Obsolete?

rrlund · Jun 23, 2010

Got to thinking the other night after a storm woke me up,about the farm equipment that has become almost obsolete. Things that would have NEVER been thought a farmer could do without at one time. Things like the binder,thresher,corn picker,moldboard plow,row crop cultivator.... Yes,I know,I still use some of them myself from time to time,but on a widespread "everybody has them" kind of a way,they just aren't necessary anymore.

What do you think in your wildest dreams,that we use intensley now,will be obsolete someday? Discuss.

big jt · Jun 23, 2010

There have been flash in the pan implements for as long as farming has been mechanized. When I started farming full time 20 years ago spray banders were the thing to have. Now they are just scrap iron.

What do I see as tommorows scrap. Not sure on this one but I wonder what these bean rollers will be worth in 10 years. I had some ground rolled this year as a result of neighbors coming in and combining alot of my corn after my fathers death. Know of alot of really good farmers that do this also but time will tell.

jt

DaveK(IN) · Jun 23, 2010

What is "bean rolling" and why would picking corn make that needed? My Ext. Agent says that rolling for a lawn for example, increases soil compaction and actually hurts root development, germination, etc.
Thanks in advance, always glad to learn something.

thurlow · Jun 23, 2010

Probably anything to do with food production, at least in the U S of A; we'll just buy our food at Wal-mart or Kroger (or whatever 'your' chain store is); won't need farmers at all. Have got a 9-year old nephew that spends a lot of time with me. He lives about an hour away........out in the country; his dad's an engineer, but was raised on a working farm. When I offer the nephew blackberries.....right off the bushes......or an apple right off the tree, he's vey skeptical that they're good to eat and wants to see me eat one first.

LeoinMI · Jun 23, 2010

Landline phones. Seems everybody has a Cell Phone nowdays. I don't own a cell phone myself,..but will probably get one eventually.

dhermesc · Jun 23, 2010

A few things are on their way out or already gone:

Wrist watches,

Answering machines,

Paper calenders,

Typewriters,

audio cassettes and CDs,

Movie rental stores,

Books on paper,

Encyclopedias,

Gun guru · Jun 23, 2010

I can see land line phones going away unless a homeowner really wants one.
I can see spare tires going away in cars cause they will have the run flats in ten years from now or more.

rrlund · Jun 23, 2010

Yes,but what about farm equipment? Can you imagine something replacing the combine for example. You have to wonder what that machine would be.

36F30 · Jun 23, 2010

Not the equipment but the OPERATOR. Mother Deere already has an operational GPS autonomous (Robotic)Tractor with no operators station at all.

They are also working on golf course equipment that leaves the shed at night, mows all night long with sub inch accuracy and then parks itself back in the shed, all without human involvement.

Leroy · Jun 23, 2010

The run flat tire was standard on some cars in the late 1050's but never made it.

big jt · Jun 23, 2010

Here is a link for one of the brands of rollers. I have to agree about the compaction. I wanted to have it done in the fall. Reason corn combining makes a difference is I am going no till and want to knock the stalks down. Planter works much better and so far the one field that didn't get rolled the germination has been a issue.

Other benefits the sellers of these rollers tout is they push the rocks down and level the earth making it much easier to combine.

I have to admit I am not sold on it myself but since I am just running a old JD 7000 planter with no row cleaners I kinda felt I should do something.

jm2cw your milage may vary

jt
Untitled URL Link

Leroy · Jun 23, 2010

Cell phone service is to UNREALIABE to depend on it, have to have a land line. Cell cervice setting at kitchen table will go from good to droped with out ever moving. And this is not in the wide open spaces or the hills.

rustred · Jun 23, 2010

spare tire?... bought a 2010 challenger and does not come with a spare tire. instead the battery is in the trunk!

LeoinMI · Jun 23, 2010

I doubt if there are too many replacements for current farm equipment. Improvements to make them bigger or more efficient,..but a combine would be difficult to replace. Nowdays a modern combine has multipul head attachments,..so it is pretty versatil. Hard to come up with a better idea.
Wonder if they make an attachment to pick up sand and seperate oil from it,..kinda like when you combine wheat. The sand and oil go in and just the sand comes out the back clean. Maybe some $$$ there if someone could figure it out.

LeoinMI · Jun 23, 2010

I need that kind of mower for my yard. Takes all the fun out of yard work. NOT!!!

36F30 · Jun 23, 2010

(quoted from post at 10:10:27 06/23/10) The run flat tire was standard on some cars in the late 1050's but never made it.

In 1050? Tires would have been made of stone!!!!!! :lol:

rrlund · Jun 23, 2010

Think about this when you say nothing will replace the combine though Leo. What about bio mass? In 75 years will somebody look at a combine and say "it only took the grain?? What a waste!" Will the grain head be the only part that will survive from the current combine? Will there be something for corn more like a forage harvester that takes the whole plant. Maybe puts the chopped stalks in one truck along side,with ear corn going into another to be shelled at a central location? Possible.

