How can a Silly Old Truck Bring Back Memories?

Do you ever see something that brings back a flood of memories that you didn’t know were important until you saw that one thing?

Have you ever been attached to a “stupid piece of equipment” as the Nebraska Wheatie likes to say?

My parents told me they had sold some items on Big Iron last week, but I really didn’t know what they had sold.  As I left the vet clinic with a trailer of cows, I saw something that sucked the air right out of me.  I was on the phone with The Hat (my farmer husband) and said I had to go right now!  I quickly snapped this picture.

That old red truck may not look like much to you, but as I fed cows by myself that day a flood of memories tied to that silly old grain truck filled my head.  It was the truck that taught me how to drive.  I mean I knew how to drive, but I really learned how to drive in that truck.

When it was new, my brother and I wanted to go camping soooooo bad, but dad wasn’t too much into camping, so he let us camp in it.  We slept on the soybean seed bags that were stacked in it waiting to be planted.  If I remember correctly, it started to rain that night and he had to roll the tarp over to keep us and the soybean seed dry.

Then there was the time that dad left my brother and I sitting in it while he talked to a landlord.  He actually set the parking break and we had a great time “driving” while waiting for him.  He wasn’t too happy when he got in and it wouldn’t start.  It was flooded.  We were in trouble.  We didn’t “practice” driving again…ever.

I remember playing Hangman with Dad waiting in line to dump soybeans.  When I was a kid, we had a local ADM plant that processed soybeans.  Farmers would wait hours in line waiting to get their trucks dumped.  I spend some afternoons and evening sitting with dad.  One time, we were playing Hangman to pass the time and I kept asking him if he was sure he knew how the word was spelled.  It was.  He was looking right over my shoulder at some kind of inspection list.

No one in our family will ever forget the broken arm that happened as one of our best friends slipped on the running board and broke both bones in his forearm completely.  His brother and I ran to flag dad down and stop the combine.  They told us all to climb in the back of the truck and hold on.  We did hang on and we didn’t look out either…we had to drive by the local highway patrolman’s house and into town to get Bob to the hospital.

My brother and I will never forget the time we almost died in that truck.  The brakes had a tendency to pull a little to the right, well really hard to the right.  As we were coming down the only hill we had to drive on with a loaded truck, the fuel filter case came off.  I lost all power and the truck was rolling pretty good.  I hit the brakes hard and we veered right.  My brother sensed what I was gioing to do and grabbed the steering wheel shortly after I hit the brakes.  When we came to a stop, there was fuel spewing under the truck.  I ran to my aunt’s house.  Luckily, Mr. Hammer, a neighbor, stopped to see what was wrong.  By the time I got back, they had taken baling wire and pinched the line off.  They walked back up the hill and found the case, put it back on and off we went again.  Dad was mad it took us so long to get back.  This was long before cell phones.  Mr. Hammer always told my parents what a good driver I was to have not wrecked in that situation.

The second wheat harvest was a bumper crop and there were lines every day at the elevator.  This could have been a horribly long harvest for a 15 year old girl, but there was a bright spot.  Two older best friends were also hauling for their dads and amazingly, I was almost always a few trucks behind one and a few trucks in front of the other.  It was a struggle, but I managed to talk to Brad and Matt almost every day of that harvest. ;)

I always had a great truck driver’s tan as in my left arm was 5 shades darker than my right.  My friend Kim rode with me a day or two and when we got to the field, we switched places to tan the other arm.  No, the truck did not have air conditioning.

There was the time that I was so mad that I had to haul milo during our town’s Fall Festival.  Dad just kept telling me that I always wanted to go cruising.  He was letting me cruise all day while my friends were in town… That was dad’s sense of humor.

I even remember the time two of my classmates, David and Jay, had to rescue me on main street when the truck died.  They gave me a ride back to the field because again…no cell phones.

I know I am not the only one that has memories from a silly old truck.  Nebraska Wheatie and I talked the other day about it.  I remembered her post about the truck that she still gets teary eyed over.  You will have to scroll down toward the end, but she still trying to figure out how to get the smell from that truck bottled up.

I know there are others with memories as trucks have been very popular on my Facebook Page this week.

