Between the River Hills & the River Bottom

[cliftonbros89]

We’ll end of the week was full of the regular. However, I may be on hiatus for a few days. This evening is the big Christmas party for my girlfriend‘s work. She had to burn her last few days of vacation so she’s off Monday and Tuesday. So we decided we’re going to take a small trip for a few days. No destination or plans. We’re just going to hit the road tomorrow. So it won’t be back to normal until Wednesday.

Since I haven’t gotten around to giving a whole tour of the place yet I’ll leave you with a picture I took this fall from the top of one of our bins for now.

 

[1949 caddyman]

Have a nice vacation with your gal & thanks for growing our food.

 

[cliftonbros89]

Back from my trip today. Had a bit of a late start today. Not too much activity. Pops had to run to town to run some errands. I got started doing some shop work again. Then was stopped by one of my uncles who’d been squirrel hunting this morning. He stopped by wanting to talk about rabbit hunting. He just got a new dog he’s eager to get out.

This afternoon I rolled the 4440 outside for a good bath. Parts still haven’t come in so I didn’t make much progress

After a few cans of degreaser and some soap I got it cleaned up fairly good. Good enough to do some more work to it and give it a wax job.

Got a package in today. We had “reward points” from Bayer for certain products. Ended up with a DeWalt 60v Flexvolt set.
Got a drill, impact, saw, batteries and chargers. So I guess it’s not too bad of a deal. All good brushless stuff. So it’s cool.

This evening we had to put a fuel pump and battery on the old two ton truck.

Had some assistance from the brother-in-law so we knocked it out pretty quick. Now we just have to hope the brakes work! Going to use it to haul off some cow **** and maybe haul a few loads of gravel.

Had to quit a bit early again today for another family function for my girlfriend’s family. Tis the season I guess.

Spent my days off across the river with the girl. Had her work Christmas party. Consist of a free hotel, free shuttle to and from the hotel, free 3 coarse meal, and free drinks all night. Usually a good time. Rented a small cabin. Drove on some back roads, visited a view wineries, few local restaurants, state park, just relaxed a little. All in all not a bad trip. Kind of nice to have a break for a few days. Especially since it’s back to Christmas parties again Friday evening-Monday.

 

[cliftonbros89]

Had to run around and do some errands again today. They always seem plentiful this time of year. But in between that I got a few things done this morning. Saw the Matco guy to pick up some things from him.
Got a pretty good deal on the Milwaukee stuff from him. The JD tray is from JD. Can never seem to have enough of those trays when taking things apart.

Also finished off some Christmas shopping while I was on the truck.

Had to bleed the brake on the old 2 ton this morning a couple times. Dad used it to haul come manure today. He’s been taking it to a field up the road a little ways. We’re going to try and work it into some spots that like to wash when it pours. Cuz we never get just a rain anymore. It’s always a pour down. Washes hillsides out in no time.

After that and the trip to town I headed across the river to the JD dealer. They finally got in all the parts and filters I ordered except for one part that’s on backorder yet. They usually deliver a big order directly to us. But I decided to just go pick it up right away.

There’s usually about 2 boxes that size. But I didn’t have quite as much to order this time. Probably have some more later on to order when they have another sale but this should be good for now. Now I’ve just got to unpack everything. I always check the list over to make sure nothing is missing then put everything in the parts loft in its designated area. I have parts sorted by which piece of equipment they go to. Filters are pretty well stored similarly. They’re a little different since several filters work for more than one tractor. So I think once that is done I may gradually get started on the inventory and reorganization of the parts loft.

 

[cliftonbros89]

This evening I started getting the parts all sorted. Made sure the list of things I ordered matched the list of things they gave me
I already had some of the stuff put away by the time I took this picture. Mostly filters, but a lot of smaller parts. Seal kits, fuel caps, things like that.

I have some yet that I plan to tag. Makes it a little easier to identify the part number, plus know where and what it goes to. All part of getting the parts loft and little more organized and efficient.

I couldn’t take it but had to open my Milwaukee polisher.

First cordless Milwaukee tool in the shop. I didn’t actually use it yet but it seems like it’s going to be pretty sweet. I wished it had it to use on the 4020 and 2520 when I waxed them. Now I just need to find a good affordable source for extra pads for it.

