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Who Farms w-1 Tractor Only????

B

Bill VA

Well-known Member
Made a bit of hay yesterday, small squares. Managed to disable my Farmall 756 (see post in the IH section), the MF50 has been out of action all summer, so this time around, my JD5055d did all the work.

It's handy to have more than one tractor, but......

How many of you farm or farmed with only one tractor - for everything? What was/are you farming and with what make and model tractor.

Just curious.

Thanks!
Bill
 
I farmed with 2 for a lot of years,but 1 would be tough. I had just a 4040 and 1020 Deere with a loader. I got along OK. I remember when I was a kid,there were guys who had just a Ford 8N or Farmall H or some such thing. Dad had an Oliver 66 that he kept,but every spring he'd go to the sale in Archbold and buy another tractor so he had two for haying and cultivating at the same time,then he'd sell that one in the fall.
 
My Grandpa Will only had one tractor when he farmed. It was a farmall F-12 I think TRi. Us his grand kids would watch our fathers bail hay with an old case bailer that had a china man and an engine on it to work it. Grandpa had every thing you could think of for farming. A lot of his stuff was old horse type equipment that could be pulled with this tractor. When he past way the family had an auction selling all the farm equipment. We could not believe that no body want to keep the tractor because it had rubber wheels on it (Not steel). When he bought it new he had paid extra money for the rubber wheels on it.
 
We farmed with just a John Deere 60 when I was young, as I got older Dad got a second one for me to run,,now days that same farm has a dozen,,2 at 400hp 5 over 190hp... When we were younger we had a neighbor that never unhooked a tractor, one stayed hooked to a mower, a rake,a tedder and the baler, we would make fun of that,,now my Bros. are near the same way...
 
After transferring from horses My Grandpa farmed with only 1 tractor for the majority of his working years

Farmall F-12 or 14 (I forget which), then a Farmall F-20, then a late 1940's JD A, mid 1950's JD 520.

The JD 520 was kept when a 1960 Minnie Moline M5 was added and those 2 tractors were sold at the moving off the farm retirement sale when I was in kindergarden in the early 1970's.

My guess is the only thing that afforded him the luxury of 2 tractors was his 5 kids were reaching the age where they were all moving out in the mid-1950's and early 1960's so there would have been a little extra money available for him due to that plus he was losing his extra farm help in his kids at the same time too.
 
I really wish my Grandad and dad were still here to ask these questions- as I am 4th generation on our farm; from what I can see it went from horses/mules to 1935 Case"L" and M&M 1939 U...then up from there. I have tooo many now but they all have their use. :)
 
Neighbor across the road farms with just one. Bout 120 acres. Been here all my life,59 years and they have always had just one. 5xxx something Deere right now.
 
My dad started with a ZAU MM in 1950 which he bought new, I still have it. He used that for several years as his only tractor. I think he bought a 8N Ford with a loader years later, and then I believe he bought a 1949 GTB MM for $800. A few years later he traded the GTB on a 730 Case gas and got $800 trade in for the GTB. It seems years ago if you had two tractors or even three, you were really doing well for yourself.
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My grandfather farmed with just one tractor a 1935 JD-B that I own. Me I could never get by with just one tractor but I can also say I have too many tractors. When I bale hay I have one for cutting one for raking and one for baling plus a few as back ups. I lost count of how many I have but it is in the 30 plus and it keeps growing like the IH584 I was given this summer and the 2 Case VAC that I got last summer
 
I'm not a large farmer by any standards. Have 45 acres of alfalfa and about 15 acres of "nature's mix" of grasses. My tractor is a John Deere 3020. It is a good size for a 9 foot mower conditioner, square baler, and bale wagon. I remember some time ago a person on this forum quoted, "if you can't afford new, you'd better have two". I agree with that thought, but right now, I can't afford new and having two doesn't pencil out either.....
 
I farm with a JD 1630 tractor but I have a lot of toys I can attach equipment to. My toys are all CASE.
dave
 
Not that they could afford it but when my road was full of 30-50 cow dairies one thing all those farmers could agree on is you could never have too many tractors. Most such as our operation back then (late 1960's - early 1970's) had three tractors and a couple had four even though the fourth amounted to a Farmall H to pull a rake or wagon. Looking at the Long Green Line Catalog as a kid then I would imagine that my parents would inherit some money and two 2520 diesels would show up to keep the 4010, Oliver 88, and Farmall M company. Funny thing is I really never knew about 2520's as a kid but they looked neat in the catalog. Anyhow, two additional tractors regardless of color would have kept the blood pressure down on days when one of the three would have an issue. When the Oliver catalog showed up then I would imagine two 1555's showing up. Something about a 55-60 HP row crop tractor capturing my imagination.
 
