[AT] Demolition

[Ralph Goff]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Best, George" <George_Best at adp.com>
To: "Antique tractor email discussion group" <at at lists.antique-tractor.com>
Sent: Friday, April 09, 2010 8:54 AM
Subject: Re: [AT] Demolition


> My neighbor had a small Case combine that he used on his small place and 
> his brother-in-laws smaller place which is across the road from our 
> places.  They did a little bit of wheat or oats each year basically to 
> qualify for some farm tax advantage.
> I hear people complaining about good usable combines being used for 
> destruction derbies,  but those people aren't willing to pay anything to 
> buy the old combines.  I doubt my neighbor got more than $200 for his 
> combine as no one wanted it except the combine destruction guys.  If the 
> old combines had some market value greater than their scrap metal value, 
> they probably wouldn't end up in the derbies.
>

Yes, its that old "somebody ought to do something" mentality. It comes down 
to nobody having the time/money/ambition to actually do it. Its happened 
with all the old machinery and vehicles too. How many 57 Bel Air Chevys do 
you think were cut up , customized, demo derbied or crushed before some 
folks started to realize they were worth saving?
And its true, theres basically no new machinery being built for the small 
acre farmer. Theres no way I could justify buying the "smallest" new combine 
just to harvest less than a thousand acres a year. Luckily we still have a 
good selection of older, slightly smaller combines out on the market. But I 
don't know what will happen when that supply dries up. Maybe by then all of 
us small farmers will be gone too?

Ralph in Sask.