I also received a surprise this evening. A late stop by the UPS guy. I wasn’t expecting it that’s for sure but it finally arrived.

My Snap On 1/2” drive crowfoot set finally showed up! I guess Merry Christmas to me. Glad I’ll have it. I could’ve used several of those this year. I have a feeling next year won’t be any different.

Also, got some more free hats. Just a few of several I’ve collected the last week or so. Very popular item this time of year.

 

[cliftonbros89]

Back to loading trucks today. Nice and windy day to do it.

Won’t be hauling off any today. But they’ll be ready to go for next week. Have some more beans to haul off for another landlord and a bit of our own.

Of corse feeding hay today too. Like usual.

 

[Bronson]

I just read the entire thread.
I really enjoyed it, thanks for showing us life on the farm!
I will be following along!

 

[cliftonbros89]

In the midst of loading the truck yesterday the 60 quit on me. Condenser went out in the distributor. So I rolled it out of the way and got out the 420.

About the time I got the 420 going on the auger the beans quit running out of the bin. So of corse that meant I had to put the sweep in.

One job I don’t mind doing this time of year. It’s a lot better doing it this time of year that in the summer when it’s 95 degrees outside.

 

[Dividing Creek]

Never raised or sold grains. Are prices higher in the winter than right @ harvest time ?
Always wondered why my neighbors store grain on site and sell it many mos later.

 

[cliftonbros89]

Never raised or sold grains. Are prices higher in the winter than right @ harvest time ?
Always wondered why my neighbors store grain on site and sell it many mos later.

It depends. Sometimes prices can rise after the first of the year. Or at least you hope it does. But one reason for storing it is that the grain, especially corn, is not always dry at harvest time either. You get a dock on price if it’s not dry.

 

[jblnut]

Never raised or sold grains. Are prices higher in the winter than right @ harvest time ?
Always wondered why my neighbors store grain on site and sell it many mos later.

It depends. Sometimes prices can rise after the first of the year. Or at least you hope it does. But one reason for storing it is that the grain, especially corn, is not always dry at harvest time either. You get a dock on price if it’s not dry.

We store grain for both of those reasons. We dry most of our corn and need somewhere to put it once it's dry. We've found that, for the most part, the futures market is the best in November and try to contract half the crop for delivery the following summer.

We combined for some neighbors that had almost $0.80/bu taken off after paying for trucking out of the field and getting docked for wet corn. I honestly don't know why they don't build a drying bin because they could have it paid for in a few years. The load out their corn got taken too has a pair of monster Sukup Tower Dryers that can dry over 10,00bu/hr. They can dry more corn in an hour and a half than we can dry in two days. They also have almost 3 million bushels of storage on that site.

 

[cliftonbros89]

Prices do tend to rise sometimes for fall. We may contract some now and then. But there’s always that hope that maybe the prices will come up later to contract some more. Unfortunately, it doesn’t always work that way.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[Dividing Creek]

Cool. So you contract to sell via the futures market almost a year in advance ?
Then you take out crop ins to insure against drought/wind etc. How are short falls typically handled ?

 

[cliftonbros89]

Cool. So you contract to sell via the futures market almost a year in advance ?
Then you take out crop ins to insure against draught/wind etc. How are short falls typically handled ?

We personally never contract that far in advance. Grandpa always said it’s tough to sell something you don’t have. On a side note the insurance game is a joke.

 

[Dividing Creek]

We personally never contract that far in advance. Grandpa always said it’s tough to sell something you don’t have. On a side note the insurance game is a joke.

Once had an old Atty friend in Baton Rouge explain his views on ins to me. He said agents for all forms of ins are just legal bookies in a gambling scheme and will insure anything if the odds are in their favor. Had never thought of ins that way before but have have shared his cynicism ever since.

 

[jblnut]

Cool. So you contract to sell via the futures market almost a year in advance ?
Then you take out crop ins to insure against drought/wind etc. How are short falls typically handled ?

We rarely contract something we do not have on hand in the bins. Typically by November we have the majority of the crop in and will contract enough to cover some expenses. We like to lock some in to know the income is there if the bottom falls out. We obviously take the risk that the price may rise but I feel that looking dumb because we lost out on some income while locking in a profit is better than taking a chance on it all and looking back and wishing you'd have locked some in.