#TBT Row Cultivation

How has farming changed over the years?  A. LOT.  It is hard to answer in just one post, so on Thursdays we try to take a look back at how different parts of our farm and ranch have changed.  Just a little snapshot of one thing that is different from how our fathers, grandfathers and great-grandfathers farmed. Be sure to look at the other #TBT posts on this blog to see other things that have changed.

Back in the day before crops that could tolerate certain herbicides, farmers spent hour upon hour in the fields cultivating between the rows.  This did a good job of hoeing out the weeds in between the rows, but not the weeds that grew too close to the row or in the row.

My Grandpa Dale on his tractor with a front mount cultivator.

This job was very time consuming and not for someone with a short attention span.  The tractor driver had to drive very carefully or they would cultivate out the growing crop...the width of the cultivator.  We often joked calling this cultivator blight. Texting and driving would not be recommended.

My mom loved to cultivate the soybeans and milo.  She spent hours on a tractor like the one above.  She would come home with some crazy ideas for our 4-H projects after spending a couple of weeks on the tractor by herself. :)  She always insisted on driving the tractor without a cab.  She said she could see so much better.  All that sun exposure has really caused damage on lots of farmers over the years. 

My mom often had a sprayer loaded with a dilution of Roundup to spray on Johnsongrass and Bindweed that she found as she was cultivating.  She would have to stop the tractor and aim very carefully and often she didn't kill the whole patch.  Those noxious weeds are very much controllable thanks to crops like Round Up Ready soybeans and corn.

Today's herbicides are more specific than those even 20 years ago.  While for the past 15 years we have planted some GMO corn and soybeans that can be sprayed with certain herbicides and not die, we still plant some soybeans that are not genetically modified.  We use herbicides before the seeds sprout and we use a few select herbicides for weeds the early herbicide may have missed.  It is possible that my mom is the only farmer FarmHer out there that misses row cultivation.

What would you like me to show that has changed on our farm?  Do you farm and know of something special on your farm that has changed?  All farms evolve at a different pace and this is just how our farm changed.
- A Kansas Farm Mom

#TBT The Changing Face of Farming

200 years ago my family was farming, but the farm looked much different from our family farm today.

Chickens scoured the yards and fields for something to eat and when a chicken was needed for dinner one was butchered.

A milk cow grazed the pasture during the day and was milked both morning and night to provide milk and butter for the family.

Pigs wallowed in mud outside the barn and provided pork, bacon and lard to cook with.

My great-great grandfather worked in the fields of Illinois raising crops to feed and sell to make a living for his family.

My ancestors did their own banking…in a mason jar in the back yard.

They did their own milling of their wheat and oats for flour on the table.

They did their own taxes, made their own clothes, probably built their own house,

Over the years our family farm has evolved.  In the early 1900’s my family moved to Kansas.  Somewhere along the line someone decided they were tired of milking a cow two times every day and that one of my farm mom’s before me could buy the milk and probably it was delivered to their doorstep. 

Chickens are not found on our farm today.  The coyotes and raccoons really like the taste of them.  I am guessing my ancestors also found it hard to keep a small flock of chickens.  Neighbors could raise bigger groups in open barns even back in the 1950’s.  The butchering process is often messy (I have heard and not witnessed).  It was easier to have the neighbor with all the right equipment take care of that job, so time could be freed up to go to the lake.

My family from my great grandfather to my father all raised pigs outside on dirt and in the weather.  Pigs were never my favorite.  I remember watching my dad’s fingernail grow back oh so slowly after a pig bit it off.  It is much easier to go to the store to buy the cuts of pork I do wish to eat when I want pork.

My farmer ancestors before me probably did their own taxes.  Today, things are so complicated that I am thankful for an accountant to take care of those matters for me.

My grandmothers made most of the clothes my mom and aunts wore growing up.  I have a quilt that used the scraps of those dresses and I used to love it when they would sit around and point at the patches telling me whose dress that was and how old they remember they were when they wore it.  I am guessing that your family history is much the same.  You may have to go back a few more generations than I did, but at one point in your family’s history it is highly likely that your family had a farmer.

Farms today did not become bigger overnight.  It has been an evolution since the beginning of farming.  Michael is better at growing pigs than Raymond.  Raymond doesn’t like growing pigs so sells the family farm and moves to town.  Michael raises a few more pigs to make up for the ones that Raymond no longer grows.  Raymond follows his dream of being an accountant.

