Welcome to City-Data.com Forum!
U.S. CitiesCity-Data Forum Index
Go Back   City-Data Forum > General Forums > Green Living
 [Register]
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
View detailed profile (Advanced) or search
site with Google Custom Search

Search Forums  (Advanced)
Reply Start New Thread
 
Old 04-05-2010, 08:08 AM
 
Location: Lethbridge, AB
1,132 posts, read 1,931,993 times
Reputation: 978

Advertisements

Quote:
Originally Posted by ChrisC View Post
No, it wasn't fun even for the first load--especially when it was 100 degrees in the field. Manpower may not be inexpensive, but 'kiddiepower' is/was. Well, then again, maybe not: there's that little matter of room and board for eighteen years--sorta like the horse... only you can't feed the child hay.
That's just what I was thinking. There's nothing fun about haying. At all.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message

 
Old 04-05-2010, 08:18 AM
 
Location: I think my user name clarifies that.
8,292 posts, read 26,589,753 times
Reputation: 3925
Quote:
Originally Posted by Stubblejumper View Post
That's just what I was thinking. There's nothing fun about haying. At all.
Hahaha! Absolutely true! It was always the hottest days of the year, and full sun.

We had a huge white barn we'd put most of the hay into. Pulled up the racks on the south side & went to work. Unbelievable. Full sun. Full sun reflecting off the barn. No breeze.

Probably should have been some child labor laws or something...
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 04-05-2010, 08:46 AM
 
9,803 posts, read 16,126,681 times
Reputation: 8266
We didn't think horses ( " hay burners" ) were that economical to use 60 years ago.


--" $70 a day savings "--------------------I think that guy plays loose with numbers .
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 04-05-2010, 10:43 AM
 
Location: Minnysoda
10,659 posts, read 10,685,446 times
Reputation: 6745
Farming with animal power is friggin hard work! It isn't just because of medical advances that people live longer these days you know! My Grandpa is 94 and has scares on the inside of his thumb web from plowing with a team. You think that's fun? My dad and I both take a bunch of guff from the old guy for haveing horses! The only time it will be worth it if TEOTWAWKI happens then I'm growing my own food. Other then that it's something I do keep me out of the bars.....

P.S. I too mostly use INT 300U and an JD-B to do any serious cultivateing and haying. That kind of hard work with a horse takes wayyyyyy tomuch time!
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 04-05-2010, 10:56 AM
 
9,803 posts, read 16,126,681 times
Reputation: 8266
We didn't get a tractor til I was about 13 years old.

Dad plowed with a 1 bottom 16 inch plow pulled by 3 horses.

Very slow indeed!

Also, cutting hay with a ground driven horse mower is a headache compared to a pto mower.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 04-05-2010, 03:12 PM
 
6,326 posts, read 6,552,927 times
Reputation: 7457
Wage farming sucks with or without mule/tractor, it drains life out of you. Wage farmers went above and beyond to mechanize, poison, torture, destroy etc. in order to squeeze a buck for the least amount of pain. Hobby farming rocks . Data on average use of diesel per farming operation are readily available. $70/day savings on 40 acres plot are highly unrealistic at $3/gallon + $30,000 tractor&implements.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 04-05-2010, 04:54 PM
 
Location: A Nation Possessed
25,344 posts, read 18,480,930 times
Reputation: 22212
Well, I think we can all agree, more work or not, in a 'bad situation,' finding something for the horse to eat may be easier than finding refined crude from the middle east. You CAN plow a field with a horse without relying on diesel or gas; you can't with a tractor. The horses would sure beat going out and hand sowing/harvesting! Now, granted, gas and diesel is readily available right now, but having the knowhow to use a team of horses (which I don't have, BTW) could come in handy. Then again, so would knowing how to live without electricity, central AC, cars, grocery stores, cell phones, texting and all sorts of stuff many of us look at as necessities.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 04-05-2010, 05:55 PM
 
9,803 posts, read 16,126,681 times
Reputation: 8266
I would hate to imagine the price of food if all the tractors in the country were sitting idle due to fuel not being available.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 04-05-2010, 08:49 PM
 
Location: I think my user name clarifies that.
8,292 posts, read 26,589,753 times
Reputation: 3925
Quote:
Originally Posted by marmac View Post
I would hate to imagine the price of food if all the tractors in the country were sitting idle due to fuel not being available.
People have no idea...
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 04-05-2010, 09:24 PM
 
11,550 posts, read 52,975,501 times
Reputation: 16329
Quote:
Originally Posted by RememberMee View Post
Wage farming sucks with or without mule/tractor, it drains life out of you. Wage farmers went above and beyond to mechanize, poison, torture, destroy etc. in order to squeeze a buck for the least amount of pain. Hobby farming rocks . Data on average use of diesel per farming operation are readily available. $70/day savings on 40 acres plot are highly unrealistic at $3/gallon + $30,000 tractor&implements.
Even more unrealistic when workhorse tractors suitable for small acreage can be had for $2,000 to $3,000 price range and attachments for them are also inexpensive.

JD 4020 Diesels in good condition run $8-12,000 in our region, and 3020's are bringing $5-8,000. Either are quite suitable for serious farming on acreages up to a few hundred acres, and way more tractor than a 40 acre parcel would ever need. One certainly doesn't need to spend $30K + attachments ... I haven't got that much in all my tractors, baler, swather, and rakes.

My neighbor's asian 3 cylinder diesel tractor with a host of attachments ... loader, box blade/scraper, post hole digger, disc, sickle bar mower, and a couple of others I don't think he's even used yet ... cost $15,000 brand new with a warranty.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.

Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.


Reply
Please update this thread with any new information or opinions. This open thread is still read by thousands of people, so we encourage all additional points of view.

Quick Reply
Message:


Over $104,000 in prizes was already given out to active posters on our forum and additional giveaways are planned!

Go Back   City-Data Forum > General Forums > Green Living
Similar Threads

All times are GMT -6.

© 2005-2024, Advameg, Inc. · Please obey Forum Rules · Terms of Use and Privacy Policy · Bug Bounty

City-Data.com - Contact Us - Archive 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37 - Top