building that houses his farm equipment and has the tools to maintain the equipment that would put the service department of most car dealers to shame. When we visited them 15 years ago, he had just purchased a $150,000 combine. My wife asked him how many years use he would get out of that combine, he said at most seven years before he would have to replace the combine so he wouldn’t have to worry about down time in harvest season.
Farming today is big business. It’s also easier than when I was growing up. I played in an orchestra and one player that was in the car pool was commenting that her brother had suffered a heart attack. Her brother was a farmer and the doctor attributed the heart attack to lack of exercise. That amazed me because I remembered farming as being hard work. My friend informed me that all her brother had to do with modern farming was ride in an air conditioned cab listening to the stereo while putting in or harvesting his crops. That was back in 1981.
Today’s farmer doesn’t make it on 100 acres with a Farmall M.
Similar to logging. You ain’t gonna make it with a Mcullough chainsaw and an old Pepsi truck cutting pulpwood anymore. Have to have the big equipment and cover some ground to turn a profit.
I can’t blame you for that, but I’ve noticed those who stay active by volunteering after they retire tend to live long happy lives. It was that way where where I used to work and it’s that way at my local Humane Society. Of course, by losing the pay and becoming a volunteer, you also lose the stress of having to show up when you don’t want to. Nobody is going to fire a volunteer for being late or tell a volunteer he or she can’t take time off for a vacation. When those stressors are removed, the work can be very rewarding.
…and just to keep this automotive/farm related, some Humane Societies keep and adopt out farm animals, particularly pigs and sometimes horses. I bet they could use some volunteer help maintaining their equipment.
Oh definitely. I plan to find something constructive to do when I retire, and I’m certainly not opposed to volunteering at a charity. Fishing is constructive too, right?
Until then, I’m just another schmo trying to make a living. I’ve heard it said that if you do what you love, you’ll never work a day in your life. Most folks don’t quite achieve that dream, though. And we stay because it’s a pretty ok job and we need the money!
Does your friend live next to the Tanglefoot Trail?
I’ve seen that truck from the trail too! Is by a house trailer, right? I’m not sure who that is.
My friend lives close. Over in Ingomar, on Ingomar road (main drag through there by the school).
Ah Maslow’s hierarchy. Some truth to it but be careful.
Not to add anything to the discussion but I stopped for gas in Waterloo, IA and I couldn’t believe the long long train with every car loaded with JD equipment. It was quite a site and I think their main plant is on the east part of Iowa.
Yeah the farm that the relatives operate is north of 2000 acres now. It used to be a 200 or 400 acre farm was the average size but now you have to really go big time. Thing is though back in the 60’s land went for about $100 an acre. When the land was auctioned for my wife’s Uncle when he died, it brought about $3500. I think he had about 500 acres. Too bad he didn’t live to enjoy the appreciation. Now I’ve heard some land in the same area sold for $7000. So like I used to tell my FIL he was in two businesses, farming and real estate.
True though as the farms have gotten bigger, the population in a lot of areas gets hit so that affects being able to support a small town, schools, hospitals, etc.
So much stuff here to comment on.
Right now I am living the nightmare of GMO. Bt corn was OK, but now there is Dicambra Soybeans. Dicambra is a defoilant/insecticide that kills everything. And not just everything in the field it is sprayed on, but on fields sometimes miles away. The only thing that survives it is a GMO soybean.
We no longer have a healthy population of ground bees or other pollinators. Birds are getting scarce because they don’t have any food. Other farmers who are planting regular soybeans or other crops such as corn or cotton have lower yields. The state next to us has now banned Dicambra and I hope ours does too, real soon.
I remember these too, actually there were three, but no one remembers the third, only the federal government bought the Umatic format, which was actually superior to the other tow but much more expensive. It was a 3/4" tape.
But the demise of beta was due to the ignorance of the American consumer. A beta tape copied to VHS did not lose quality where a VHS copied to Beta did. Well a VHS copied to VHS lost the same quality but that second part didn’t make it into the rumor mill.