I agree on the whole crop insurance deal. Kind of a big joke. On a good year paying for the insurance doesn't hurt that much, on a really bad year it may be needed but on the average years it just kills you. Unless you want to pay an incredible premium insurance is really only valuable for a total loss, or close to it.

 

[Dividing Creek]

Thanks for the insight/explantions. Whats an "average" and a "good" bushel per acre yield for beans for you guys ? Pulled up the avg yield per acre here in Va for 2017 and it was down 10 bu from last year to 150. A lot of these guys here raise winter wheat and then go right back and no till plant round up ready beans as a late crop.

What do you guys charge to combine for a land owner (is it a $ fee or shares) per acre ?

Thinking we should look into the economics of planting a couple hundred acres of soybeans this year. We have a Sukup grain drill that hasn't left the barn since 2010.

 

[cliftonbros89]

Thanks for the insight/explantions. Whats an "average" and a "good" bushel per acre yield for beans for you guys ? Pulled up the avg yield per acre here in Va for 2017 and it was down 10 bu from last year to 150. A lot of these guys here raise winter wheat and then go right back and no till plant round up ready beans as a late crop.

What do you guys charge to combine for a land owner (is it a $ fee or shares) per acre ?

Thinking we should look into the economics of planting a couple hundred acres of soybeans this year. We have a Sukup grain drill that hasn't left the barn since 2010.

Honestly around here our average yield on beans isn’t anywhere close to 150. Around here you get about 90 in a good year. If that. We also do some wheat and plant beans right after too. Sometimes we’ll have clover right after wheat for hay. But majority of the time it’s beans. We’ve actually started putting more wheat after beans rather than after corn as there seems to be less issues with the wheat later on.

As far as customer combining goes I believe we always charged per acre. I don’t recall what the rate was as we haven’t done any custom work in the last few years. I know it was enough that people complained a little. But it really wasn’t enough to hardly cover the cost.

 

[cliftonbros89]

Finally the holidays have slightly drawn to a close. Had a party Friday, girlfriend’s grandmother’s Saturday, my family’s Sunday, then girlfriend’s family Monday. It’s been busy. Worked in time for whiskey, beer, wine and board games. So that was a plus.

Monday (Christmas) morning all the cattle needed hay so off we went.

We had a bit of snow Saturday and melted a bit. A slight dusting Sunday which thawed Monday. That caused the ground to be just wet enough to start making things messy.

Today was pretty much back to normal. We hauled off the two truck loads of beans that we loaded up on Friday. Then we loaded up again and hauled 2 more loads of beans.

But we didn’t fully loaded before we had to put the sweep in another bin.

But we got them loaded and ready for the morning. Off with some more.

 

[cliftonbros89]

Another job added to the to-do list. My girlfriend bought me a cabinet for the shop for Christmas.

I’d actually been on the hunt for a shorter one for awhile to keep in my corner of the shop for awhile. I’ve been wanting one to keep some general supplies so I don’t want to wonder the shop in search of things all the time.

I don’t recall if I’ve posted about this before but my corner of the shop is green. I bought my first box, then a second, the the surrounding stuff looked very out of place so it bugged me. So green it was. Then I wanted a small cart. But I didn’t want to pay a lot for a tool cart and then repaint it. So I bought a one drawer HF cart (the one and only HF purchase I’ve ever made). It was painted to match as well.
It’s all a bit of a work in progress right now, especially the old military cabinet in the middle. Everything is much more cluttered than that at the moment but you get the idea.

So my girlfriend knew the cabinet was going to have to match too. So she managed to talk one of the friends (who painted the HF cart and military cabinet) into painting it for me. He has a few other jobs going on right now so I told him I’d scuff it all up for him. So I temporarily put some of the other shop jobs on hold for the moment.

Plus while he’s at it I’m going to go ahead and have him shoot these for me too.

I figure at this point I may as well just go all out.

