[AT] here I go again

Thu Jul 31 04:57:04 PDT 2014

Thanks John,

Well I'd be useless on a dairy farm except for running the loader tractor
but I could probably hustle a combine or bailer or one of the support 
tractors
or trucks just fine.  I know I've asked you this before but I don't 
remember,
what region of Australia do you live in?

Charlie

-----Original Message----- 
From: John Maddock
Sent: Thursday, July 31, 2014 7:28 AM
To: Antique tractor email discussion group
Subject: Re: [AT] here I go again

> Dean,  having seen some of both, I'm pretty certain you'd be able to adapt
> to todays
> methods a lot better than the young guys would be able to adapt to the
> ways
> we did
> it half a century ago.   That said,  I think no-til and low-til farming is
> a
> wonderful thing.
> The days of blowing dirt in the March winds are all but over.
>
> If you really want to see some fancy farming go to you tube and look for
> Australian farming
> videos.   There are several on there taken at huge farms down under.   I
> wish I could go down
" but I guess they
> probably don't want
> a 64 year old guy!  lol.
>
> Charlie

Sad but true Charlie!

Few people appreciate the value of the Life Experience we older gentlemen
possess!!

Large numbers of youngsters come on working holiday visas to do the
mundane jobs like fruit picking, but there is a small market for skilled
machinery operators, mostly from Europe but also USA & Canada, driving
grain harvesters & associated plant.  Generally they find the jobs via
specialist agencies.  NZ is also a sought-after destination for skilled
dairy hands.

JV

> there and hang around for a season and see what they do and how they do
> it.
> I hear there
> is a program that allows you to get a visa to work on farms there for a
> season and then do
> some touring for 30 days or so after the season is over but I guess they
> probably don't want
> a 64 year old guy!  lol.
>
> Charlie
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Dean VP
> Sent: Thursday, July 31, 2014 1:17 AM
> To: 'Antique tractor email discussion group'
> Subject: Re: [AT] here I go again
>
> Ron,
>
> Well Done.. it is this kind of knowledge that is being lost with our
> generation.  Having been born and
> raised maybe 60 miles further north in NW Iowa I fully appreciate the
> unique
> requirements in flat
> river bottom land vs what we called gently rolling land. There were stark
> differences in what was
> required to prepare the land, plant the crop and do what was necessary to
> try to control the weeds in
> this era. Herbicides have changed everything you and I grew up with.
> Round-Up didn't exist and for
> sure Round-Up ready Corn and Beans didn't exist in this period you are
> referring to.  We worked the
> land to death trying to keep the weeds in check. Your area's problem was
> complicated by the flat land
> and potential of too much moisture. Our issue was to keep the soil in
> place
> when there was too much
> moisture and on the opposite side of the scale was to try to retain
> moisture
> when there wasn't enough
> of it.  Each area had its unique challenge. Then multiply that by all the
> varying geographic
> differences around the country.  The major agricultural schools around the
> country, Iowa State being
> one of them, had their hands full trying to guide the farmers to achieve
> maximum production.
> Herbicides changed everything and then came along "No-Till" farming.  I
> would not know where to start
> with today's farming methods.  Not much of what I learned in my 18 years
> on
> the farm applies today
> other than understanding the risks involved.
>
> Dean VP
> Snohomish, WA
>
> They say necessity is the mother of invention.
> Don't know who the father is, probably remorse.
> Red Green
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com
> [mailto:at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com] On Behalf Of
> Ron Cook
> Sent: Wednesday, July 30, 2014 9:56 PM
> To: Antique tractor email discussion group
> Subject: Re: [AT] here I go again
>
> John,
>      You should have tried convincing the agronomy professor at Iowa
> State University that it was done that way.  Get you a near failing
> grade.  I know.   The major implement manufactures all made the listers
> and the cultivators that went with them, so it had to have been done in
> other parts of the country where dry conditions prevailed.  It was
> prevalent here from probably the early 1900's with horses and tractors
> by the thirties on until around 1970.  It still has not completely
> disappeared, though.  I plant my sweetcorn with a lister.  Not very
> deep, mind you.  But it is the only mechanical planter I own and is
> better than a stick poking holes in the ground.  My nephew didn't know
> what it was that was taking up space in a shed he wanted to use and was
> going to scrap it.  So, I plant my sweetcorn with a lister, 4 rows at a
> time.  Silly, but fun.  I also use it to bed the potato rows.  It is a
> bedder, to start with anyway and I don't currently have a potato planter
> and likely never will.  That actual planting I do by hand.
>      A cultipacker would be a big no-no here in these soils. Compaction
> is the enemy.  You need to stay off the soil in the spring as much as
> possible.  No spring plowing either.  That is another reason for the
> lister.  The soil displaced by the furrow covers the weeds, etc with the
> ridge.  After emergence, the sides of the ridges are cultivated with the
> cultivators discs and the shovels cultivate either side of the row with
> shovels.  Then the cultivator is changed so the next cultivation discs
> the ridges into the row to cover the weeds and grasses growing in the
> row.  From then on you would use a cultivator like you would have.
> Sweeps and hillers. Probably only once or maybe twice with that outfit.
> Chemicals stopped most of that tillage work and the fields became much
> cleaner and the yields greater.  No, or reduced tillage methods have
> practically eliminated the use of the cultivator and for sure eliminated
> the lister planter.  Anyone younger than I might not even be able to set
> one of the things to work correctly.
>      These methods were only used on the flat river bottom land.  Not in
> any hilly or rolling ground.  Plumb flat.  A wet year caused many
> problems, too.  I had those problems with my sweetcorn patch this year
> as a reminder of times past.
>      There is a little information here,
> http://www.livinghistoryfarm.org/farminginthe30s/machines_06.html
> Here is a photo of a Super C and lister.
> http://www.yesterdaystractors.com/cgi-bin/viewit.cgi?bd=farmall&th=863435
> Ron Cook
> Salix, IA
> On 7/30/2014 8:27 PM, jtchall at nc.rr.com wrote:
>> I have NEVER heard of anyone planting anything like that! Definitely
>> learned
>> something. Anybody ever try pulling a cultipacker? Looks like that would
>> have done the job without packing the land so tight on top of the seed.
>> Looking at some of the modern planters with the combination of coulters,
>> press wheels, row openers, row closers, and trash cleaners, its been
>> quite
>> the evolution in planting equipment over the last 50 years.
>>
>> John
>>
>
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