1950s farm prices?

any one have any idea of what tractors, plow, corn pickers and other equipment
sold for when it was new in the 1950s?
corn, soybean ,wheat prices in the 1950s?
beef, pork, milk prices? farm land?

im just curious, and going down memory lane is always fun!

thanks

Only thing I remember was my dad bought a Massey Harris 44 Special in 54 and cost 2400.00.

According to family history our Dad bought a Massey 44 gas,3 btm plow,10 ft disc and wagon running gear for 3000.00 and had it paid off in a few short years,however he kept a team until the early '60s.

1951 Ford 1/2 ton...4 speed...V-8....$1,800.00. You had to drive it off the rail car time of delivery.

North Western Alberta Canada.........Westlock Alberta..

Bob..

My dad bought his brand new Case Va in 1950 for $1,200.00 cash. Also that year a brand new 1950 Chev two door fast back car $1,000.00 he drove the car till 64, then my oldest brother got the Chevy. It was Maroon in colour. First car I rode in. My Great uncl sold his farm in 1958 , 125 acres, $15,000.00 . I know my folks were selling eggs at . 25 cents a dozen in the 50s , just as my grandmother had done 25 years earlier. And my dad had a hired hand at $35.00 dollars per month plus his room and board during the late 40s early 50s .Dad was on the school board in the Fifties and they hired teachers for 300 bucks from September till June..

Tractor Data has original sale price for tractors, as does the Fastline reference book. I remember my father making $100.00/week at some point in the fifties or early sixties at his state job.

Dad bought a new JD A , plow, cultivator, 10ft disk, mounted lister which h he didnt like and traded it in for JD planter., mower and rake for $3600 cash. He sold his red equipment but kept his F-20 , t was overhauled and painted red. He wanted $200 for it and was offered $150. I wished I kept his ledgers now We still have the JD A. He bid $165 per A for 80a ,across the fenc, sold for $175. LVP

In 1952, my father bought a new Ferguson TO30 tractor with just about every available option. He tells us the price was $1262.00 He was 13 years old, had working for a neighboring farmer since he was 11, was making $3.00 a day, and paid cash for it. He's now 82, still working 6 days a week, and still has the Ferguson.

I have to bill of sale for the 125 year old family farm in south western Ontario Canada, that sold in the summer of 1964 for 35000. Wish I could by it back for the same now.

My dad made $40 a week in early 40s
working at a grain elevator.

Our family's regular practice during the early/mid 1950's was to go to town on Saturday afternoon. My mother would buy groceries for the coming week, my dad would visit the watering hole, and my brother and sister and I would window shop at the Western Auto, McCrory's 5 and 10 cent store, and Isaly's ice cream bar,

I remember very well going home one Saturday afternoon and my mother was mad as a wet hen. Prices were skyrocketing! She had actually spent more than her normal $10.00 for the coming week's groceries and didn't know how we were ever going to make it.

Tom in TN

I don't believe commodity prices have changed that much over the years. What has changed is the scale of farming; where a few hundred acres might have supported a family in the fifties, it now takes a few thousand acres to do the same.

Here's a chart of corn prices since 1960. Adjusted for inflation they really haven't changed. If anything, they've gone down.
Corn prices

Dad bought a new chevvy with power glide in 1950 for $1800. In 1961 my 1st job after high school paid $35.00 a week & I had to work every other Sat.

I raised a few pigs in 1954. Paid Dad $1.05 for corn & .72 for oats. Bought tankage and soybean meal at elevator and mixed my own ration with a scale and a shovel. Sold them for right about. $17.00 cwt at around 200 lbs each.

Still have stock yard tickets . Dad paid $1800.00 for a new 52 H Farmall.

We went to town on Saturday nite, about the same routine,until the shopkeepers wanted to go to lakes on the weekend,they had specials on Friday nites trying to change the farm culture/habits,it was quite a fight, now the only thing open is the Gas station/Convience store, and grocery store on Saturday, till about 4:00

Movie tickets were 25 cents except on Thursday night when they were 14 cents. 10 cents for the ticket and 4 cents tax. Packed a 400 seat theatre every Thursday night and those movies were among the worst. Cigarettes were 25 cents per pack. Hot lunch at school was 25 cents. A new WD Allis Chalmers when they first came out was $1775. A two row cultivator added about $200. When the WD45 came out they were priced at $2400. My uncle purchased a new Ford 861 in 1959 for $2270. That was no trade in but some discounting. $2000 would easily purchase a new Ford or Chevrolet 4 door sedan. No frills. A friend bought a new 1949 Buick Special 4 door sedan for $1995. Standard transmission. I bought a new 1957 Ford Fairlane 500 for $2250. Thunderbird V8 with automatic transmission. No power steering or brakes. A 160 acre farm with a big stanchion barn, silos, etc., no cattle or equipment was listed for $25,000 but it was on the market for a long time. Hogs went down to 10 cents per hundred in about 1956 or '57. Soil bank came into being to take a lot of farmland out of production. $50 per acre was the payout. We were simply producing too much food. Times were good for us but we couldn't spend as freely as we do now although as soon as we could get good TV reception we bought a new Zenith 21 black and white TV for $480. I paid about half that much for my 38 (?) flat screen at Fleet Farm. We did have a Fair Trade Law in Wisconsin that kept prices too high. If a hammer was fair traded at $4.99 a merchant better not try to sell it any cheaper. Fleet Farm came into being because of that. Fleet owners could purchase equipment for less than fair trade. Farmers were fleet owners under the rules of that day. A big bolt purchased at a hardware store would cost about $4 whereas at Fleet Farm it would be about 59 cents. The $100 used car was common and a lot of my friends used them for hunting and fishing. That way, they could just leave all their hunting and fishing gear in the old car and park it out of sight of their wife. Everyone was happy. Now, I see hunters with $60K trucks carrying ATVs.

