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

[Katpappy]

and sometimes the hardest part of regular cow farming is counting them from the pickup. oh are there 78 in that pasture? OK good let's go.

Rusty, that was one of my many jobs; cattle count and check stock tanks for water.  It's amazing how Kansas farm boys did familiar work and various things on the farm.   

Why does it have to be farm boys? My cousin's daughter (my second cousin?) lives in KC but is back in Colby due to the pandemic. She was going to come out and play golf after helping do farm stuff but one of the stock tanks was clogged so they had to spend all afternoon messing around with that and didn't get to play any farm golf.

Back then we had windmills pumping water in the tanks and, if filled, I would need to pull a handle that was connected to the tail so the wind wouldn't drive the prop that turned the pump.  That was how to shut off the water. 
Did she tell you what was clogged?  The only thing that pours into the tank is water.  Is this electric or float controlled?  Also, I was referring to Rusty, Tom and SD since they were farm boys at one time.  We did have a  neighbour who was a dairy farmer with 12 daughters that hand milked their cows before hopping on the school bus at 7:00am in the morning.  That meant they started milking at 4:00am every morning.  But that is a very different life experience then our gE posters ITT.

[ben ji]

and sometimes the hardest part of regular cow farming is counting them from the pickup. oh are there 78 in that pasture? OK good let's go.

Rusty, that was one of my many jobs; cattle count and check stock tanks for water.  It's amazing how Kansas farm boys did familiar work and various things on the farm.   

Why does it have to be farm boys? My cousin's daughter (my second cousin?) lives in KC but is back in Colby due to the pandemic. She was going to come out and play golf after helping do farm stuff but one of the stock tanks was clogged so they had to spend all afternoon messing around with that and didn't get to play any farm golf.

Back then we had windmills pumping water in the tanks and, if filled, I would need to pull a handle that was connected to the tail so the wind wouldn't drive the prop that turned the pump.  That was how to shut off the water. 
Did she tell you what was clogged?  The only thing that pours into the tank is water.  Is this electric or float controlled?  Also, I was referring to Rusty, Tom and SD since they were farm boys at one time.  We did have a  neighbour who was a dairy farmer with 12 daughters that hand milked their cows before hopping on the school bus at 7:00am in the morning.  That meant they started milking at 4:00am every morning.  But that is a very different life experience then our gE posters ITT.

No idea on how it was clogged/broken etc. The windmill that feeds the stock tank in our pasture works the same way you described, sometimes my gpa or uncle would put goldfish in the stock tanks. 

[sys]

my grandfather always had a healthy herd of stock tank goldfish.  never fed and never died, amazing animals.

[ben ji]

Tell me more about this, i only saw gold fish a couple of times in the summer and am assuming they died every winter when the stock tanks froze.

[sys]

i think they ate cow food that fell out of the cows' mouths when drinking, but i dunno.  my grandfather broke the ice so the cows could drink whenever it froze but i dunno if that mattered to the goldfish or not.

[nicname]

Anyway, this is what REAL farming looks like-->extremely dorky

[youtube]https://youtu.be/48H7zOQrX3U[/youtube]

Those are some classic kansas cut sleeveless tees those dudes are wearing. SD what was your ratio of sleeveless/sleeved tees you rocked as a young SWKS cattle baron?

Also, I've now completed my quest to read all 100+ pages of this thread in the last two days.

[steve dave]

100% sleeveless t shirts of course


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[nicname]

Let’s talk aerial farm photos. Anyone who knows anything about farming knows farm types love (loved?) aerial photos of the family homestead. Farm guys, is this still the case? This is your chance to share your best aerial photo.

[WillieWatanabe]

Let’s talk aerial farm photos. Anyone who knows anything about farming knows farm types love (loved?) aerial photos of the family homestead. Farm guys, is this still the case? This is your chance to share your best aerial photo.

I was pretty pumped when i pulled the homestead up on Terraserver back in the day. A print out was kept for a LONG time.

[meow meow]

my folks had an aerial photo done a couple years ago.  in their shed, they have aerial photos of the house my mom grew up in, house my dad grew up in, their farm when they bought it back in the 70's, another one after they built an implement shed and bins, cattle pens, and crap, and maybe one or two more throughout the years.  they are neat, and city type people that see them find them interesting also, they are always like..."YOU GUYS OWN HOW MUCH LAND?!?!?".  blows their minds, can't fathom someone owning more than 1 acre of land.

[ben ji]

my folks had an aerial photo done a couple years ago.  in their shed, they have aerial photos of the house my mom grew up in, house my dad grew up in, their farm when they bought it back in the 70's, another one after they built an implement shed and bins, cattle pens, and crap, and maybe one or two more throughout the years.  they are neat, and city type people that see them find them interesting also, they are always like..."YOU GUYS OWN HOW MUCH LAND?!?!?".  blows their minds, can't fathom someone owning more than 1 acre of land.

