I see these old videos of Farmall H and Deere 2 cylinder tractors outfitted with mid-mount and sometimes front mount cultivators - tooling down the fields, cultivating. I gather the farmers are knocking out weeds, maybe side dressing or hilling the crop or maybe all three. I assume round-up ready crops like corn were not invented at that time and some kind of cultivation was necessary and a tractor with cultivators was the way to go in absence of some chemical solution and faster/lower cost than a team of men with hoes in hand or a horse with culitvator.
But then in the very late 50's and early 60's - something changed. Deere and IH go big on their tractors, i.e. Deere 4020, IH 806, etc. Wide front ends. Was this the end of crop cultivation by a row crop tractor? I can't say I've ever seen a midmount or front mount cultivator on these tractors.
What happened??????
What caused the narrow front tractors like the Farmall H tractors to no longer be needed on the farm? Did row crop cultivating stop with these new bigger tractors? Surely round-up ready corn wasn't around at the time? How did the farmer control weeds, etc., with these new larger tractors and aside from products like round-up ready corn, how do they effectively keep the weeds to a minimum today?
Just curious.
Thanks!
Bill
But then in the very late 50's and early 60's - something changed. Deere and IH go big on their tractors, i.e. Deere 4020, IH 806, etc. Wide front ends. Was this the end of crop cultivation by a row crop tractor? I can't say I've ever seen a midmount or front mount cultivator on these tractors.
What happened??????
What caused the narrow front tractors like the Farmall H tractors to no longer be needed on the farm? Did row crop cultivating stop with these new bigger tractors? Surely round-up ready corn wasn't around at the time? How did the farmer control weeds, etc., with these new larger tractors and aside from products like round-up ready corn, how do they effectively keep the weeds to a minimum today?
Just curious.
Thanks!
Bill