 

[cliftonbros89]

More grain today. Hauled beans and started hauling some corn for a landlord

It’s been cold loading the trucks. Definitely nice to get in the cab for awhile for a drive. Looks like there’s some more hauling on the schedule for tomorrow. Cold weather making things a pain. Truck didn’t want to start this morning. Older tractors don’t want to start. PTO shafts on the augers want to seize up. We also got to where we were hauling and their inbound scale was froze up. Then the ticket printer on the outside scale was froze up. It’s enjoyable for everyone.

 

[cliftonbros89]

Cold has moved in here like it has everywhere else. While we’re warmer than other places, I still don’t enjoy it. It’s already caused some problems with the trailer trucks not wanting to start. Also caused a few cattle waterers to freeze up. One has the heater go out. Then at the other farm we had a slight problem with the well...

The points were freezing up earlier this week. So dad did like we often do this time of year and shoved in some insulation and out in a heat lamp to keep things from freezing. Apparently he put in a larger heat lamp than usual. As you can see it melted a few things. Which shut off the well completely.

We’ve also conveniently had a few calves born this week just in time for the freeze. I came to the shop yesterday afternoon to discover a new calf at dad’s. Without a doubt the smallest calf I’ve ever seen.

I don’t think the picture does it justice. I’m not even sure the little thing weighs over 30 pounds. I wasn’t sure why it was so small at first. But we found the calf had twins. Unfortunately, the second calf was stillborn.

This morning we checked it out. The calf wasn’t eating so we picked it up and took it to the barn.

Luckily, we managed the get the cow to follow us. Calf was weak from having nothing to eat but it was still in good shape. We put our portable head chute in there and put the cow in it.

It wasn’t any use to try and get the calf to **** just yet so we just milked the cow and put the milk in a bottle for the calf. We managed to get it to eat some. Had to help it along though.
We have them both in the barn yet. The calf didn’t want to eat much this evening. Hoping things turn around tomorrow. The cow is one the few that isn’t a wild crazy one so we hate to see her loose not one but two calves. We’ll see in the morning.

We also moved some round bales out of the barn by the lot where we keep our big calves. That way they have a little room to get out of the cold wind too.

 

[cliftonbros89]

My friend got the cabinet painted for me that I received for Christmas. I picked up all the pieces yesterday.

This afternoon dad helped me out it together. It’s not too bad. My girlfriend was pretty upset in the quality of it. But I told her I’d make it work. It fits in well with the rest of my setup so far.


Also been busy feeding hay the last few days. Cows are really starting to go through it. A lot of people in the area say they likely won’t have enough hay to get through winter. The late summer and fall drought really hurt hay production and forced everyone to start feeding hay earlier than usual.

After finally temporarily stopping hauling grain I was able to continue some shop work on tractors. Which has been nice to do since the weather hasn’t been the best. I noticed I haven’t been too active on my picture taking for the thread either.

 

[cliftonbros89]

Well unfortunately the little calf we put up in the barn didn’t make it. Not the best note to end the year on. But it happens. All part of the job.

The last week has been a pain in the ***. We had trouble with a few of the cattle waterers still freezing up over night. Have to check on them every day. Cattle have really been going through the hay and bags of mineral since it’s been so cold too. Other than the one calf the rest of the cattle have been doing well with this cold spell.

The freeze has caused a few other issues too. Air compressor for the shop had a frozen line in it. Then the generator dad uses on our box trailer for the pulling tractors froze up as well.

Dad and my uncle headed out Friday for tractor pull on Saturday across the state. Dad bought his trailer several years ago. It’s big enough the haul the 4 pulling tractors, fuel, toolbox, and the generator. They use the generator for lighting in the trailer plus electric for block heaters and battery chargers for the tractors. The old 2 cylinders aren’t too hip on firing up when it’s 15 outside.

The rest of the week when I was unthawing something or checking cows was spent in the shop with the wood stove going.

Tagged several of the new parts I picked up a few weeks ago. I tag each part with the part number, what it is and what equipment it fits. It’ll make it easier to inventory in a few weeks, plus it makes it easier to identify on the shelf. Especially on the occasions when I have to have someone else pick a part up at the shop for me.

I also got to work on the 4440 again. Got the cab all detailed. Also had some help show up to do that...he sneaks in the door when I go in and out. Isn’t much help. But he takes advantage of being out of the cold air for awhile.

