Midwest Farm tour

[Boozer]

Very interesting, thanks for taking the time to post all of this.
I am sure some us want to know what model of equipt is this?

View attachment 737765

I’m marrying a Midwest farmers daughter next month. There are some serious smokeshows coming out of the Midwest [emoji16]


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[snowhammer]

Very interesting, thanks for taking the time to post all of this.
I am sure some us want to know what model of equipt is this?

View attachment 737765

Very expensive maintenance on that one

 

[Tractorsdontfloat]

Ethanol plant wouldn’t let me take any pictures inside the plant, so I just took a couple quick ones in the parking lot.

The concrete cow in front of the office

Front tanks hold ethanol, back right one is a corn bin

The plant from the road coming in

They use about 60,000 bushels of corn per day. And the make near 175,000 gallons of ethanol a day.

 

[snowhammer]

I like the concrete cow

 

[TripleB]

Looks like fiberglass to me?

 

[Tractorsdontfloat]

Is your planter all JD? In our area Precision is the cats ass up grade to a JD planter and software. Our planter is maybe only 50% JD at this point.

My planter is still 100% JD. I like a lot of what Precision offers, but being the operator and vested in the business, I’ve found I can get the same performance out of original equipment. The JD stuff must be set properly and adjusted to each seed lot. Precision is very good for the guys who want set and forget.

One of the big issues I have is most of the precision improvements that I feel help the most with most planters won’t necessarily work on my fully mounted planter. They will fit, just not as effective with that model.

 

[HydroSkreamin]

Hey, @Tractorsdontfloat , when are you gonna tell them WHY you dry the corn?

And forgive me for hauling ass multiple times in a blue Chevelle last summer, I didn’t know that’s where you lived

I’m always careful out there, but grew up with some of your neighbors.

 

[HydroSkreamin]

One of the things that most people don’t know is in the 80’s, there were a lot of much smaller farms in WI. My grandpa’s farm that I spent a lot of time working on while growing up is about 10 miles from @Tractorsdontfloat. It was 240 acres and a 70 HP tractor was huge; we used 37-50 HP tractors of all different brands, fixed all of our own equipment, had a 1 acre garden that they lived off of (canning for winter months), milked a few cows (20-100; anything bigger than 100 was a HUGE operation, now you start at 1000), and always had some around for beef.

A lot of my friends were farmers with cattle, and we couldn’t go out until chores were done. Many hands make light work, so I’d show up in work clothes, help with chores, take a shower and go out. There wasn’t any other way.

I really miss all the red barns you could see, as far as you could see. Next to those barns were vertical silos (nobody uses them any more, it’s all done in plastic tubes on the ground) for holding cattle feed, ground up corn and hay called silage. The red barns are all but fallen down. The other interesting thing about the barns is that different areas of the state were settled by different nationalities, and their farming practices and buildings were identifiable. Where we are is predominantly German heritage, utilizing rectangular barns, and in southern WI it’s more Dutch, where you would see octagonal barns, and in southeastern WI they grew tobacco, which had different barns altogether.

I had a decision to make when I became an adult as to whether I wanted to continue working on our family farm or not. With the tough times of the farmers of that time, I chose to chase after the engineering side of things, and don’t regret it.

My uncle now owns most of the farm and rents most of it to farmers like @Tractorsdontfloat , saving a few acres to work himself for fun, to be able to continue to use his antique equipment and show “how it used to be”. Come to think of it, he might rent it to some of @Tractorsdontfloat relation.....

 

[Tractorsdontfloat]

Hey, @Tractorsdontfloat , when are you gonna tell them WHY you dry the corn?

And forgive me for hauling ass multiple times in a blue Chevelle last summer, I didn’t know that’s where you lived

I’m always careful out there, but grew up with some of your neighbors.

Sorry @HydroSkreamin forgot about that, and was kinda trying to stay a little chronological, but no time like the present.

When the trucks leave our field, they all go back to the farm, are weighed, and the grain is dumped into a conveyor that feeds into our wet leg. A leg is a vertical bucket elevator that raises the grain to the top and dumps it into the tube that then allows gravity to drop it into the proper bin. Our wet leg feeds the dryer first, then when the dryer is full, the extra goes into one of two wet bins. We call them wet bins only because we use them for the wet, or higher moisture content corn.

Our dryer is a tower dryer. It’s called that because it is a tall skinny tower. Basket dryers are shorter, longer column dryers, and both tower and most basket dryers use a continuous flow process to move grain through. There are also dryers that are more batch style dryers, which do what their names suggest. They dry batches at a time, usually having a volume of grain in the drying chamber that once it’s dry, dumps into an unload hopper, then refills and starts over. Some of these are a mechanical process, and some can be a farmer fill, dump, fill process.