Related topic - Nor Cal grape/wine farmers.

My buddy lived in Napa for a couple of years and loved to make fun of the grape "farmers". They would drive around in their pickup trucks and loved to talk about their 10 acre farm/vineyard and pretend they were farmers. 

[steve dave]

We owned a Beechcraft Bonanza during most of my childhood and both parents had their pilots license (and grandfather, and brother) so we did TF out of aerial shots of farm things. I bought my dad a DJI Mavic drone for aerial shots and checking cattle and sprinklers and crap too this last Christmas.


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[steve dave]

IRL farm/pilot story: my grandfather probably crashed around 5 planes.


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[nicname]

fwiw non-farm kid from rural town nicname was fascinated by the aerial farm photos and basically farm family had aerial photos of their farms that i thought were awesome. prob not as cool anymore cuz everyone has drones and whatever

[steve dave]

Also emergency landed on about a billion gravel or paved rural roads. We have a big flat stretch on our cow ranch that was his HIGHLY ILLEGAL runway.


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[steve dave]

We owned a Beechcraft Bonanza during most of my childhood and both parents had their pilots license (and grandfather, and brother) so we did TF out of aerial shots of farm things. I bought my dad a DJI Mavic drone for aerial shots and checking cattle and sprinklers and crap too this last Christmas.


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Are drones pretty big with farmers now?

Yes, big time


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[nicname]

Also emergency landed on about a billion gravel or paved rural roads. We have a big flat stretch on our cow ranch that was his HIGHLY ILLEGAL runway.


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i appreciate sddad disregard for laws. in my experience farm dudes pick and choose which laws they feel need to be followed pretty liberally

[nicname]

when i was in hs i used to "work" out at my buddy's dads cow ranch. me and my bud were basically a team. his dad knew we spent most of the time rough ridin' off and generally being lazy pos, but his dad didnt care as long as we got whatever crap job he pawned off on us done, so he didnt have to do it. seemed worth the lost revenue to him.

ranch dad was a complete badass who wore cutoff dress/farm shirts, had a sick moustasche and smoke unfiltered pall malls.

[ben ji]

We have an aerial photo of the farm from the 90's that is framed in a clock piece where the clock hands are part of a windmill. (Its at the house in KC so no picture)

I did take this aerial picture on the way to vegas last fall. Windbreak/buildings are in top right corner of our section which goes back just past the "creek". My aunt owns the 1/2 section that is adjacent with the green circle.

[ben ji]

The local land baron out here has their own runway and sign marking their airfield that's a couple of miles from our farm. The road is super nice by their farm so I usually drive by it on the way to/from town.

[ben ji]

Also this may be hard to believe but at one time ben ji's dad was obsessed with getting his pilots license and had dreams of making a runway in our pasture so he could fly from KC to the farm. Talked about it all the time and how it would be so much quicker than driving.

He never finished the flight training so that dream has been on hold for about 25 years.

[ben ji]

Another farm/plane story. One of the neighbors used to have a herd of Emu's when I was a kid.

I was out on the farm for some reason and My grandpa was getting his field sprayed by a plane and it spooked the Emu's. The neighbor called up my grandpa all pissed off yelling about how 2 of his Emu's broke their leg and to stop the spraying. My GPA laughed at him and told him if he was a real farmer he wouldn't have Emu's to worry about.

[nicname]

We have an aerial photo of the farm from the 90's that is framed in a clock piece where the clock hands are part of a windmill. (Its at the house in KC so no picture)

I did take this aerial picture on the way to vegas last fall. Windbreak/buildings are in top right corner of our section which goes back just past the "creek". My aunt owns the 1/2 section that is adjacent with the green circle.

Many of the photos itt prompted my aerial photo inquiry

[nicname]

Another farm/plane story. One of the neighbors used to have a herd of Emu's when I was a kid.

I was out on the farm for some reason and My grandpa was getting his field sprayed by a plane and it spooked the Emu's. The neighbor called up my grandpa all pissed off yelling about how 2 of his Emu's broke their leg and to stop the spraying. My GPA laughed at him and told him if he was a real farmer he wouldn't have Emu's to worry about.

 

Totally justified imo. I bet ben ji gpa and all the other old farmers talked mad crap on emu farmer at the donut shop, co-op, etc.

[michigancat]

We owned a Beechcraft Bonanza during most of my childhood and both parents had their pilots license (and grandfather, and brother) so we did TF out of aerial shots of farm things. I bought my dad a DJI Mavic drone for aerial shots and checking cattle and sprinklers and crap too this last Christmas.


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it used to be easy as crap to get rich af farming. I always remember my dad talking about how his dad could take one of those little ass old dump truck wheat trucks to the elevator and sell the wheat on it and buy a brand new pickup truck