farming in the 1950s and 1960s ?

anyone have any stories, or memories of farming in the 1950s and 1960s?
seems like a good time in agriculture ,
with farmall m, oliver 77, ac wd45, case dc, and then jd 4020s as big tractors, and all the other equipment makes
in business
seem like in the corn belt, 160 acres or a little more could support a family,
lots of cattle, hogs , and poultry on every farm, plus a big garden

lots of farmers, so lots of small towns going strong, feed mills, local stores,
but what is your experience, or have you any stories of farming in that time frame?

Well back then i believe it was a far better time . Loved this time of the year and could not wait for the weekend or a day off from school as that meant i could go out to my uncles and get some seat time in . Plowing was and enjoyable time , lots of acres to cover . Back then this was done by crawler tractors , one D4 Cat pulling five bottoms , and Oliver O C 6 D pulling three bottom three point and the old Oliver O C 3 pulling two bottoms . My aunt and the one neighbor lady would bring the meals out to the fields in the old 51 Buick . I can not tell you how many hours i spent on the O C 3 and can still hear the clatter of the tracks, second gear right foot holding the throttle lever wide open and never worrying about getting stuck . only thing to worry about was will the plow lift when i pull the rope or will the lift wheel just slid in the mud.
Then in 59 came the Wheel tractors , a new Farmall 560 D wide ft.and a 460 D wide ft. . Now just two tractors were doing the work of three and only loosen one bottom and the Horse power wars were on . The 4-560 gave way to the 806 and a 706 , those gave way to a 4520 and a 4320 that gave way to a 4430 and a 4630 and a few others added to the mix

Grew up on 120 acre farm in central Michigan in the 50's and 60's. Dad worked full time at Federal-Mogul and farmed too. He started with horses in the late 20's. Kept a few dairy cows, sheep, pigs and a flock of layers. By the time I came along it was down to feeding out a few steers and growing the corn for sileage, hay and a few acres of wheat or soybeans.

Our big horse was a McCormick Super W6 assisted by a '49 John Deere B for lighter duty. Many, MANY hours in the seat of that B with a front mount 4-row cultivator. Dad never owned or used a sprayer. Also hauled a disc and a spring tooth drag over fresh plowing. You learned REAL quick not to hook your thumbs through the wheel of that narrow front! We were all conventional till, altho a few of the BTO neighbors were getting into minimum/no till by the time I left for the Navy.

The W6 pulled a 3-16 John Deere plow, a wheel disk or a field cultivator and ran the Allis Chalmers All Crop combine and a M-M 2 row pull-type corn picker.

Neighbor rented Grampa's house across the road from our house and farmed shares with Dad. He had a Co-op E3 with live PTO which worked well on the community Allis Rotobaler. Not real sure who owned that, it went wherever it was needed. At some point Dad got sick of dealing with small rounds and had a custom outfit with a square baler do our hay.

Also had a custom feller come in to chop sileage. I remember thinking what a BEAST that John Deere 70 Diesel was!

My dad farmed with an 8N Ford in the late 50s and early 60s and worked a full-time job in the oil fields around ElDorado,KS.He Farm 80 acres and sometimes more, raising wheat and sometimes milo. If I remember correctly one year he farmed close to 120 Acres. Often he would have a custom cutter do his wheat but later bought an old International self-propelled. I remember one year an Allis Chalmers all crop pulled by Big John Deere 820 or something oh, and I got to drive the tractor!I remember hauling the wheat to town in his pick up. First was a 51 Chevy half ton, later was a brand new 66 GMC 3/4 ton with tall sides. I remember pulling the pick up in to the truck hoist and lifting up the whole truck.Oh, that was scary! He always talked about wanting to buy a big M Farmall,but never got one. In the late 1960s he quit farming and moved the family to Colorado. However we always kept strong ties to the farm.