Some basket and all tower ones have grain continuously coming into the top, and the grain is always slowly moving down through the column getting dried, and then cooled some. Towers have a burner in the middle with a fan below it, and the metal is perforated where the column of corn flows to allow the hot air in to the corn, and hot wet air can get out the outside. One neat feature of tower dryers that allow more efficiency is the fan pulls outside air through the warm grain to cool the grain before it gets to the bottom of the dryer, which in turn warms the air some before it gets pushed back up through the burner chamber.

Now the actual answer to HydroScreamins question. Why do we dry our corn?

Corn will naturally dry on its own over time, but to effectively harvest, we have to harvest most of our corn at a moisture content of something between 20 and 25%. Grain effectively well only store at a moisture less than about 17%. Industry standard is all based off of 15.5%, meaning if it is above that amount, they will discount our corn to that point, or shrink as it is known. They will also charge for drying at a higher rate than it costs to dry ourselves.

Standard shrink in the industry is 1.4% per point of moisture, and drying is anything from 2-3 cents per half point depending on buyer. The other fun fact is they shrink to 15% if going into storage, basically causing a touch larger loss to the farmer. Also, the 1.4% shrink, even though an industry standard, is advantageous to the buyer, as my experience with our corn is the actual shrink coming out of our dryer is closer to 1.15-1.25% depending on year and variety.

 

[jb600]

One of the things that most people don’t know is in the 80’s, there were a lot of much smaller farms in WI. My grandpa’s farm that I spent a lot of time working on while growing up is about 10 miles from @Tractorsdontfloat. It was 240 acres and a 70 HP tractor was huge; we used 37-50 HP tractors of all different brands, fixed all of our own equipment, had a 1 acre garden that they lived off of (canning for winter months), milked a few cows (20-100; anything bigger than 100 was a HUGE operation, now you start at 1000), and always had some around for beef.

A lot of my friends were farmers with cattle, and we couldn’t go out until chores were done. Many hands make light work, so I’d show up in work clothes, help with chores, take a shower and go out. There wasn’t any other way.

I really miss all the red barns you could see, as far as you could see. Next to those barns were vertical silos (nobody uses them any more, it’s all done in plastic tubes on the ground) for holding cattle feed, ground up corn and hay called silage. The red barns are all but fallen down. The other interesting thing about the barns is that different areas of the state were settled by different nationalities, and their farming practices and buildings were identifiable. Where we are is predominantly German heritage, utilizing rectangular barns, and in southern WI it’s more Dutch, where you would see octagonal barns, and in southeastern WI they grew tobacco, which had different barns altogether.

I had a decision to make when I became an adult as to whether I wanted to continue working on our family farm or not. With the tough times of the farmers of that time, I chose to chase after the engineering side of things, and don’t regret it.

My uncle now owns most of the farm and rents most of it to farmers like @Tractorsdontfloat , saving a few acres to work himself for fun, to be able to continue to use his antique equipment and show “how it used to be”. Come to think of it, he might rent it to some of @Tractorsdontfloat relation.....

Next time you get up to Ashland, take a ride across county road 118. I couldn’t believe the farms along that stretch.

 

[Boozer]

Very expensive maintenance on that one

She’s worth it. I spent 3 years paying maintenance to an ugly woman. [emoji16][emoji16][emoji23][emoji23][emoji23]


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[HydroSkreamin]

Sorry @HydroSkreamin Now the actual answer to HydroScreamins question. Why do we dry our corn?

I was always told it couldn’t be picked until it got down somewhere between 18-20% or it would get moldy and be spoiled and useless. Is this accurate?

Can you expand a little bit and give an idea of how much propane you go through in a week or a month? Just to give perspective of cost just to dry it. Maybe show the tank...

Since you’re talking about timely, maybe you want to tell about the sex stones being pushed out of the ground currently as the frost leaves....you know, the f^<king rocks!

 

[Tractorsdontfloat]

Yeah JB, I wanted to continue, but the wife drug my arse to the bar for fish. Damn women anyway! .

To continue. And to answer HydroScreamin question. Old school beliefs, primarily when picking ear corn was that it had to be below 18%. How did they know? Float it in a bucket of water. Honestly I believe that to be a wives tale. And maybe if you aren’t going to dry it, that still holds true to a degree.

As for me, I plan on drying everything. I might add that my annual production ranges between 775,000 and 850,000 bushels of corn. I know I can’t store it all so I contract a bunch for October delivery, which forces us to get started harvesting in early October. Typical moistures in corn around us at that time of year usually ranges from low 20s to mid thirties. What we have discovered over the years is we see a rather large amount of “phantom yield loss” as the corn dries naturally in the fields.