Can a small family farm survive today, actually it can if they follow the Heinz farm formula. Those who have tried it have found prosperity. Basically it is having at least ten sources of income, crops, animals, orchards etc and no more than 10% of your planned income comes from any one.
This is another area that old time techniques beat out the modern theory. The modern planting times are based on recent historical data, by recent I mean like the last 50 years or so. Climate change is changing the ideal planting time to much earlier that modern tables reflect. Old time techniques was to take clues from nature. For example plant corn when oak leave first emerge (the size of mouse ears). Plant peas (English) when the Forsythia blooms. Tender crops can be planted after the apple trees blossom.
A smart farmer can use these clues to get their crops in before those who are going by the accepted tables. They won’t be competing with the other farmers foor equipment time from the equipment providers/operators.
About 30 years ago a 70 year old farmer won the 4+ million dollar state lottery. When asked what he planned to do with the money he replied that he would pay off his debts. After that he guessed he would “just keep farming until the rest of it was gone”.
My grandfather inherited a section, one square mile, of Mississippi cotton land that his father had acquired in a homestead program post Civil War. My dad was one of 5 sons and with a dozen or so share croppers the farm was relatively profitable since there was no television or internet to interrupt the 14+ hour work days until it was sold in the 50s. When sold there was a single yellow tractor with various attachments including a one row cotton picker that was rarely used because hand picking was much more profitable.
For those unfamiliar with farming cotton in the good ole days a sizable field of field(feed) corn was necessary to power the horses and mules plus feed the cows and hogs and chickens to feed the help, And a “planters moon” and a “harvest moon” weren’t poetic terms because 16 hour days were necessary at those two occasions. No doubt operating a profitable farm these days must be a demanding proposition but compared to pre WW II it’s a much less physically demanding way to make a living and air conditioned cabs on tractors that burn diesel are a huge part of the improvement. The most stressful part of farming seems to continue to be the timing of crops and the crap shoot of the CME. My dad didn’t labor the point but he apparently hated farming and after 5+ years as a GI he returned home and used his GI benefits to open a grocery store and I can’t say as I blame him. Banks, machinery manufacturers, oil companies and crop brokers worked much better hours at a much better pay scale.
And BTW, quite a few acres of beans have been plowed under in this part of the country, never making it to the silos to be priced. Last years tractors will sell at a discount in a few months but weathered, wilted beans become very expensive fertilizer for the next years crop for those can afford to pay their debts and replant in April.
We purchased a Sony Betamax High Fi in 1985. It cost $100 more than a VHS but having rented VHS players the superior video resolution was worth it. When I plugged it into my Sansui TA-500 stereo amp it rocked! I have been through 6 VHS VCRs (7 if I count the monstrous Video Camera)! I had not used the Betamax for at least 5 years as all the movies I still possess have been watched to many times or replaced by DVDs. I hooked it up and it still functioned as new! It never needed a repair or “ate” a tape.
I remember the Umatic video tape format. The cassettes were huge and the machines were monstrous! They were still used by the National Guard in the mid 1980s for training videos. I found a case of the cassettes in a closet in 1991. I had no use for them and took them to the supply room. They probably ended up in the dumpster.
That brings back memories. Dad bought a Sansui in Japan on leave from Vietnam. He still had it when I went to college. Mom still has it today, and it still works, but she doesn’t use it anymore.
Those old Sansuis were incredibly good. Modern units have better bass output, but they also don’t last nearly as long. Even my much-loved Technics died after 15 years. Meanwhile, the Sansui is half a century old and still working fine.
Another example of consumers going for the lesser product and causing the demise of good ones. I see it in cars too. Every time I see an Escape on the road I wonder why. We have a fleet of them at work and they’re horrible cars. We lease new ones every few years, and they’ve always been horrible. Why are people rewarding horrible design and build quality with their money?
I have a Sansui G-6700 receiver/amp that works like the day it was made.
I have to clean the switches and rotary pots once in awhile due to oxidation and lack of use but beyond that, it still raises the roof when called upon…