Being born in the last week of 1960, I can tell you what our farm was like during my childhood. Dad took over the farm from Grandpa in 1945 after the war. He farmed with horses the first few years. Electricity came down our road in 1948, and dad had the house and barn wired. He also bought a Case V tractor and plough that year. By the earliest of my memories, the Case V had been replaced in 1950 with a Case VA , and in 1956 dad also bought a Cockshutt 35 Delux. He milked cows and separated the Cream on the farm. Cream went to a butter plant, and the skim milk was fed to fatten pigs at home on the farm. There were always sows and chickens too, several hundred laying hens. As a kid I remember well cleaning and crating eggs to ship. In 1970 dad turned 52, and quit milking cows and feeding pigs and chickens, and just kept some beef cows. We had threshed all our grain until 1970, when dad bought a used MH combine. He then grew more grain to sell. Was a very small operation by todays standards, but my folks did very well, never knew debt, and raised 5 kids. Yes times on the farm were better

I grew up on a farm in Nebraska in the 1940's and 1950's. I joined the Marine Corps in 1953 and stayed for 10 years.

One thing I've always wondered about, growing up we controlled weeds and insects with cultivation and crop rotation. By the time I left the Marine Corps, chemicals had taken over farming. No young farmer was considered up and coming, and therefore worthy of renting or leasing farmland to if he did not regularly and routinely drench his crops with all manner of chemicals.

No thought was given to personal protection. Farm Journal Magazine even once featured a front mounted spray boom that a farmer had fabricated on the front of a tractor. They lauded his creativity. They even showed a picture of him spraying, and driving through the cloud of spray wearing only a T shirt.

By the 1990's, these same farmers began dying regularly and relatively young from all sorts of strange cancers. I cant' believe there's no connection.

Comments?

No thought was given to personal protection. Farm Journal Magazine even once featured a front mounted spray boom that a farmer had fabricated on the front of a tractor. They lauded his creativity. They even showed a picture of him spraying, and driving through the cloud of spray wearing only a T shirt.

I have that picture, with the caption- that was my gramps, and there wasn't really a cloud of spray, more dust off the front wheels. Was for spraying Eptam for weed control (kidney beans), which had to be immediately disced into the ground before it dried. Tractor was our first 706D, 100 gallon tank on the hitch, and the angle iron boom was mounted as low as possible, off the front weight box. Pulled a 13ft (#37?) disc, and we shortened one of our 16 spring tooths to 12', and attached to the back of the disc- the 706D would easily pull both. Never any masks or anything, unheard of back then. We also sprayed Shed-A-Leaf defoliant to dry out and knock the leaves off the beans at harvest time, vines shriveled up and all leaves were on the ground in 3 days- I can remember guys siphoning that stuff and getting a mouthful, and spitting it on the ground. BTW, it came in a big orange drum...

I suppose no matter how or where you grew up, you have fond and probably jaded memories of it. Like Dad always said though, the only thing good about the good old days is that we were younger. I just came in from trying out a 2 bottom plow that I fixed up for a plow day. Boy, that was rainbows and unicorns. A cold wind blowing down my neck, having to constantly pull my hat down to keep from loosing it. An underpowered tractor that only had enough power to pull it in the best of conditions without having to stop and downshift to a crawl.

A lazy summer day back then was milking cows with bucket milkers, pitching manure out of the gutters with a fork, sitting on a tractor cultivating until noon, waiting for the hay to dry. Then raking faded out hay that had been laying for three or four days because it was cut with a sickle mower without a conditioner, then tossing square bales until supper, milking again then either picking up more bales out of the field or unloading. If we were extremely lucky, we got done early enough to go to the lake to go swimming before it got too dark. It's no wonder farm boys were leaving home and getting a job so fast that they left skid marks.

We had quack grass in every hay field. You could plow it under and put it in to corn, but the quack came back up before the corn did and even with four trips through with the cultivator over the summer, the weeds would win and we were darned lucky to get a quarter of the yield that we get today. Without Roundup to kill quack grass, it was a never ending battle that you could never win.

Would I like to have my folks alive and my brothers and sisters here at home yet? Sure, who wouldn't. We weren't isolated from the world though. By '69 my next older brother was in Viet Nam. I was entering High School, the war was still raging, the draft was still a real thing. There didn't seem to be much hope that it'd be over by the time I graduated and I wouldn't end up over there. Thank God it did end, but the anxiety was something I lived every day.