Willis gets a job in town.  He no longer raises chickens for eggs.  Kim’s family loves to grow chickens and starts to grow enough for Willis, his family and maybe a few of their neighbors as well.  Thank goodness for Kim and farmers like her that raise and collect eggs, so Willis can follow his dreams.

Whitney has never loved the life of a dairy farmer, but was raised as one.  She leaves the family business to follow her dream as a cosmetologist in the city.  Who is going to provide milk to her and her family?  What about her neighbors?  Thank goodness Carrie loves her cows and will get up early, stay up late and give the cows the care they need, so Whitney can follow her dreams.

Brian grew up on a grain farm, but dreamed of living in the suburbs and working at a large financial institution.  Brian moves to the city, but now someone has to raise the corn, wheat, and oats that make up the foods on his breakfast table.  Randy has always loved living in the country and on a farm.  His family’s farm has slowly gotten bigger, because Brian and many others did not stay to keep their family’s farm going.  Thank goodness for people like Randy that Brian can follow his dreams, but still have food on the table everyday.

I have loved cows, since my first bottle calf.  Laura loves the cows, but has a goal in life to not raise cows, but write and educate producers about them.  Laura left the family ranch and now, someone must produce beef for her and take her place in the production of livestock

Michael, Kim, Carrie and Randy are all following their dreams, too.  They love the farm life and know it isn’t for everyone.  Farmers allow everyone in this great country called the United States to follow their dreams.  Those living off the farm average 45 minutes each week gathering the food for their dinner table at the grocery store compared to spending all available time years ago, because farmers across the globe work to produce the food for them the rest of the week.

Everyone in America has had a hand in the large scale farming operations we have today.  If you want to be a stay at home mom, you can and you don’t have to collect eggs, milk a cow and churn the butter for your family.  If you want to be an investment banker in New York City, you can and you can eat the finest steak with fresh asparagus on the side without having to get your hands dirty.  If you are living the American dream, thank a farmer and thank your ancestors.

#TBT Why would Ranchers Change the Facilities they Use?

A note from KFM.  We have another #TBT Guest Post from a great farm blogger.  If you are not already following Darcy, you really should be!  I love reading her posts!!  This week we look at why ranchers would want to have different facilities than their grandparents.  Darcy takes a very candid look at it and while you might laugh at some of her reasoning, it is all absolutely true! 

Hi!  I’m Darcy from over at Success is Reason Enough and I blog about ranch life and everything else that goes with it.  I’m excited to be here today talking about facilities.  Some girls get excited about new clothes or makeup – well, I get excited about cattle equipment!  J

The ranch my husband works for works cattle in different locations across the ranch.   In addition, we have our own personal cattle breeding service so we own a variety of portable equipment, which we often use at the ranch too because it lets us work cattle in more locations.  We have a bit of everything here – new & old, manual & hydraulic, stationary & portable.  So when Nicole emailed me and asked if I’d do a #TBT guest post on facilities – I thought that was right up my {cattle} alley!

We use four main types of facilities – alleyways, chutes, calf tables and AI boxes.  Today I thought I’d focus mainly on chutes since every ranch needs a way to “catch” cattle.   We’re partial to Daniels Manufacturing chutes and alleyways as we think they’re well built, portable in many cases, and smartly designed.  WW is our choice for panels and tubs and Larges makes the best AI equipment in our book.  No matter what brand you own or use – I think the goal on every ranch is to work cattle in a safe & efficient manner.

That’s where the #TBT comes in.  The industry has come a LONG way since the old days.

Anyone have or remember the old wooden chutes that look like a guillotine?

Anyone still use a V-head catch chute where you have to make sure cattle don’t go down, or they’ll choke?

Anyone dreaming for a hydraulic chute when they’re having to catch cattle manually?

I get it. 

We’re pretty frugal people, and try to use something for as long as we can and make it work for us.  Plus – it’s hard to see a “return” from equipment.  It doesn’t weigh more, or convert more.  But the safety aspects that newer chutes provide both to cattle and the people working the cattle are tremendous.  I’ll often say “There isn’t any cow out there whose calves can pay for a hospital stay”. 

Before we moved back to Hermiston from Nebraska, my husband was wanting to convert a portable chute into a hydraulic chute.  It had a self-catching head catch, which is a step up from the manual head catch so I didn’t understand why we needed to drop a few pretty pennies to convert it to hydraulic.

