DIO-lancaster Farming Saturday, March 29,1986
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Hooked on
There seems to be general
agreement that a lot of farmers
are in trouble these days because
of oversized machinery in
vestments. They got hooked on
farm machinery at a time when it
was buy equipment or pay taxes.
And they liked equipment.
So‘they bought and bought and
bought beyond the real needs of
their farming operations. Then
when the economic good times
went away, they were stuck not
only with a lot of expensive,
depreciating implements but also
with a mind set that insisted that
those machines were necessary
just to survive in farming.
There are all sorts of horror
stories about farmers being forced
to sell out due to the faltering
economy. But I’ve attended some
of those farm sales recently and I
wonder why some of those farmers
weren’t buried a lot sooner under
the weight of their machinery
inventory.
Eight or nine tractors regardless
of the vintage is too many for
almost any farmer. I attended a
sale the other day where a fellow
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Farm
Talk
Jerry Webb
machinery?
was scaling back not really
getting out of farming, just
changing from heavy crops
production into more livestock. He
sold fifteen tractors.
Granted some were old and not
of great value but their combined
selling price even m today’s
depressed agricultural economy
approached $25,000.
There’s also the true story of a
farmer who is having to give up his
second combine. He’s leasing it at
a monthly cost of $l,BOO and he’s
finding the payments a little hard
to make. So he’s going to scale
back to one combine and save the
difference. Relief from that
monthly payment will go a long
way toward saving a faltering
operation.
Farmers haven’t always been
that machinery-oriented. In fact, if
you look back in agricultural
history you will find a resistance to
the new labor saving machines of
the early 1800’s.
Cyrus McCormick and those
other inventors who brought horse
drawn mechanization to
agriculture in the early 1800’s met
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with great resistance. In fact, it
took the Civil War and the ac
companying manpower shortage
to force farmers to purchase such
labor saving machines as gram
binders, planters and mowing
machines.
Even as recently as the 1930 s a
farmer could get a start with only a
team of mules, a wagon and a few
simple-horse drawn implements.
Glen Hawkins was that kind of
farmer. He was a young share
cropper in 1931 when he came to
take over the farming chores for
my aging grandfather.
He came with the bare essentials
a team of horses, a plow, a
harrow, a wagon, a com planter
and a good wife. They farmed 120
acres with that inventory long
hours, hard work and some work
swapping with neighbors.
Glen’s cousins share cropped an
adjoining farm and they had a
threshing machine and some other
essential tools that Glen lacked.
And so he traded his strong back
for the use of some of their more
sophisticated machinery.
Glen had a dream. He wanted to
own his own farm and so he worked
day and night through the worst
farming period in American
history. He saved his money.
He bought an old Farmall F3O
tractor and a two-bottom plow.
Then a gram drill, cultivators for
the tractor and a few other im
plements. And he continued to save
his money. Twelve years of far
ming that Missouri Ozarks farm
and he made a down payment on
the place next door.
He went on to be a successful and
respected farmer in the com
munity farming in that same
hard working conservative way
until health and urban pressures
made it prudent for him to slow
down.
I visited him last year and we
reminisced about those good old
days when he was a struggling
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share-cropper and I was a little kid
following along, begging for a ride
on the tractor. He remembered the
humble beginning and he sym
pathized with today’s farmers who
are in financial trouble.
And speaking from 85 years of
accumulated wisdom that included
starting with nothing and winding
up well fixed, Glen suggested that
too many of today’s farmers have
been seduced by the need for ex
pensive equipment.
There’s a lot to be said for having
the right machine at the right time.
For being able to go to the field
with 2 or 3 rigs and all of the
necessary support equipment.
But for many farmers the time
has come for taking a hard look at
a farming situation and deciding
on a survival tactic.
How much land can one man
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farm with one good tractor and a
few supporting implements’ [
think a lot of farmers would be
surprised at the answer
I’m reminded of a farmer I know
who sold out about a year ago. He
kept one decent old tractor and
then purchased a used no-tili
planter. By the time the ground
warmed up he was right back m
farming. A lot better off financially
from having sold 7 or 8 tractors, a
combine, a full line of equipment
and a lot extra. And he was still
fanning several hundred acres.
No doubt his cost for custom
operators increased dramatically
but I’ll bet he showed a profit. And
that’s more than a lot of full-tune
farmers were able to do.
Some farmers tell me they would
rather not farm than farm that
way. That might be their choice.
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