He was just good at making a buck at the end of the year. lol

He would own more pickups in a month some times than I've ever owned in a lifetime. The man loved to dicker.
 
Not me,can't have too many and you can't have too much horsepower.I want more red tractors lol.
Paul
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A neighbor's uncle lived over west here a ways. I hauled milk for the guys on either side of him. He was one who wouldn't pull a draw pin for anything. One of his neighbors was telling me one time that his son had been over there for three hours the day before to help him get a tractor started so he could grind feed. He tried to get him to just hook another tractor to the grinder and get the job done,but no sir,that wasn't gonna happen.

I guess I'm getting just as bad. I had a flat tire on the 1550 a week ago yesterday and had to take that miserable 3pt V rake off of it and put it on the 1850 to finish up. I love that rake once it's on,but it's no fun to hook up. Well,I always grind feed with the 1850 and had to grind Tuesday. I was only figuring on raking one more field of hay this year anyway,and the 2-105 was backed right up to the grinder,all I'd have had to do was hook on,but no,I took the rake off the 1850,ground feed with that,then put the rake back on the 1550 to rake one last field of hay after the tire guy was here.

I tell myself it's not O.C.D.,it's the principle of the thing. LOL
 
not my dad and granddad they had 5 f 20 tractors only 1 had a starter and that had a corn picker hung on it that never came off.
it sat in shed until time to pick corn then it went back in until the next year
 
I once farmed 160 acres with a VAC Case.

Now I have 10 acres, two H Farmalls, an M Farmall, and a D19 Allis.
 
There's an old guy in town who lives right next door to my younger son. He farmed an entire section in Nebraska with an Allis WD45.
 
Talked to an old guy once who claimed he planted 3 quarter sections in north dakota one year with an AR jd, 2-16s, packer, and drill when it was new. He still had the AR. He also still had the combine he said he bought and paid for that year which must have been the first jd combine because it was a thresher with a header on the side. He said the last quarter was one someone else had been farming, but the landlord didn't like the renter so he asked this guy if he would do it. It was already late in the season but he took it on. Said he started on it and never left the field til he was done, his wife brought seed, gas, and food. He slept a bit with his head on the steering wheel a few times. If I remember right he said it took 4 days.
 
Dicker....now that is a word that doesn't get used much anymore. I recall about 50 years ago a car dealer in a little town doing his own radio ads..."if you want a new car for your wife bring her on in and we'll dicker". Ad only ran for a day or two.
 
I don't farm or anything else, but I still have to have three. At least that's what I tell myself.
 
I make hay and graze cows and horses, a small operation. I graze 20 acres and hay about 30. My only tractor is a Ford 4610. I also am lacking a tow vehicle for my trailers. I work 50-70 hours a week, and drive 45 minutes or more each way work, on call every third week.

Making hay with one tractor is killing me! I waste so much time changing implements. My daughter is 15, and now old enough to help. She did a lot of the tedding and raking this year, which helped.

I need a new pick up and a second tractor by next year. I also want a drawbar pull rake. anything three point is a pain to switch fast.
 
Last time we farmed with one tractor was 1942 right before grandpa bought his first piece of ground and started farming along side his father or my great grandpa. We were up to five tractors as early as 1960 when grandpa bought a IH 240U. At that time we had a Farmall M, TD 14A, JD R, and JD 830. Now we are up to 9 all JD with one Steiger thrown in. We could have more if I drugged out some of the antiques just to run an auger at harvest time for a day or two. Also, we raise small grains, pulse crops, canolo/mustard, and have livestock. The livestock accounts for 3 of those tractors.
 
Didn't seem to hurt him any. He's about 95 and still gets around like better than most 70 year olds.
 
About 8 years ago I farmed 700 acres with a 1086 doing all the field cultivating, planting and spraying. Neither that tractor nor I will ever do that again.
 
I have two tractors and I don't even farm. Just use them to maintain 10 acres. Have one with a front loader and one with a bush hog.
 
I did for a while about 25 years ago. I farmed 160 acres with a JD 2130 and a Cockshutt 30, which couldn't pull anything because it had oil on the clutch, so it sat. The first 8 years I didn't even have a loader, I fed with the three point hitch. Now the Cockshutt is gone, the D14 I replaced it with is gone, and I have a JD 2550 and a White 2-105 as well as the 2130. That way I usually have at least one that works. The White has been getting new air conditioning all summer and the 2130 PTO clutch seized on about a month ago. It doesn't matter much, it's been too wet to do anything all of August.
 