In my post below, that hog price should have read $10 per hundred weight. 10 cents per pound.

the rail road was right behind the ford garage then, it has moved twice since then. it was called Rex Dawson Ford, but i am not sure it was him at that time. he just died here a few years ago in his 90's. a neighbor here bought a new 1949 w6 it was 1200 or 1300.00 in Tawatinaw ab. i have that w6 now. i remember dad paying 11.00 for a 45 gallon barrel of gas in the 60's.

In March 1951 my dad bought a 160 acre farm with everything. 6 milking cows , a few calves, John Deere H and a bunch of tools included a outside outhouse and two stall garage that was a cottage by a lake and moved there. For $8000. Then the WORK began.

I don't recall actual prices, but I remember in the late 1930's and early 1940's, when I was a little kid on the farm every Saturday my parents would take the week's accumulation of eggs and cream to town to a place called Farmer's Union and sell them for cash.

They would then buy the upcoming week's supplies and groceries. I remember my mother commenting once that at the end of the day if they had $3.00 left over they felt comfortable.

In 1954 dad paid a ridiculously high price of $240 per acre for the 170 acre farm.

Thanks for the history lessons rustred ......

I was born in Westlock...my father was with the railway...NAR (Northern Alberta Railway)in Flatbush.
By the time I was out of three cornered pants, we had move west to the AB /BC border as my Mothers family had arrived there in 1929, as my Fathers family had as well.

Bob...

The Oliver 88 that I have was bought in 1951 by my paternal grandfather for just a little over 2,400 dollars with 4 row mounted cultivator included. I believe that a JD FB-B 15 X 7 single disc drill was priced around the mid-1950's for a little over 475 dollars. I believe that a JD 227 mounted picker was around 2,700 dollars at the same time. Somebody on this board has a 1950's JD price book or did have. I don't remember who it was.

My dad bought our home farm in 1953 for $7000....one hundred acres, house barn no hydro, all in need of repair. Our other farm down the road was listed at 900 dollars, no buildings, lots of hawthornes. He worked in a tanning mill for 5 dollars per 10 hour day....

Ben

56 is a year for me and my family, as my mother said, it was the year of the funerals. Long and short my Dad bought my Grandfather's 100 acres from his estate for I believe 20,000 dollars less the house which was for my uncle's widow and children. Interesting how in that time if you look at prices, a tractor was worth as much as a farm almost. And in that sense things aren't that much different. I've been a single parent since 06, even with the 13 years before that, do you think I could afford anything new?Taking care of two, not my own and two that are. My parents with 9 children, one with very special needs died in 57. I was playing in the dug out ditch by the driveway, 9 yrs old and down the road Dad came with a dexta 2000 and freeman loader brand new diesel in 61. In 63 Dad had his first mew car, it had to have had the blessing of my mom as it held everyone, a 63 Dodge station wagon with a flip seat in the back facing rearwards. It was in ensuing years known as the white rino,named by high school friends. Slant six and automatic transmission. I believe the price of the rino was 2300$ new. Seems he could afford those things with a stay at home woman, not that she didn't have anything to do and was paying on a 100 acres not to say what was to pay on the 50 acres where I live. I'd say there is money in farming if you are able to manage your pennies. These days it's insurance will keep farms afloat. Doesn't hurt to have a woman who makes enough you can live on, and farm as an expense and to build equity. Good lord said that it is difficult for a rich man to enter the kingdom.I should be respectful of what I ask for, sermon is over.

about what year u move away? i took my apprenticeship at Tony's White Rose service station. then worked at DOHERTY'S GM garage in the early 80's. how's that 930 gas coming?

Dad started farming on his own in 1953. Rented 300 acres on 50/50. Landlord initially financed him and wanted nothing less than 2yr old machinery. Landlord furnished Fox ensilage equipment too fill one silo and dad went in debt for rest of machinery. Remember he and mom discussing machinery debt of $15,000. Included 53 super M with loader and an AC 66 combine with a large 7' head. Sold approx 2000 head of hogs raised from birth and all in movable sheds with many temporary field lots changed every fall and spring. Did all our own vaccinations and castration. Avg 200 head of feeder cattle that always were shipped to market in Chicago, 3 semi loads at a time, about 160 miles away. Trucks were loaded to leave the farm around 11pm and arrive Chicago just in time to make the 8am market opening. Once cattle sold dad took cab to union station and caught California Zephyr back to home. I got go with him if school was out. Dad was movie camera nut. We have movies of Chicago stock yards when still in full operation taken from top of exchange building. Hard to believe how large they where. Lots of feed and manure handling.