This topic contains 8 replies, has 4 voices, and was last updated by 
OldMt Woman 1 year, 6 months ago.
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Industrial nations need fewer knuckle draggers , than what is attempting to storm our southern border . Necessity is the mother of invention .
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Hmph…you can tell immediately that the dumb guy in the picture is not a farmer! He’s standing ON the rows of wheat instead of placing his feet BETWEEN them! Everyone raised rural knows better than that! 😉
My ancestors broke ground on Midwest prairies. My dad farmed initially with horses and was paying over $100,000 per machine by the time they retired. I left long ago and didn’t return to see that area for 40 yrs. [My folks had moved away.] Then I spent a week there – with my mouth hanging open! 😮
I’d been hearing stories from uncle/cousins still in the area. Cousin with how-many-thousands of hogs…with full breeder operations too. Buying up all the farms where our school bus used to stop and pick up other kids. GPS driven tractors. 😮 My life-long friend and I sat on the road as a “Star Wars” type machine trundled past. It’s WHEELS towered over our car! 😮 😮
Her son, who works in one of the machinery plants, gave me descriptions of field implements that cover about half the field in one swipe. Well nearly. Of course the fields are getting gigantic. This change just within my lifetime….
Which is all well and good. I’ve always said: Technology is GREAT………..{ until it’s not } And we don’t quite yet have R2D2 and 3CPO…..not quite.
Compared today with my era….like our whole family “walking the beans”. {anyone recognize what that is…er, was?} Walking every square foot of those acres, down beside each row of soy beans and pulling up “volunteer corn” from year before, morning glory vines, thorny jimpson weeds,and big old button weeds. I specifically remember one evening, we were heading back towards the house. My brother and I were probably 4 and 7 yrs old and had been out with our parents all day. No babysitters. We’d long since stopped pulling weeds and were bawling our heads off. So tired and the house was SOOO far away. We doubted we could still walk that far AGAIN! But of course there was no choice. Parents were trying to encourage us… but they were still out there too. Farming is hard.
Or….mixing the nitrogen-fixer/ water/ soy beans with your hands in a bucket before pouring it into the planter every few rounds. Then move the tractor/wagon ahead several rows and do it again. Carrying 40-60 pound fertilizer or feed seed sacks from the wagon to the bean or corn planter …..well before my small frame should have done that many pounds. After a couple years, my parents must have heard something – told me to wait til I was bigger to lift that much. Yeah, we didn’t know back then. You just did what it took….the whole family did. They had to invent stuff to keep my elderly Grandpa off the machinery….cuz he was getting too forgetful. But still wanted to do his part!
Baling hay was a time for neighbors to come and help each other. If a field is ready…cut, dried, raked [a machine] into rows…….then hay time. One drives the tractor pulling the baler and the hay rack. Several on the hay rack plucking up twine-bound bales shuffling out from the baler. At least two stacking the bales high. We all knew how to balance while the rack went over bumps and hills. And the ladies….yes, it really was that way…had a big meals and lots of “lunches” between dinner and supper. Then the whole crew would move on to the next farm that was ready among that group of family, friends, and/or neighbors. In that day, it took too many people for most single families to do by themselves. ‘Sides, it was more fun.
My boy cousin was killed in a car accident right at corn harvest. The next day the whole community showed up at their farm and just quietly harvested ALL of their corn until it was done. The grieving family only came out to thank everyone. That’s the way it was done. Dunno now.
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How are we going to survive if the machines shut down in THIS era. Even my era relied on diesel, machines, chemical fertilizer, seed came from huge companies…. A couple EMPs or even war….and we’re back to my grandfather’s era.
No one knows how to do that anymore. Technologically or SOCIALLY. Our communities are not ready either. We don’t live next to our grandparents and cousins. We haven’t known our friends since Kindergarten. Quaker Oats, Sara Lee and Tyson will not be in business if we have some deal-breaker event.
I want to live where people still do agriculture in small ways.
OldMtWoman ….sorry, get carried away with my old tales
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This reply was modified 1 year, 6 months ago by OldMt Woman.
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This reply was modified 1 year, 6 months ago by
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That event of machines not working is nearer than you or most think, peak oil is past no big discoveries of new cheap oil.
I will pare down farm if no equipment to produce just what I need and some little trade, so will most other and the great grey masses of white coller managers will starve or become old fashioned farm equipment.
The other two near irriversable problems faced by farming is the water in usa aquifers and rivers are dry soon cali and Texas will have zero water for crops. Second is over use of fertilizer, the soil becomes so salt heavy it stunts growth then well there is a reason the saying salt the enemies fields.
Gmo is plague that will never leave us.
I have used this bot with good success on smaller green house setting for micro greens. https://youtu.be/8r0CiLBM1o8
The bot that scares me is https://www.wired.com/story/watch-boston-dynamics-humanoid-robot-do-parkour/ add weapon and targeting and you have a terminator. This company has come from a 4 legged mule robot to this in 2 years.
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This reply was modified 1 year, 6 months ago by
namelus.
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This reply was modified 1 year, 6 months ago by
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Ever see the equipment used ( for many years ) in forestry ? One operator can cut down , strip , and stack more lumber that 5 crews of men , with ax and chainsaw . If you also notice , we no longer have dark skinned people , picking cotton anymore either . Why not ? Because somewhere along the line , some smart guy , figured out how to make a machine that takes over all the labor , and increases your production to boot . This has been going on forever . People who made wagons , hated cars when they first came out also ,because they could tell that their days were numbered from that point on . Haven’t seen ant buggy dealerships around for awhile , but then again , I should probably pick up a few horses first . There are no more cattle drives either , train and truck made it unnecessary .
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I try to do everything at least once the old fashion way so I know I can do it.
I have 3 scythes. A full on grass blade, a intermediate blade and a brush blade.
Using the grass blade I have cut hay for 90 days of winter hay for 6 goats. Was not enough for the whole winter, but doing it, I know I can, and how. Was a great way to learn how to properly hay too. Seems nowadays most farmers dont know how and end up producing poor quality hay.
As Namelus mentions Peak Oil can and will kick us in the teeth.
Also read a few articles earlier this year about the low cost of oil, the oil companies have not invested in exploration. More than a few investment houses say this could lead to a supply shortage (in comparison to demand) as early as 2020. This shortage could see a spike in oil prices. Some have said $200 a barrel oil is a real possibility.
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Problem with oil , is that its finite , it WILL be tapped out , and at this rate , sooner , rather than later .
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All the oil will never be tapped out.
The easy to get to, cheap stuff, yes. All the oil? No.
And there lies the problem.
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Crow Bar, I like your example of haying the old way…just so you know you can. I do that a lot too. I constantly pick up tools at garage sales [esp. if they’re held in a real garage belonging to a ‘tool guy’. 🙂 I’ve got the power tools and use them, certainly, but the hand tools just MIGHT be handy some day, yeah?
….’sides, antiques are fascinating. I actually grew up using some of them.
OldMtWoman …just so many ways a house of cards can fall 🙁
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