[AT] here I go again

Thu Jul 31 05:14:13 PDT 2014

Down under down under!

15 minutes south of Hobart, Tasmania.  Suburban farm (the suburbs have
come to me!)

JV

> 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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