TBF 005 :: Making Major Farm Purchases, Rain is Coming, and What Not To Buy

Making major purchases on your farm is always a necessary part of beginning a farm and expanding your farm in the future. But, they are not always easy decisions to make! Before you go out and drop your hard earned cash on that next great piece of equipment or structure you need to examine whether or not you even need this "next great thing" and where you are going to purchase this item. Just because you have a need for something doesn't mean that you need it. It may mean that you need to borrow one, rent one, or hire someone to do the job for you. There are times though when a purchase just needs to be made to move the farm along or make your work more efficient. If that is the case then you need to consider where you are going to make that purchase.

What Do I Really Need?

• It will vary from farm to farm, but ask yourself what you need to get started and what can wait for a little while.
• Are there other ways that you can use something that you feel like you need? Borrow, rent, trade work, hire, etc.
• Ask yourself if you are better off spending some time and sweat instead of your cash?

Where Do I Get What I Really Need?

• New is an option, but not really the best option most of the time.
• Check the farm auctions out if you have time to spare, but make sure you don't get caught up in the "fun" of an auction.
• Craigslist is a pretty good choice and I know most farmers already check it often, but don't forget about posting "wanted to buy" ads. You'd be amazed at how many farmers have what you want sitting in the back of their shed.

Remember, the bottom line is that it doesn't need to look perfect ... it just needs to work perfectly (or close enough to perfect)!

Lately things have been very active on the farm and a bit of rain in the forecast made things ramp up this week as we tried to get things ready for what I hope is a bit of spring mud. That meant finishing up some projects to get ready for our next back of chicks and doing as much tractor work as I can so I don't have to use the tractor when it's muddy. And, as always I take some time this week to share one of my hard lessons learned ... this one was a little costly and I hope you don't have to learn this lesson the hard way.

Some stuff mentioned in this episode ...

• The Beginning Farmer Show Episode 003 (What happened to the first tractor?)
• Craigslist App for Android (I'm sure there is an iOS counterpart somewhere)

Finally, I would love to hear your questions, show ideas, or comments about the show. Feel free to shoot me an e-mail! As always you can follow along with The Beginning Farmer and Crooked Gap Farm by checking out these links ...

• Crooked Gap Farm
• Crooked Gap Farm on Facebook
• Crooked Gap Farm on Twitter

TBF Show 005 :: Play in a New Window | Right Click to Download

(if you are interested in the music in this episode check out my brother's record label, Historic Records)

Chariton Farm Machinery Auction

Yesterday was Labor Day. That means a day for America's workers to take some time off from the daily grind and enjoy one last blast of summer. But, it also means that the annual Chariton Farm Machinery Auction is happening. That is where I spent part of my day along with my dad yesterday. Just imagine two auctioneer trucks across from each other, hundreds of people, and thousands of pieces of used and new machinery. That is what yesterday was like ... oh, and it was about 90º! It was a pretty good day, but I could have done without the heat.

I would say that it was a pretty successful day for me at the auction. In fact I don't think I will need to go to many more auctions really looking for equipment ... now I can just go for recreational purposes and to pick up the deals. I'll give you a short run down of what I came home with...

• One thing I wanted to get today was a 3-point brush cutter. Luckily they had about 20 plus to choose from. I was there at about 6:45 (15 minutes before the start time) and picked out the few that I was interested in. I ended up buying the second one that they sold (about five minutes in). It is just a small Howse mower similar to the one pictured above. I'm happy to have it and I'm happy with the price.
• The next thing I bought wasn't actually for me. My dad wasn't able to make it bright and early because he had further to drive so he had me on the lookout for a heavy-duty post hole auger for the John Deere 4020. These were a bit more pricey, but then there was one that hadn't been repainted that I bid on and won. Hopefully it works...
• After that I bid on a few disks (one thing on my list I didn't get) until I bought a $50 post hole auger for me. It is a pretty light duty piece of equipment, but if it works it should go well with the Farmall 450 (and save my back).
• Finally, as they were getting to the end of the line (about 90 minutes into the sale) for the three-point equipment I bought the last two-bottom three-point plow there. It wasn't the bargin that I was hoping for, but it was one that I had picked out as my top two. This will come in handy with the garden from time to time and will be nice to have around if it is needed.
• But, that is not all! After watching for about another 90 minutes and watching my dad buy a flarebox wagon I purchased something that I didn't intend on buying. There was a little single axle hog/sheep trailer sitting in the line. It appeared to have a decent axle and a stout oak slat floor so I thought I might bid on it. This piece of equipment would come in handy soon when I needed to take a few pigs to the processor. Luckily not to many people are looking for a glorifed hog panel/flatbed trailer to haul 5 or 6 hogs/sheep. It went for a nice price and now I can hold off on buying a stock trailer for a little while. In the mean time I can borrow my dad's trailer when I need to move cattle!

It is always a good idea to have a list of things you want/need instead of going to the auction and getting swept up in the moment. But, in the case of a LARGE machinery consignment auction like this it is always a little different. Usually when you go to a sale you know that there are a couple of particular things that you want, but at a big consignment sale like this one you may not know about all of the things until the day of the sale. Now, if I just can fix the flat tire I got on the truck on the way home I'm good to go!

Fence Me In ...

For the past few weeks I have been receiving phone calls from my dad every day or two telling me about my cow that was out! It seems that the old (really old!) woven wire fence on the North side of the pasture wasn't going to cut it anymore because even our little cow could JUMP over the fence and get out. Yesterday we went down to the farm to put up our electric fence in hopes of curtailing "Cowdini" and to open up some more pasture for them. Along with the electric fence (we used the new solar fencer you can read about below), I also added a few more cattle panels around a couple trees in the old fence line to give some more shade for the cattle (when I say cattle I really me the heifer and the bull calf). It was almost a perfect day to be out and working ... well perfect for August in Iowa I guess!

Earlier in the day we attended a local estate auction. They had a little over two hay racks of house hold junk ... errr ... treasures and then some old equipment. Since it was such a nice day we didn't mind standing around and watching everyone bid on the junk ... err ... treasures while we were waiting for the equipment to sell. There wasn't much for equipment, but a couple of things caught our eye. We ended up getting a like new 100 gallon water tank, a five bottom MM plow (really that's for the uncle), a flare box wagon (will be good for going to get carbon material), a head gate, and a homemade wagon gear with a pile of junk and tin on top. Everything was going pretty well until they got to the tin. I was interested in the tin for building more chicken pens and for building a moveable shade pen. They started the bidding on the tin and didn't get a bidder (we wait until it hits 50¢ before bidding), when all of the sudden they decided to throw the wagon gear in also. Well, it wasn't all bad, because we got the whole shootin' match for $8.00. Now, I can mess around with that wagon gear and see if I can make a water cart, feed cart, or maybe just a utility wagon for hauling things around the farm.

It was a great day to be out at the farm and it was nice to get a few things done. I'll be posting pictures in the next few days of how the cattle are coming along. I think they are starting to look better.