The Workhorses!

Biggest tractor on our farm in 1957 aside with the biggest tractor on our farm in 2011! I think the 305 may still have a thing or two to learn from the old 400.......

Wow, what a difference! How on earth did you do the same job with the smaller tractor? Was it just longer hours in the seat, or did you have less acreage back then?

I know what you're sayin about the new one needing to learn from the old.
Anytime someone gives me trouble about me usin these old Farmalls, I tell em "I bet those 60+ year old tractors know more about farming than you do"!
Shuts em right up;-)

Ben

What do you do with the "little guy" these days - mow yard!!!! Its amazing to see where farm machinery has changed in size and complexity over the years. When I was growing up in the 60's on a small dairy farm a 350 D was our biggest tractor for a couple of years before we got a 50 horse tractor.

(quoted from post at 21:23:36 04/01/11) I think the 305 may still have a thing or two to learn from the old 400.......

Click to expand...

You could probably title the lesson "Enjoy the great outdoors"...

Good in a lot of ways not so good in others. When 400 was new I could probaly count 100 farmers within 10 miles of me now all the land is worked by 5 or 6 farmers. I can show you a lot of 300/400 acre farmers that were paid for with 40/50 HP tractors.

it sure wasnt like now when you jump in your 4 wheel drive and run over a quarter in just a few hrs. those old tractors run pretty much 16-18 hrs. a day. my uncle and dad farmed up to 5 quarters in the late 50's and early 60's with with massey 44 and mccormick w6. they pulled 10'jd disc and cultivators, and 3x16 jd plows.these trastors had no hydraulics either. then in the fall the crop was cut with a 10'jd binder, stooked and thrashed with the thrashing machine.plus did a lot of thrashing for the neighbors as not everyone owned a thrashing machine.this took place everyday till they finished or the snow came. then once winter came they worked in the lumber camps till spring and came home to farm again.those old timers went through a lot of hard work.dad just passed away suddenly 2 months ago at 84 which caught us by surprise, as he seemed healthy as a horse.so be good to the old people as you are only left with memories.

The times are sure changing... When I was home in the late '50s-1960, we had a Super C and JD 60 and the most I remember we farmed was 240 acres. Biggest tractor Dad ever owned in his lifetime was a Farmall 460. Now my wife's cousin farms 23 irrigated quarters (over 3600 acres) with a JD 8620, 8630 and 9630T. Was talking to him one day after a funeral when his neighbor's wife came up and said she was in her second story bedroom and was surprised to look out and see the cab of his tractor going by as high as she was. Looks like that 305 is that tall. Tire size on the [u:f21b0acb17]front[/u:f21b0acb17] of those are bigger than the rear on anything we had, and they are duals.

Sorry to hear of your dads passing rustred. The farm I live on in central nebraska has been in my family since 1885. Grandpa spent many hours on a 400 plowing, planting, and feeding cattle. He started after his dad died at age 50 of a stroke while fixing fence. He is the youngest of 5 boys. He inherited the family farm and had two sons, one of which I'm the son of. We are blessed to farm together and live within a mile of each other. We are also blessed to have been abloe to grow our operation from 320 acres to 3600 acres as well as 400 head of cattle to a little over 3000. If it weren't for that old 400 we would not be able to have the 305 today! Grandpa is still alive at 81 and very active on out farm. He moved to town about 5 miles away in 2000 and I moved onto the original farmstead in 2004. I'm now 26, have a boy thats 5 and one on the way! Grandpa still comes out everyday for coffee and still does most of the books for the feedyard. He also does some shredding and drives the grain cart if we are in a bind here. He still grins when he gets on that old 400. The stories it could tell! We do use it quite a bit, for blading the yard and running augers. I've been pulling it lately at local pulls. It does do quite well! I love having that old iron around! Sometime I will try and post a pic of the H I restored!

And if you are wondering, the rear rims on the 305 are 50" and the fronts are 38"s! Thats the same as the rears on the 400!

When 13 yrs old neighbor hire me to do some disking for him with his SC Case. Was eating dinner one day and a neighbor drove in with his new 300 Farmall. I did not know anything could look so pretty.

Nice comments! I guess you can't really stop "progress", but keeping the knowledge, fortitude and common sense from yesteryear is the key to humanity. I miss my dad's "old ways" of doing things. I don't farm, but have three Farmall's with character. The '42 "H" is restored from a real farm a mile away. My dad used to boast about how that family and others nearby, ran a clean, hard working farm. Enjoy your old iron and families!!