Used Cars
- Thread starter KHornet
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Pistolero
Well-Known Member
Never been a dairy farmer but my father lived near and was friends with several of
them. I have twice been out figuring out an automatic milking machine system and
figuring how to get it running again in the next hour or two to save several thousand
gallons of milk from being dumped. Old style machine with a long cam rod, turned
by a clock motor, driving a myriad of microswitches. Once I had it all apart, I could
trace down the functions and hot wire the washer motor, and back flush and get him
back in business until the next day. Did I mention it was 10 pm on Christmas eve
the first time he called? Actually, I really enjoyed giving a wonderful gift to him
for Christmas, something he really needed and which was the perfect color and
just his size.
I figured that being a dairy farmer was like having one leg in a 50 ft long shackle
to a post. You could do whatever you wanted within the 50 ft radius.....
Nice folks, tho. I never minded being known in the area as the guy who could
fix stuff. I've been under somebody else's house at 9 pm thawing his pipes, too.
94 year old man, and couldn't do it himself. So many frozen pipes that year that
all the plumbers were backed up for days. My father go a call from a friend of the
old man's and we were off to take care of it. Darned cold under that house, tho.
Bill
them. I have twice been out figuring out an automatic milking machine system and
figuring how to get it running again in the next hour or two to save several thousand
gallons of milk from being dumped. Old style machine with a long cam rod, turned
by a clock motor, driving a myriad of microswitches. Once I had it all apart, I could
trace down the functions and hot wire the washer motor, and back flush and get him
back in business until the next day. Did I mention it was 10 pm on Christmas eve
the first time he called? Actually, I really enjoyed giving a wonderful gift to him
for Christmas, something he really needed and which was the perfect color and
just his size.
I figured that being a dairy farmer was like having one leg in a 50 ft long shackle
to a post. You could do whatever you wanted within the 50 ft radius.....
Nice folks, tho. I never minded being known in the area as the guy who could
fix stuff. I've been under somebody else's house at 9 pm thawing his pipes, too.
94 year old man, and couldn't do it himself. So many frozen pipes that year that
all the plumbers were backed up for days. My father go a call from a friend of the
old man's and we were off to take care of it. Darned cold under that house, tho.
Bill
I grew up pulling teats and knew it was not for me. I also have helped too many friends who were working shifts in the mines/plants N of Fivers milk, pull calves or do whatever.
I got smart and wanted to be a plumber, in the winter of 78-79 Grace Idaho never got above 0F for 3 weeks. Lows were -40. I thawed plenty of trailers to see where the pipes broke at, then tried to fix them before they refroze. Smartest thing I ever did was apply at the Gas Company and the best thing they ever did for me was lay me off and get me on the road to MT.
I got smart and wanted to be a plumber, in the winter of 78-79 Grace Idaho never got above 0F for 3 weeks. Lows were -40. I thawed plenty of trailers to see where the pipes broke at, then tried to fix them before they refroze. Smartest thing I ever did was apply at the Gas Company and the best thing they ever did for me was lay me off and get me on the road to MT.
Bret4207
At the casting bench in the sky. RIP Bret.
Farming is a lifestyle. Personally, I spent 20 plus years never being able to be home. I like it. I'm a sheep guy, not a dairy cow guy, although I have cows too. I agree with never wanting to see a Holstein again, I lean towards Jerseys. I'd love to have a milk check coming in rather than one or 2 checks a year. I'm milking twice a day, every day now (goats), but SWMBO isn't crazy about that commercial milking idea....and then she is.....and then she isn't and so on. Women! Right now the market is so flooded with milk that the plants aren't taking any new dairies. That goes for organic too. We wanted to do the goat milk end in a co-op type deal that is being sort of proposed, but that means transporting the milk clear over to the southern end of the moutains. Not an easy/cheap thing to do, even at $50-60 @ cwt. Farming is expensive, hard, heart breaking and it never stops. But, so was auto body work, working in a lumber yard, working on saws and being a cop. If you want the easy life, try welfare. A lot of people around here seem to make out pretty good in that line of "work".
Speaking auto milkers, they now run off micro processors. Just had a friend that put in auto take off claws. Basically the idea is that when the cow is milked out the computer senses it and the vacuum is cut, the claw falls and a spring driven affair pulls the unit up before it hits the floor and muck. Poor guy was walking down the alley, the unit dropped and the spring pulled it up. Whole thing caught him in the face somehow and took out one of his eyes.