It worked just fine.

I thought.

And then I worked cattle in a hydraulic chute at Double M and I GOT IT.

First, working cattle in a hydraulic chute is much easier on the operator.  You pull a few levers and the cow is quickly and effortlessly restrained.  Second - she’s thrashing less, and you’re not nursing a sore upper body the next day.   I get that not everyone can afford to have a hydraulic chute, but if you work any amount of cattle and are looking to upgrade a facility in a time of high cattle prices – this is where I’d start your investment.  We purchased a portable hydraulic chute a few years ago and use it ourselves and also rent it out to neighboring ranches.  If you can’t afford a new hydraulic chute, you can often find used ones online or maybe a neighbor has one you could rent too. 

The stationary alleys at the ranch are all straight wooden alleys, with a circular tub in the back. These have been in place for years, and the cattle are used to them and the work ok.  However we use a portable alleyway with a Bud box on the back at the sale barn and when we’re on the road breeding cows and love them!  Using a Bud Box takes a different mindset – you let cattle “escape” versus pushing them – but once you use it correctly, it’s amazing how well the cattle work.  I visited a feedlot this winter, and the manager said that his cowboy crew wouldn’t want to work with anything but a Bud Box, and another feedlot in our area said they can load a semi-truck in 8 minutes using a Bud Box. 

Investing in today’s new cattle facilities may require an investment that you can’t weigh or compute gain on.  But when cattle flow easily and safely through them, and you can operate them without having to take Advil at the end of the day – well, that’s priceless!

#TBT No Till

Even my non farmer friends can tell a difference in farming driving through the countryside.  Many farmers have changed to a system known as No Till Farming.  Even I remember my dad pulling a plow through the fields.  A variation of a plow has been used for 100’s of years to turn the soil.  Often going as deep as 18 inches.  It is no wonder that fellow consumers have questions about how farming as changed over the generations. 

Getting to no till farming was a bit of a progression.  Farmers saw that with tillage (discing, plowing, and turning the soil)  we were losing soil.  Soil has a natural structure that develops over time thanks to roots, worms and microbes.  When the soil from below is brought to the top, it destroys that structure, their home and the living beings that live there thus the population must start again.  When we get a big rain like we often do in the Spring and even Summer, soil would "runoff" the field into the streams and rivers nearby because that structure is not there to hold it in place.

No Till farming leaves the soil undisturbed and we plant right into the mulch left from last year’s crop.  We have noticed that some weed seeds just lie on top of the soil and never germinate.  Seeds need good seed to soil contact and if they are laying on top of the soil they don’t have total contact with the soil.

The mulch from last year's crop protects the soil from direct contact with the raindrops.  When raindrops (or hail like last week) hit the soil it dislodges small particles of soil and lets them leave the field in the water suspension. 

Photo Credit to: Soil Erosion Site  Check this site out for more information on erosion.

Having the mulch on top of the soil lets the rain drops hit the plant material and then run into the soil.  The mulch also acts as little barricades all over the field to slow down the water and let the soil settle back out.   After a big rain, you can see little dams that have dirt backed up behind them.  That is soil we didn't lose out of the field.

The mulch left on top of the soil also acts as an insulating blanket to stabilize the soil temperature and moisture.  The microbes in the soil like to have an environment that doesn't change drastically from day to day.  The mulch traps moisture trying to escape the soil through evaporation and helps us grow crops with less water.

The thing I like about No Till farming is that we use less diesel fuel which is better for the environment as well as my checking account balance.  This is certainly one place where we use less labor as well.  A farm our size that tills all the ground ahead of the planter would have to have at least 1-2 more employees just to drive tractors.

#TBT How Do You Know When a Cow is Pregnant?

I am very excited to have my first guest post in the #TBT series.  This week's post is from Miss Julie Vrazel Tomascik of Tomascik Farms.  You can also see her adorable calves each week on Facebook. Did you know that ranchers check their cows to see if they are pregnant and there has certainly been an evolution in that area in the last several year.  See as Julie explains it. -A Kansas Farm Mom

All expectant mothers have one thing in common. The pregnancy test.  

And it’s the same for cattle.

