Don't miss understand me I love grass and don't tillage. That being said the dry of the thirties covered a much bigger area. I have heard and remember the stories of my parents and grandparents. This year we had floods that washed gullies in the land instead of blowing. I would love to see land put back in grass this year even grass had erosion in it.
What is Big Ag?
- Thread starter couger71
- Start date
Don't miss understand me I love grass and don't tillage. That being said the dry of the thirties covered a much bigger area. I have heard and remember the stories of my parents and grandparents. This year we had floods that washed gullies in the land instead of blowing. I would love to see land put back in grass this year even grass had erosion in it.
Does a propane powered MM GVI count?
M. R. Byrd
Well-known member
No, only Moline U. My mother started me on the Ford 8N when I was six, then dad sent me to the field at eight on the 8N with a two row lister(40" spacing), planting milo.
Phil V.
New member
I plowed sandy ground with the model as you mentioned for a minnie. I have a 9n ford that my mom and dad bought from the original owner.I have a mounted 2-12" plow for it and a mounted buzz saw for it.Some of them old tractors I like working with better than some of the new ones.
M. R. Byrd
Well-known member
Our first U's had narrow front ends.
I would plant all the flood irrigated ground with the 8N and the two row lister. We raised silage feed for the winter. When the feed was a few inches tall we put narrow tires on the front and reversed the wheels on the rear to get between the forty inch rows. I would then drag a harrow doing six rows at a time in third gear, running about 3/4 throttle to move the dirt from the top of the lister ridges down around the feed, covering up most of the sprouting weeds. Sometimes I would go over it again with the harrow prior to putting the two row cultivator on the 8N and making a pass through. Sometimes it would take a second pass, but usual just one, then put take all the cultivator shanks off the cultivator and put on furrow openers, then lay pipe and start irrigating. Didn't have enough gated pipe to run it all, so as one set was done would move it down and do another set. Needless to say, there was a lot of labor involved.
We did raise some beautiful feed down on that bottom ground. The thing I really miss seeing though is shocks of feed. We had a John Deere binder that we pulled with the 8N. Me on the tractor and Dad on the binder. Oh, how I would like to find a working binder and put some feed up that way and leave some shocks up in the fall. Now that brings to my mind my memories of fall.
I would plant all the flood irrigated ground with the 8N and the two row lister. We raised silage feed for the winter. When the feed was a few inches tall we put narrow tires on the front and reversed the wheels on the rear to get between the forty inch rows. I would then drag a harrow doing six rows at a time in third gear, running about 3/4 throttle to move the dirt from the top of the lister ridges down around the feed, covering up most of the sprouting weeds. Sometimes I would go over it again with the harrow prior to putting the two row cultivator on the 8N and making a pass through. Sometimes it would take a second pass, but usual just one, then put take all the cultivator shanks off the cultivator and put on furrow openers, then lay pipe and start irrigating. Didn't have enough gated pipe to run it all, so as one set was done would move it down and do another set. Needless to say, there was a lot of labor involved.
We did raise some beautiful feed down on that bottom ground. The thing I really miss seeing though is shocks of feed. We had a John Deere binder that we pulled with the 8N. Me on the tractor and Dad on the binder. Oh, how I would like to find a working binder and put some feed up that way and leave some shocks up in the fall. Now that brings to my mind my memories of fall.
AtTheMurph
Well-known member
Guys this is an interesting topic. IMO size of operation depends on where you are located. Much larger operations out west where production is lower and prices are lower. I'm in C. IN and work into Central IL. some of the best and most expensive farm ground in the world. I know of ground that has recently gone for 14k/acre.
Hard to get to 80,000 acres at those prices but I do know that land that comes up for sale in our pheasant counties (most expensive land) draws bids from cash buyers from Cali to NYC. Hedge funds, pensions etc are buying what they can because farm ground is a real asset and not some paper bullsh!t with counter party risk.
Personally my family and I own about 700 acres in Wisconsin. Not super productive but expensive. A small farmer would have great difficulty making a living buying ground there at those prices. The only guys who can make it work are larger dairy operations - 1000 head and more.
We lease ground now to a farmer who sells most if not all of his corn to an ethanol plant. He does beans and some wheat and occasionally some oats now. That's new. for 20 years it was only corn and beans. As a kid it was vegetables and some corn/oats, wheat and different stuff.
I think as we age we'll see farming practices run back to the older style or older crops that are better suited to the land and not just corn and beans everywhere. Fertilizer and weed control are going to get more and more expensive and drive some marginal lands back to different types of crops. I think that's a good thing.
So what is big ag? I define it as being able to plant corn and beans on any piece of hard scrabble because you can weed kill, fertilize to death and still make money.
Hard to get to 80,000 acres at those prices but I do know that land that comes up for sale in our pheasant counties (most expensive land) draws bids from cash buyers from Cali to NYC. Hedge funds, pensions etc are buying what they can because farm ground is a real asset and not some paper bullsh!t with counter party risk.
Personally my family and I own about 700 acres in Wisconsin. Not super productive but expensive. A small farmer would have great difficulty making a living buying ground there at those prices. The only guys who can make it work are larger dairy operations - 1000 head and more.
We lease ground now to a farmer who sells most if not all of his corn to an ethanol plant. He does beans and some wheat and occasionally some oats now. That's new. for 20 years it was only corn and beans. As a kid it was vegetables and some corn/oats, wheat and different stuff.
I think as we age we'll see farming practices run back to the older style or older crops that are better suited to the land and not just corn and beans everywhere. Fertilizer and weed control are going to get more and more expensive and drive some marginal lands back to different types of crops. I think that's a good thing.
So what is big ag? I define it as being able to plant corn and beans on any piece of hard scrabble because you can weed kill, fertilize to death and still make money.