Now what I mean by this is, if I harvest a field at 25% moisture, it will always yield better than if I harvest the same corn at 20%. I will alway end up with more corn drying it from a higher moisture to 15% than if it dries naturally to a lower moisture, and I have to dry less to 15%. Where does that extra yield go? I don’t know, and no one else can explain why higher moisture corn yields better, except to say corn experiences phantom yield loss. I have experienced it myself and can show yield maps to prove it. My theory is the plant cannibalizes itself and gives more than just moisture up as it dries.

Using this mentality, there is a point that it becomes too costly to dry at some moisture. Therefore, I feel if I can harvest everything at around 23-24% I would. Unfortunately, I usually have to start in that range or a bit higher., and end up finishing the season in the high teens. Some years I’m happy to find something below 27% to start with, but most years I end around 20%. We vary variety matuRita to help elevate some of this, but Ma Nature says more than anything about this.

 

[Tractorsdontfloat]

To go further on the drying deal, location of the field to the farm vs field to local market plays a part in how we contract and what moisture we are willing to harvest. We farm enough acres that it’s not all right across the street from the farm. So, in some cases, I need to consider if it’s worth harvesting, hauling it to the farm, drying, then hauling dry corn right past that field to a market to make room for more corn, or would just letting it dry to a lower level, harvest and haul direct to market and let them dock for moisture and shrink be a cheaper option?

Most of the time, when considering this, we have found the 21% number to be the magic number. Anything under 21% we feel the amount of dockage we will incur is small enough that it does not justify hauling it back to the farm, dry it, and haul it back to the elevator, handling it twice. Now this varies by field location, but for us we really only consider this with specific ground. The rest is close enough to the farm, or the route to the local market makes it easier to dry ourselves.

 

[HydroSkreamin]

Awesome! Now about those costs...what does that dryer burn in an hour/day/month? Obviously you have it down to a science so you know to the gnats ass whether to dry it or take the hit and let the buyer dry it.

How much of your Phantom Loss is animals?

Thanks again for your time in doing this. I live here and I have plenty to learn!

Once my boat is done I might have to ride a few laps sometime making GPS paper clips

 

[Tractorsdontfloat]

When we put the tower dryer in in 2015, we worked with our local propane dealer to place a tank appropriately sized so they would not have to be out several times a day to fill it up. They were hoping to find and place a 6000 gallon tank, but got a great deal on an 8000, so that’s what we have in our yard feeding the dryer.

Let me push the clutch in and throw it in reverse a second. Corn dryers can be fitted for liquid propane or natural gas very similar to a gas dryer in a home, just on a larger scale. Basically it’s a couple parts for the vaporizer and fuel jet nozzle and it can be converted from one to the other.

We do not have natural gas access right at the farm, so we currently are using LP. We did look into getting a natural gas line brought in from the closest point, which turned out to be about three and a half miles. Natural gas is usually significantly cheaper than LP, so recouping this expense can be done, but the distance, and the size of line needed based on max btu of the dryer made it an above $250,000 investment. Something that just wasn’t in the budget at that time.

So we use LP, fed by the tank set by the gas company.

Our dryer is a 12 foot diameter by 86 foot tall dryer that is rated at 2400 bushels of grain dried per hour. Now that is under very specific conditions and only having to dry five percent out of the corn. I need to read out of the literature for some data here. Max btu of our dryer is near 24 million btu per hour, with average per hour about 14 mil. And drying airflow the fan puts out of of just over 110,000 cfm.

Our normal LP usage with this dryer is a little bit above 100 gallons per hour. The gas company comes usually once a day with their 3000 gallon delivery truck. Depending on day, temperature, variety, and moisture of the incoming corn we range anything from the high 700s to up near 2200 bushels an hour through it. Most of the time we run within a few bushels of 1000 on average.

 

[Tractorsdontfloat]

Our costs range a bit year to year depending on cost of LP and weather. Our LP costs have ranged from as low as 73 cents per gallon up to as high as $1.35 (and I hope it stays well below this number for a long time). Regularly we are paying real close to $1.00.

If elevators charge 2 to 3 cents per half point, and that jumps a bit if the corn comes in needing to be dried more than ten points, and add shrink to that, it becomes very advantageous to do our own drying.

My normal costs, assuming I am bringing corn into the farm that is in the 22-24% range where I normally harvest, are in the 1.5-2 cents per point, and I incur actual shrink, which I’ve found is normally about .15-.2% better than the industry standard.

