Recent content by rvds

I towed a tractor home about 5 miles once behind my pickup. My neighbour drove the truck and I was on the tractor. Let me tell you 15mph may feel like nothing to the guy in the truck but it is terrifying to the guy on the tractor with loose steering!

I am amazed to learn that people put teeth on their tractor buckets. I have never seen them on a farm tractor, we work the ground with an implement on the back of the tractor then scoop it up with a smooth bucket. We have special buckets for manure or stones.

This is why we have federal government departments staffed by experts. It is not realistic to expect politicians or electors to understand the science and mechanics of day to day administration. Cabinet Secretaries are more or less figure heads that are go betweens to inform the departments what...

In Canada after WW2 we saw a lot of skilled trade immigrants from eastern Europe. I imagine the US did to a lesser extent because visas were harder to get. Now we can entice white collar graduates from places like India but skilled trades not so much.

Emissions regulations are for 100% of the population, the other things you listed affect individuals. You have only to look at photos taken a few weeks into the Pandemic compared to prior to realize that smog from fossil fuels is still a big deal.

Not really how it works on farms. If expenses are higher than revenue there is no salary, LLC or not.

Wow! In Canada it is nothing like that. Depreciation is voluntary and all assets are pooled in groups with similar depreciation rates. Most tractors and machinery are in the 20% class. If you buy a tractor for 100k it gets added to the 347k of undepreciated assets in that class and you may claim...

This has been the unintended results of most government programs in agriculture. They were a nobly intentioned effort to help family farms that instead led to neighbours being subsidised to swallow neighbours. I believe the nation was better served when rural areas were vibrant economies but...

why claim depreciation that causes a loss?

I do not understand this logic. Gros profit is normally gros sales minus input costs? After that net profit (taxable income) is what is left after all the other expenses are deducted. In my case I have never had to use any depreciation to reduce my net income to avoid income tax and indeed...

I thought you said earlier that you did not pay rent for the land? I was offered 425$ per acre to rent two of my farms this year and as I do not net that much I am seriously considering it. It sounds like somebody is giving you some dimes?

I saw a documentary once that explained how some of the subsidies worked. Some clever farms were incorporated and had many shareholders EACH of which was eligible for a cheque even if their stock was only worth a thousand dollars and the cheque was more than that.

It would only be OK if you have an old fashioned manual transmission in my opinion

A friend has a craftsman manual transmission that specs EP 00 oil and is not finding it anywhere. I suspect this must be a very common transmission, about 25 years old.

In Canada our houses are pretty solid because of our winters. I remember hearing that in many warmer places you can cut your way through a wall with a box cutter knife and not bother with the door.