A farmer has got my tractor!

[N80]

I guess turnabout is fair play but my B-I-L cattle farmer has my little Kubota L4400. We spent the whole day last Saturday separating the cows from the calves (which now weigh about 600 pounds) so that the calves can be weaned and fed in a food lot. As you can imagine, neither the cows nor calves were happy about the arrangement, but we got it done.

Once it was done he tells me that the worst part is feeding these 200 calves everyday. It is easy enough for him to dump a few hay bales in the lot but he also feeds them some type of pellitized chow at about 50-100 5 gallon buckets of it per day. He has a small feed silo next to the barn and cow lot but in the past he's gotten from the silo to the feed troughs using the buckets and his three daughters to carry them.

I looked at the situation and realized that I could get my tractor up next to the silo and fill the bucket up with feed and then drive it into the feed lot and fill the troughs that way. His big tractors couldn't come anywhere near fitting in those small spaces. We tried it out and finished what sometimes took over an hour in about 10 minutes with no manual labor invloved. He was thrilled and now has my tractor in his barn for the next two weeks. (He lives just down the road from my place.

He's always kind of looked down at my 'cute' little tractor but once this worked out so well I could see the wheels turning in his head. I quickly suggested that he need to get one of his own!

 

[ejtaylor822]

You're a good man. Loaning your tractor to an in-law on top of that!



Just goes to show that it takes the right tool to get the job done.

You know, if you were interested in something else, could be the right time to offer him a good deal.......

 

[czechsonofagun]

Heard it few times already - size matters

 

[N80]

Sell my baby!?! Never!

But, he's a good guy. If he breaks anything he'll either fix it or replace it. He's got his own shop. We spent the evening of that day putting the head back on a JD six cylinder and hooking the fuel injectors back up. He'd just gotten through putting new sleeves in the cylinders.

 

[midlf]

I'm surprised your BIL doesn't have a skid loader (Bobcat). Most of the farmers around here with cows have one. They are just too handy to be without one.

 

[N80]

His newest tractor is from the late 70s or early 80's. I've known him for 25 years and he hasn't bought a new piece of farm equipment in that time frame.

He loved using my tractor and I'm sure he'd like to have a CUT or a skidsteer, but hanging on to old equipment reaches a point of diminishing returns and he's at that painful point. He's approaching fifty and his daughters (any of whom can out work most men I know) are growing up and heading to college, etc. He's now having to look at ways to increase his productivity as the primary and soon to be sole laborer. He needs a new baler (the kind that wraps), he needs at least two new tractors, one of at least 100 hp and with a cab and another of at least 60hp, preferably 4wd. That's a lot of money, especially when he also needs to buy 50 more cows to increase his heard to around 250 (good breeding cows aren't cheap).

He has been able to manage with old equipment because his daughters can get stuff done while he's repairing and patching the old stuff, which I'm convinced he enjoys doing. But he won't be able to count on the 'free' labor much longer. (The oldest daughter is going to an Ag school and hopes to return to the farm, but you know how that sort of thing goes.)

I help out when I can, especially on days when they are working cows (shots, worming, etc.) Being a doctor, I'm also learning a good bit of field veterinary skills and I help out with that sort of thing as well. And he can certainly use my L4400 whenever he needs it. (He's done a lot for me in the past so it's the least I can do.)

In any case, no damage done to my tractor after lending it to a B-I-L, which may be a historical first! But, it was literally covered in cow poo, and smelled like it. I love the smell of cow poo in the morning.

For some pictures of life on the farm check out my photo gallery (the girl with the redish-blonde hair is my daughter and she is quite the cowgirl):

http://www.nikonians-images.com/galleries/showgallery.php?cat=5282&ppuser=1091