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It’s hard to believe I’ve been writing this column for Progressive Forage for three years. When I heard the magazine was looking for someone to write about vintage tractors and old hay machines, I knew it was an opportunity I couldn’t pass up.
I haven’t had time to do very much farming this summer, but I have spent a lot of time on a zero-turn mower trimming and maintaining the farm. Here at the house, I decided to take a different approach to taking care of the yard this year instead of the twenty-plus-year-old Craftsman 50-inch-cut riding mower.
I suppose all collections have to start somewhere. The photo accompanying this article was taken around 2003 and is a pretty good representation of the start of ours – the Farmall M and the Oliver 77.
As this issue of the magazine reaches you, Memorial Day will be just around the corner. I recently came across a photo of the family farm I took Memorial Day weekend back in 2006.
Methods and machines used to bale hay have certainly changed through the years, and I’m sure that almost every major farm equipment company has produced a small square hay baler at some point.
It’s no secret Oliver is my favorite brand of farm tractor. I have talked about this before and the many reasons I feel this way. It’s a shame people were the undoing of this great company and not the exceptional product being sent to the field farmers had come to expect over the years.
Collecting vintage machinery can be a tricky, expensive and time-consuming business or hobby. Sometimes we hear from folks about old machines that have been in a barn for years or just sitting abandoned on a farm somewhere.
As I sit here in the barn thinking of what I should write about and reflecting on our annual show, which just concluded, I’m trying to think of a very unique piece of equipment to discuss.
Have you ever stopped to think about how different farming would be, especially the harvest of grains and grasses, if it hadn’t been for the intelligence and perseverance of a young man from Virginia?
The 1970s turned out to be the end of an era in farm machinery manufacturing with White Motor Company taking over the Oliver Corporation, Minneapolis-Moline and Cockshutt, forming White Farm Equipment.