As third generation cattle ranchers in Central Texas, my husband and I do things just a bit differently than our great-grandparents.

Okay. More than a bit.

Our great-grandparents would leave the bulls with the cows all year, which meant they’d have calves born at any time during the year. And that makes it more difficult to keep track of breeding efficiency.  And ultimately, cow productivity.

But we have more defined breeding seasons. Our cows are bred during a 90-day period in the winter or late spring. That means we turn the bulls out only during that time.

Enter the pregnancy test.

Our great-grandparents just waited (year-round) for calves to come after 9 months. But my husband and I are more efficient. We check for pregnancy, rather than waiting with uncertainty for 9 months.

Our version of the pregnancy test for cattle includes palpation, an ultrasound or taking a blood sample.

Palpation: It’s a manual examination of the reproductive tract.

Picture from UC Davis site.

Ultrasound: Uses the same equipment that medical doctors use for pregnant women. The pregnancy technician can identify pregnancy at an earlier stage.

Photo courtesy of Dairy Carrie who with her vet uses ultrasound technology to pregnancy check  her cows and predict the gender of calves before they are born.

Blood test: A blood sample is drawn and submitted to a laboratory.

So, we’ve become more efficient with each generation of agriculture. We can identify pregnancy and have a calf crop born within a certain timeframe, which makes marketing our cattle easier.

Do you have any questions that we can answer about the pregnancy tests?  We could probably have them pee on a stick and get the results just like humans, but I can tell you that cows do not pee on demand without the help of lasix.  I will also tell you (from experience) that when you are 7 months pregnant, it is raining outside, and 42 degrees, that waiting to collect urine from a group of cows that have been injected with lasix is not very much fun.  -KFM

#TBT Tractor Guidance

Just as with everything in our world, farms change.  Here is part two of a series I am calling #TBT.  Each Thursday we will throwback to the way things used to be and how our farm has changed over the years. 

Tractor drivers over the years sure have changed.  The Farmer's Uncle talks about being 8 years old and plowing a field all day long.  I would never dream of sending my 9 or even 12 year old to the field to plow.  For one thing, we don't plow, but that's a whole different post.  Maybe we are overprotective compared to those who came before us, but driving a tractor can be dangerous and they are much much bigger than 50 years ago.  The things we use to guide our tractors has sure changed since my Grandpa's day!

Driving By Sight

Back in the day of single or two row implements it was easy to see where you had been on the last past.  Driving straight through the field was done by lining up with a landmark at the far end of the field, often a tree, or post in our area.  Have you ever noticed the silver "arrow" on the nose of a John Deere tractor?  It is not there for looks, but is actually used by farmers to line up with that landmark.  This is a great test for someone with ADHD.

 Equipment Markers

 

The length of a planter marker is one half of the width of the planter.  The markers on the planter above are those two arms sticking up (round plate looking thing on the end).   It has a disc blade that leaves a mark to line up the "arrow".  These markers switch from side to side each time the planter is raised and lowered.  They are only as accurate as the tractor driver's eyesight and attention span.

Counting Rows

When spraying in growing crops or planting into standing stubble (No Till), my dad would often count rows knowing how wide their implement was and taking the number of rows times the width of the rows.  This method was as accurate as the driver counting combined with the accuracy of the driver the year before.

Light Bar

When we first got married 16 years ago, I was introduced to the Light Bar.  I no longer had to keep looking back to see if I was driving too close or too far from my last pass.  We had a cool bar of lights on the hood of the tractor.   It actually used GPS technology just like your Garmin or cell phone to navigate the implement through the field usually in a straight line.  The lights would tell me which way I needed to steer to be in line with the last pass through the field.  It only worked effectively on straight lines and the driver often got frustrated trying to guess where it was taking them.  These light bars were only guaranteed to be accurate to 1 meter.  Often trees at the edge of our fields would block the signal just like driving in a parking garage blocks a Garmin's signal in your car.