Speaking auto milkers, they now run off micro processors. Just had a friend that put in auto take off claws. Basically the idea is that when the cow is milked out the computer senses it and the vacuum is cut, the claw falls and a spring driven affair pulls the unit up before it hits the floor and muck. Poor guy was walking down the alley, the unit dropped and the spring pulled it up. Whole thing caught him in the face somehow and took out one of his eyes.
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Pistolero
Well-Known Member
Thank goodness somebody is a dairy farmer. I like my milk, and willing to pay for it, and having seen the
work it takes to produce, never complain at all about the price. Lots of ways to make a living. One of life's
problems for humans is boredom. Many jobs entirely eliminate the concept, providing a challenge about
every hour or so, from small to very large. People do better with challenges than with boredom.
Please educate me. As a "sheep guy", I am guessing that the primary product is wool, but are milk
or meat any part of the economic picture with sheep on a small farm?
Best wishes, Bret.
Watching the weather in central Fla now, got family down there who may need help after
this storm passes. The good news is that peak winds where they are located are predicted
to be barely over minimum hurricane in one location and only 55 mph in another. Hope those
lower predictions hold true. None of them is anywhere near flooding danger, smarter than
that.
work it takes to produce, never complain at all about the price. Lots of ways to make a living. One of life's
problems for humans is boredom. Many jobs entirely eliminate the concept, providing a challenge about
every hour or so, from small to very large. People do better with challenges than with boredom.
Please educate me. As a "sheep guy", I am guessing that the primary product is wool, but are milk
or meat any part of the economic picture with sheep on a small farm?
Best wishes, Bret.
Watching the weather in central Fla now, got family down there who may need help after
this storm passes. The good news is that peak winds where they are located are predicted
to be barely over minimum hurricane in one location and only 55 mph in another. Hope those
lower predictions hold true. None of them is anywhere near flooding danger, smarter than
that.
That ain't no joke and not just dairy farmers, all farmers and ranchers. There are far too many people that have no clue how deep would be the doo doo they would be in and in very short order without farmers. My first FIL was a dairy farmer in northern Illinois. The man worked 7 days a week and didn't have a vacation in 40 years.
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RicinYakima
High Steppes of Eastern Washington
I once asked one of my cousins husband how he liked farming for 20 Jerseys. He was really old then (maybe 60 and I was 12) and he told me it was wonderful. He knew everyday what he was going to do. There were no surprises in his life. He went to town on Wednesday afternoons, church on Sunday morning, and farmed the rest of the time. He was living in the house he was born in, and I don't think he was every more than 25 miles away from it his whole life. He died in the 1980's at about 90 years old, loading milk cans for the creamery.
Pistolero
Well-Known Member
Each person has their different needs, and thank goodness it all works out. I truly respect
farmers, have known a number of them pretty well over the years. Hard working and most
are doing about 6 or 8 different things to manage to knit together a living. I don't think most
of us who are not farmers can really imagine betting literally everything each year on how your
estimates of weather and the markets will allow you to raise enough of a crop, and sell it at
a good enough price to cover your costs and pay you for a year's work and equipment.
The dairy farmers I know in Va were some of the more well off farmers I have known, although
I know one guy out here who sold out his 40,000 acre wheat farm to retire. He doesn't
worry much about what stuff costs, but still a pretty ordinary guy, but sure has nice
trucks and guns.
A friend of my wife married a farmer. She commented that one day they got a big check and she
was so thrilled, then she realized "We only get paid once a year".
Bill
farmers, have known a number of them pretty well over the years. Hard working and most
are doing about 6 or 8 different things to manage to knit together a living. I don't think most
of us who are not farmers can really imagine betting literally everything each year on how your
estimates of weather and the markets will allow you to raise enough of a crop, and sell it at
a good enough price to cover your costs and pay you for a year's work and equipment.
The dairy farmers I know in Va were some of the more well off farmers I have known, although
I know one guy out here who sold out his 40,000 acre wheat farm to retire. He doesn't
worry much about what stuff costs, but still a pretty ordinary guy, but sure has nice
trucks and guns.
A friend of my wife married a farmer. She commented that one day they got a big check and she
was so thrilled, then she realized "We only get paid once a year".