When I was in high school I worked for a neighbor for a couple of summers. We farmed 440 acres with a WD Allis and a C Allis.

That was an early WD, not a WD45. That sucker sometimes ran from 6am to 10pm with the boss and I swapping for meals, etc. It would stop once mid afternoon to refuel.
 
Growing up in the 60's and 70s , we farmed about 300 acres with a DC CASE , a 800 , and a 430 Case,hated the down time and wrenching hooking and unhookin even then , when i was spry enuf to do handstands on the hay wagon ...today my 730 has had the grinder-mixe on it since 4th of july ,the square baler has been on the 430 for that long too ,the 3pt wheel rake has been on another 430 since mid may ,.the roundbaler has been married to the 4020 deere since may,. the yanmar 2220 has had bale forks since january..the DC done most the planting,. another 530 was planting ,spraying and cuttin hay ,. but now it needs a clutch and is side lined , along with my 1070 with a crakt head..i dont have time to keep them all going,. but i dont like swappin implements off the back either..i have a 49 VAC that i really love to spray with ,that is the go to simple hook up tractor..
 
Well I started out with one tractor the first crop I planted for myself. It was JD "G". I "rented" a neighbor's 75 acres. I was a freshman in high school. I had a 3x14 pull plow and a 10 foot drag disk. Used my Uncle's pull type Blackhawk planter. Cultivated every acre three times. That is why to this day I hate JD "G" tractor. Try steering that beast with a four row mounted cultivator without power steering.

I do not know how I got things done then. Sleep was an optional thing that's is for sure. I still worked at the feed store but on reduced hours. Usually got home at 6 PM. Would plow/disk until 1-2AM. Sleep to 4:30am and get up so chores where done before school. Did my home work during class. Still managed to keep my grades up. A local fellow wanted to buy the corn. HE bought the corn for $1 a bushel standing and he combined or picked it himself. Corn was bringing $1.20 in town. It made around 90-100 bushels. It worked well for us both. The years after that I had a rotation set up (corn/oats/hay) so only had 25 acres of each crop to do at one time.

When I started farming for real I only had the JD "G" and a Ford 6000 diesel. For 4-5 years I raised 150 acres of corn and fed every single bushel to hogs that I furrowed to finished. Those two tractors were all I had then. Getting them running to do feed grinding and such in the winter was fun.
 
My BIL made hay for years with just an MF 35. A few years ago, he decided he could afford a new tractor, and bought a Kubota M5000, and immediately sold the MF. So he still spends half his time changing implements. His mower is a 3 point disc mower, so its not just a matter of pulling a pin and backing up to the next implement. Couldn't believe he sold that second tractor.

I just had one tractor the first year I made hay, and I darn well made sure I had 3 by the next year- they weren't much (8N Ford on the mower, McCormick W4 on the rake, and JD 420 with live PTO on the baler), but at least I wasn't changing implements all the time!
 
I'm late to the party but... I did everything here with a Dexta till it blew up. Replaced it around 2000 with a Fergie FE35 4cyl diesel. Did everything with that till 2013 when I finally got a second tractor. IH 674. Much handier with 2. I'm guessing a third would be even handier?? I make 35 acres of hay and work in the bush in the winter. Next one is gonna have a cab and a front mount snowblower.
 
Our barn burned down after a lightning strike in 1949 or 1950, took with it the only tractor here, an IH A, I think. Grandpa got the JD MI shortly thereafter- it is a 1951 model. He bought a JD 1010 brand new in 63 or 64, those two were the tractors here for me growing up. We inherited the JD 40 with loader when the neighbor passed away who we "shared" it with. Even though his will specifically said Grandpa got that tractor, he insisted we paid current value to the widow for it, and we did. As he got into his 90's, most of my time was spent hooking and unhooking implements for Grandpa to use the next day. He'd get all the work done, if someone could get the tool ready for him, up until about 96.
 
Why would that G have been any worse than my 51 A with 4 row cultivators and no power steering. It was the easiest operating tractor we had to cultivate with and that includes tractors with power steering and 4 row rear mount cultivators. After a couple of years with those rear mount I put the cultivators back on the A to be easier and I also put a set of 4 row on the 49 B but set on 30" rows. First cultavating I ever did was with a 2N Ford and rear mount, next year I took over the 38 A with 2 row hand lift front mount at age 13.
 
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