Paint a rosy picture and call it the good old days if you want to, but if you live your life right, the best day is today. The rest is just memories. Hopefully only the best of memories, or you might end up on a shrink's couch.

Our lineup in the 60s was a JD 5010, wheatland 4020, as our main tractors and an IH 240 and Farmall M was our secondary or haying tractors. Combine was a 510 Massey. Between grandpa and great grandpa they farmed 2,100 acres and ran 45 head of cows.

Im still farming in the 60s

I was born in 1951 so I remember farming from the later 50's and on up. Dad farmed 240 acres in northwest Iowa. Oats, alfalfa corn and soybeans were the crops. Through the 50's a 51 Deere A was the big horse doing the plowing with a 2-16's Deere plow. The disk was a Deere 15' straight disk until 1958 when dad bought a new Deere RW 14' disk. Planting was done with a Deere 490 planter pulled by the neighbor's SC Case. Dad would plant the neighbor's 80 acre farm as payback. The neighbor ran dad's A pulling a 11 foot spring tooth in ahead of the planter. I barely remember dad planting with a wire before dad went to 'power checking' t he corn.

Come corn picking time dad would pull a Minneapolis two row picker behind the 51 A and the neighbor would haul in with his SC Case.

We seeded oats with an end gate seeder in an old creaky triple box wagon on a running gear with wooden wheels in back and smaller steel wheels in front. This is where my sister and I learned how to stand up in that rough riding old wagon.

The hay was mowed with a 35 Deere A and #5 mower with the mechanical foot lift for the cutter bar. The 'old A' raked the hay too as the this tractor and the 51 A were the only two tractors dad had in the 50's. The 51 A had the front mount cultivator mounted on it during haying season.

In 1960 dad bought a new Deere 630 and that was the big horse all during the 60's. He bought a 4-14's mounted plow for the 630 and that was the plowing outfit through the 60's. 4-14's was too big for that tractor for our soil but it worked-slowly.

in 1968 dad bought the 320 acres across the road putting the farm up to 560 acres. The equipment dad had at that time was too small to cover those acres so he had the heavy work and planting custom done by a neighbor with a BIG 4020. The 630 and A were now just the cultivating tractors though the 630 still did a small amount of plowing. In 1974 I came into the farming scene with equipment big enough to farm the whole farm. Today I farm with all the fancy electronics and fancy stuff but I still have memories of dad planting with the old 490 back in the good old days when I am farming the old home farm.

What little hay I do have is put up with the old equipment from back in those days so nothing has changed there.

Early 40's. Dad had a F 12 that was converted to F 14 if I remember right. I was too young to drive that thing but in the winter of 46 he lucked out and got a new Farmall H. He needed more tractor because we had moved to a 160 acre farm where the other farm I was born on was 120.

Thing is, he rented that 120 for eleven years. Tail end of it during WW 2 and made good money. Raising seven kids, me one way from youngest. Was able to actually save some money and bought saving bonds.

He was paying eleven bucks and acre cash rent. Then it got rented out to relatives so we had to move. The 160 acre farm was 50-50 rent. Had to buy more newer equipment so never really made enough to add to savings.

He seeded grain with a horse drawn seeder and came behind with the single disc to work the seed in. Then he got a new Moline drill and was in heaven. Mowed hay with horse drawn sicle mower, put up loose with a hay loader and put into barn with slings on the track and leveled by hand.

I was old enough then to drive the horses for Dad while loading the hay as older brother was in the Navy . Five years and again , farm rented to owners relatives.

Land prices were climbing rapidly, farm we had been on sold for $400 and acre. We had to move farther north and Dad bought an 80 for eleven thousand dollars. Hit a dry year first year. Very poor crop. No spare money as he used that to pay good share of the farm. It never did get really good. Rented a quarter across the road so had to buy another new H. I still have them both by the way.

Then got into small square bales, grew soy beans for first time. Sunflower heaven around here at that time so pulling them out two or three times across the field was always lots of fun.

Dad never had a sprayer or commercial fertilizer on the farm. Milked cows by hand . Seperated milk and sold the cream in cans. Had chickens, pigs and cows. Cleaned barn gutter twice a day when cows were inside. It went in a pile and was hauled out after grain harvest in August.

