[Farmall] practically new 140

[Grant Brians]

To the best of my knowledge Farmall 240s were always rather uncommon 
here. Strawberries and Cucumbers for Pickles were the only original uses 
that I remember noticing. The really common IH tractors here were all 
60s/70s models. LOTS of 656, 1066, some larger ones were in use and some 
of those are still in use. In the 1950s, the big sellers were TD6 
crawlers, M's and follow ons, the A/Super A/100/130 series for small 
scale crops. Most cultivating tractors sold in the 1950s were Olivers, 
John Deeres and AC. Gilroy had the IH dealership in our valley and there 
were many in that area. The 560 was also common. The San Francisco Bay 
Area and San Jose ate most of the area north of us and so the amount of 
farming is much diminished.
      We use the single bed tractors for cultivation of small patches of 
crops. I grow over 200 different crops now, so it is necessary. The 40" 
bed crops - Beans, Peas and a few other are cultivated 2 bed. In the 
past I used the Olivers and cultivated 4 bed almost exclusively. Listing 
of the beds is as noted before all either 3 or 4 bed depending on the 
bed width and circumstances. Larger operations and ones that grow only a 
few crops will have a custom listing service come in and list 4 80" beds 
at a time or 8 40" beds or 5 60" beds. In California's Central Valley I 
have seen quite a few 30' wide listers in recent years with the crawlers 
they use for most tillage.
               Grant Brians - Hollister,California farmer
p.s. Orchards, vineyards and field crops are another story for another 
time....

On 11/28/2016 5:53 PM, John Hall wrote:
> How common are the 240's in your area? I've only ran across a couple
> here.  I never understood why nobody wanted to use the 2 row machines in
> tobacco. I had a friend who was a die hard Deere guy that bought a C and
> used it one year in tobacco. There were quite a few C's around, but they
> never enjoyed popularity cultivating except in corn, I imagine that
> stopped in the 60's since they were so small. It wasn't until the 80's
> that 2 row cultivation of tobacco took off--and that was with 3pt hitch
> cultivators. I could see staying with one row units if that is how you
> bedded your land, but 2 and 4 row bedders were around long before that.
> Heck we used a 4 row bedder, a two row planter, and did all the
> cultivating with  two one row Super A's. Stubborn I guess?
>
> John Hall
>
>
> On 11/28/2016 12:49 PM, Grant Brians wrote:
>> John, I'll admit that I would prefer not to have to have those 34" rows
>> too. Running two sets of equipment for 80" and 60" wheel spacings is not
>> too bad, but adding the oddball for Potatoes is more challenging. Our
>> previous Oliver Potato planter allowed me to squeeze the rows a bit and
>> use the 60" tractors, but not this one. The yields are better at 34"
>> than 30" too as weed control is easier. That Farmall 240 tricycle makes
>> it easy to handle the cultivation.
>>         Where all of this does get annoying and hard is irrigation pipe
>> laying and pickup. With the different spacings, we have to try not to
>> move pipe between different spacings to avoid driving over beds....
>>         I had to chuckle about your garden comment. One year I planted 14
>> acres of green beans we had to hand pick - LOTS of labor bills. The time
>> I planted for the freezer and they came in with the self-propelled large
>> mechanical harvesters that was a really quick pick! 27 Acres in 11 hours.
>>                  Grant Brians - Hollister,California farmer
>>
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