The Life of a Custom Mowing contractor

[Hay Dude]

Hay Dude sorry about posting so much on your thread.

Lou

No worries, you always have something relevant to say.

 

[LHF2019]

Mr. Lou, can one reasonably expect to get 30 years out of a new large frame, 150+ hp tractor being sold today?

Yes but I would hate to see the repairs required to do that. A lot of the technology we will learn about what fails over the next 30 years.

My last tractor I bought was at a farm auction for $9700. JD 4430 with lots of potential issues that I spent $1500 fixing most of the major ones but still have a few yet to do. Turned over 10,000 hours last year. This was 3 years ago? Try to find one at that price now. Prices keep going up up and up on everything but my hay. Raise the price of hay and all hell breaks loose. No money in it. And this year more farmers quit and went to making hay adding more volume to depressed prices. I have fields this year that I will contemplate brushhogging to keep nutrients here because of no sales. My price for squares are $1-$1.50 under what we have seen advertised recently and yet no calls. Don't usually see hay advertised this time of year so I feel they are lacking customers as well.

Rant over for now. Sorry hay dude. I should have put this on my thread.

 

[Hay Dude]

Yes but I would hate to see the repairs required to do that. A lot of the technology we will learn about what fails over the next 30 years.

My last tractor I bought was at a farm auction for $9700. JD 4430 with lots of potential issues that I spent $1500 fixing most of the major ones but still have a few yet to do. Turned over 10,000 hours last year. This was 3 years ago? Try to find one at that price now. Prices keep going up up and up on everything but my hay. Raise the price of hay and all hell breaks loose. No money in it. And this year more farmers quit and went to making hay adding more volume to depressed prices. I have fields this year that I will contemplate brushhogging to keep nutrients here because of no sales. My price for squares are $1-$1.50 under what we have seen advertised recently and yet no calls. Don't usually see hay advertised this time of year so I feel they are lacking customers as well.

Rant over for now. Sorry hay dude. I should have put this on my thread.

Its the same everywhere. The economy sucks and as one can easily imagine, horses are some of the very first things sold off when the economy tanks. Don’t care what Joey-B says, I know what I see and the money for hay is drying up.
Even the mushroom hay business, which is more stable than feed hay is backing up.

The mushroom canneries are full and the restaurant & fresh mushroom business have slowed. Let’s face it, with dwindling cash reserves, what would get cut off your shopping list first? Milk or Mushrooms?

Less people going out to eat, so less steak & beef being consumed, too.

All arrows pointing down, for now. Add to that the insane price of fertilizer, seed, fuel and insurance.

I’ll stop typing for now as I think I’m getting a headache.

 

[Hay Dude]

In many ways, tractors & equipment are easier to operate, safer & more comfortable.
As one can imagine, with those features, comes additional layers of expense, parts & service.
This adds to the cost of farming, yet crop prices are in the tank and demand is dropping and regulations on Ag is increasing.

We need to pump the brakes on the people in charge of making all this happen. We have enough safety measures in place. The tractors run clean enough now.

 

[Runner]

We need to pump the brakes on the people in charge of making all this happen. We have enough safety measures in place. The tractors run clean enough now.

The brakes need to be pumped back to about year 2000.

 

[EddieWalker]

Thanks for the replies on how they finance the tractors. I guess I don't understand how much money is made in growing crops. I've heard about making payments once a year, but I struggle with comprehending the dollar amounts they have to make on their farms to have enough money to make those payments, along with buying fuel, fertilizer, pesticides, and then just every day expenses, along with the monthly bills like electricity for the farm. It's overwhelming!!!!!

 

[Hay Dude]

Thanks for the replies on how they finance the tractors. I guess I don't understand how much money is made in growing crops. I've heard about making payments once a year, but I struggle with comprehending the dollar amounts they have to make on their farms to have enough money to make those payments, along with buying fuel, fertilizer, pesticides, and then just every day expenses, along with the monthly bills like electricity for the farm. It's overwhelming!!!!!

Yes, it is!

 

[pmsmechanic]

I sat in a tractor defoliating sugar beets for friends last fall. I knew how many beets we were hauling in per hour and the price per metric ton of beets. It was roughly $9500CAD/hour, $6300USD/hour. My wages are pretty generous for driving tractor but they pale in comparison to total dollars. You can figure about 5% of the above numbers for profit.

