Western versus Eastern farming?

Posted by jdemaris on November 10, 2006 at 10:59:59 from (69.67.229.1):

In Reply to: 30,000 hours on a tractor???!!! posted by davpal on November 09, 2006 at 21:25:38:

Some of your figuring seems different than mine. First with fuel costs. Ten years ago I could prebuy diesel dyed fuel from Agway - often for 58 cents a gallon. And back in the 60s? I don't remember for sure about farm diesel - but I worked at a place in 1969 where we sold gas for four-gallons for one-dollar - i.e. 25 cents a gallon. Farm fuel had to be cheaper.
In regard to 30,000 tractor hours not being possible? Well it must be since I know of a few - for sure - and a few others where's it is likely but not verifiable. I know little about mid-western large-scale farming. But - in my area - especially in the 1960s - we had many small farms and few large. It was a bid deal for someone to own a large tractor. When my neighbor bought his 4020 - it was the largest tractor in this area - with the next largest being a 5000 Ford and a Deere 720 diesel. Many farms were using - as main tractors - Deere 520s, 620s, etc. and smaller tractors for hay raking, etc. When this guy got his 4020, it was constantly being borrowed by other farmers - and the favor repaid in other ways. Springtime, it ran non-stop - all spring and most of the summer somewhere. And, besides that - it ran his Jamesway barn cleaner, was often used to run a 30KW PTO generator, silo-blower, long runs spreading manure, etc.
As years went on and farms in this area disappeared - somewhere from 70 farms in my own town down to 3 now - the tractor still got, and gets used - but not quite as much. Now, city people borrow it to bushhog, chisel plow, besides the routine farm work by the owner. The last rebuild on that 4020 - at over the 30K mark, somebody from Deere told the owner that several major metal parts should be replaced due to high hours and possible metal fatigue. The young guy that did the job bought a new flywheel, crankshaft, harmonic balancer, along with the standard routine parts. Good idea or not - I don't know. I wouldn't of done it that way - but to the owner - this 4020 was his pride. He has no wife, no kids, no phone, no TV, no license plates on his truck (still drives it though), etc. Now, he doesn't even have a farm (except he holds the mortgage).
I thought - from what little I've read - that on many large mid-western grain farms, tractors ran all day long, every day. No truth to that?

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