Re: farming in the 1950s and 1960s ?

Posted by fixerupper on April 16, 2021 at 11:08:21 from (100.42.82.64):

In Reply to: farming in the 1950s and 1960s ? posted by swindave on April 16, 2021 at 08:08:23:

I was born in 1951 so I remember farming from the later 50's and on up. Dad farmed 240 acres in northwest Iowa. Oats, alfalfa corn and soybeans were the crops. Through the 50's a 51 Deere A was the big horse doing the plowing with a 2-16's Deere plow. The disk was a Deere 15' straight disk until 1958 when dad bought a new Deere RW 14' disk. Planting was done with a Deere 490 planter pulled by the neighbor's SC Case. Dad would plant the neighbor's 80 acre farm as payback. The neighbor ran dad's A pulling a 11 foot spring tooth in ahead of the planter. I barely remember dad planting with a wire before dad went to 'power checking' t he corn.

Come corn picking time dad would pull a Minneapolis two row picker behind the 51 A and the neighbor would haul in with his SC Case.

We seeded oats with an end gate seeder in an old creaky triple box wagon on a running gear with wooden wheels in back and smaller steel wheels in front. This is where my sister and I learned how to stand up in that rough riding old wagon.

The hay was mowed with a 35 Deere A and #5 mower with the mechanical foot lift for the cutter bar. The 'old A' raked the hay too as the this tractor and the 51 A were the only two tractors dad had in the 50's. The 51 A had the front mount cultivator mounted on it during haying season.

In 1960 dad bought a new Deere 630 and that was the big horse all during the 60's. He bought a 4-14's mounted plow for the 630 and that was the plowing outfit through the 60's. 4-14's was too big for that tractor for our soil but it worked-slowly.

in 1968 dad bought the 320 acres across the road putting the farm up to 560 acres. The equipment dad had at that time was too small to cover those acres so he had the heavy work and planting custom done by a neighbor with a BIG 4020. The 630 and A were now just the cultivating tractors though the 630 still did a small amount of plowing. In 1974 I came into the farming scene with equipment big enough to farm the whole farm. Today I farm with all the fancy electronics and fancy stuff but I still have memories of dad planting with the old 490 back in the good old days when I am farming the old home farm.

What little hay I do have is put up with the old equipment from back in those days so nothing has changed there.

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