Back in time

rrlund · Mar 24, 2019

The closer I get to being able to cut back and just farm for the heck of it,the more I think about what that would look like. I keep thinking back to what a small farm should be and it always takes me down the road to a guy who farmed 80 acres with a nice looking Oliver 70. I can still see that place in its prime. A New Idea steel wheeled manure spreader on four wheels,a lane with barbed wire fence going back to the back fields,a two bottom trip lift plow,no hydraulics on anything.

I don't know how far I'd cut back even if I had the option of making the place whatever I wanted it to be. After starting out with equipment like that,then building up to 100+ horsepower,I don't know if I'd have it in me to cut back to farming with my Oliver 77 and Super 55. I'd hate to be without the FWA loader tractor,and if I kept that,why not the 53 horse 1550. If I kept that,why not the 90 horse 1850. But then the 105 horse 2-105 with the cab and AC is pretty hard for an old guy to be without once you've had it.

I'll cut back as time goes on without a doubt,but that 80 acre farm and a two bottom plow will always be just a memory I suppose. I get to thinking back to Dad picking corn with the Oliver 66 and Woods Brothers picker,cutting hay with a semi mount mower,baling square bales,that's where I came from,but it's pretty hard to really want to go back to it when the rubber actually hits the road.

DeltaRed · Mar 24, 2019

I think about that too. Farm a few acres with the SuperM,and 8N Ford.But why not keep the Turbo 706 with cab,too?

Janicholson · Mar 24, 2019

The solid positive remembrances can be the best thing to recount. I have them as well. The pencilnose colly named queen, the white grapes behind the garage, wild strawberries, warm cantelope in the field with my Barlo, and hand cranked 15 egg vanilla ice cream (watkins vanilla. But in the inclusive reason for remembering those, there can be consideration of:
25 Holstein twice a day, white wash, manure fork, silage fork, fly strips, milking stool (one leg), frozen silage, restretching the bale wire, a milk cart for the cans, well house with cooling tank, the deranged bull, and mastitis. I forgot: rats in the granary, and lining up the belt to the buzz saw, and lubing the windmill. I smile. Jim

rrlund · Mar 24, 2019

Ya,I could use a two row 3pt planter on the Super 55,a 3pt sprayer and sickle mower to get by without hydraulics,pasture some cattle so I wasn't actually tilling a lot of acres,but with cattle comes baling hay,and I don't want to toss square bales. I'd have to have hydraulics for the round baler and running that with an open tractor sounds like a bad idea,BTDT. Memories are as close as I'll ever get to farming like that again.

rrlund · Mar 24, 2019

Ah the belt on the buzz saw. I'd forgotten about the belt on the feed grinder. Loading corn in to the trailer and hauling it over to the grinder in the barn,then shoveling it for a second time. Getting covered with dust while switching bags on the cyclone. We seem to forget times like those when we imagine every day being a sunny morning in May don't we? lol

RBnWA · Mar 24, 2019

Ahhh memories of the good old days. No desire to throw small squares again. Do enjoy working with my old tractors. RB

moresmoke · Mar 24, 2019

How hard are you planning on working? 80 acres with a 70 was a full time job. I would keep the 105. Maybe thin a few of the others over time.

jon f mn · Mar 24, 2019

Since I'm doing exactly that, I can say for sure that thinking about it is much better than doing it. Those were good times for sure, if you don't consider the difference between 15 years old and 60.

rrlund · Mar 24, 2019

Ya,I'll probably never get below 160 acres with the 2-105 and the Oliver 1365 FWA loader tractor. I think I could manage to get down that far alright. I could just about do it now,but the 2-135 sits in the toolshed. It's paid for and sure is nice for tillage work and chopping. The second loader on the 1600 is about indispensable when it comes to hauling round bales home,one in the field and one at home to unload. Then having the 1550 to leave the wheel rake mounted on all summer sure is handy,and the 77 on the silage cart. The 1850 is nice on the grinder mixer. No cab,so it's easy to get on and off the right side to line up the auger. I like it on the sprayer and corn picker too. It's a slippery slope in to owning and thinking I need at least 7 tractors.