 

[Hay Dude]

Today was a super-hot day with temps over 95 and kind of humid.

I had to get one more customer cut. This stuff is a month past when I would have cut it, but the owners want to wait until all nesting birds are gone, so I had to wait until July 15th. So obviously this is mushroom hay.

It’s burning hot. This junk could probably be baled tomorrow….

On the way home I got stuck waiting for East Penn.

I see some graffiti on the rail cars. Punks.

I stopped and grabbed a few pictures for y’all of a bridge in my little town being taken down. It’s called “Twin Bridges”.
If you look closely you can see East Penn’s RR tracks. They run under the now removed section. The demolition company had to be careful not to damage or leave debris on the tracks.

The movie “The Village” (M. Knight Shamalon) was filmed just beyond the trees next to this bridge. I was able to watch some of it being made about 25 years ago.

You can see the bridge was in sad shape. It was weight limited to only 15 tons. The original version was 2 covered bridges end to end, hence the name “Twin Bridges”.

 

[Hay Dude]

Well today I dug into knotter #2. Won’t tie. I must have spent 1/2 hour going through it and then I finally felt the back of the billhook and notice is was broken off.

Tomorrow I will have to disassemble and replace it.

 

[mrmikey]

I'd like to meet the fella that designed the knotter, the mechanics of it amaze me. No doubt you'd like to meet him for a different reason HD .

 

[EddieWalker]

I can't imagine what it's like to farm full time. One of the biggest realizations with my small farm is that being a mechanic seems to be the thing I do the most. There is always something to wrench on, and I can't count how man hours I've spent trying to figure out what's wrong with a tractor or attachment. Fix one thing, two other things still need fixing!!!

 

[Hay Dude]

I'd like to meet the fella that designed the knotter, the mechanics of it amaze me. No doubt you'd like to meet him for a different reason HD .

So here’s what broke. The twine finger on the back of the billhook. Fairly common, but only the 2nd one for me in 15 years.

Here’s a brand new one. As big as a large square baler is, it’s got fragile parts in some places.

 

[Hay Dude]

A few raking & baling scenes from today:

Raking tractor parked off to the side.

Baler needs a good cleaning….

Decent bale weight, but I would prefer more. Driest hay season I have seen in a long time.

Headin’ home. More hay to bale tomorrow.

 

[Carl_NH]

Here’s a brand new one. As big as a large square baler is, it’s got fragile parts in some places.

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A baler knotter is like a large industrial sewing/knitting machine with some of the most complex mechanics in a very tough environment.

Kudo's to getting it running again.

We made 3000 small bales a season in PA growing up and always used the same brand twine as my dad said - stick with what works.

 

[Slowpoke Slim]

HD,

That picture of the broken twine finger makes it look like it was made out of cast goose grease, but if they last that long, it must be "premium" cast goose grease.

 

[Hay Dude]

HD,

That picture of the broken twine finger makes it look like it was made out of cast goose grease, but if they last that long, it must be "premium" cast goose grease.

Priced like its made outta GOLD, too!!!
Those knotter twine fingers are pretty delicate.

 

[Hay Dude]

Today, we wrapped up first cutting. It went about 10 days to 2 weeks longer than anticipated. Kind of bittersweet. I’d love to keep baling, but need a break.

Ever bent a bale spear like this????
Hit a rock…..

Baled a 20 acre flood plain today. This stuff is way past its prime…

Caught some rafters on the river trying to cool off. Sometimes they will come up into the field and offer me a beer or 2…

Finally done!!!

Taking bales across the tracks to stack them.

Heading back out onto the road with the baler

Bales stacked near RR tracks

Heading home in the comforts of the Ram

 

[mrmikey]

Ever bent a bale spear like this????

Bet that stopped you in a hurry.

This stuff is way past its prime…

What determines when it's past it's prime?

 

[Hay Dude]

Bet that stopped you in a hurry.

Sometimes I’ll spear low on the bottom bale when I am carrying 2 bales to help carry them better. If you get too low, you spear under it in the dirt. I hit a boulder buried just below the surface. Bent the spear like a pretzel. Tractor never really felt it.

What determines when it's past it's prime?

Old grass that went to seed and part of the top of the stem turns brown or been sitting too long after it was cut. It was both in this case. Around here, if you don’t get to it by around the 4th of July, it’s too old to make feed hay.