Where will it end?????

Goose · Jun 20, 2016

A month or so ago, I mentioned on this forum that farmers in my area seemed more obsessed with who had the biggest equipment, even more so than who farmed the most acres.

Within the last week, we've had two bridges damaged by farmers attempting to go over the bridge with a piece of equipment that was too big for the bridge. Not too heavy, just too big.

In one case, a farmer was pulling a large, 1000+ gallon pull behind sprayer with a big John Deere tractor. Don't know how fast he was going, but apparently he realized too late that the sprayer wouldn't fit across the bridge so he locked up the brakes on the tractor. The tractor wound up jack-knifed crossways in the middle of the bridge with the front poked partly through the side of the bridge structure. The estimate of damage to the bridge approaches $100,000.

In the other case, a farmer tried to cross a bridge pulling a planter that was too big for the bridge and got the planter jammed on the bridge. This bonehead then got a cutting torch and cut the bridge structure so he could get the planter off without damaging the planter. He compromised the integrity of the bridge in the process. No dollar estimate yet of damage to the bridge.

I'm assuming that in both cases the farmer and/or his insurance will be liable for damages to the bridges.

David G · Jun 20, 2016

The second guy should be held for criminal negligence by cutting a bridge.

OH Boy · Jun 20, 2016

Insurance isn't going to pay for damage to the bridge that he caused by intentionally cutting it with a torch.

macbeth · Jun 20, 2016

Here in State of Rube it seems to be a competition to rent land out from competitors, buy bigger equipment, look bigger in every way, and cannot get down the road without damaging mailboxes, and no need to think they are going to stop with I did it, I am sorry, I will replace. If no one sees them they never mention it. Cannot be that much in grain in our area, I can't figure it out.

GregCO · Jun 20, 2016

The guy that intentionally cut the bridge up the bridge structure needs to pay for all repairs up to and including replacement and not his insurance company unless he as a dumb A$$ rider on his policy. What was he thinking? Cutting up the equipment or paying a salvage company to deal with it would be cheaper. WOW.

Greg

Hay hay hay · Jun 20, 2016

Don't you realize how important these people are! They do.

NEKS · Jun 20, 2016

Around here the small farmer has a buffer strip along a stream to slow erosion and the BTO has a three acre field, so pushing out trees right up to a creek bank to gain one more acre.

JD Seller · Jun 20, 2016

A BTO, and a complete Ace XXXX, lives four miles west of the home farm. He is two miles from the end of the road in that direction. It is six miles this way. When the roads get soft in the spring he hauls corn out this way not the other so he does not have to drive his car across the ruts going to town. He had told this to me when I asked him about it. It adds about 8 miles to his haul to come out this way but it does not damage the road in front of HIS house. I have complained to the county and they say they can't do anything. It is funny in that the one supervisor's road has a weight limit on it each spring.

As to when it will end??? It won't. People's selfishness has no limits. Add in the equipment being so large that they do not need any help form neighbors anymore and you have no reason for them to be good neighbors anymore.

oldtanker · Jun 20, 2016

(quoted from post at 20:47:06 06/20/16) Add in the equipment being so large that they do not need any help form neighbors anymore and you have no reason for them to be good neighbors anymore.

BINGO!

RIck

farmerwithmutt · Jun 21, 2016

It ain't always the big guys years ago my cousin tried a 4 row planter on a 560 thought it would fit hit the bridge at full throttle he made it half way.
Sometimes it's the hired man . The kid was told by the boss to take the back street with a quad track and field cultivator but he wanted to show his driving skills to the local female population and took it up main street and he got stuck half way up the street cops made him back out . Same boss had another kid pull the same stunt told to bypass town instead of going through it unfortunately a car was parked to far out and lost a door.
But we have some around here that like to unload grain carts in the middle of the road blocking traffic leaving piles of mud and grain in the road and unfortunately the more responsible operators also get the blame.
Then there is the one that scared me the most come over a hill on busy highway and here's an Amish guy walking 6 horses side by side down the road at a walking pace. Why he drove them down the drive way then on the highway then back into the field instead of straight across is beyond me he was lucky it wasn't a semi that day but they all do it all the time.

