How Far We Have Come

This past Wednesday my family and I had a chance to go up to my Aunt and Uncle's and visit with our extended family. It is always fun to go up there because that is the families home place and they are doing a great job of keeping it up and bringing back some of the buildings that were breaking down. But, the other reason that it is fun to go is because my Uncle is a tractor collector ... specifically Minneapolis Moline and all related stuff.

Above is a picture of my uncle on his Moline Universal tractor. This tractor was produced in the teens and was called a universal because there were attachments for plows, cultivators, binders, and more. Some of the implements that could be used attached in any interesting way. In order to use the plow for example you took of the back portion of the tractor (the back two wheels and the seat) and then attached the two bottom plow and switched the seat over.

A picture like this really shows how far we have come in farming ... even for small scale farms like ours.

Driving Into Town...

I would like to say that I have my tractor out sitting in the shed or at least that it is on the farm, but all that I can say is that my tractor is in the drive way. And, I'm glad it is there! As you can tell from the picture above (it looks like I'm going fast) I was pretty happy to have it home.

On Saturday afternoon my dad stopped by after spending a day working on a tractor at my uncles to unload some fence posts for us (nothing like getting hand me down posts!). Since he had to go South and could easily swing past my other Uncle's farm where my tractor is I decided to hitch a ride and then bring home our new (to us) Farmall 450. The tractor was about 23 or 24 miles away from our home and it was getting late so we took off right away (only stopping to get some gas for the tractor).

Once we made it down there we cobbled up a holder for my slow moving vehicle sign and I took off. I was going to take some back roads home, but after the WET weather we have had lately the gravel roads are a bumpy mess. So, I ended up driving on the highway and enjoying a nice leisurely ride on a cool evening. I suppose in some parts of the country this would have been a weird sight, but in Iowa it is just par for the course. In fact our state hosts two major tractor rides (WHO and WMT) that are all about riding old tractors just for the fun of it.

Now that I have our tractor here in town I'm going to use it to clean up a couple of trees that need some limbs pulled out still from this past winters ice storms and then I will take it out to the farm to get to work mowing and pulling out the old fence. I will keep you updated on my tractor skills :)

The New Tractor

In my last post I wrote just a little bit about the tractor that we just purchased. As I mentioned it is a Farmall 450 with a wide front end. According to Tractor Data they were produced between 1956 and 1958 and there were over 25,000 made between gas, lp, and diesel (with gas/lp leading the way by far). The 450 is around a 40 to 50 hp tractor (it varies between the drawbar and pto of course) and should be perfect for our farm. One interesting thing about the information listed on the Tractor Data website is that they give the original list price. For the Farmall 450 the original price was $4,100. Now, a fully restore (similar to new) could cost at least that much and maybe more! I guess that is one good thing about older tractors, if you keep them running well and taken care of they shouldn't drop in value.

Anyways, on Friday afternoon my dad drove up to meet me at our house and then we took off about 60 miles north to the home of the Farmall 450 we were interested in ... and about 50 other tractors this guy has! Needless to say, this guy loves old tractors and the color doesn't seem to matter. There were old tractors, there were loaders, there were implements, and then there were more old tractors! Some were fully restored, some were a work in progress, and some were just waiting for their turn in the shop. Anybody with an interest in old iron would have loved a walk around this place ... of course it would have helped if it wasn't cold and rainy.

Because of the wet and chilly weather he had pulled the 450 into his shop so we could take a good look at it. The tractor was painted a couple of years ago so it had a decent coat of paint and the tin is in pretty good shape. After first glance it looks like ... a red tractor! This particular Farmall 450 has a Paulson loader with one way hydraulics (hydraulics takes it up, gravity takes it down) on the loader and two way on the bucket. This isn't the best case, but it works fine for our farm. Another add on is the three point hitch. The original 450's either had a straight drawbar or 2 point IH fast hitch. But, there are plenty of different three point after market kits out there and this tractor has one. Having the loader and a three point hitch will be a great help around the farm.

After talking about the tractor and giving it a once over in the shed we took it out for the test drive and tried to put it through some paces as best we could on a rainy, muddy, and cold day. Things seemed to work well except for one little part ... the BRAKES! They weren't completely gone, but they were gone enough to cause concern in hilly Southern Iowa. The brakes weren't a deal breaker though because it is a relatively easy fix and we have a pretty good idea of what the problem is. In fact the tractor is already on the way to getting fixed.

Speaking of getting the tractor fixed... Things actually worked out pretty well, because my cousin just happened to be taking three tractors up to my Uncle and was in the area to pick up our new tractor and take it to his place for the repairs. Now the tractor is in the area (within 25 miles of the farm) and waiting to get a brake job done. Once the brakes are fixed we will have plenty of work for it to do ... mowing, pulling fence, putting in fence, spreading gravel, and on and on and on!

Hopefully in the next couple of weeks I will be able to share so tractor work pictures, but for now I'll just enjoy the picture of the tractor on the trailer ... close to the farm.

International Harvester Farmall 450

Shopping is something it seems like I have been doing a lot of lately. First we went shopping at the "land store", then we went shopping at the "hay equipment store", and yesterday I went shopping at the "tractor store"! The other day I mentioned that I had found a tractor that I wanted to check out. Yesterday my dad and I traveled up to take a look at it and see if it would work out for the new farm. It was rainy and it was muddy, but luckily the tractor was in the shed so we were able to check it out in relative comfort.

The tractor in question is a IH Farmall 450 from the mid/late 1950's. As you can see from the pictures it is in pretty good shape cosmetically and seemed to be in fairly good shape mechanically. We looked it over, took it for a test drive, talked about some of the other tractors the guy had (probably 50+), haggled about the price, and eventually decided to make the purchase! I'm glad my dad was able to make the trip with me because his help was much needed and the conversation is always good in the car.

The other good news is that my cousin is going to be coming through the area this weekend with an empty trailer. That means he will be able to pick it up and bring it South. It's nice when stuff works out like that! I'll tell you more about the tractor next week...

Old Iron: Antique Tractor Prices on the Rise

This morning I found an interesting Podcast on the WHO Radio Farm website titled, "Old Tractors-High Prices". This isn't really related to cattle, hogs, sheep, beginning farming, but it is somewhat related to buying equipment. I mean it is about tractors and farms use tractors. Actually, it is of some interest to me because I am interested in old tractors and because I am currently looking for an older tractor (some would even call them antiques) to use on the farm for haying and other farm work. In this interview Ken Root talks with Jonathan Welsch, a reporter for the "Wall Street Journal". Click on the link above to listen to the interview.

One more thing on the "Old Iron" front. Yesterday I came across a Farmall 450 with a loader. This tractor was made in the late 50's and is in the HP range we would need to use our new hay equipment. There are a few of nice things about this particular tractor. First of all, it was painted in the last few years, so it looks fairly nice. Also, the loader is an all hydraulic instead of having a trip bucket which can often be found on tractors of this size and age. Finally, most of these older IH Farmall's came with a 2 point fast hitch, but this tractor has been upgraded to an after-market three point hitch. That would come in extremely handy!

Of course I'm still not sure if a tractor is even in the cards right now, but we do have some back up plans, so we don't have to rush into anything. Right now we are still focused on closing on Monday and getting the building up ... tractors are somewhat on the back burner, unless I see one that interests me!