[AT] Potato diggers - Slight variation

Greg Hass gkhass at avci.net
Sun Jan 1 00:46:44 PST 2006


First of all, Happy New Year to everyone.  Grant's post reminded me of 
something that has been on my mind quite a bit recently. I have some 
problems quite similar to his, one being limited funds and the other 
farming only a little over a hundred acres.  I have no idea how many on 
this list farm at all, particularly how many farm small acreages.  As I 
have mentioned in previous posts, all of the machinery I own except for the 
corn planter and skid steer is 30+ years old.

I am generally on the lookout for various machines, but the problem 
is:  where I can I find them?  I used to be able to find some at auctions, 
however the auctions that have the equipment I need have pretty much run 
their course and auctions now are mostly large farm auctions.  Our local 
machinery dealers have refused for quite a while to take any of this small 
type of equipment on trade.  It is now rumored that our local John Deere 
dealer (whom I do not patronize and who bought the dealership from the 
previous owner 2 years ago) will not take any equipment over 5 years old on 
trade.  Three miles from me is a local machinery jockey in his mid-30s who 
handles just the type of equipment I need.  However, he is so crooked that 
not even a flame wrench can straighten him out, which is sad because our 
area could really use this type of dealer.

My only alternative seems to be fence row hunting, which is difficult 
because many of the fence rows are not visible from the road.  For 
instance, my field cultivator and crop sprayer I got from a cousin who had 
them sitting in tall weeds out behind the barn for 15+ years.  Both 
required several hundred dollars in repairs to get them in working order 
but at least now I have fairly decent, usable machines.  My roll-over plow 
I heard about by accident.  A guy a couple of miles away had purchased it 
on a deal with a used tractor and never used it.  It had been sitting there 
for over 10 years.  The problem with this type of acquisition is that in 
all of these cases I had been looking for the equipment for 3 or more years 
before I found it.  Should I need a machine in the near future they are 
almost impossible to find quickly.

At the present time I am looking for a flail chopper.  For those not 
familiar, they were a machine 5-ft. wide that cut hay with swinging flails, 
threw it into an auger, which in turn augered it into a set of knives which 
recut the hay then blew it into a wagon to feed the cattle on a daily 
basis.  I do not have livestock, but on my limited acreage such a machine 
would do a good job of cutting up the cornstalks so they wouldn't pug my 
plow.  Twenty years ago there were hundreds of them in our area so the 
problem now is to find one.  I have never heard of an online service with 
listings of this type of equipment, although it would probably be handy.  I 
know here's no magical anser to the problem.  I guess I just needed to vent 
a little going into the new year.

Greg Hass  




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