Oliver Farm Days Gone By

My dad was a farmer all his life .. from the 1930’s to the 1970’s. He was a big believer in Oliver equipment.

In the late 1940’s and early 1950’s he bet big on his farming business by upgrading his farms and equipment.

He acquired:
- The entire Oliver fleetline lineup of a 66, 77 and 88 (and later a S77)
- An Oliver 12 ft self-propelled combine and a hay baler
- Gehl silage chopper and silo blower
-Various other plows, discs, tillage, feed grinder, wagons and other equipment.
- Two additional farms

The following are a few photos of some of his Oliver equipment

In 1959 his crop farming, beef cattle and hog feeding was just too much work and not enough income. So at a farm auction, he sold essentially everything (keeping just the 66) including two farms.

He used the proceeds to buy & build two caged chicken egg layer houses. This was a total of about 16000 birds and really paid off well to set him up with a long and comfortable retirement.

A smart business move. But as an 11 year old at the time … I hated to lose all of the Oliver equipment and the general crop farming!

I ended up as an electrical engineer and never have been back to farming … but I have fond memories of the Oliver’s and the day-to-day farm work .. but not the chickens!

Great story and pictures

Traditional farmer. can you please get in touch with me regarding the Steering Parts we talked about the Long 610. If you may still have them. either way! Thanks, Sorry to hijack the thread but wasn't sure how to contact you. Thanks

You can send me an email

How'd that baler work? There is an auction coming up with one in it supposedly.

Besides his own three farm's hay, my dad did a fair amount of custom baling in the fifties with that baler. I was only 8 to 11 during those years. I remember that we had two knotters for it .. one a backup and the backup knotter was required pretty often. The knotter was a big, heavy & complicated mechanical gizmo. I don't recall other major problems The baling wire was two coils to a box and the box weighed about 100#. I remember a trip to Springfield,Ohio, to pick up a load of the wire. It had a Wisconsin engine (as I recall) , with a crank manual start. It always started right up. That baler was one massive & heavy piece of equipment. I can still hear it in operation! I was young enough that my job was to drive the Oliver 66 to move the hay wagons to and from the barn. I never spent any real time in the hay mow on the receiving end of the conveyor delivering the bales to the mow!

These pics remind me of the simpler times when I was a kid and used to help my Grandpa on
the farm. Dad bought the farm from Grandpa when I was about 12 years old. Despite going to
college and becoming a professional, I never could get the farming out of my system. Helped
Dad milk on weekends and did a majority of the haying as he was milking. Couldn't help but
get a few beef of my own. As George Washington famously said, "I'd rather be on my farm
than be Emperor of the World."