Last fall my Great Aunt passed away. She made it to 99 with only being in the nursing home the last six months. She and her husband bought the farm in 1940. They milked cows for 50 years. They had a fifty stanchion barn at the end but no gutter cleaner. Every thing shoveled into a wheel barrow and rolled out the door. They did have a pipeline system from about 1965 on. In 1990 a cow kicked my Great Uncle and broke his hip. He was 74 years old then. I milked the cows for a few months for them until he finally decided he was done with milking. He farmed the ground for a few years and then I rented it from him. He passed on in 2001 at the age of 85.
With help my Aunt was able to stay there until about the end. Supper great Lady. They have two daughters and they are supper nice too. They do not live close. So they decided 4-5 years ago they would sell the farm when ever my Great Aunt wanted to. She wanted my youngest son to buy it. She came and baby set him after my first wife died. So the both of them began to plan for the transfer. It was all complete several months before she passed. My son and his wife sold their house and acreage. That sold well enough for them to have a down payment.
My son had been slowly building a cow herd up. He had 25 cows calve this year. He has been looking for more cows to expand his herd. He has 80 acres of good pasture. Well he found a fellow that is retiring and wanted to sell his herd as a unit. So we figured a way for my son to buy the 40 cows and 15 replacement heifers. So he will have 80 cows to calve this next spring.
So now he needed more feed/hay than he had put up. The farm has a 70x18 silo. The unloader was completely rebuilt three years ago. So I helped him figure out his feed needs for the winter. HE will have to buy some hay but we put 30 loads of corn silage in the silo. He can use the old backup TMR wagon and tub grind some cheap hay to make a pretty good economical ration for the cows.
My Aunt sold me all the equipment 10 years ago or so. This included a JD 3950 chopper. The trouble was it did not have Iron-guard. So it just would not bring much money. The darn chopper is in great shape so I just kept it as a backup over giving it away. So we got that out and hooked up to my son's JD 4450 tractor. He thought I would run the chopper. I told him it was HIS crop not mine. So I would just haul loads in. You should have seen him grinning!! LOL
Here are some pictures.
Tractor and chopper ready to go to the field.
The field after he got it opened up. He has contour strips with CRP between them. So he can open up these field without running any corn over.
Unloading a wagon load
Looking over at the hillside we chopped. Ignore the weeds in the soybeans. LOL He sprayed right before a 10 day heat wave. He got a very poor kill on mares tail and rag weeds.
Concrete creek crossing between that farm and mine. It would always wash out. Put in the tiles and concreted over them, including the ends. Now when there are big rains it goes over the top but does not wash the tiles and rock away.
You can see how clear the water is in this creek. There are springs up stream that keep it running like this year round, even in dry years. It never freezes either. It makes it handy for my son's pasture.
The tractor I pulled loads in with. My 1993 JD 6400. It has 18892 hours when we got done. One clutch, one head gasket, four injectors, and one transmission input shaft. Not bad for 24 years of doing loader work.
My Uncle's tractor off this farm. He bought it new in 1979. All original other than the nose cone. Tree limb broke it years ago.
Little different story on the hours on this tractor. 5023 when I took this yesterday.
Had a co-pilot most of the day. My son's dog Maynard. LOL
The wife's and I anniversary present. Used with 124 hours on it. Cost more than my first house. LOL
Well hope you all enjoyed a trip with me on my days work.
With help my Aunt was able to stay there until about the end. Supper great Lady. They have two daughters and they are supper nice too. They do not live close. So they decided 4-5 years ago they would sell the farm when ever my Great Aunt wanted to. She wanted my youngest son to buy it. She came and baby set him after my first wife died. So the both of them began to plan for the transfer. It was all complete several months before she passed. My son and his wife sold their house and acreage. That sold well enough for them to have a down payment.
My son had been slowly building a cow herd up. He had 25 cows calve this year. He has been looking for more cows to expand his herd. He has 80 acres of good pasture. Well he found a fellow that is retiring and wanted to sell his herd as a unit. So we figured a way for my son to buy the 40 cows and 15 replacement heifers. So he will have 80 cows to calve this next spring.
So now he needed more feed/hay than he had put up. The farm has a 70x18 silo. The unloader was completely rebuilt three years ago. So I helped him figure out his feed needs for the winter. HE will have to buy some hay but we put 30 loads of corn silage in the silo. He can use the old backup TMR wagon and tub grind some cheap hay to make a pretty good economical ration for the cows.
My Aunt sold me all the equipment 10 years ago or so. This included a JD 3950 chopper. The trouble was it did not have Iron-guard. So it just would not bring much money. The darn chopper is in great shape so I just kept it as a backup over giving it away. So we got that out and hooked up to my son's JD 4450 tractor. He thought I would run the chopper. I told him it was HIS crop not mine. So I would just haul loads in. You should have seen him grinning!! LOL
Here are some pictures.
Tractor and chopper ready to go to the field.
The field after he got it opened up. He has contour strips with CRP between them. So he can open up these field without running any corn over.
Unloading a wagon load
Looking over at the hillside we chopped. Ignore the weeds in the soybeans. LOL He sprayed right before a 10 day heat wave. He got a very poor kill on mares tail and rag weeds.
Concrete creek crossing between that farm and mine. It would always wash out. Put in the tiles and concreted over them, including the ends. Now when there are big rains it goes over the top but does not wash the tiles and rock away.
You can see how clear the water is in this creek. There are springs up stream that keep it running like this year round, even in dry years. It never freezes either. It makes it handy for my son's pasture.
The tractor I pulled loads in with. My 1993 JD 6400. It has 18892 hours when we got done. One clutch, one head gasket, four injectors, and one transmission input shaft. Not bad for 24 years of doing loader work.
My Uncle's tractor off this farm. He bought it new in 1979. All original other than the nose cone. Tree limb broke it years ago.
Little different story on the hours on this tractor. 5023 when I took this yesterday.
Had a co-pilot most of the day. My son's dog Maynard. LOL
The wife's and I anniversary present. Used with 124 hours on it. Cost more than my first house. LOL
Well hope you all enjoyed a trip with me on my days work.
