[AT] Quality Cub time + Ramble

Greg Hass gkhass at avci.net
Sun Jul 10 14:36:06 PDT 2005


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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