 

[Tractorsdontfloat]

Just a few interesting facts learned from my trip to the ethanol plant yesterday. This applies to this plant only, as not all these products are made by all ethanol plants

From one bushel of #2 yellow corn. 1 bushel equals 56 pounds

They get 2.95 gallons of fuel ethanol
They get 11.5 pounds of dry distillers grains. This is sold primarily as animal feed (pigs and cows) as a feed supplement
They get 3.5 pounds of high protein yeast ingredient. This is primarily sold to dog food makers. Interesting fact is that this product, although it comes from a grain processing action, it is a yeast product, and the dog food that gets made from it can still be sold as grain free.
They also get one pound of crude corn oil. This is not inspected for food grade usage as of right now, therefore it all goes for industrial use, including biodiesel.

Another interesting fact about this particular plant is that every gallon of ethanol produced goes to only markets within Wisconsin. The other products do get shipped out of state, but not the ethanol.

 

[Tractorsdontfloat]

Sorry about jumping around a little, but just trying to answer questions. Wanted to get back to the planter and make sure I cover the workings of the seed unit thoroughly.

Here is the door side of the unit. As you can see it has a seal on it. The seed will ride on the opposite side of the seed disk from the seal, and the plate will run counterclockwise on the pic. Where the seal jogs around the scraper is where the seed falls off into the seed tube.

This is a picture of the scraper from the above photo and the rotating knock out wheel I mentioned earlier. The scraper is used for beans of all types and the wheel for corn only.

The inside of the seed unit also has some adjustments that can be made to maximize the effectiveness of the seeding. The black plastic piece is a gate that slides to open or close the opening at the top of the unit into the seed box. This allows me to allow more or less seed into the plate. Usually it is closed more for smaller seed like corn, and opened more for larger seed. Too much seed against the plate can cause more doubles, and not enough too many skips. Top photo is half open, bottom one is fully open.

The silver saw tooth looking thing is a seed scraper that can be adjusted to help eliminate doubles too. The dial that can be seen in the very bottom left of this pic allows me to dial it up or down. The seed slides along this, and it shifts the seed around to knock any extra seed off the plate. Ideally, this should cover about half the hole as I try to show with the next pic with the green lines.

And lastly, there is a brush that gets placed in the unit. This is primarily there to direct any seed that gets knocked off by the double eliminator back into the unit and not down the seed tube. I am showing the location it goes in the unit with the short brush, and the next pic is the different brushes I use. The long brush is for corn, the shorter one with the bigger missing bristles is for beans, and allows for the multiple rows of holes.

 

[Tractorsdontfloat]

It’s that time of year again. Maple sap is running, and syrup is being made all over. Not gonna make any this year, as the cupboard is still pretty full from last year. Usually only make some every couple three years. The last two times we made any, we tapped a couple hundred trees, and made 55 gallons in 2015, 39 gallons in 2018.

 

[Wolskis]

My nephew is prepping for syrup as well up in Phillips WI. He's been doing it for about 15 years now.

 

[Tractorsdontfloat]

My nephew is prepping for syrup as well up in Phillips WI. He's been doing it for about 15 years now.

We started making it back when my brother and I were in 4-H. I’m not sure what year, but mid 80s. I’m nearing 50, and my brother is 50, so a lot of years. We can truly say we only burned one house down! Oops. Was my great grandparents place next to my parents. Old and flammable.

Wonder if my dads notes have the totals from all the years to know how many gallons we’ve made over the years?

 

[buck35]

You have an amazing operation there sir.

 

[Tractorsdontfloat]

You have an amazing operation there sir.

Thank you sir. Hope you’re enjoying the thread.

 

[Headless hula]

This thread needs more pics.

 

[Headless hula]

This spot had 14 in of water on it last week.

 

[RichL]

Still looks cold. Just sayin'.

 

[Headless hula]

Still looks cold. Just sayin'.

Was in the 50's yesterday.

 

[Tractorsdontfloat]

Took a couple quick ones for the thread this morning while at the farm. This is the three point I talked about where the planter hooks to. I can raise or lower to a designated level and set so it is a one touch raise and lower to the set levels.

The levers on top corners, when flipped down, latch the bottom pins in the hooks. The left one is up, and the hook open. The right is down and closed hook. This particular tractor has a switchable top center link. It is currently the smaller of the two. You can also see the drawbar on the tractor.

This pic shows the power take off or pto. This one is a 1 3/8” shaft that we call the large thousand, as this one runs at 1000 rpm at full speed. This is the only one available for this tractor, but smaller tractors also have a 1 1/8” fine splined 1000 rpm, or small thousand, and a coarse splined 540 rpm shaft.