I also flushed the whole cooling system on it too. It was due for it for once.
Also, I replaced the thermostats and gasket, plus put new radiator hoses on it.

The cord for the block heater on it was shot too. It was a little tough to get off. But I managed to get it off with one of my favorite tools I picked up this summer.

It’s just a regular old basin wrench. Can’t see it in the picture but I welded a short 3/8” drive extension on the end so I can use a ratchet on it. I came up with after I started a GJ thread looking for some ideas to remove a round off hard to reach sensor switch on our 8400. Worked like a dream.

While working on the 4440 I also found a brake hose that was starting to leak. I quickly found out it was also in a hard to reach place. Ran underneath the cab.
Luckily I was able to get to it a little easier through a panel in the floor. I removed it and another hose that didn’t look like it was going to last much longer. Another day I was super thankful for crows foot wrenches!

I had to run around doing several errands this week. Paying some bills, a few trips to the bank, had to pick up some things for the shop, plus have new hydraulic hoses made for the 4440. Had to go across the river as well.


Sure haven’t seen the Mississippi look like this in awhile.

Also ventured over to the John Deere dealer again. They had this sitting in the lot.

It’s a big machine. I don’t know all the stats on it but I’m sure it can get some stuff done. I think they were demoing it out during the fall.

I also spent the greater part of my Saturday morning trying to find a grommet for the 4440. One of the hoses I replaced needs one where it runs through the floor. Unfortunately, none of the auto stores, hardware stores, or even the New Holland dealership had the right size. I ended up having to order it from Deere, it won’t be here until Tuesday.

 

[cliftonbros89]

I also got to be handy man at my grandpa’s jewelry store too this week. My grandpa (mom’s father) bought the store from the man who originally owned it years ago. My grandpa started working for him when he was in the eighth grade. My mom works there with him.

So I’m always in charge of changing light bulbs as well as putting away all the tubs of decorations into the attic space there for my mom. Basically, any of the jobs that require being on a ladder or lifting something heavy I’m volunteered for. I’ve seen quite a bit of interest in watch and jewelry tools on GJ before. He is loaded with it.




He has 2 different watch benches he does majority of his work at. He’s had them both for years. They’re loaded with picks, pliers, files, hammers, all kinds of tools. Some of them I’m still not sure what they are. He has drawers full of tools, watch parts, old ring castings, pocket watches and pocket watch parts, just about anything you can imagine. He’s spent hours upon hours at the benches fixing and repairs loads of things. I hope one day I’ll end up with at least one of those benches. It’ll stay just as it was left too.

 

[cliftonbros89]

The weather has gone from super cold to mild temperatures, wet and foggy. The river has been so foggy the grain elevators haven’t been operating because barges aren’t able to move down the river.

As you can see there’s still ice going down the river, that plus the low water level and the fog that moves in hasn’t been good for the barges.

We loaded the trucks with beans yesterday to fill a contract that we made for this month.
But we weren’t able to haul off any yesterday since they couldn’t get a barge in.

I was able to get one load hauled off this afternoon. But with the ground thawing from the temps, plus the rain we had and the constant drizzle from fog and heavy clouds things are messy.


Yesterday I made several repairs to the 4440. I had several hoses to replace, a few leaking and a few that looked like it would only be a matter of time before they leak.

I know I’ve said it already but I can’t get enough of my crowfoot wrenches. I don’t know how I ever went without them. I’ve had my open end Snap On set for a few years now. They’ve been well worth it.

This evening I finished cleaning up the 4440. Waxed it down. I finally got to use my M12 polisher.

It does a good job. I really like it so far. I still use the corded DeWalt for the big stuff. But this Milwaukee works great for smaller and tighter areas. Not to mention being cordless it a huge plus. It’s light and easy to handle.

Just a quick once over and a pressure test of the coolant system and the 4440 will be good to go.

Just have to put the hood back on and put the side shields in place and it’ll head to the shed and wait to be hooked to the planter. Hopefully I have all the leaks fixed now.

 

[cliftonbros89]

On a side note I got the carburetor for my L back. My dad sent it to a guy for him to check it out and fix it up.


It’s all cleaned up and ready to go. Now if only I can get around to starting to put the engine back together.

