It Shouldn’t Cost the Farm to Fix a Tractor

Dennis Olson

Chief Curmudgeon
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Okay, but as others have already said, even ranchers often raise crops, even if it's only hay. Some of them also raise grains or other crops. Many of the cattle ranchers in the part of Eastern Oregon where we used to live raise alfalfa and grass hay, oats or wheat, potatoes, onions, and sometimes strawberry plants.
Again, that’s FARMING, not a cattle ranch. At that point the cattle aren't the main reason for the FARM.
 

Cyclonemom

Veteran Member
I feel the same way about a tooth. How in the world did my tooth extraction and implant get quoted $4,500 WITH dental insurance? For ONE tooth??? That was the average total cost of a hospital stay to give birth when I was a teen. I remember seeing the bill when my mom had my sister.

Crazy.
Monetary devaluation.

Now giving birth is $25k if just simple, no meds, leave in a day. $50K+ if you need a c-section.

:shk:
 

Dennis Olson

Chief Curmudgeon
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Dennis, how much farming or ranching have you done? How much time have you spent on either? There isn't as much difference between them as you seem to think!

Kathleen
Cuz I have so much farming background growing up in a city and doing software for a career.

My point from the beginning is that the equipment one needs for commercial farming cannot be the same as what one needs for ranching. I’m just using intuitive logic. Like: the plane one needs to fly to Paris isn’t the Beechcraft one would use to fly to the next state over.
 

Raggedyman

Res ipsa loquitur
boss is thinking small - 20 minutes to mow the lawn small. he'll never see the point that 50 cows on 200 acres - though certainly not "A RANCH" - aren't going to be managed with a 10HP riding mower. and after you mow that pasture just go out and rake it up by hand. silage? hell let the kids pick that 30 acres and haul it in by radio flyer - you don't need that dump truck and forager.
 

Dennis Olson

Chief Curmudgeon
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My step dad bought and old Case tractor. He fixed it up and it worked fine for our house in the country. I even got to drive it once in a while. He plowed and disced our modest piece of land and we planted a great garden. You homestead snobs can stop now.
 

Millwright

Knuckle Dragger
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I ran into the JD, addressable injector situation recently, it's a thing.

This was on a Generac generator, JD has to hack the ECM.

OOOOPS....need to adjust a setting in the genset controller, that's generac only software.


It's not just "Big tractors".

These are little 4-cyl types that are used in a LOT of equipment, forklifts, pumps and such.

$1g per hole to do an injector and pump...plus-plus.


Talk around the campfire says there are hacked programs out there that will let you get into these systems.
 

Troke

On TB every waking moment
Cattle ranch I worked on: 10,400 acres, short grass prairie, 440 head of cattle.
Equipment: Tractor, mower, hay baler, truck.

Cattle farm: 160 acres, some improved pasture, the rest corn and alfalfa for feed supplement. Tall grass prairie maybe 40 head of cattle in a good year.

Equip needed: Tractor, mower, hay baler, wagon to haul bales, corn planter, cultivator, corn picker, truck or trailer to haul corn, drill to seed in alfalfa. And maybe a spraying rig.
 

Raggedyman

Res ipsa loquitur
our modest piece of land

boss - people with 20-25 cows on a 200 acre FARM with hay to cut and bale and silage to cut and store NEED the equipment to do that. there is a difference between that and a "modest piece of land" and the old case AIN'T gonna make it. that's all these folks are saying.
 

dawgofwar10

Veteran Member
The problem as was originally provided is they took away the ability to do our own repairs. Started with Electronic, cars, and now appliances. Used to be if your T.V. Went on the Fritz you pull the tubes, went to a Electronics repair shop (or my case local drug store) tested the tubes and replaced the burned out one. Same with dryers, washers, stoves, and ovens though they did not have tubes they had switches and other easily replaceable electronic parts. Good example, I rebuilt my 26 yo Jenn Aire stove for about $300.00 which included all the rotary switches, down draft fan switch, and all four burners. And that sucker will be good for another 26 years. And forget about the new cars and trucks, in the days of old they were pretty easy to figure out, now you need a $10,000 computer to do a complete diagnostic on your vehicle. Yes you could get a cheaper OBD to plug into the port, but they are nowhere near what the mechanic has.
 

