How things have changed in 70 years.

[Kamoore65536]

When I was growing up in the 1950's & 1960's we had a whole different implement line up than the farmers of today have. I can remember my dad talking about our neighbor who had just bought a new 4010 John Deere. Dad said that pulling a 5 bottom plow was crazy and that the neighbor would never be able to work his fields easily. Dad also figured an 8 row planter was crazy.

Now we have tractors pulling vertical tillage tools 60 feet wide(18 meters) and planters 80 to 100 feet wide(20 to 30 meters). I have to wonder sometimes what my grandfather would have thought about implements that big when he was used to Farmall F 20's and F 30's and 3 bottom plows.

[Illinois Farmer]

Not only the implements but the computer systems and just the technology that has advanced over the years.

[Kamoore65536]

My dad grew up near Beardstown, Illinois and he used to tell of when he first started working for people other than grandpa about farmers on the Mississippi River bottoms using Minneapolis Moline tractors and them tying the steering wheels when they dropped the plow into the ground on one end of the field, getting off the tractor and cleaning brush from the ends of the fields and getting on at the other end and turning the tractors around and sending them back. People at each end of the field and tractor just running in the furrow to and fro.

[blue_painted]

I grew up in Essex, in the 1960s and watched the MF165's ploughing three furrows, single-sided with all the lands marked out and the "circus" of four 16' Claas Senators. The Masseys were replaced with a Triple-D, and then a Fiat crawler drawing four furrows, or a chisel plough that was fashionable for a while, then a John Deere with a semi-mounted Dowdeswell plough, five furrows and then a Ford TW25 with a fully-mounted plough and two Claas Dominator Maxi's with 6m headers.

Now, it's just one Claas Lexion with 12.5m and a NH T8 with fully-mounted Kvervenland and furrow press.

[Illinois Farmer]

My grandpa used to go around and cut wheat with a binder, then they would go back to shock the wheat, so it will dry. Then would come along and pick it up. Then run it through a thrasher. We do it for the farm heritage festival and it *censored* and we just do a small section. I'm so thankful for a combine.

[RedJester]

My dad grew up near Beardstown, Illinois and he used to tell of when he first started working for people other than grandpa about farmers on the Mississippi River bottoms using Minneapolis Moline tractors and them tying the steering wheels when they dropped the plow into the ground on one end of the field, getting off the tractor and cleaning brush from the ends of the fields and getting on at the other end and turning the tractors around and sending them back. People at each end of the field and tractor just running in the furrow to and fro.

Heard something similar with groups that pick up hay bales. They'd put the truck and trailer in Low let it idle forward then get out and help pick up or stack till they need to turn the truck. My family always put the youngest kid that could understand "Keep it straight, dont touch anything." behind the wheel while the truck idled forward.

[Kamoore65536]

When I turned 10 I was allowed to go work for neighbors after school and in the summer and then in the fall after school. My neighbor and I were the same age and we baled hay and straw in the summer and had a 560 International with an International 37 hay baler. We would trade off one of us loading a wagon then trade places and run the tractor. We did about 1,000 bales a day.

[Farmercaseih]

When I was little we had two Case IH 1680's and Case IH 7100 Magnums haha

[Kamoore65536]

What is really funny was the variety of brands of equipment our neighbors had when I was growing up. My dad had a VAC Case, a WD 45 Diesel, a Ford 6000 commander, plus granddad's Farmall H. The neighbor I baled hay and straw with had a 560 , a Super MTA and a 300 Farmall. The neighbor to our west had an Allis Chalmers D 17 and D 15. The 4010 neighbor also had a 3010 and a Ford 740. The northern most neighbor had 2 720 John Deeres and a 730.

[Kamoore65536]

It is also funny how close all the tractor dealers were to each other. The closest was the International dealer as he was 6 miles from our house. The John Deere and Allis Chalmers dealers were 15 miles away and the Case dealer was long distance. He was 33 miles away. The International dealer was also in the largest town in the area. It was 4,000 people. The Allis Chalmers and John Deere dealers were in a town of 608 and the Case dealer was in a town of 1,300. All three of these dealers had at least 10 people working for them and were in business for at 18 years that I know about.

[CowsGoMoo]

My grandpa used to go around and cut wheat with a binder, then they would go back to shock the wheat, so it will dry. Then would come along and pick it up. Then run it through a thrasher. We do it for the farm heritage festival and it *censored* and we just do a small section. I'm so thankful for a combine.

Seen that at a farm show had an old thresher from 40s I think. Doing it as a demonstration of classic equipment and how things used to be done. There was a property in the area that had a couple old threshers set up as yard decorations by their pond, was sad to see them disappear.

[Exfarmer89]

It's a bit more than 70 years, but my Dad used to tell a lot of stories about a team of mules he used on the farm.

[humbe]

Would be really cool if fs could had a historic mode where you started in a given year and equipment and vehicles wouldnt be available before they came historically. Would need more older gear though, and probably more mechanisms for manual work...

[Stryder87]

I've been wondering... if one had a 'hobby' farm and planted, say, about an acre of wheat (or oats or whatever), given the small size, I'm guessing you wouldn't use a combine, but how would you harvest a small field like that without the kind of equipment we have in the game?

When I was a kid we had about 12 acres which meant we could have a huge garden and dad would use a rototiller (man that thing scared me! ). But something like an acre, without the tractors and such, how would you plow it? Animals to pull a plow? Hand plant? Sickle harvest? That kind of thing is before my time (and I'm not even that old) but I'm very curious about how it could be done. I guess I'm wondering about the transition period from animal/manual work and early machinery.

[Illinois Farmer]

A guy we custom for has an acre and half behind his house. He plants corn, wheat, or beans in it. We come in with the combine, 30ft disc, chisel plow, the works to get it done. Our watermelon patch is an an acre or more and we just roto till it and hoe around each plant.