I want to thank everyone for commenting on my post. I never realized this could be such a hot topic. Some additional thoughts:
It seems like some say that mechanics in the farm industry don't make much money, while others say that they do. I think there is a wide variation among employers that causes the wage difference. I don't know what the JD dealer I mention pays his mechanics, but I do know that his mechanics seem to live ok, probably better than most people around here.
With the new computerized technology getting into everything from tractors to combines to planters, I don't think that dealers--at least the good ones--are going to get by anymore just with a guy who knows how to turn a socket wrench. Farm equipment technology has changed drastically just in the last 5 years. These aren't your Dad's tractors and combines anymore. I was reading a manual for one of the new big combines, and I was amazed at how complex and elaborate it was. Many of the latest tractors and combines are now wired with a LAN data computer network, and the literature was about serial communications and digital gateways---VERY technical stuff! Plus, if you add in GPS you have a very technical machine. Not only do machinery techs have to have a good mechanical knowledge, they almost have to be knowlegeable in Digital Electronics technology.
And no longer are models staying the same year after year. According to a farm mechanic I spoke to, they almost have to have 2 weeks of factory training every year just to keep up and stay knowledgeable with all the new stuff coming out of the factories.
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Today's Featured Article - Grain Threshing in the Early 40's - by Jerry D. Coleman. How many of you can sit there and say that you have plowed with a mule? Well I would say not many, but maybe a few. This story is about the day my Grandfather Brown (true name) decided along with my parents to purchase a new Ford tractor. It wasn't really new except to us. The year was about 1967 and my father found a good used Ford 601 tractor to use on the farm instead of "Bob", our old mule. Now my grandfather had had this mule since the mid 40's and he was getting some age on him. S
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