Bigger is better????

[Mobuck]

Son's 'new to him' combine arrived Monday. Had to have parts removed to even qualify as a 'wide load'. Yesterday, we had to drive up to the north farm and on the way back, he suggested we measure the width of one narrow 'cut' in the road. Sure enough, fully assembled (duals and operator ladder) the machine is wider than the roadway. It will fit between bridge guard rails with ladder raised with just a little wiggle room. Looks like tire swapping is on the horizon--about like jacking up a barn and changing the foundation.
Some things I just can't understand.

 

[hittman]

I do not envy modern day farmers.

 

[bedfordboy]

Pictures? I love big equipment, cranes, combines, quarry equipment, the bigger the better
We’ll be visiting the John Deere Tractor and Combine plants on our farmers educational trip in July

 

[Yaworski]

As Tim Allen would say, "Grunh, grunh, grunh!"

 

[Mobuck]

Locally, one big issue is with county level road and bridge maintenance. Moving equipment and hauling grain with current equipment on 1960's roads and bridges is both difficult and DANGEROUS.
I 'own' not one but TWO bridges that I maintain out of pocket. Only in the last 20 years has the capacity of county bridges exceeded my personal bridges and then only because several of us in the community facilitated a Federal grant to make improvements on county bridges.

 

[protoolman]

Did son consider the size of the equipment he was buying prior to the purchase? Is this going to be a giant pain yearly to get from the storage equipment shed to the fields where it's needed?

 

[Jeepnik]

I do not envy modern day farmers.

Complain, complain, complain! Farmers today have an easier time than 100 years ago.


I grew up on a dairy in the 50's. Compared to today's "factory dairies" it was much more labor intensive per cow. Today dairies like farms are much larger. But the labor per acre is much less.

 

[krw]

If I weren't gonna plant significantly more beans than you did last year, why are you gonna plant any at all?? Just sayn. And I am a Farmer

 

[Mobuck]

Oh yeah, he considered but still didn't stop him. We had to add extra supports to one bridge two years ago to support the previous combine upgrade. Now, he's added another 4000-5000 pounds and I can only hope it's good enough.
Not sure what you mean, krw. We normally rotate at least some of the acres between wheat and soybeans and probably going to plant some corn in 2027. For our operation, soybeans show a higher probability of profit than either corn or wheat so we plant SB on 75% of the acres.

 

[rugerguy]

....at least YOU ( he ) has a tractor...........

 

[Watertender]

My great grandpa bought a McCormick Deering 22-36 that would pull a 4 bottom plow. They thought that was huge back in the day.

 

[blume357]

You'll make more off the corn if you just convert it into a liquid (flammable) before taking it into town to sell. The folks down this way learned that something like 200 or more years ago... for a small fee I'll come up there and show you how to do it....and it is amazingly simple.

 

[Ranger]

I know of one bridge on a fairly narrow country road where they took off the guardrails so wider equipment can get through. Every time I go through there, I think about how easy it'd be to slide off and land upside down in the water in the winter or at night (no markings or reflectors). Doubt if they've even seriously considered how much weight that old bridge can support.

We recently purchased a John Deere 330 LC excavator rovdo some work around the farm and the delivery person had to plot a path to us to avoid a lot of bridges that couldn't support the weight (@73,000 pounds). Had to do a separate trip for one of the buckets.

Farming now is much less physically demanding; but much more capital intensive than it used to be.

I grew up on a farm and did farm some; but was the youngest of four boys so got into computers and health care management. Still have farmland; but cash rent it out. Farming was hard work; but a great way of life growing up.

One person I know retired from farming and now spends most of his time on computer watching / playing the markets. Said he used to be too busy working / farming to actually make money.