 

[monkeyswrench]

One of the things that most people don’t know is in the 80’s, there were a lot of much smaller farms in WI. My grandpa’s farm that I spent a lot of time working on while growing up is about 10 miles from @Tractorsdontfloat. It was 240 acres and a 70 HP tractor was huge; we used 37-50 HP tractors of all different brands, fixed all of our own equipment, had a 1 acre garden that they lived off of (canning for winter months), milked a few cows (20-100; anything bigger than 100 was a HUGE operation, now you start at 1000), and always had some around for beef.

A lot of my friends were farmers with cattle, and we couldn’t go out until chores were done. Many hands make light work, so I’d show up in work clothes, help with chores, take a shower and go out. There wasn’t any other way.

I really miss all the red barns you could see, as far as you could see. Next to those barns were vertical silos (nobody uses them any more, it’s all done in plastic tubes on the ground) for holding cattle feed, ground up corn and hay called silage. The red barns are all but fallen down. The other interesting thing about the barns is that different areas of the state were settled by different nationalities, and their farming practices and buildings were identifiable. Where we are is predominantly German heritage, utilizing rectangular barns, and in southern WI it’s more Dutch, where you would see octagonal barns, and in southeastern WI they grew tobacco, which had different barns altogether.

I had a decision to make when I became an adult as to whether I wanted to continue working on our family farm or not. With the tough times of the farmers of that time, I chose to chase after the engineering side of things, and don’t regret it.

My uncle now owns most of the farm and rents most of it to farmers like @Tractorsdontfloat , saving a few acres to work himself for fun, to be able to continue to use his antique equipment and show “how it used to be”. Come to think of it, he might rent it to some of @Tractorsdontfloat relation.....

Hydro, that sounds like a hell of a way to grow up. Work ethic should be the same no matter the field you choose. As a youngster in California, near LA, I always wanted more space and a, "Long View"...seeing a horizon, not houses. I grew up in a construction household, hammers and wrenches. My brother didn't want that, went to computers. I embraced it, it kept me outside. I am like you though, in that I would never regret my choice. Your Grandpa's farm is what I pictured as a kid. My only knowledge of farming came from Mr. Rogers, or Sesame Street.

When we put the tower dryer in in 2015, we worked with our local propane dealer to place a tank appropriately sized so they would not have to be out several times a day to fill it up. They were hoping to find and place a 6000 gallon tank, but got a great deal on an 8000, so that’s what we have in our yard feeding the dryer.

Let me push the clutch in and throw it in reverse a second. Corn dryers can be fitted for liquid propane or natural gas very similar to a gas dryer in a home, just on a larger scale. Basically it’s a couple parts for the vaporizer and fuel jet nozzle and it can be converted from one to the other.

We do not have natural gas access right at the farm, so we currently are using LP. We did look into getting a natural gas line brought in from the closest point, which turned out to be about three and a half miles. Natural gas is usually significantly cheaper than LP, so recouping this expense can be done, but the distance, and the size of line needed based on max btu of the dryer made it an above $250,000 investment. Something that just wasn’t in the budget at that time.

So we use LP, fed by the tank set by the gas company.

Our dryer is a 12 foot diameter by 86 foot tall dryer that is rated at 2400 bushels of grain dried per hour. Now that is under very specific conditions and only having to dry five percent out of the corn. I need to read out of the literature for some data here. Max btu of our dryer is near 24 million btu per hour, with average per hour about 14 mil. And drying airflow the fan puts out of of just over 110,000 cfm.

View attachment 738121

Our normal LP usage with this dryer is a little bit above 100 gallons per hour. The gas company comes usually once a day with their 3000 gallon delivery truck. Depending on day, temperature, variety, and moisture of the incoming corn we range anything from the high 700s to up near 2200 bushels an hour through it. Most of the time we run within a few bushels of 1000 on average.

Do you or your family have kids coming up into the farm life like you did? I ask because I know my boys would have a field day around that equipment, both tractors and grain bins. I know I would have too!

 

[HydroSkreamin]

Hydro, that sounds like a hell of a way to grow up. Work ethic should be the same no matter the field you choose. As a youngster in California, near LA, I always wanted more space and a, "Long View"...seeing a horizon, not houses. I grew up in a construction household, hammers and wrenches. My brother didn't want that, went to computers. I embraced it, it kept me outside. I am like you though, in that I would never regret my choice. Your Grandpa's farm is what I pictured as a kid. My only knowledge of farming came from Mr. Rogers, or Sesame Street.

Do you or your family have kids coming up into the farm life like you did? I ask because I know my boys would have a field day around that equipment, both tractors and grain bins. I know I would have too!

Sadly, I do not. My girls are on paths toward archaeology, psychology, and nursing.