AutoSteer

My dad says even a monkey could drive our tractor and combine today compared to even when he farmed in the 1980's and 1990's.  We have this awesome feature called Autosteer.    We still have to turn at the end of the field and line it back up, press a button and sit back and post to Facebook....err...I mean watch the equipment work and look for ways to improve what we are doing.  We watch for things that may cause problems easier.  The Farmer and I firmly believe we are not nearly as tired at the end of the day after driving one of the tractors with Autosteer.  Some older farmers actually compare it to the first time they got to drive an air conditioned tractor.  The fatigue and stress on the driver is so much less that I think it makes farming safer for the farmer and those on the road with the farmer when he is driving home after a long day in the field. Our system still uses the same satellites as the light bar, but I have noticed with the combine that it is probably within 6 inches, but as the day goes on and satellites orbit the earth, you have to adjust your path.

Kicked Up Autosteer

RTK or Real Time Kinetics is the Mercedes of guidance systems today.  Farmers have base stations located around the area they farm that allows them greater accuracy with their Autosteer.  When I mean great accuracy, I mean they can go back to the same spot (within 2-3 inches) year after year. 

Why would farmers use GPS to guide their tractors?

Why do we continue to try to fine tune our accuracy in driving?  Efficiency.  The less overlap we have means less chemicals, less seed, less fertilizer, less fuel and less labor to produce of bushel of wheat or corn.  It also means we need to spend less time in the field and we can spend more time where we really want to.

Did you know tractors can drive themselves?

I know farmers today that still use all of the above methods of tractor guidance.  Farms evolve at different levels and each farmer decides what is best for his farm at the place it is in.

-A Kansas Farm Mom

#TBT Horsepower

This is first in a series I am calling #TBT, Throwback Thursday.  You can go here if you want to know the background behind the series.  Each week myself along with the help of other farmers and ranchers plan to show you how our farms have changed over the years.  What would you like to know about?  Are you a farmer that would like to share a piece of your farm evolution with us or have some great pictures to share?  Send me a message!

Why do farmers use tractors?

Horsepower has certainly changed meanings over the last 200 years.  When my Great-Great Grandfather moved to Kansas, they said all his equipment and household fit in one boxcar while the horses and family rode in a second one.  Today, we couldn't fit some pieces of equipment in a boxcar!

Real Horsepower

Horses were the main mode of transportation and power for our early farmers, but horses required feed and care even if they weren't working.  The could also be stubborn and took lots of time to train.  Farmers also had to allow them rest time as well as lots of time training them.

    Photo Credit:  Used with permission from the Wilson County Old Iron Club.  Elmer H. Voth plowing as a young boy in the early '30s

Early Tractors

Tractors came along.  Both of our family's hold dear tractors that were purchased over 50 years ago.  In fact, the guys have been working this winter to refurbish the John Deere 60 that we still use for its 60th birthday this year.

The first tractor I learned to drive was a tractor very similar, a John Deere 50.  While most kids were learning to drive a car, I was learning to drive the same tractor my dad learned to drive.  This model had no power steering and a hand clutch.  It also had no seat belt or protective structure if it happened to rollover.   The only shade I had was the hat I decided to wear that day.  Imagine raking hay the 15th of July in Kansas when the temperatures can easily reach 100 degrees and sitting in the seat just feet from the engine.  Yes, it was hot.  Yes, I was probably dehydrated most of the summer.

Powerhouse Tractors of Today

Tractors today have many more conveniences than those early ones.

Photo Credit to Eagle Seed.

Shade!  

Shade is huge, so fewer farmers are suffering from skin cancer.  The Farmer's grandfathers and my grandmother all had many skin cancer lesions from their backs, faces and necks.  When we are in the shade of a cab or even canopy we are protected from the harmful rays of the sun.  I can not tell you how many times I was sun burnt after raking hay on the John Deere 50.

Quiet!

Have you ever met a farmer that used to drive an "open station" tractor or one without a cab?  They can't hear very well. Hundreds of hours working on those tractors with no hearing protection really damaged their ears.  Today's cabs make it easy to talk on the phone and listen to the radio.  My kids have even watched movies in the combine cab with no problem hearing the audio.

Most tractors today have a radio, CD Player or Ipod port.  If they have a cab, they most certainly have air conditioning.  All the windows that let us view what is going on soak up lots of heat even if it is cold outside.

More Power!

Not only do they have all of these conveniences, but they allow farmers to get over more acres in a much shorter period of time than when we used horses.  

There are seatbelts, power brakes, air ride seats (if you are lucky), power steering, and more.  Now these are just your basic tractor features, later I will cover the technology found inside the cabs of today's modern horse power. 

-A Kansas Farm Mom