But, I was young and healthy. Found a girl friend young and healthy. I'm not in too bad a shape at 84 but have to take care of her now. Her body just plum wore out. Hip jumped out of socket couple weeks ago due to arthritis eating up the bones. Too brittle and shot to do anything with. And so it goes.

Randy a couple things you mentioned really hit home for me. When I started milking, I milked with bucket milkers, and cleaned the gutters by hand. The hay I cut with a sickle bar mower, and it laid in the sun and faded for the 4 days before I could make small square bales. Generally working my guts out doing what is now much simpler. Also after my dad decided to retire and rented his farm to me also, I discovered his farm was right full of quack grass. So I started getting Round Up sprayed on hay ground, and then planted corn silage, and had that sprayed too. Cleaned out the quack grass in a few years, and we grew far better crops after. The only drawback was when I started farming the crop prices were the same as they were when I was ten, and havent gotten dramatically better 50 years later, but you can grow more per acre now

I grew up on a small dairy farm-I was born in '56-and remember it well. The farm was about 40 acres and we had around 20 milk cows. My Dad and Uncle farmed together until about '63 or '64, then it was just my Dad and 8 yr old me. We had a small dairy store on the end of our house and sold milk, eggs, bread, and soft drinks, and ice cream. We did some outside work, baling hay, plowing gardens, bush hoging, seeding and finishing up yards on new homes in the surrounding growing suburbia. Sold firewood too. But we had good buildings, all paved driveways, and made a living. On basically 40 acres. To my knowledge no money was ever borrowed to farm with. Later in '71 Dad was forced(by eminent domain law) to switch to beef cattle, which he sold direct to the consumer.
Was it easier? NO, Dad did a lot of HARD physical work, had constant back aches, 2 hernias, and wore out his knees. But I still miss it. Mark.

What the heck is quack grass? I remember hearing about it in Roundup commercials when I was a kid but most of you were my current age then...

My dad started farming in 1967. That year my grandfather bought a 2 row chopper (Allis 780), baler with thrower (NH 68),pipeline milkers and a barn cleaner. Dad rented a good farm with pipeline milkers,barn cleaner and silo unloaders. In 1968 Dad bought a brand new 4020 with cab for $6800 and a second used 4020 for $5000. He had almost all new machinery,5 bottom Deere reset plow,BW disk,480 mower conditioner,NH 273 baler, Deere 38 chopper. He milked about 80 cows and had a very good milk market (Washington DC area). He did custom work as well to add extra income. He downsized in 1972 to buy a farm and also because of help that was undependable. Nothing worse than spending a long day baling hay and having the help forget to tell you they had a ballgame and you have 80 cows to milk and feed alone. Tom

I can remember going to a few corn grower meetings with a neighbor and his two sons when we were in high school. They were recommending using a full labeled rate of atrazine, waiting a few weeks, plowing, planting, then spraying with another full rate application to keep quack under control. They said you might have to do that for a few years to get rid of it. Anybody with a problem with Roundup needs to know that atrazine is now a restricted use pesticide and Roundup isn't. Think about using a restricted use pesticide at double the labeled rate instead of a general use herbicide at one quart to the acre.

Quack grass was a grass that was brought here from Europe as a hay crop. It has a head that kind of resembles wheat. They brought it here because it's so prolific. It spreads through rhizomes. You can get rid of it in a field, but if there's any in a fence row, it'll spread right back out in the field. That was one good thing about it, by the time an alfalfa crop was running out, you could keep cutting the field for years after that without seeding anything, the quack took over.

It isn't just farmers dying of cancer, it's everyone, not saying spraying on open station tractors was good, but I think it has more to do with the processed foods people are eating!

My grandfather and father started a dairy farm in 1947.This was in Southern California.Most of the dairies there were drylot operations.Suburban encroachment forced Dad and Granddad to move the operation farther out into the countryside which at that time was Chino,California.I came along in 1961.Earliest recollection for me was watching two guys unload one hundred pound alfalfa bales with a truck mounted boom swinging the bales off the truck and stacking into an open pole barn.Was quite a sight watching those guys.

