Drawbar
05-17-2008, 03:02 AM
My father and I were talking last night about when he used to hay the field he eventually put his house in. It was on a steep grade and was a real bear to hay. Then he mentioned that "of course this was back when the equipment was not so good."
After a bit of thought, I kind of think that in todays day and age, the size, expense and comfort level of todays equipment actually reduces the total acreage that can be harvested.
Last year we were making haylage and ended up putting a rock through the chopper causing 40,000 dollars worth of damage. Yes I got the right number of zeros on that figure! So now we are gun shy at getting close to the edges of the fields. currently our first row of corn is 50 feet away from the old rock walls, so I figured it out once that on one 40 acre field alone I am losing 7 acres in production due to woods encroachment.
Its a situation where the trees grow out limbs, and the farmers, in trying to keep these limbs from busting out the windows, set into the field a bit more. Over the years this encroachment has netted 50 feet of lost crops. Over the years I have tried to knock back the woods, but with 100 acres, its an endless battle, and trees grown along the side of a field are not the best trees (very crooked and limby)
So this brings me to the question, is there a market now for smaller sized implements that can take advantage of these lost acres like mini-flail mowers, smaller sized wagons, implements with brakes and low centers of gravity to take advantage of steep terrain and rough conditions? With our gas tanks now competing for the same crops that grow our food, we may need to take advantage of these marginal acres.
Any thoughts on this?
After a bit of thought, I kind of think that in todays day and age, the size, expense and comfort level of todays equipment actually reduces the total acreage that can be harvested.
Last year we were making haylage and ended up putting a rock through the chopper causing 40,000 dollars worth of damage. Yes I got the right number of zeros on that figure! So now we are gun shy at getting close to the edges of the fields. currently our first row of corn is 50 feet away from the old rock walls, so I figured it out once that on one 40 acre field alone I am losing 7 acres in production due to woods encroachment.
Its a situation where the trees grow out limbs, and the farmers, in trying to keep these limbs from busting out the windows, set into the field a bit more. Over the years this encroachment has netted 50 feet of lost crops. Over the years I have tried to knock back the woods, but with 100 acres, its an endless battle, and trees grown along the side of a field are not the best trees (very crooked and limby)
So this brings me to the question, is there a market now for smaller sized implements that can take advantage of these lost acres like mini-flail mowers, smaller sized wagons, implements with brakes and low centers of gravity to take advantage of steep terrain and rough conditions? With our gas tanks now competing for the same crops that grow our food, we may need to take advantage of these marginal acres.
Any thoughts on this?