 

[cliftonbros89]

I’ve also started to become a bit annoyed with my screwdrivers in my tool box lately.

I really don’t like the way they are. I have a feeling I’ll likely be eliminating the Craftsman set as I never really use them. Except for a few of the flatheads that are used pry and scrape with. I dislike the Snap On tray. The Craftsman are in an Ernst holder. I’m very satisfied will all my other Ernst stuff. But they have limited options for screwdriver. It also makes it difficult to keep the sets together, such as the Wera torx, Wera insulated, etc. So I’m looking for options for that. I’d like to try and fit in my picks with them too. We’ll see what I can find. I know I’ve searched GJ for options plenty of times before on this topic.

 

[omrkr]

There is just something about a good looking 4440!!!!!!!!! One of the best made

 

[cliftonbros89]

There is just something about a good looking 4440!!!!!!!!! One of the best made

It really is a good tractor. Just a shame it’s not a little bit bigger. We used to have a 4450 when I was little. It’s was a really good tractor too. We traded it off on something else. Kind of wish we wouldn’t have now.

 

[cliftonbros89]

Well the end of the week was full a lot of the usual stuff. Feeding hay, grinding feed, unthawing waterers, putting out mineral and the like.

I did finally get the 4440 all back together. I think I counted up about 20 parts I replaced. Mainly small things. I haven’t added up the total cost yet. I’m sure it’s easily over a couple hundred for sure.

It should be ready to go and waiting to be hooked to the planter.

Monday I pulled it out of the shop so I could pull in the 7510. I took it for a cruise to run it a little bit once and make sure I didn’t have any leaks on any of the hydraulic hoses I replaced.


Friday dad and I also replaced some lights in the shop. We also replaced a few bulbs. Although not OSHA approved its a lot easier to do that job with the loader on the 4020.

We also pulled it in the shop to finally replace the bald front tires. With having so many tires on all the equipment we don’t bother much with replacing tires ourselves. So most the time we take them some where. Tire shop only had one right now and we’re waiting on the other.

We also found a oil leak up front by the oil cooler. I plan to investigate that mess. Then having it in the shop I decided was a good time to finally work on the seat once. The shock, spring, and several bushings were all wore. If you hit a good bump the seat would still rise up but then immediately bottom out as it came down. Not bad if you’re grinding a batch of feed. But if you’re taking hay for 12 hours it can be a little rough.


Hopefully it’ll smooth things out a bit. I had the spring and shock. Put I wasn’t aware of just how bad the bushings were wore until I started to take things apart. That called for a trip to JD today.

I ran out of time to get the seat back together today. Some of those old bushings are stuck in pretty good. Hopefully tomorrow or Thursday it’ll be back together.

We also had to rig up a few new tools for the assembly of the spring and shock. The one not pictured was just a wide piece of square tubing with a side cut out. We had to use the press to compress the spring down the lock the caps onto the spring and the shock sitting inside the spring.

The other was just a piece of pipe we cut a notch out of.

We used it in the vise to push the new bushings in far enough to get the retaining rings on pin. Not fancy and not much of anything. But I did spray a shot of paint on it and going to put in the toolbox for future reference.

Today I also replaced the heater on the 3020 out at the farm we rent.

It was a little chilly doing it in the open shed. But I got the job done. Bolts were a bit dirty/rusted/painted couldn’t get a ratchet on 2 of the 4 and had to wiggle some wrenches on but I got it done. Lost a little bit of coolant/antifreeze though. Apparently my Matco hose pinching pliers don’t work as good as they’re supposed to. But it’s done and the new one works great.

 

[cliftonbros89]

So the end of last week things warmed up and thawed out. That caused a few issues when we were trying to haul off a few loads of beans off.

We were hauling from one of the bins we rent. Not much gravel around it some things quickly got messy. The truck I was driving ended up getting hung up for a bit as I was getting lined out to load up again.

But things cooled down again. We got a bit of sleet, snow and ice. That was followed by a bit more cold. Then a bit more snow again. That in turn was followed by bitter cold yet again. So it’s been causing the regular delays of waterer problems and truck and tractor starting problems. But it looks like some warmer temperatures in the near future. At least for a little while.

