On the last 5 acres for the year

This happened!Thankfully both combines were in the same field and I finished up for the year.On thanksgiving day I thought back on my year and how blessed I was.This has been without a doubt the best custom harvest year I have had.Me and my father took the two old Fords over approx 2500 acres of corn,wheat,rye,soybeans,and sorghum with very few breakdowns and finished up the year WAAAAAY ahead of time.This time last year we were just starting beans and sorghum and finished the last field of sorghum on jan 20.Last year I booked 1000 acres of wheat to cut and have already passed that mark for next year with people calling everyday.I got a feeling that come the end of May our local elevators will be backed up to the next time zone trying to unload wheat--Wheat is giong on every piece of ground people can find around here.I also do heavy equipment work when combining is not in season and would be starving to death if I had to depend on it right now,maybe three calls since April.My father told me the other day that never in a million years would he have ever thought his son and himself would be making a living custom cutting with two old Ford combines 35 years after he bought one new.All the new paint in the world can't make you feel that good,I am truly blessed!

Very impressive. You must be a very patient man.

Glad you caught it before it went into the cylinder!
I did more custom combining this year than ever before, too... but NOWHERE near the acreage you cover. Still have maybe 15 acres of my own corn to do, but it's a new-to-me variety that just won't dry down. (won't be planting it again!)

Sounds to me like you and your dad are good at detailed maintenance. A neglected combine would never last that long. A new combine bought today won't be running 35 years from now. Not because of the mechanical part, the new ones are well put together. The electronics will be a nightmare a few years down the road and computer components won't be available. Jim

And I worry about getting parts and being timely with my Gleaner combine on my little farm, which was quite popular around here.

Fords, those never caught on here, wouldn't know where to get parts, nothing would be stocked around here.

Impressive.

--->Paul

Haley, just curious but what are the rates for custom cutting in your area? With no money owed on equipment you should have done well.

Most big time operators are charging minimum $35 per acre and up.Believe it or not I started out at $20 per acre in 1996 and stayed there until two years ago.I had no choice but to move up to $25 then because of the cost of fuel.If I had to buy every part from Claas new I would be out of buisness but thankfully I have been able to buy enough parts combines over the years that I have yet to need to order anything other than seals,bearings,belts,etc.These old Fords run really cheap and are VERY dependable if you just do a little PM every so often .I dont make big money but I am my own boss,can go to my girls school activities pretty much anytime I need to,and I am a FIRM believer that by keeping my costs low it helps the farmers that I cut for and it will come back to me in the long run.I have even told them that if fuel drops to $2 a gallon I will go back to $20 per acre and I honestly would.I make good money in wheat,sorghum and soybeans,but irrigated corn is a slower go using more fuel and I may have to go up on corn in the near future.

Just me on the maintenance,All my father does is sit his butt in the seat and ride!I love him to death but he even has the gall to pull up beside me wanting me to get off my combine to go over to his and clean the windows!I bought him a $400 cabcam to watch the hopper so he wont run it over and son of a gun the first field of corn we pulled he ran the first hopper over and I had to call him on the radio to make sure he wasnt up in the cab asleep.I have to babysit him all the time but I wouldnt trade the time I am spending with him when we are cutting for nothing.One of these days he will be gone and I will have some great memories to laugh at.

Mr. Haley you said quite alot of wheat was being planted do any of the dairy farmer cut the wheat for hay or make silage out of it like here in Tn.?

I've never seen a Ford combine around here. How fast can you cut? To cover that many acres they must have pretty good capacity.
Josh

There arent any working dairies left here in my part of central Ga so I couldnt tell you about the silage.There are a few left in north Ga but I dont make it that far north very often and when I do it is usually in the dead of winter.

Typically 80-90 acres of 70bpa wheat per day,40 acres of 200bpa irrigated corn per day,on a good day 100 acres of 35-40bpa soybeans per day(with J.D. row crop heads),and approx 75 acres of 60bpa grain sorghum per day.Keep in mind this is with two of them and in corn we have a grain cart with us all the time.We dont unload on the go and actually lost at least three minutes each time we stop to dump.Great capacity for a combine of this era in my opinion.

I do from 100-200 acres a year for a few neighbors. I was charging $30 for the past 4 years but went to $40 this year for soybeans and $35 for wheat and corn. We don't have irrigated corn here so its pretty quick going usually. I had no complaints because I try to do the best job possible. I provide 3 200bu. wagons most places I go as most have on farm storage. The others load the wagons out the next morning in hired trucks.

Nice story.

You sound like a heck of a nice guy with a great attitude.