Ever felt used? Body feel worn out? You just described almost every piece of machinery I ever drove or used since I was a child. New was special, it never happened very often in my life. We never farmed that way.
Today I had a blast at the Miami Trace FFA Machinery Auction. It was a big one with even the R-75 in it. I helped young farmers start farming today or expand their operation. You could have started farming a few hundred acres for $20,000 worth of machinery I know and trust.
It was good to see good machinery get into some good young hands. The Mennonites were there bidding and picked up some nice pieces of older machinery. I am known as the notill man in some of those churches so I answered lots of questions. I can speak with experience about White planters and many other planters and drills.
The buy of the day was a White 2-135 for $6,000. I should have run it up but the man who got it got a good deal. It would work here for me. I had one 30 years ago and it would still work well today. A nice 7720 John Deere combine brought less than $10,000 and was a decent deal but the two New Holland TR-70's for around $3000 were better deals.
Maybe the real deal of the day was the 6 row White 5100 no-till planter for $4200 but I couldn't bid against the young Mennonite farmer who was bidding on it after I had showed him some in's and out's on it. It has been always shedded and looked like new and had liquid fertilizer tanks on it that had never been used!
Some money changed hands today and some retired farmers machinery will get new life. That makes me feel good.
Ed
Me too Ed. Theres only a handful of new equipment I have bought in all the years I have farmed. And no big ticket items either. In the long run I think it was the right decision.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Ralph. The one new tractor I ever bought came at a bad time for me when my retina detached in 1976 and I couldn't do much for a year. My dad and brother got to use it more than I did.
ReplyDeleteI should have bought a piece of land at that time instead, at least it would have appreciated!
I am not a good enough mechanic to make my poor ways work but with the help of a lot of good people I got by.