I tell people all the time I’d never trade how or where I grew up. It taught me responsibility, accountability, and learning how to fix things on your own and be independent, relying on yourself first, others if necessary.

When we built our house 10 years ago, we put laundry rooms upstairs and down, and the kids have been doing their own laundry since then. That’s as close to those practices as we’ve become, putting the ownership of the task on the person that needs it. The girls knew if they needed a specific outfit the next day, they’d only have themselves to blame if it didn’t get done. It was actually my wife’s idea, but I supported it and it was brilliant in my opinion. It also allowed backup when one of the machines would break.

I was reminded how special “the farm” was to the family of my grandpa’s second wife. I have a whole slew of “step” family that I just consider family, and after my grandma’s passing last fall I was reminded how special it was to them, too. A lot of the pictures on the easels at her service were their special memories on the farm, coming up 2 hours from Milwaukee to visit. The whole adjustment from the city to the country was a really big deal.

Here’s a pic of the original buildings before my grandpa bought the farm. My cousin swore the house had been moved because he didn’t remember it being that far from the barn. There are a lot more mature trees since this was taken.

Notice there isn’t any electricity in the picture. It didn’t have it yet. Gramps was always proud of the fact it was one of the first farms in the county with electricity. Gramps bought the farm from “&son” in 1957, I can’t remember his name. There’s a building that hadn’t been built yet in this picture that houses a complete machine shop run off overhead shaft complete with bandsaw, table saw, drill press, and lathe, all run off belts.

If you can, try to get your boys on a farm tour in CA. I’m sure from the dairy side of things they’re very similar to the large operations here. Help explain the processes and what it takes in brains, manpower and money to make it all happen. As far as they know, it just happens...and big equipment is ALWAYS cool.

 

[Headless hula]

Proof that @Tractorsdontfloat actually
owns a bote....


Here's a pic of his tippytinnyshitbox.

 

[buck35]

Proof that @Tractorsdontfloat actually
owns a bote....


Here's a pic of his tippytinnyshitbox. View attachment 738413

I'mma still wondering how he knows they don't float.

 

[Headless hula]

I'mma still wondering how he knows they don't float.

Mark is in the middle of what's called the "central sands" part of the state. It's pretty hard to find a mud puddle come summer. The area surrounds the Wisconsin river. In my minds eye, when the glaciers melted, the "central sands" part of the state was a big ole sand bar that formed as it melted leaving the sandy soil...

Here's a couple of screen shots of the area. You can kinda tell by the lack of trees, etc....

 

[monkeyswrench]

Sadly, I do not. My girls are on paths toward archaeology, psychology, and nursing.

I tell people all the time I’d never trade how or where I grew up. It taught me responsibility, accountability, and learning how to fix things on your own and be independent, relying on yourself first, others if necessary.

When we built our house 10 years ago, we put laundry rooms upstairs and down, and the kids have been doing their own laundry since then. That’s as close to those practices as we’ve become, putting the ownership of the task on the person that needs it. The girls knew if they needed a specific outfit the next day, they’d only have themselves to blame if it didn’t get done. It was actually my wife’s idea, but I supported it and it was brilliant in my opinion. It also allowed backup when one of the machines would break.

I was reminded how special “the farm” was to the family of my grandpa’s second wife. I have a whole slew of “step” family that I just consider family, and after my grandma’s passing last fall I was reminded how special it was to them, too. A lot of the pictures on the easels at her service were their special memories on the farm, coming up 2 hours from Milwaukee to visit. The whole adjustment from the city to the country was a really big deal.

Here’s a pic of the original buildings before my grandpa bought the farm. My cousin swore the house had been moved because he didn’t remember it being that far from the barn. There are a lot more mature trees since this was taken.

View attachment 738355

Notice there isn’t any electricity in the picture. It didn’t have it yet. Gramps was always proud of the fact it was one of the first farms in the county with electricity. Gramps bought the farm from “&son” in 1957, I can’t remember his name. There’s a building that hadn’t been built yet in this picture that houses a complete machine shop run off overhead shaft complete with bandsaw, table saw, drill press, and lathe, all run off belts.

If you can, try to get your boys on a farm tour in CA. I’m sure from the dairy side of things they’re very similar to the large operations here. Help explain the processes and what it takes in brains, manpower and money to make it all happen. As far as they know, it just happens...and big equipment is ALWAYS cool.

The work ethic of "farm life" can be handed down, even if the farm isn't I think what a lot of the youth is lacking is the sense of independence. Kids get left alone after school, watch TV and play video games...but that isn't being self sufficient, that's just staying out of trouble...in theory. Chores are important in becoming a productive adult...at least that's my thinking.

