[AT] Quality Cub time + Ramble

[Danny Tabor]

   I think that's just part of the deal farming or
just being self employed in general. I would take your
job in a heart beat. I own a 1 truck trucking company,
spend all week driving (5-6 days a week) on weekends
its maintenance on the truck and paperwork...Oh the
paperwork. Of course I do my own accounting because
I'm a cheap @$$!  Every job has its fall backs but how
I'd love to get the planter ready for the field again.
How I'd love to be out in the field again!!!   Stick
with it Greg

Danny Tabor 

--- Greg Hass <gkhass at avci.net> wrote:

> Recently got to spend some quality time using my Cub
> tractor.  I hilled the 
> potatoes, cultivated the sweet corn, then worked up
> the part of the garden 
> that is idle.  (I have a much larger garden than I
> need.)  While I love to 
> go to shows and look at displayed tractors, I
> personally would rather use 
> them than just look at them.  Although I like to
> keep the Cub fairly 
> original I am not above making some small changes
> that will make it more 
> functional for me, such as converting it to a
> 12-volt battery.  (Even 
> though the later Cubs were 12-volt from the
> factory.)  This now leads me 
> into ramble mode which includes one of my major
> problems with small-time 
> farming...
> 
> About 15 years ago my brother, my dad and I farmed
> about 450 acres by 
> working together and sharing equipment.  During that
> time my dad lost 2 
> farms due to my mother's health care costs.  My
> parents are now both 
> deceased and due to family considerations, my
> brother and I each run our 
> own operation although we still share a few pieces
> of machinery, 90% of 
> which is 30 years old or older.  I now farm
> approximately 110 acres and my 
> brother approximately 130.  Which brings me to the
> one unexpected problem 
> of small-time farming and one that is sort of
> discouraging...  This problem 
> is equipment conversion and preparation time.
> 
> For instance, with my Cub it took me 1/2 hour to
> convert the cultivator to 
> hill potatoes.  However, the actual hilling process
> took 10 minutes.  Then 
> it was another 20 miutes to change the cultivator
> for sweet corn, and the 
> actual cultivating took only another 10 minutes. 
> Wheat harvest will begin 
> in the next week or so and I will spend several
> hours changing the combine 
> from corn to wheat harvest for 20 acres of wheat. 
> (The same length of time 
> it used to take to convert it for 80 acres of
> wheat.)  The corn planter 
> takes the same amount of time to prepare and clean
> up afterward for 26 
> acres of corn as it used to for 250 acres.  For
> planting wheat, I must get 
> the drill out, check air pressure in the tires,
> grease it, and vacuum out 
> the seed hopper when finished. Again, the same
> amount of time spent for 20 
> acres of wheat that we used to spend for 60 acres. 
> And the list goes on 
> for sprayers, cultivators, etc.  I could probably
> make more money renting 
> out the land, but I have farmed all my life and want
> to continue as long as 
> I can.  I do not consider this a hobby farm.  I sure
> hope to make some 
> money at it.  However, this is one aspect of small
> farming that I was 
> completely unprepared for.  Many times it seems like
> I spend more time 
> getting equipment out of storage, preparing it,
> cleaning it afterward, and 
> then putting it back in storage than I spend doing
> the actual 
> work.  Although I have no intention of quitting
> farming any time soon, this 
> is one aspect that sure does take the fun out of
> things.
> 
> Greg Hass
> 
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