766 Man Posted November 29, 2023 Author Posted November 29, 2023 14 minutes ago, Bgriffin856 said: Having a mortgage out of the way makes things much easier I'll say that Also, highly productive ground greatly factors into profitability. Back when 5 tons per acre of dry matter alfalfa was the target quite a few farms here in NY seldom hit that. They had to hit the ultra rare 4 or 5 cuttings per season versus higher tonnage split between 3 cuttings. 15 tons per acre corn silage being a good year versus 20 which was Cornell or Penn State said should be the goal. Marginal soil forced the dairies upon which they rested out the earliest. Such as my neighborhood of which the small dairies were gone by 1990. Blessed were the farms along a creek flat or a ridge of Ontario loam which gave yields 1.25 to 1.5 times more than their neighbors. Of course there were farms that had a good foundation but were never well managed. Some that could not see past a shiny new tractor to put up a heifer facility to keep more of the productive bloodlines around. 1 Quote
Bgriffin856 Posted December 1, 2023 Posted December 1, 2023 On 11/29/2023 at 11:07 AM, 766 Man said: Also, highly productive ground greatly factors into profitability. Back when 5 tons per acre of dry matter alfalfa was the target quite a few farms here in NY seldom hit that. They had to hit the ultra rare 4 or 5 cuttings per season versus higher tonnage split between 3 cuttings. 15 tons per acre corn silage being a good year versus 20 which was Cornell or Penn State said should be the goal. Marginal soil forced the dairies upon which they rested out the earliest. Such as my neighborhood of which the small dairies were gone by 1990. Blessed were the farms along a creek flat or a ridge of Ontario loam which gave yields 1.25 to 1.5 times more than their neighbors. Of course there were farms that had a good foundation but were never well managed. Some that could not see past a shiny new tractor to put up a heifer facility to keep more of the productive bloodlines around. I know all about that. For marginal ground our farm is productive. It takes a good bit to keep it up and productive. Everything we farm is marginal some of the rented ground is very poor and neglected but it's not profitable to put much into it when you don't own it or know if you'll be farming it the following year. It's sad but it's business. Neighbor sold their farm for like $3.5K an acre this summer. We had got some of it fixed up and growing something after being let go for 20 years. Some of the other neighbors are surprised we didn't purchase it. I'm sorry I'm not taking on that much risk for marginal poor quality and drainage ground that would take the rest of my life to make productive as it should be. If it were kept up and maintained over the years it would have been worthwhile. Especially as volatile as the dairy markets are. Row crops aren't going to work here only on rare dry years would it be possible. That's one reason I stay in the dairy business and stay the size we are. Call me a fool but If anything I can always get a off farm job and still have a farm and land in the end 2 Quote
dads706 Posted December 2, 2023 Posted December 2, 2023 On 10/29/2023 at 10:15 PM, Gearclash said: Ah, yes, Roorda, the Made In China of forage wagons. Boy did I learn to hate that guy . . . I was never around their forage wagons, but their feed wagons were built like a Steiger. We had one from the time I was 8 or ten, until dad retired. I fed 6-800 head of cattle twice a day 365 days a year until I left home, and can't remember even having so much as a flat tire. Can't say enough good things about it. Quote
jordi 1455 Posted December 2, 2023 Posted December 2, 2023 On 10/30/2023 at 3:16 AM, 766 Man said: I just wanted to see how many different brands I could name. Also, it would be interesting to hear stories. For each brand I would expect that there are farmers who believe that one was the best. The majors : AC Ford (Big Blue Wagon) IH JD MF (before Badger) Oliver (short lived) The shortlines : Arts-Way Badger Calhoun Cobey Dion Gehl Kasten Knight Lamco New Holland New Idea Papec Rex Schulz(sp) I'm sure I missed others which were regionally made or marketed. Here some European Former brands: Claas Fortschritt Mengele Veenhuis Vicon Current brands: Annaburger Bergmann Briri Fliegl Joskin Kaweco Kverneland Pronar Record Strautmann Underhaug Wielton Forage wagon and selfloading wagon in one (former) Claas Kaweco Kverneland Lely Mengele Vicon Forage wagon and selfloading wagon in one Bergmann Fendt Fliegl Pronar Strautmann 3 Quote
Kenneth russell Posted April 5, 2025 Posted April 5, 2025 On 10/29/2023 at 9:16 PM, 766 Man said: I just wanted to see how many different brands I could name. Also, it would be interesting to hear stories. For each brand I would expect that there are farmers who believe that one was the best. The majors : AC Ford (Big Blue Wagon) IH JD MF (before Badger) Oliver (short lived) The shortlines : Arts-Way Badger Calhoun Cobey Dion Gehl Kasten Knight Lamco New Holland New Idea Papec Rex Schulz(sp) I'm sure I missed others which were regionally made or marketed. I think gehl would be in the majors too. Ford and MF should be swapped with IH and new idea in my opinion. Quote
Absent Minded Farmer Posted April 5, 2025 Posted April 5, 2025 6 hours ago, Kenneth russell said: I think gehl would be in the majors too. Ford and MF should be swapped with IH and new idea in my opinion. Kasten should be in the majors, as they made boxes for Gehl & IH. So, IH & Kasten should get swapped. Mike Quote
766 Man Posted April 5, 2025 Author Posted April 5, 2025 1 hour ago, Absent Minded Farmer said: Kasten should be in the majors, as they made boxes for Gehl & IH. So, IH & Kasten should get swapped. Mike Let us back up here. I was talking about IH being major as it was a full line company. I put other boxes such as Gehl and Kasten in the shortline category as those companies had rather limited offerings in terms of products. But if you want to talk about very significant market share then yes Gehl and Kasten were large players in the forage box category. Kasten made a box and a forage blower hence being considered a shortline company. But given the reach that AC had around here I would venture to say that there were as many AC boxes around as there were Kasten. FNY Bill would tell you about that. If I had to guess that JD was the number 1 seller around here with more sold than Gehl and NH. Not saying that JD was necessarily the best but given JD's financing nearly any farmer could make a purchase, get JD financing, and then have the wagon on the farm in the span of a day. Quote
Kenneth russell Posted April 5, 2025 Posted April 5, 2025 5 hours ago, Absent Minded Farmer said: Kasten should be in the majors, as they made boxes for Gehl & IH. So, IH & Kasten should get swapped. Mike I thought gehl made their own box’s? They built everything else for them selves why couldn’t they build a wooden wagon. Quote
1480x3 Posted April 5, 2025 Posted April 5, 2025 1 hour ago, Kenneth russell said: I thought gehl made their own box’s? They built everything else for them selves why couldn’t they build a wooden wagon. Gehl had 1 low end model that was a kasten, cant recall the model # Quote
oleman Posted April 5, 2025 Posted April 5, 2025 Help me out, What is a forage wagon and what does it forage? Quote
Kenneth russell Posted April 5, 2025 Posted April 5, 2025 49 minutes ago, oleman said: Help me out, What is a forage wagon and what does it forage? It’s a wagon that hauls food for cattle and food for cattle is called forage. So it’s a forage wagon. 1 Quote
Dubbs Posted August 9, 2025 Posted August 9, 2025 I used to build the GEHL and New Holland boxes. Out of Hamilton MI Quote
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