How many acres was an 8N designed to farm, when new?

[lman]

My dad, in partnership with his brother, mainly owned a dairy farm in NE Minnesota where the primary industry is iron mining. In the 1930s and 1940s there were thousands of people working in the mines, and each miner had a family. My dad picked up an International Harvester dealership and flooded the area with Farmalls. Small farmers, flat area with poor clay soil (in the late 1800s and early 1900s logging was king) but there was demand for fresh milk. Our main competitors were Allis-Chalmers and Ford with very few John Deeres. Now that I've required from my engineering career and moved back to my home area for retirmeent, most of those farms have been abandoned - there are only 2 dairy farmers within 90 miles. One neighbor, also returned from the big times as an OTR trucker, has his father's farm including 4 Fords. My nephew, one of the two remaining dairy farmers, is still using an M and an H my dad sold for things like pulling hay wagons around the farm. But when you were using horses for farming, a Ford 8N was a big step up. I remember having 3 widowed neighbors trying to maintain the family farm - husband KBH - killed by being kicked in the head by a horse. Although rear rollovers with Fords and flipping their tricycle IH's sideways were too common, still safer than horses.

My sister and family have a Dairy farm in northern WI. It has grown to around 1,500 cows. It seems you expand or get out.

 

[Torvy]

Brown and Spink counties. And for the past 45 years, Walworth on the east bank of the river.

Right in the old stomping grounds, especially Brown and Spink. We played Mobridge sometimes, too. Of course that would have been right about when you added Walworth Cty.

I don't remember seeing any old timers using an 8N. Grandpa had AC, Massey, and IH tractors. The old stuff around there was similar. JD was rare except the newer models. (70s)

 

[mike5511]

Since Ford designed the tractor to replace a team of horses I think the N series was considered good for 20 to 60 acres, I personally know of two that farmed about 40 acres. IMHO the biggest factor being how many hours one would be willing to spend in the seat.

I raked a lot of hay with a 8N back in the 60s for my Uncle. I don't remember him using that tractor for much else other than a small bush hog.

 

[Torvy]

My sister and family have a Dairy farm in northern WI. It has grown to around 1,500 cows. It seems you expand or get out.

If you go back, you tend to see that farms had more acres back in the day. Then, many farmers divided their land among their sons. You saw a lot more places with 160 ac or less. Hard to make a living on those small farms, especially if you are trying to grow the same crops/critters that dad grew.

Farmers also used to be much more cooperative. A few farmers would share equipment and labor, especially with harvesting or cattle branding/roundup. Starting in the late 60s, more farmers seem to want to buy their own everything. Costs went up, but the economy was OK, so people got by. Late 70s started to destroy a lot of those small farms. Equipment got bigger and more capable of handling larger fields in less time (and/or with fewer hands). The smaller guys either sold their land or specialized in niche crops.

That trend continues as the more successful farmers bought up the failed farms. Where problems really came in was land speculation and 'corporate' farms.

To be fair, most successful farmers today have at least an LLC if not a Corp. When I say corporate farms, I mean corporations that bought out local farmers and manage them from afar. The value to them is more the land and the government assistance.

 

[ultrarunner]

1948 was when grandparents got their first tractor and 25 years later it was still sickle-bar mowing for the small 30 milk cow dairy farm.

They still talk about all the timber sold to make the purchase… but timber regrows and grandfather was not going to part with land.

My cousin left farming selling all the livestock and has a very good life selling off the farm homesite by homesite.

Another cousin… a Porsche mechanic restored the 1948 tractor so that part of history is preserved…

 

[Torvy]

Amazing how different parts of the country provide different opportunities and risks.

Trees were so scarce in the Dakotas (and some adjacent areas) that the government gave away 160 acres if homesteaders would plant 40 acres of it in trees. In the East River parts of both states you still see farms with big shelter belts of trees originally started in the late 1800s.

Selling trees wasn't an option, but it sure was a smart idea for those who had it.

 

[BossofBBQ]

Agreed, the scale of modern agriculture has grown incredibly. I remember hearing somewhere that 60% of American farmland is owned by farms with over 2,000 acres. In a way it's kind of a shame, it represents the large corporate shift seen in America in the past 50 or so years.

 

[KennyG]

The "corporate farm" issue is complicated. Yes, there are some massive corporations running ranches, feedlots, chicken farms, etc. However most of the crop farms are really family farms but they have incorporated because in modern USA that's the only rational way to run a large business.

 

[paulsharvey]

You want a kinda smart butt, but also true answer to the original question? You can farm exactly the same ammount with a mule, an 8N, a Massey 135, or 9R, or Big Bud. Two weeks is what you can farm. Name your slowest operation; tillage, planting, harvesting, you can farm as much acres as you can cover in 2 weeks.

So, mule team; about 15-20 acres; 8N about 80 acres; Massey 135, maybe 160 acres; John Deer 9RX maybe 2000 acres.

So, two weeks is how big you can farm.