It wasn't the combine that put the final nail in the coffin for the thresher. It was the pickup baler. The combine was fine for the grain farmer,but it left the straw in the field. Livestock farmers didn't want it until the baler came along to get the straw to the barn.
By the same token,the row crop cultivator wasn't replaced by another machine. It was pushed out by chemistry. The moldboard plow met it's death by government policy.

LeoinMI · Jun 23, 2010

I am sure with everything going "green" that there will be a replcement for the combine. I'm just saying that it is a real versatil machine that can do various tasks at the present. You are right in saying it will probably develope into something (maybe) totally different to satisfy our needs in the future. Waste probably won't be tolorated as much in the future of the Ag. Buisness.

Mike (WA) · Jun 23, 2010

I've still got most of that stuff, dhermesc- 'course, I guess I'm on my way out, too, come to think of it . . .

gitrib · Jun 23, 2010

It had already happened. Combines run the whole stock through and shelled corn goes in bin an rest of plant goes out the back into a baler. No trash to work for planting just pull in and no-till.
gitrib

kyplowboy · Jun 23, 2010

With political and labor (which at the end of the day goes back to politics) issues some tobacco equipment has lost most all it's vallue the last few years. An old school (but still does a better job) finger type setter is valued now by what it will weigh. One arm sprayers are about worthless, even open station high boys don't bring the cost of the hydrolic hoses on one. In some places the price a two row carousel setter have fallen off greatly, the folks who got big quick after the buy out want to set over 20 acres a day. Only tobacco only equipment I have seen hold it's own or go up has been scafold wagons, and that is because if a guy has 15 or so H2As working it don't take long to run out of wagons.

JMS/.MN · Jun 23, 2010

No- whole stalk does not go through- chopper head cuts the stalks as the ears are picked off- residue that went through the combine can be saved and baled or blown into a wagon for cellulosic ethanol- but that is just starting, certainly not common. No combine has the separating capacity to take whole stalks.

Toby Oats · Jun 23, 2010

Tow behind haybines and discbines

dhermesc · Jun 23, 2010

I have them all too.

A couple other things on their way out - cable TV and even the little satelite dishes that mount on the side of a house. In a couple of years the technology that lets you watch TV and surf the net on your cell phone will be available/standard on the big sets.

LenND · Jun 23, 2010

The Chevy Camaro on display at the local dealer has no spare tire. It has a notice on the spec sheet "this vehicle has no spare tire but comes with a container tire fixit"

Cockshutt Mike · Jun 23, 2010

The one greatest piece of farm equipment ever used is becoming more obsolete everyday, "the farmer" , never a greater piece of equipment.

rrlund · Jun 23, 2010

Yep,just imagine sitting around with a bunch of farmers in the mid 40s saying that someday,we'll grow 200 bushel corn without even plowing. Somebody would shame the crap out of you saying that there isn't a plow made that would plow under stalks like that. And with those stalks on top of the ground,how would you cultivate?
They'd be calling you crazy Leo,not only for the rest of your life,but they'd chisel it into your tombstone. Your decendants would have to change their name to live down the name.

Leroy · Jun 23, 2010

The early Oliver combines did cut the stalk and run everything through.

DFZ · Jun 23, 2010

The first one that comes to mind are (What we called) Pop-up bale loaders. The kind that hitches to the side of a truck to load a load of bales in the field. Most everybody has/or uses a bale wagon around here. Too hard finding a crew to stack a load and too costly.

Another one is the hay crimper. I haven"t even seen one of these being used. I bet >95% of people use a haybine or discbine with conditioner rolls.

Heat Houser · Jun 23, 2010

I would almost bet that LP gas grain driers will go obsolete at some point. The seed companies are getting very good at selecting for dry down in the field. Of course, it takes a normal year for that to happen, not a wet one like last year.
Also with the alcohol plants taking corn at 17%, this eliminates a lot of drying. They only shrink you to 15%, they do not charge you for drying.

Traditional Farmer · Jun 23, 2010

Just like women's clothes farm implements come in and out of style.Chemical farming's days are numbered in the US for a wide variety of reasons.And when energy goes thru the roof the hottest farm items might be the Mule and a good
Syracuse plow again.

olgentdc · Jun 24, 2010

Guys it really is best toJUST TAKE THE GRAIN OUT , AND leave thwe forage to help replenish HUMUS IN THE SOIL

Mark - IN. · Jun 24, 2010

Me.

I've been married three or four dozen times, each ending the day after our honeymoon, and they all had one thing in common. Each of my 24 or 36 ex-wives told me that I'm obsolete and they need a newer, younger, much more streamlined, athletic, and generally improved model. So, the answer to your question is...me.

Mark

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