larry@stinescorner · Jun 21, 2016

I went to get rye straw yesterday,,went to two briothers that have a small farm,They farm with mostly older tractors,They are the guys I have shown pictures picking ear corn with the old tricycle ford and mounted picker last fall.I saw them and they stopped what they were doing to sell me 4 bales of rye straw, Nice,neighborly older small farmers.I said how much,,they said 3 dollars a bale,I know it brings more than that,its sometimes hard to find in our area.I had a 20 dollar bill,had to beg them to accept it.Small farmers like that still exist,but not many.I think a lot of the people on this site are like the two farmers I visited yesterday,thats why we all get along so good.

oldtanker · Jun 21, 2016

We have a couple of the jerk type around here and it's amusing to watch them sometimes. One of our biggest are the nicest people you could hope to meet. It kinda an extended family thing. But if you need help they are the first ones there. We do have a couple that sound like the ones described by the OP but they never get too much out of line because no one here will really put up with too much. One I had words with in 1997. I only remember the year because of the blizzard that lead to the problem. The only other one that really causes problems is a potato farmers who also owns a bunch of JD dealerships. And you never ever see him, just the hired guys. Now these guys and rented ground are something to see. They backstab and fight over that like mad. Kinda funny to watch. One has gone so far as to ask new widows at the funeral if they can rent or buy land.

Rick

Adirondack case guy · Jun 21, 2016

He will be back in a day or two with some old plow shears and his welder and fix it rite up !!! HeHe.
Loren

NY 986 · Jun 21, 2016

Just to add to some of the below comments. A lot of times these negligent farmers are related to or are friends to the local politicians. One road in the area was damaged from not securing a tillage tool but the town highway superintendent just chalked it up to the road is kind of in poor shape anyways (it was not) and that town was going to do work on it (3 years gone by and no work). Another farmer has the notion that because he pays the taxes on the ground next to the road means he fully owns the road including running mud on it, breaking the shoulder with equipment, and rutting in the drainage ditch. If your family did not come on the Mayflower like these guys (farmers and politicians) did then you have no standing to say anything about it according to them.

brutus49DC · Jun 21, 2016

Those plow share repairs really get me. Get a plate of steel and fix it right and throw the old shares in the scrap pile.

brutus49DC · Jun 21, 2016

There was a guy pulling a 60' jd air seeder from Miller,SD to Trimont,Mn (or thereabouts) with a pickup. The wing hit a steel bridge west Of Brookings at 50 mph. It pretty much destroyed the air seeder and didn't do the bridge much good either. One lane of the bridge is still closed off and the wrecked air seeder is sitting at the jd dealer in Pipestone. I guess I don't feel too sorry for him. If he needs one that big he's just another land hog puncture wound.

W_B · Jun 21, 2016

Not sure a deliberate act will be covered by his liability insurance, it's just for fortuitous events. Cutting up a bridge doesn't qualify in my mind!

dr sportster · Jun 21, 2016

I think that would be a " YOUR PAYING FOR THAT " .

wisbaker · Jun 21, 2016

Yeah I know the Iowa Governor's brother farms about 5 miles north of us.

DLMKA · Jun 21, 2016

I just spent half a day crawling over a 76' Deere 1870 air hoe drill. Can certainly put a large amount of seed in the ground with something like that in a hurry. Target market is Canada and possibly some in Montana and Australia.

Robert Major · Jun 21, 2016

Hi Oldtanker, we got one worse than that round here, He is the first guy round with a check book after the funeral directors wheeled the guy out of
the house! I know one widow he did that to, and she went and asked another guy if he wanted the land and he got offered it cheap to make sure he got
it. The other guy thought he was having it as pay back for giving the husband work when he retired.

The same guy has family ties to our land as they broke it from prairie. I was talking to our friend yesterday it's widely known round here he wants
it bad. I just told the neighbor, Well if I have anything to do with it after Mom& dad passes his sons grand kids might get it back L.O.L.
Regards Robert

Goose · Jun 21, 2016

Yeah.

My father-in-law died about 7pm one evening. At 7:30 the next morning one of the neighbors knocked on the door and told my mother-in-law that if she wanted to sell the farm, he'd write her a check on the spot.

She slammed the door in his face.

BTW, the same guy and his two sons overextended themselves and went kaput several years later. Guess there is poetic justice sometimes.

RandyB(MI) · Jun 21, 2016

An Aussie friend of mine has bought a couple of them used from Canada. He farms 5000 and is considered small by a couple of his "neighbors".

tim s · Jun 21, 2016

This comes to mind...

Where will it end?????

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Member

Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Member

Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Similar threads