As for farm tours...not in Cali anymore, thank God. My boys have been around some small ranches out here in central Arizona. A little more cowboy than Ol' MacDonald. My kids are all starting to understand the enormous financial investment in food production. They knew it took tractors and land, but they didn't have a grasp of the numbers until recently. It's a different world from what we've been around.

 

[HydroSkreamin]

The work ethic of "farm life" can be handed down, even if the farm isn't I think what a lot of the youth is lacking is the sense of independence. Kids get left alone after school, watch TV and play video games...but that isn't being self sufficient, that's just staying out of trouble...in theory. Chores are important in becoming a productive adult...at least that's my thinking.

As for farm tours...not in Cali anymore, thank God. My boys have been around some small ranches out here in central Arizona. A little more cowboy than Ol' MacDonald. My kids are all starting to understand the enormous financial investment in food production. They knew it took tractors and land, but they didn't have a grasp of the numbers until recently. It's a different world from what we've been around.

At least you’re cognizant if it and making sure your boys are too. Everything comes from somewhere, and knowing the source of everything is important.

Glad you got to show the boys some stuff, they’ll think of it if they know it meant enough to you to give them some insight on it.

I don’t know if it was you or someone else that mentioned farmers usually have some pretty badass toys, and you’d be correct that their understanding of all things mechanical draws them to tractor pulling and stock cars, especially in this area.

Here’s a link to the Badger State Pullers.

https://bstponline.com/

Check out some of the tractors and trucks in there. It’s one step away from NTPA national pulling. These guys aren’t any less serious, just don’t want to be away from business/farm for too long. One of my friends has a ProStock diesel tractor that’s probably close to $500K, making nearly 5000 ft-lbs of torque (dyno’d)!

We’ve also got enough stock car tracks to race just about any night of the week, although it’s not as big as it was in the 90’s and 2000’s. I used to make my living making engines supporting both Motorsports, so I still have friends in both. Marshfield and Kaukauna on Thursday nights, Madison and Plover on Friday nights, Slinger on Sunday nights just for asphalt tracks, and I don’t even know of all of the dirt tracks.

Most of my farmer friends live by “work hard, play harder”. They’re fierce competitors and friendly at the same time, willing to help a competitor out if needed.

 

[monkeyswrench]

At least you’re cognizant if it and making sure your boys are too. Everything comes from somewhere, and knowing the source of everything is important.

Glad you got to show the boys some stuff, they’ll think of it if they know it meant enough to you to give them some insight on it.

I don’t know if it was you or someone else that mentioned farmers usually have some pretty badass toys, and you’d be correct that their understanding of all things mechanical draws them to tractor pulling and stock cars, especially in this area.

Here’s a link to the Badger State Pullers.

https://bstponline.com/

Check out some of the tractors and trucks in there. It’s one step away from NTPA national pulling. These guys aren’t any less serious, just don’t want to be away from business/farm for too long. One of my friends has a ProStock diesel tractor that’s probably close to $500K, making nearly 5000 ft-lbs of torque (dyno’d)!

We’ve also got enough stock car tracks to race just about any night of the week, although it’s not as big as it was in the 90’s and 2000’s. I used to make my living making engines supporting both Motorsports, so I still have friends in both. Marshfield and Kaukauna on Thursday nights, Madison and Plover on Friday nights, Slinger on Sunday nights just for asphalt tracks, and I don’t even know of all of the dirt tracks.

Most of my farmer friends live by “work hard, play harder”. They’re fierce competitors and friendly at the same time, willing to help a competitor out if needed.

The guy I got my last set of Rockwells from was from the land of cheddar. He'd go back and help family with harvest every year. Had a trucking outfit out here, raced dirt modifieds and mud trucks. Really nice guy. Sold his outfit, and kept two tractors to haul everything back home. He and his lady were going back to slow down...but he took a few motors, just incase he started racing again


...and yes, every kid should know stuff doesn't just come from Wally World. They know their water comes from the ground, but it's not a magic hole. They aren't into hunting and cleaning a kill, but they're capable of it. Boys and daughter are learning what's edible and what isn't in the fields and hills around us. They are way brighter than I am, so I try to teach them the few things I know. The girl is 15 and in 2nd semester calculus at the college...not much help there. When she said she wanted to learn how to weld though, all over that! Teach your kids what you can, and hope they can learn those things they want that you can't help them with.

 

[Tractorsdontfloat]

I'mma still wondering how he knows they don't float.

It was a catastrophic failure. Took us months to find the outboard to fit the back of the tractor, and on the maiden voyage, someone had forgotten to tighten the bolts anchoring it to the tractors transom. Fell right off in the deepest part of the field...err lake. Funny thing is on a quiet night some say you can still hear it running.