 

[jblnut]

It's been bitterly cold here the last few weeks and although I'm going to cuss when the mud comes back it sure seems like that would be better than -20ish at night and barely above 0 during the day. Sure seems like the cattle don't mind the cold. They have shelter and as much feed as they want in front of them and they seem happy all frosty and cold.

I sure do like seeing those Deere's all shiny and nice !!! When we had the proper space to pull stuff in over winter we used to do the same thing. We still go through everything but it seems like it ends up being rushed in the spring and things always get overlooked.

 

[MacTexas]

Any update on the little calf? Did he make it?

 

[memphisnate]

Any update on the little calf? Did he make it?

At the top of Post #105, he mentions the calf didn't make it.

 

[FTWingRiders]

I got to tell you, I love this thread.. I grew up on a very small farm in New England, and have always admired anyone that does it for a living..

Seeing the day to day is really cool.

And very sorry for the calf.. we had 20 head black angus, and lost a few calves over the years .. always a bit sad but thats life.

Thanks for sharing!

 

[cliftonbros89]

It's been bitterly cold here the last few weeks and although I'm going to cuss when the mud comes back it sure seems like that would be better than -20ish at night and barely above 0 during the day. Sure seems like the cattle don't mind the cold. They have shelter and as much feed as they want in front of them and they seem happy all frosty and cold.

I sure do like seeing those Deere's all shiny and nice !!! When we had the proper space to pull stuff in over winter we used to do the same thing. We still go through everything but it seems like it ends up being rushed in the spring and things always get overlooked.

I hate the mud too. But I agree that I’ll take it over this deep freeze any day!

There’s always something that doesn’t get done before spring arrives. I like to have all the equipment ready to go ahead of time too. But that rarely happens. Just too much to keep up with.

Any update on the little calf? Did he make it?

Unfortunately, if you didn’t already see the calf didn’t make it. Thing wouldn’t eat. Even though it was small since it was a twin I think it still arrived a bit earlier than it should have which didn’t help circumstances either.

I got to tell you, I love this thread.. I grew up on a very small farm in New England, and have always admired anyone that does it for a living..

Seeing the day to day is really cool.

And very sorry for the calf.. we had 20 head black angus, and lost a few calves over the years .. always a bit sad but thats life.

Thanks for sharing!

Thanks.

It is life! All part of the job. It hard not to go by with this many cattle and dealing with Mother Nature. If its not a small calf, then every once in awhile its a big calf that gets sick and doesn’t make it. Then sometimes an old cow is just at the end of her road. Or as I posted earlier in the thread some freak accident may happen like our bull getting washed down the creek from a crazy downpour this spring. Just the way it goes.

 

[cliftonbros89]

Well another cold day today. Had a few waterers with froze valves again this morning. Few buckets of hot water got them going again. We also had to put out a bale of hay to the small lot with a few old cows and heifers.

I took the other front wheel from the 4020 to town to have a new tire put on. The old one is pretty wore but we bought a new rim to put with the old tire. It’ll be good enough for a spare. It’ll work for the 3020, 4020, and 4440 so it’s nice to have around. We had a spare before, but I think that’s one of those items someone borrow and never returned.

Dad spent most the day hauling hay for a neighbor. They won’t have enough hay for winter. We do not have enough to sell them any. They found someone south about 40 minutes with some for sale. The neighbors don’t have any means to haul any that far so they asked dad to.

After I dropped off the 4020 Wheel I went back to finish up with the 3020. I topped it off with antifreeze since I lost a little in my heater swap yesterday. I also had to check on the cattle waterer at that farm and put out some mineral for the cattle.

I headed back to the shop then to do some more work to the 4020 seat. I discovered there was yet another kind of bushing I was going to need and didn’t have. So I’d called JD this morning. Unfortunately, they weren’t able to have it to the drop box in town until this evening.

As you can see the bushings for the whole seat assembly are very worn. That’s how almost everyone of them looked. This is one of those projects the deeper you go the more you find.

While waiting for parts I started drawing the oil on the 7510 and looking it over.

I’m hoping I don’t find a bunch of issues with it. It usually doesn’t have any problems. I replaced several hoses on it last winter. But it’s starting to rack up the hours. I know there’s a minor leak around the selective control valves. But there’s oil around those things.

