HST Transmission

[5030]

Richard:

Very well said.

I'd like to include something else..........

You and I are farmers in a different sense of the word. You and I have another job, just like probably 85 percent of farmers, because the farm and it's associated liabilities won't support our families or lifestyles.

Though I don't row crop myself, even though I do work with my partner row cropping, the forage operation provides feed for livestock as well as horses. Actually, the bulk of our rounds go to a feeder calf operation.

Most people take for granted, when they go to the grocery store and buy the packaged food that it will be there at a reasonable price, fresh and that is the way it is and will always be that way.

The lord isn't making any more land and the encroachment of civilization on American farmland is slowly removing land from crop production. Subdivisions, shopping malls and asphalt is taking over the American farm. Without discussing the variables and they don't need discussing here, the American farmer is becoming an endangered species.

Problem with all that is the fact that people in this country have taken for granted, too long, where their food comes from as well as expecting a low competitive price for that food. You can't grow crops in a subdivision.

People in this country need to wake up and realize the plight of the American farmer. It gets harder every year with the advent of tighter regulations as well as increasing operating expenses, to farm at all.

The end run, so to speak, is going to be dumped right in the lap of the American consumer. The American consumer is going to wind up paying an astronomical price for the very foodstuffs that he or she will need to sustain their lives.

I really enjoyed your post, and yes, there are very few farmers on this site. Most posters here aren't even wanna be farmers and haven't the slightest idea of what it takes to be one.

There is an old saying around here. It goes....

"Farm until you are broke, then sell the farm and become a developer" /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif

I also want to add that, like CowboyDoc, I use the internet every day. First thing I check is the weather, then grain prices as well as commodity prices. After that comes the Michigan Hay sellers Network, of which I am a member. Lastly comes TBYNet, for a little humor.

 

[RonR]

JDgreen227, I think you hit the nail on the head with "earning his living farming".

Two careers ago, my favorite uncle, who I worked for during the summers of high school(I was a city kid, and this was before grocery carry out boys and fast food cooks) offered me a sweetheart deal that really saddened me to walk away from.

He was mid 60s at the time and wanted to semi-retire. I was just married and needing a good career. He invited wife and I over for dinner (steaks of course!) one night and made this deal to me so I'd go into partnership with him. We'd draw it up all legal, but the jest was we'd split income and expenses 50-50. I'd use all of his equipment as long as it worked. Any new equipment, I'd buy. He'd help work as long as he could. We'd make decisions together, and he'd be my mentor. I could walk into about a 1000 acre wheat/milo/cattle operation for no money down, which is beyond comprehension for someone that wants to start farming. He had decent equipment, good land, and a lifetime of experience.

After dinner, he'd laid out his tax returns and income/expense sheets for the past 10 years. Know that this was about 1980, but his BEST year in the previous decade he'd netted $25K. Several of the years were way in the red.

Quality of life would have been excellent for family being on a farm, but, as he recognized, I'd have to work a winter job or part time somewhere, and wife would have to work full time, just to make ends meet. Sadly, I passed on his generous offer.

I've watched the price of equipment for farming go up X% a year, while the price of wheat, etc, stays about the same every year. I honestly don't know how most farmers stay in business. My guess is they don't look at the bottom line, especially what wages they are earning for their hard work.

Sorry this is very long and very off topic.

Ron

 

[JerryG]

Doc, Daryl
Well said, most don't have a clue of the sacrifice that a farmer makes to put food on their table.

 

[5030]

Jerry:

We are way off this thread now. I can understand Richard's reply to RaT and I had to add to it. We do need to get back in line with the subject, however. It's cold here this morning. I will have to warm up the 5030 quite a bit before loading rounds (I have a customer stopping by this noon for rounds).

That is a drawback of the HST transmission. Just as the heat is a problem as it's worked, when it is really cold, the HST requires a lengthy warm up period to get the internal temperature up. Besides, it allows the cab heater to blow some warm air too!! /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[BillyP]

yooperdave started this thread with a simple question. Then it goes nuts (just like all other threads where people can't agree). Then comes the difference between a farmer and a real farmer. Reminds me of a bunch of fighting kids.

 

[_RaT_]

"That made me laugh Del.
Let's see, a real farmer, I mean a REAL farmer is probably a guy not cruising the internet. Not because he can't, but becasue theres not enough time in the day to have such a luxury. On the other hand, if you plant any kind of crop in any amount and desire to be a farmer, my hats off to you. "

Show me where I'm laughing at the farmer Richard. The comment was made to Del simply because this being primarily a compact tractor forum and since the question of HST comes up every so often, we analyze the heck out of it. You always comment about the virtues of gears and thats great. Then we start talking about critical speeds and how farmers don't use HST. Thats where I am with Del, how many folks on this board are "real" farmers. If there are some, my hats off to them, (that means I honor them and respect them). Living in the heart of the agricultural of the world, I am quite aware of the sacrifices farmers make. I read it, I see it and in the summer, literally smell it. I am very good friends with an excellent fruit farmer, he's 85 years old, he's Japaneese, his father was killed after World War II in his driveway near my house because he was Japaneese. He is the hardest working man I know. He can grow a tree on asphalt. I respect the daylights out of him, not just because he's a farmer, but because he is honorable and humble. He is neither dogmatic or righteous.

 

[del]

Re: Laughing AT anyone???

???
HUH?

No one including Rat was laughing at farmers or making fun
of ANYONE.

I was asking the question about "REAL" farmers as you call
them not for a "REAL" answer but to kick back at the way
anyone with less than 5419 acres was condescendingly referred to.

Although Webster says we are all "farmers" I'd agree that
anyone who makes 10 cents more at "farming" than their other
job(s) is a farmer. (Legally speaking for TBN of course.../forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif)

Certainly the fact that someone doesn't know how wide to
space crops or deep to plant them makes them less of a farmer.

What there are no experienced farmers? Some might have to
look these things up. So what if it's not in their random
access memory?

My family comes from Missouri corn and barley "farmers" and
Montana sheep ranchers & "whatever" crop farmers.

The fact that their plots shrank from so many thousands of
acres over time, to pay taxes or keep some other hound away
from the door does not make them less. Whether they also
work in a store or business makes no difference, in their
hearts they were always farmers, they are still farmers.

Rat was simply saying that a "real" farmer may not have time
to look at the internet. Nothing else. He was commenting on
how hard and long some people work. By your definition of a
farmer I guess I must be one; in my non-dirt life as the hours
I keep sound familiar to yours. My business expenditures sound
a lot like your farming economics as well.

If anyone left this board it is more likely they grew tired
of being talked down to, not because they took offense that
someone with less then xxxx acres dared to post anything.

Without humor we are all just robots plodding along. Years
ago I was amazed my older relatives laughed as much as they
did, knowing they were being kicked hard by market conditions,
weather, pests, equipment expenses, shrinking co-ops, and things I
knew nothing of.

Just about the whole batch of them lived or are living into
their late 80s and 90s.

del

 

[Gatorboy]

Just posting to get the SUBJECT back to the original.

 

[_RaT_]

David, I think it's been pretty well milked! /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[5030]

RaT:

Are you implying that it is "Udderly Dry"??? /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif