Ask Steve Dave Farm And Cow And Ranch And Tractor And Truck Related Questions

[DaBigTrain]

SD have you watched the series “Yellowstone” on like the the Paramount Network? I haven’t but there’s a lot of cow farm mafia stuff on that show I’ve heard.

[steve dave]

No


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[ben ji]

you know what else they care about? grease zerks (technical farmer thing I'll explain). these are them:



so there are over a million of them on all kinds of plows, tractors, swather things that eat the hay, you name it. if you use it to farm cows or plants it's got grease zerks. you use a grease gun with giant tubes of lube to squirt it into them like every 4 hours you use the thing that has them. this is the gun.



it's an enormous pain in the ass and it's always hot as crap and there are bugs everywhere when you do it. here's what I figured out on my own though. it's fake news. you don't have to do it. I've gone literally a month without grease gunning a grease zerk and nothing mostly broke. I'm pretty sure it's a scam from big grease.

Had my first zerk/grease gun conversation this weekend on the farm. After we towed my brothers jacked up golf cart we were looking at the broken steering strut(?) and my dad pointed out the zerks and mentioned that we need to clean those and grease them with a grease gun then kept explaining it to me and I really wanted to tell him that I already knew what zerks and grease guns were from the internet but I let him keep going so he could get the satisfaction of teaching me something new.

[steve dave]

Tell him you don’t have to grease crap

Source: sd from the internet who always said he greased them but never did


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[ben ji]

Token cat picture, this guy/gal was chilling by the barn soaking up some rays. There were 2 more behind it in the weeds that I did not see until later.

 

[ben ji]

My dad bought a gas powered fence post driller/Auger and I helped him put in a couple fence posts around the circle where the 50+ year old ones needed replacing.

I searched in the "garage" for an empty gas can for the fuel mix but couldnt find one. Just a crap ton of junk that probably has not been used in decades.

I did find 2 of his Automatic Cat feeders tho!



Guaran F'n tee at least half of those tools have not been used in 20 years. I assume we just leave them there because one day we might need them?

[ben ji]

Tell him you don’t have to grease crap

Source: sd from the internet who always said he greased them but never did


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What about a zerk like this? Probably never been hit with a real grease gun.

Also someone tell me the name of the part we need to replace (where the steering connects to the wheel)

[steve dave]

Nope, especially the hard to reach ones. Those are the least important.


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[KST8FAN]

Tell him you don’t have to grease crap

Source: sd from the internet who always said he greased them but never did


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Tom Dad would inspect equipment after Tom greased.   He better see grease oozing from every orafice and crack on that green iron.

Tom

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[sys]

the problem with non-hobby cow farming is there's a lot more rough ridin' with tools and machines and crap than i prefer.

[michigancat]

Tell him you don’t have to grease crap

Source: sd from the internet who always said he greased them but never did


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Tom Dad would inspect equipment after Tom greased.   He better see grease oozing from every orafice and crack on that green iron.

Tom

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He needs to check the manual because you should only give some a couple squirts.

Also I read your article and have heard my dad talk about the issue. He likes gps and stuff but also likes to fix his own stuff so quite the pickle. I think people will ultimately need to hack them with new firmware like people used to do with iPods or something

[KST8FAN]

Dad had the first Cat Challenger in our farm community.  This is a pix of his grandsons probably 95-98 or about 25 years ago.

I remember it didnt sell at the farm sale.  I ended up listing it on the "internet "  and some guy from Minnesota bought it.


Tom

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[steve dave]

Hell yeah, that was about the time I was tearing the crap out of a Cat Challenger, and whatever it happened to be pulling, and whatever I was running it into.

They were pretty badass but never really caught on. It was a ride going up over a steep terrace or any kind of bump. Shoot to the moon and crash to the ground....and then the tongue rips off your fully loaded grain cart and heads for Australia via the shortest route.


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[michigancat]

Dad had the first Cat Challenger in our farm community.  This is a pix of his grandsons probably 95-98 or about 25 years ago.

I remember it didnt sell at the farm sale.  I ended up listing it on the "internet "  and some guy from Minnesota bought it.


Tom

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that is some high quality emaw fashion for real

[star seed 7]

Are cowboy hats big in the Kansas farm community? I always associate them more with texas people and kansas farmers more with a free trucker hat.

[Katpappy]

Tell him you don’t have to grease crap

Source: sd from the internet who always said he greased them but never did


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Tom Dad would inspect equipment after Tom greased.   He better see grease oozing from every orafice and crack on that green iron.

Tom

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Yes Tom, my dad did the same thing.  Only not on rubber sealed joints because lots of grease blows out seal. 
OT:  got to admit it's fun to read about how KC city kids think about how to farm. 

[Katpappy]

Hell yeah, that was about the time I was tearing the crap out of a Cat Challenger, and whatever it happened to be pulling, and whatever I was running it into.

They were pretty badass but never really caught on. It was a ride going up over a steep terrace or any kind of bump. Shoot to the moon and crash to the ground....and then the tongue rips off your fully loaded grain cart and heads for Australia via the shortest route.


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   I bet your Dad thought you were terror on wheels.  You were cheap labor but expensive to keep around. 

[michigancat]

Are cowboy hats big in the Kansas farm community? I always associate them more with texas people and kansas farmers more with a free trucker hat.

my dad and grandpas (all Kansas dirt farmers) never wear or wore cowboy hats or cowboy boots. your association is pretty accurate.

I was actually looking at Tom's thinking that if that had been me I would have had some dirty Nikes and a "summer hat" from the local Co-op

[Katpappy]

Are cowboy hats big in the Kansas farm community? I always associate them more with texas people and kansas farmers more with a free trucker hat.

Correct for farmers, but cattle and horse ranchers wore cowboy hats most of the time.  Exception was when going to events like rodeos, fairs, farm and 3I farm equipment shows; then most farm/rancher wore cowboy hats.

[KST8FAN]

Are cowboy hats big in the Kansas farm community? I always associate them more with texas people and kansas farmers more with a free trucker hat.

My dad qualified more as a rancher, not a farmer,  but never saw him in a cowboy hat.  DeKalb seed ball cap,  overalls, on a horse rounding up yearlings.   I suspect like me we both had huge heads and cowboy hats are not a good look.

The oldest son, aka #1, was a cowboy from day one.  Lil bro went along for a while,  but eventually became the Buzz to his Woody.  See below.

New Years day 96... just returned from our Holiday Bowl beat down of CSU, #1 wanted to play cowboys.   He would ride his springy horse and I would shoot him.   He would proceed to fall off.  The falls became more dramatic until he landed in his elbow and spiral fractured his arm.  He would not let the EMT cut off his cowboy shirt.  They took it off after much protesting from him.  He lived the cowboy up motto.


Tom

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[steve dave]

Don’t know if you city people know this but you can’t wear a hat in church. EXCEPT FOR A COWBOY HAT. They are formal attire.

Also my dad never wore a hat or boots except for formal events. We also started sunsetting horses when I was pretty young. I got thrown off a couple and had about enough of that crap anyway. Then I almost killed myself multiple times doing complete front flips on ATVs. Now we are almost exclusively Polaris ranger/razor 4/6 wheel UTVs. We just hire horse cowboys to work for us but it seems like it’s mostly for tradition.


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[meow meow]

anyone ever done a cattle drive on horseback?  pretty fun, throw some beers in your saddlebags and go.  butt gets pretty sore.

[steve dave]

I’ve done about a 10 mile one a few times with no beers and it wasn’t fun at all.


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[star seed 7]

Replace beers with marijuana cigarettes, and I would def do it once

[michigancat]

I was always around cows but only chased them on three wheelers before folks decided they were death machines