 

[Ol Man]

The amount of technology used in farming today is simply amazing.

 

[Tractorsdontfloat]

Proof that @Tractorsdontfloat actually
owns a bote....


Here's a pic of his tippytinnyshitbox. View attachment 738413

Hey quit picking on my clapped out shit box. At least it floats, and I don’t have to row!

 

[River Runnin]

Proof that @Tractorsdontfloat actually
owns a bote....


Here's a pic of his tippytinnyshitbox. View attachment 738413

May not be a DCB but hits hard at an SWIA — Some Wood In Aluminum!

 

[buck35]

I'm still trying to digest 6000 gallons of propane a day!

 

[HydroSkreamin]

That’s why I wanted him to explain it, even though I didn’t know the actual number.

Fuel logistics gets to be a big deal at that level.

 

[Tractorsdontfloat]

I'm still trying to digest 6000 gallons of propane a day!

Actually, it was a little more than 100 gallons per hour, 24 hours, 2400-2500 gallons per day, or there about.

Season long, the total gallons reaches near 100,000 most years.

 

[Headless hula]

That’s why I wanted him to explain it, even though I didn’t know the actual number.

Fuel logistics gets to be a big deal at that level.

For the tippy tinny?

 

[Headless hula]

Actually, it was a little more than 100 gallons per hour, 24 hours, 2400-2500 gallons per day, or there about.

Season long, the total gallons reaches near 100,000 most years.

That's a lotta jiggin for perch.

 

[Tractorsdontfloat]

Just a few pics to feed the thought process.

A few pics of the kidney beans.

 

[buck35]

Actually, it was a little more than 100 gallons per hour, 24 hours, 2400-2500 gallons per day, or there about.

Season long, the total gallons reaches near 100,000 most years.

I really hate to harp on this, but how or what type of fueler can even keep up let alone fill the tank? This is an incredibly interesting thread and my mind is swimming with questions.

 

[Tractorsdontfloat]

I think it was monkey that asked if I have any kids wanting to come into the operation.

No, unfortunately I do not. My son, an only child, is a freshman in college with aspirations of becoming a history teacher. Ughh. As a long time School Board member, that hit me right in the gut. Don’t get me wrong. Teaching is a noble profession, and all teachers deserve respect. I know I could never be one. The way kids act these days I would be out in a heartbeat. It’s just the arguments I’ve had with teachers over the years kinda leave me wishing for a different career path for him.

And @buck35 the LP delivery truck is there with 3000 gallons every day. And some times twice on Saturday.

Also, if you have questions, feel free to ask. Makes telling my story more interesting and easier for me. You ask I answer, then I can tell what you guys wanna hear, and not just me rambling about unimportant stuff.

 

[monkeyswrench]

I think it was monkey that asked if I have any kids wanting to come into the operation.

No, unfortunately I do not. My son, an only child, is a freshman in college with aspirations of becoming a history teacher. Ughh. As a long time School Board member, that hit me right in the gut. Don’t get me wrong. Teaching is a noble profession, and all teachers deserve respect. I know I could never be one. The way kids act these days I would be out in a heartbeat. It’s just the arguments I’ve had with teachers over the years kinda leave me wishing for a different career path for him.

And @buck35 the LP delivery truck is there with 3000 gallons every day. And some times twice on Saturday.

Also, if you have questions, feel free to ask. Makes telling my story more interesting and easier for me. You ask I answer, then I can tell what you guys wanna hear, and not just me rambling about unimportant stuff.

Funny, I came very close to following the path of a high school history teacher. I loved history, and most of them coached...and summers off. Somewhere in my first year of college it struck me...high school kids in Cali weren't going to get any better, and I wasn't a fan of the "Union Brotherhood".
I did the math, and figured what I could make, as opposed to what the tuition would cost me. My grades were good (surprising everyone, being a gearhead and all) but not good enough for a scholarship. My athletics were only good enough for one offer from an east coast school. Well, if I took that I'd never have the money to come home. Not wanting to take out loans, I dropped out. I went to work and bought my first house at 21, and married a school teacher at 22. This summer will be 20 years. She still teaches and we're still married, so in my case, the right decisions were made.
My daughter is looking to teach now. She's smart enough to do calculations I can't even copy. She could go into engineering...but she wants to teach. I just hope she keeps a level head, and can ignore the propaganda they push in the places of higher learning. The boys haven't chosen paths yet, but one has an interest in both aerodynamics and magnetic/electrical field generation. At 12, I can no longer answer his questions off the cuff, and have to research.
Raise them right, and hopefully they'll choose right. The paths we made may not be the ones they follow, but at least their paths will be headed the right direction.