JOCCO · Mar 24, 2019

RR I for one think about it all the time. Truthfully I am not to happy with things today. Yes I would like to go back to what we knew and where we come from.

rrlund · Mar 24, 2019

Ya,I had always hoped to retire on my uncle's old place. It's a Centennial Farm on my grandmother's side. Just 40 acres with the old hip roof barn standing in good shape yet,three quarters of a mile out the other side of town. He farmed that one with an 8N Ford,then a Massey 35 and finally with a Ford 3000. He had a real nice lineup of mounted tools. I wanted to farm that place with a nice Oliver 550. His grand daughter has ended up with that place though,so living there is out the window.

Bruce from Can. · Mar 24, 2019

Best place to go back, is in your memory. Without a loader tractor, and big round bales, you sure wouldn?t want to keep many cows. Fellas like you and I are already the guys younger fellas look at , the way you viewed your old neighbor.

rrlund · Mar 24, 2019

Ya,when I go to things like funerals and other get togethers,all anybody wants to talk to me about is how much they like driving by and seeing all the cows and calves out on pasture,like that's all there is to me. When I'm gone,there's no doubt that's what I'll be remembered for by most folks around here. Black cattle and Oliver tractors. Unless I commit murder,that'll be my legacy in the community. LOL

larry@stinescorner · Mar 24, 2019

I always thought about getting a tractor,growing a big garden and putting some of it up .Did get to do it for a short while.Sure am glad I Did get to do it,kinda looks like its no more stuff like that for me anymore

Greg1959 · Mar 24, 2019

I don't miss any of it.

K Effective · Mar 24, 2019

When I'm gone,there's no doubt that's what I'll be remembered for by most folks around here. Black cattle and Oliver tractors.

As you say, there's far worse things to be remembered for than that. A hard working family who did okay for themselves, despite not having the newest and shiniest equipment.

One local gal said she hates driving by in the summer seeing my cows running around and playing in the pastures, knowing how tasty they are, HA!

crooked rows · Mar 24, 2019

Yup......when people ask me if I miss milking cows I always say when I do.... I think of the bad days and I get over it real quick......

Olyj1947 · Mar 24, 2019

My hearing went out the window of a cab on a turboed 756. I'll pass on the idea. Thank you.

Gary Mitchell · Mar 24, 2019

I think part of the nostalgia around that scenario is that everyone else was in the same boat. People traded off work with 3 or 4 families haying or cutting silage at the same general time. When it was rainy you weren't the only one on your section cutting sprouts or fixing fence. For a while a big farm family down the road had a pair 88 D's that were the talk of the coffee shop, that you got to in the old 50 Ford, GMC, whatever old p/u a guy had for farm transportation. You were a part of a thing, a society, that was shared by the entire community. That's part of the allure of this web site I think, a shared remembering of the beautiful things past and not so much the worse parts. I enjoy that a lot. That being said, I don't think I want to return to the lifestyle that handed me the arthritis I "enjoy" today. ;-) gm

LSaunders · Mar 24, 2019

Just as life got simpler when you went from milking cows to beef, it gets simpler again when you get out of livestock completely. If your going to do some type of cropping, it will be a lot more enjoyable if you keep your current line of tractors, as opposed to just the small ones. I think that would get old fast. Your lineup has enough overlap to be able to work around tractor break-downs. It comes down to- what can you market locally, and how much time do you want to put in?

For example, in my location, there are a lot of horses, so I'm in the hay business. I put up 6,000 to 8,000 kicker bales every year and sell it all to horse people. Between the hay, the woodpile, and a garden, it keeps me as busy as I want to be.

Eldon (WA) · Mar 24, 2019

(quoted from post at 09:51:24 03/24/19)

When I'm gone,there's no doubt that's what I'll be remembered for by most folks around here. Black cattle and Oliver tractors.

