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Use What You Got!

4K views 4 replies 4 participants last post by  Shetland Sheepdog 
#1 ·
In the shout out box I mentioned some pretty big equipment and it was a blast to farm with; production on a massive scale. 400 hp tractors, 33 foot discs, 7 bottom plows and 450 hp choppers that put out a stream of silage. It was nice, but dairy farming in New England is tough and it was not to be. After 110 years of dairy farming; the equipment was sold, the cows left, and a lot of corn ground was left fallow.

I never lost my own personal farm, and am getting into sheep farming on a bigger scale, but boy I feel the loss of that nice big dairy farm equipment that helped so much! I was left with a 10 acre corn field on my own personal farm that is useless now for my sheep, but what to do with it? I was left a lot of 1950 equipment from my families past potato farming operation (1838-1988), but it is hard to go from modern equipment back to the old stuff.

It took my little 27 hp Kubota tractor 4 days of hard labor, but with a 1952 single bottom Dearborn plow, I plowed up that 10 acre field. 10 acres does not sound like much until you plow it...1 foot at a time! Since it just had corn on it last fall, it was not sodded up too bad yet so I chained a log to an old woods trailer we had to act as a makeshift grader blade 24 feet wide, and controlling the "cut" by the 3 point hitch, graded that field several times to get it smooth. Now I just have to pick the rocks out and then sow it down and I should be good to go!

Its not what I want, embarrassing to state how I must now must do things, but a good farmer is resilient, plays the hand they are dealt, and moves on. Someone once told me: "Dairy farming is high tech, but has high cash flow. Sheep farming is low tech, and has low cash flow". So true. But yet another person said, "when possible, always do as much for yourself as you can". I have tried to live by that, and while resorting to a single bottom plow is humbling, it has been good too. In years past I have been cocky and arrogant, but now knocked down quite a few pegs and plowing sod one furrow at a time, I realize I am fortunate. My forefathers busted sod on this farm since 1746; I am still busting sod, which is blessing enough.
 
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#3 ·
I guess that I have missed part of the story somewhere but I will say this; There is no shame in an honest days work using equipment that is within your means.
I think that we all get humbled periodically, and it teaches us some life lessons that sometimes actually stick.
It is always good to look back at the end of the day and see progress was made by our own hand.
I haven't been around very long but I am learning again that life isn't about the money or the toys, it is all about the people. In the end, friendships and family mean more than just about anything else.
 
#5 ·
I think Paul Harvey said it best!

GOD looked down on his creation, and decided HE needed a caretaker, so,

HE made a farmer!
 
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