[Farmall] practically new 140

[John Hall]

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
>