I headed back to town to pick up the new rim and old tire for the 4020. The tire shop didn’t have the new tire to go on the original rim ready to go like they told me they would. After that I picked up the last of the bushings for the 4020 at the drop box in town.

While in town I managed to meet up with my Matco guy. He finally got in my new jump pack last week.

It’s supposed to jump a 24v system. Plus you can use it as a charger. I have the smaller version for 6v/12v systems. I’ve used it several times and it works great. I’m looking forward to trying this one out.

So after getting back to the shop this evening and a bit of supper I started to assemble the 4020 seat.

I’m leaving the shield off the side of the seat for now. I’m hoping it’ll be warm enough tomorrow to wash off all the **** that was hidden around the seat under those shields.

On the plus side of things, for the first time I finally used my 3/8” drive 1” socket.
I’ve never had a use for it before. Not to mention I very rarely need a 1” socket or wrench period. It was for those bushing (worn ones seen above) that have the 1” hex head on them. They also have 3/8” threads inside for a bolt. Defiantly something you can’t find just at the hardware store. They’re an expensive piece coming from Deere.

 

[jblnut]

They’re an expensive piece coming from Deere.

Truer words have never been spoken !! A lot of things with that Deere Green paint have a rather surprising price tag ....

 

[cliftonbros89]

Well Thursday was full of a bit more of cold weather. Started to let up a bit though. I finished up a few final touches on the 4440 and fueled it up. I took it to the shed in the bottom.

My plan was to bring out the 8400 to clean and service it. Unfortunately, with the cold it didn’t want to start. Nor was my jump pack enough to get it going. Usually is doesn’t do too bad in cold weather.

So since the 8400 wouldn’t start I decided to try the 8760, which usually doesn’t like cold weather. Surprisingly the 8760 started right up.

So I swapped the 8760 with the 4440 so it would be at the shop ready to go to service it next.

After that I ended up grinding a batch of feed with the ******* (without the hood and side shields on) 4020 with a non-yellow spare tire since the tire shop didn’t have my new tire yet.

As you can see the big calves know what the noise sounds of the grinder mean

They tend to be at attention when they hear it start up.

I still had the hood off the 4020 as it seemed to have a leak around the hydraulic oil cooler. My plan was to run it a bit and see if I could find where the problem was. But I haven’t had any luck finding it yet.

Friday another local farmer had contacted me about going with him and a few other small local farmers to a place down south in Missouri to tour a company that develops products to essentially be forms of, I guess you could say fertilizers, or growth promoter chemicals.

It’s called Concept Ag. They develop chemicals that help stimulate the growth of all kinds areas of agricultural. They develop, test, grow, package and sells all of the “microbes” they sell right there at their facility to southern Missouri. Naturally, it all comes at a cost. But they have quite a bit of proof to back up the facts that they’re product helps develop and strengthen the growth of plants such as corn and soybeans. It was a bit interesting to see.

After arriving back from that trip I went to the shop to start to finish up a few more things on the 4020 and wash it up a bit more. I also found the 7230 was over due for an oil change as well so I washed it up too.

All of this naturally put a hold on things on the 7510 which is also still in the shop.
So this made the shop a bit crowded. But I need to service the 7230 while I have a chance since we regularly use it, plus it is like to work on it while it’s clean before it rains more and becomes even more of a mess outside.

So today, Saturday I started getting busy servicing the 7230. It was due for an oil change, transmission and hydraulic filters are due to be changed. Also, all the air filters, both engine and cab needed replaced once. On top of that the belt is starting to look pretty rough so I’m replacing that too. All of that we already had on hand. But with and engine oil filter, transmission filter, hydraulic filter, engine air filter, 4 cab air filters (2 different sets of 2) and the belt comes to a total of $473.32 just for regular maintenance. That’s not counting the cost of the oil. I couldn’t help but figure it up after I started replacing things. It’s no wonder the cost to run things and do custom work is so crazy now.

So just a few more things to finish up on the 7230, and then find the leak on the 4020 and it’ll be back to the seasonal check up on the 7510. It seems like most people I know think that I don’t haven anything going on since it’s winter. But little do they know, if you want to stay on top of things, it’s just as busy as any other time of the year for us.