Bill
Chris
Well-Known Member
Some of you may remember Paul Harvey and "So God made a Farmer":
http://nation.foxnews.com/paul-harv...ul-harveys-original-so-god-made-farmer-speech
http://nation.foxnews.com/paul-harv...ul-harveys-original-so-god-made-farmer-speech
Bret4207
At the casting bench in the sky. RIP Bret.
Hair Sheep, no wool involved, more like deer hair. Strictly meat. The US wool market is all but non-existent thanks to the heavily subsidized (at least they used to be) Australian and NZ producers. Meat and wool both, chances are they come out of those 2 nations. Fortunately our immigrant population are big lamb eaters, unlike the average American who's never eaten any lamb, and keeps the price up for the few US producers like me.
RicinYakima
High Steppes of Eastern Washington
A rack of lamb, with mint jelly and saffron rice, grace my table every spring.
Ian
Notorious member
Me too, Bill, I gave that site a good once-over, very educational but still think I'll stick with black buck on my property when I get the fence completed one day. Chickens are good for the homestead, too. Can't do meat bunnies because the wife would have them all named and have dresses made for them before they were old enough to eat. We'd have to have about 5,000 acres of this lousy terrain to support 100 head of anything the slaughterhouse would buy.
Pistolero
Well-Known Member
Ian, -- Black buck, I assume the Indian antelope with curly horns. Are you serious? I know nothing about them other
than having seen pictures of them. Are they raised here for meat in the US? Cool horns, but I wonder if you are
pulling my leg somehow.
As to bunnies for meat, I like to eat them, will shoot them occaionally. A friend of my father, an underpaid fish cop,
raised them back in the 60s. Lots of meat, but they didn't work hard enough in keeping them from inbreeding and
they got hairless messes within a year and a half.....scotched that project. I know what you mean about the whole
raising animals to eat. We raised turkeys when I was a kid, and chickens. The layers all got names and provided us
with fresh eggs for a few years until the neighbor's dogs got them. The last chickens were sexing errors from my
HS job, chicken farm owner gave them to me rather than killing them. We ran them in the side yard, fed a bit of corn, and ate them
pretty early to keep them from being tough roosters. Chickens are really dumb, not too hard to eat them. The turkeys
got to be too friendly, it was hard to eat them. We did but didn't buy more live ones.
Bill
than having seen pictures of them. Are they raised here for meat in the US? Cool horns, but I wonder if you are
pulling my leg somehow.
As to bunnies for meat, I like to eat them, will shoot them occaionally. A friend of my father, an underpaid fish cop,
raised them back in the 60s. Lots of meat, but they didn't work hard enough in keeping them from inbreeding and
they got hairless messes within a year and a half.....scotched that project. I know what you mean about the whole
raising animals to eat. We raised turkeys when I was a kid, and chickens. The layers all got names and provided us
with fresh eggs for a few years until the neighbor's dogs got them. The last chickens were sexing errors from my
HS job, chicken farm owner gave them to me rather than killing them. We ran them in the side yard, fed a bit of corn, and ate them
pretty early to keep them from being tough roosters. Chickens are really dumb, not too hard to eat them. The turkeys
got to be too friendly, it was hard to eat them. We did but didn't buy more live ones.
Bill
Bret4207
At the casting bench in the sky. RIP Bret.
As with many people, you probably got an older "lamb" or a mutton, or you got lamb from someone who didn't know how to cook it. Lamb is a lot like venison, it's easy to make it taste like crap. Some cultures like the gamy, sort of dirty taste you get with mutton. We in the west tend to prefer something more like a decent piece of pork with a different flavor.
Ian
Notorious member
Yep, serious. They're very hardy, not prone to jumping fences, can live on the native flora in this semi-arid climate, and are actually quite tasty once you figure out how to cook them. The challenge for me cooking them is to avoid the old chicken-fry technique and work out something a little more healthy like grilling. The grilling challenge is there is no fat in the meat at all, not even as much as venison, so it easily dries out and becomes very tough. Marination and extremely gentle cooking with propane heat has worked for me. I used to have access to a huge ranch here that was over-run with the little critters, thousands of acres abandoned to them when an exotic wildlife business folded in the '80s (exotic game ranching was a fad then, along with emu, al-paca, and other short-lived endeavors) so I could have as many as I wanted to go out and shoot. Unfortunately I had just moved back to the area and hadn't built a house yet so I only took advantage of that a few times.