[AT] Fuel prices and old tractor activities.

[Larry D Goss]

Tsk, tsk!  The salt content of sweat probably wasn't too good for the 
mortar, Farmer.  :-)

I was on the road to Ohio and back yesterday, and you wouldn't know there 
was anything unusual about fuel prices by the amount of traffic on the 
highways.  I'm beginning to think we're seeing the same sort of phenomenon 
that is associated with many growing plants -- knowing that they are about 
to die, they put out one last effort to bloom, set fruit, grow like crazy, 
etc.  So, are we seeing efforts to go somewhere using fossil fuels because 
we sense that the era is coming to an end?

Larry

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Francis Robinson" <robinson at svs.net>
To: "Antique tractor email discussion group" <at at lists.antique-tractor.com>
Sent: Monday, July 09, 2007 6:33 AM
Subject: [AT] Fuel prices and old tractor activities.


>    I find my old tractor activities to have been greatly curtailed by high
> fuel prices. Since I retired from grain farming all I do with them is bale
> some hay and do mowing of barn lots, around fences etc. but while I used 
> to
> just climb on and do it I now look long and hard at just how badly it 
> needs
> mowing. I also do more mowing with the lawn tractors since they generally
> use less fuel and leave it more finished. Even using them is painful at 
> the
> pump.
>    Last year was a loser for baling hay. It rained here almost every three
> days all spring and summer. A neighbor across the road got three cuttings 
> of
> alfalfa and it rained on all three of them. This year it has been so dry
> that the hay has grown little. We mowed the yards last week after a month 
> of
> not mowing due to no rain at all. Now the rain is coming back and things 
> are
> greening back up nicely. The ground is still pretty dry and most small
> creeks are still dry. Fuel cost is so high that if hay was selling like it
> was two years ago it would hardly pay the cost of mowing, raking, baling 
> and
> hauling the hay. This year is going to be an exception though since hay
> supplies are going to be quite tight at least in this area and from what I
> am reading in much of the country. I follow the hay prices posted by the
> Knightstown Indiana sale barn in the Farm World weekly paper. Rather than
> the .75 cents to $3 prices that were common before they are now running
> mostly $3 to $5 for small square bales. I keep hearing stories of small
> livestock producers paying up to $10 for extra nice small square bales and
> as much as $5 for "former green stuff" baled from old pastures and lots.
> Several people have told me of baling hay fields this year and getting 
> much
> less than 1/2 of the normal bale count from them. Hay acreage is way down
> this year as well since thousands of acres of hay lots around here were 
> torn
> up and planted to corn and soybeans due to higher grain prices.
>    It "may" rain today, better chances tomorrow and still better chances
> Wednesday. Then supposedly a chance of maybe a week of nice warm and clear
> but not hot weather.
>    It was in the mid nineties yesterday and they were issuing the usual
> warnings but son Scott and I spent the afternoon laying block for the
> 26'x32' addition he is building onto his house. We were wondering if the
> mortar might dry too fast but the dripping sweat kept every thing fairly
> wet...   ;-)
>     I am going to try planting some late pumpkins today using the Super 
> MTA
> to prep the ground. I hope that I don't have to use dynamite to loosen it 
> up
> first. The late date makes them "iffy" but if I don't plant them at all I
> know they won't grow...   :-)
>    I bought a good John Deere sickle mower last year (at the Greensburg
> Indiana tractor show auction) and I think I will put it on my Farmall 
> Super
> MTA to cut much of the hay. I hope the combination doesn't burst into
> flames...   ;-)
>
> BTW, Gas is still around $3 at most local stations for the cheap stuff.
>
>
>
> --
> "farmer"
>
> Francis Robinson
> Central Indiana, USA
> robinson at svs.net
>
>
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