Click to expand...

As you say, there's far worse things to be remembered for than that. A hard working family who did okay for themselves, despite not having the newest and shiniest equipment.

One local gal said she hates driving by in the summer seeing my cows running around and playing in the pastures, knowing how tasty they are, HA!

HA! I thought it was to have had the most posts on a discussion board....

Traditional Farmer · Mar 24, 2019

I'd probably keep some cows,goats,ducks,geese,chickens.guineas,make some hay with old equipment,keep going to auctions buying equipment and old tractors I don't really need.Then keep putting in a big garden,build the wife a room to can vegetables and process meat .Probably put in some nice food plots to deer hunt over,get up every day and pretty much do what I want to do that day.At least that is what I have done so far.

john in la · Mar 24, 2019

You can not retire or even semi retire with animals.
They still have to be fed and taken care of.

For me cutting back means if I do not feel like going outside today I sit inside all day.

rrlund · Mar 24, 2019

I hope I don't have to get that retired. I'm just thinking about slowing down as much as nature forces me to. I need a reason to get out of bed and go out the door in the morning. My son has some cattle here,so I'm free to go when I want to. He can come and take care of his own and take care of mine while he's here. I don't want to completely gut the place and leave him having to start all over from scratch when he decides he wants to take care of it all,instead of me.

muleman51 · Mar 24, 2019

When we cut back a few years ago we kept all the machinery, it's not worth anything if I traded for something smaller they would still want boot money. So I just get it done faster. Cutting out the livestock is the only way to really cut back. Unfortunately I still work at least 40 hours a week and crop and have a few cows. My goal is to cut back to the farm at 70 in two years hope I can make it.

rrlund · Mar 24, 2019

I just don't want to be like one guy here. He quit farming 15 years or more ago. He rents the place out. His wife passed away,he remarried and moved in to the new wife's place in town. All the tractors and equipment are still sitting there. It wasn't small stuff either. I'm talking 150-180 horse tractors. I talked to his neighbor just last week. He said he asked him about one of the tractors and he just told him about some transmission problems he'd had fixed and kind of strayed away from any talk of even selling it.

If my son plans to do something with it,great,otherwise there's not much sense in the big stuff taking up space. Ideally,he'd buy it all from me,I'd move to a 40 acre place and play with three point equipment on a 550.

coshoo · Mar 24, 2019

The main problem with "going back" to simpler (but more labor-intensive) times is that you can't make your body 30 years old again. I'm 70, and just can't get enough work done to keep up with any kind of manual labor anymore.

I agree with the others that the only way to really simplify is to get out of cattle and just do crops. Its all pretty well mechanized, and most of the winter you've got little to do and could maybe even travel a little, if you want.

SVcummins · Mar 25, 2019

The last thing I would ever get rid of is the cattle especially for as long as you?ve been around stock. There is just nothing like some cows around the place

Traditional Farmer · Mar 25, 2019

For him I'd suggest Hemp and organic vegetables or maybe buy the Greenhouse operation just up the road from his place(LOL)

mb58 · Mar 25, 2019

I've always had a desire to make my place into a small farm of about the 1940's era. In spite of my "gubment job" ( 1 year till retirement), I have always had a large garden that we can and freeze a lot of the produce from. Beef cows, milk cows, ducks, geese, chickens, turkeys, and an occasional hog for slaughter. I make cane syrup in the fall and rob honey bees when I have a hive.
I sold all the beef cows about three years ago and all the hay equipment with them. I rented out all my pasture land after that and have been renting out my crop land to a neighbor for years. I have eleven acres around my house that I use to "play" farmer and keep my two milk cows, my draft horse, and dozens of feathered things on. Once I retire, I plan to enlarge my garden to produce enough to sell some at the local farmers market along with the syrup. I enjoy playing farmer (had enough of the real thing years ago)but it takes a lot of labor to keep it up. Especially since my wife lives in the present and refuses to contribute to my fetish unless I get in a real bind for help.

Back in time

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