Millwright

Knuckle Dragger
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Cattle operations just wear out tractors.

I see it with the guys around here and they aren't really "big" operations.

Most of them have 3-5, dedicated for different operations, plus bobcats and other equipment.
 

Dennis Olson

Chief Curmudgeon
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indeed it doesn't but it quite likely CAN'T use just that rebuilt Case either . . . gonna need a few other "tools" . . .
Agreed. But as I’ve repeatedly said (which has been completely ignored) a modest cattle operation can get by with much less expensive gear.
 

Raggedyman

Res ipsa loquitur
Agreed. But as I’ve repeatedly said (which has been completely ignored) a modest cattle operation can get by with much less expensive gear.

I honestly don't think anybody disagrees with that - the difficulty SEEMS to be over the deffinitions of "modest piece of property - homestead - FARM and RANCH" . . . in particular - the latter two.
 

Millwright

Knuckle Dragger
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Agreed. But as I’ve repeatedly said (which has been completely ignored) a modest cattle operation can get by with much less expensive gear.

Not really.

200 acres is a hobby ranch.

One of my neighbors runs cows on a section, she has 4 tractors and keeps them longer than most.

They do a lot of repairs because of it.


There is a lot more to it than cutting a little hay and dumping some feed.
 

Raggedyman

Res ipsa loquitur
you should also be able to concede the point that what YOU consider a "modest cattle operation" may not at all be "modest" to its owner in terms of the work required. 200 acres and 25 head with hay and silage and pasture - fertilizing and liming and reseeding and spraying and mowing fence lines is TIME CONSUMING and requires specific tools. give 'em that at least boss - it ain't a million bucks but it ain't free either and its a LOT of work
 

Millwright

Knuckle Dragger
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WAG, well over 100k.

On the smaller end of balers, you need a 60hp tractor to run it. They are in the 40-50K range (new), That's not an all weather cab tractor.
 

Dennis Olson

Chief Curmudgeon
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Definition of non sequitur

1 : an inference that does not follow from the premises

specifically : a fallacy resulting from a simple conversion of a universal affirmative proposition or from the transposition of a condition and its consequent

2 : a statement (such as a response) that does not follow logically from or is not clearly related to anything previously said


In my case, #2 is correct. My statements are that someone without a huge commercial farming operation doesn’t need million dollar equipment. They could make do with something more modest. But the farm snobs jumped in.

fine. Thread moved to Homesteading where it be.ones anyway. And I’m out.
 

Millwright

Knuckle Dragger
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raising cattle is ranching, not farming.

That's not what the ranchers I deal with would say.

Replant a hay pasture?

Discs, seeders and other farmer kind of stuff.

Some plant corn for feed or have to seed pastures in clover for rotation, etc.

Up towards Kansas, they do a rotation of winter wheat, put cows on it for awhile, then move them to planted hay pastures while the wheat finishes, then maybe run beans, etc.


You really haven't been exposed to what it takes to run a small ag operation...at least not in this century. :D
 

summerthyme

Administrator
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That's not what the ranchers I deal with would say.

Replant a hay pasture?

Discs, seeders and other farmer kind of stuff.

Some plant corn for feed or have to seed pastures in clover for rotation, etc.

Up towards Kansas, they do a rotation of winter wheat, put cows on it for awhile, then move them to planted hay pastures while the wheat finishes, then maybe run beans, etc.


You really haven't been exposed to what it takes to run a small ag operation...at least not in this century. :D
I was going to say... I think his exposure to ranching was shows like Rawhide! Which conveniently 8gnored how thecattle were fed up to 6 months of the year. *someone* has to grow, harvest and store the hay. Control 9ver feed quality is difficult if you don't produce it yourself.

Summerthyme
 

rob0126

Veteran Member
The extent of most people's skills in farming, were learned from Farmville.
(I'm not much better off than they are)

But I'm willing to learn something, if it means the difference between eating or starving.
 
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