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Thursday, December 9, 2010

Photos that AGCO would never let on their former Saving the Family Farm page which has been discontinued. (of course)

Tonight I split the Minneapolis-Moline G706 which is as old as myself. This is the culmination of several evenings of work to install the MM loader off of the Jet Star onto the 1965 M670. It worked quite well. I have no idea how I am going to get the tractor back together. The little brass collar that shifts the clutch in and out has worn out. The second time time in the past three years. Something is not right, something is quite wrong.
I'm thinking this is not the image of loyal customers that AGCO wants to promote. Perhaps they are tired of bottom feeders like myself!
I actually did this by myself. My employee of course had something important that he needed to do today as he did work yesterday and two days in a row in the winter is a bit of a stretch. I called a younger fellow who used to work for me and he came out to help. But we did not split the tractor.
Instead we moved left over farm equipment out of the river bottom. It has been raining for three days straight and the water looks like it will come over the banks. The weather service says not till Sunday but I don't believe them.
In the above photo we are moving the irrigator which is hooked to a little International tractor. I thought it had been moved to high ground but really it had just run out of diesel. We just towed the whole shebang to high ground.
I should not be running the 2-155 but the water was a foot deep and it has 4wd. We also moved the truck with the spray tank out of the worked field. This would have worked better before the 8 inches of rain. There are now ruts. The old Toroflow diesel took about a quarter mile tow before it started but we got it moved out. Then there were two more dead trucks parked in a foot of water. The 2-155 didn't seem to really mind. Never even spun the tires.
Not sure why the trucks were still there but then I'm not sure why my set of double rakes were still setting in the timothy field. It would seem nothing gets done while I am off planting and my brother is driving truck. Looks like the employee will spend tomorrow pressure washing tractors in the pouring rain if he comes back to work tomorrow. I do not hold a grudge. There was plenty of time to do it BEFORE it started raining.
It is not so much the pouring rain as it is the intense sense of foolishness for not getting this stuff done three months ago...

3 comments:

  1. Budde, I wish I was still the age of a G706 but I think I am closer to the G or the U. I drove an M670 for a few days working summerfallow for a neighbour many years ago. Your rainy pictures look pretty depressing. I think I prefer our snow. The only tractor work I will need to do is clear my driveway (again).

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  2. Ralph, It is absolutely pouring outside right now. Of course this is Oregon so that is what it does. It is pretty crazy to be moving stuff off the river bottom in December in the rain. But, that is a result of not being very good farmers...
    We farmed exclusively with Molines till I bought the 2-155 six years ago. The G is stuck but we have two U's that we still run. We just won't talk about age.
    I'd take the snow before the rain if I had a warmer shop.

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  3. The heavy rain wasn't supposed to start until tomorrow yet yesterday was a record. If you had waited another day the 2-155 would be sitting out there too.

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