My cousins farm raised hay and corn for beef cows and had cherry and apple orchard. Down by the old milk house where the sprayers were filled always smelled of chemicals. Later the hired hand took over and phased out the orchard and started dairy framing. The hired hand died young and my cousin has Parkinsons disease

I tell people all the time the little farm I have would be the most modern farm in America if were just before 1960. Farmalls from the late 30's all through the 40's and mid 50's. Corn picked and stored on the ear and cultivated, bales loaded by hand on a wagon, 3 bottom 14 in plow. Lots of other stuff made in that time frame.

One of my earliest memories in the late 50s was riding in front of Dad on Scout (dads big horse). We would ride to the pasture to get the milk cows in for milking. Dad had a Ford Major and Scout for horse power. Scout would pull lots of things that only required 1 HP. Outhouse, cook stove for cooking, heat and hot water. We had a phone, the number was 4721. 2 longs and a shot was our ring. No TV. Had a radio. And a Mom from California. Must have been some cultural shock for Mom.

This link has a 10 minute video of farming & fishing on Prince Edward Island in 1943. Some nice old iron in fields when they were still new.
Video

I grew up on a dairy farm, 1957 to 1967. I had to work 7 days a week. No time off. Had chores before and after school. After I graduated HS in 67, I chose a college farest for home. Dad sold the cows in 67.
I'll never live in town. I'll never be a farmer. I do like to watch farmers working their fields with expensive Green or Red tractors with cabs and AC.
George

I grew up on my grandfathers farm that he worked shares with a distant relative In the early 50s the 15-30 McCormick and the Case three man baler were traded in for another IHC M So there was two Ms and WC Allis Chalmers. The WC was traded for a WD and about that time an 8N Ford was added to use a back blade cleaning the old sheep barns. There was room for fifty milk cows They were milked with two Universal can milkers. Hogs were farrowed and raised in addition to a large chicken coup. The hay was put up loose with a Case chopper and an Allis Chalmers blower The same pair did the silage corn. The feed corn was picked by a New Idea picker These crops were all loaded on wagons with three foot sides and unloaded by hand The oats was threshed with a Case threshing machine and blowen straight into the barn In the late 50s a hay crimper was added and a John Deere baler About that time better wagons replaced the old automobile chassis wagons A Case single chain elevator was added and some false front wagons About that time grandpa sold out. Next change was a pipeline milker and a barn cleaner. The oldest M was traded in for a 556 About that time I got a drivers license and got a job in town

Might want to take the presentation with a grain of salt LOL quite a bit of propaganda haha

(quoted from post at 12:36:27 04/16/21) I can remember going to a few corn grower meetings with a neighbor and his two sons when we were in high school. They were recommending using a full labeled rate of atrazine, waiting a few weeks, plowing, planting, then spraying with another full rate application to keep quack under control. They said you might have to do that for a few years to get rid of it. Anybody with a problem with Roundup needs to know that atrazine is now a restricted use pesticide and Roundup isn't. Think about using a restricted use pesticide at double the labeled rate instead of a general use herbicide at one quart to the acre.

Click to expand...

Randy I have a brother in law who is dead set against Roundup. He claims it is poison and creates a whole host of problems. So he doubles up with Atrazine to keep the grass in check. Well duh!!

After ww2 dad took over the farm from grandad...Had 4

molines..g..gt..n..and a u. Believe I've got that right. After

5 years we got an mm705...

Nice picture!!

Born in 1942 and attended a one room school house for a couple of years then the district built a new two story brick school house with indoor plumbing, and a kitchen and electricity and after a couple of years hired a cook and we had hot lunches. Dad started farming after grandpa retired and I think he was farming about 500 acres, some of which was pasture as he had a small beef cow herd. And, we hand milked about 8-10 cows, and the milk was separated, cream was shipped to Beatrice, Nebraska on the railroad in 5 and 10 gallon cans. Dad had a 37 JD D and a 46 JD A which he and his brother bought new. In about 1951 Dad bought another JD D tractor and we started running two tractors. Mostly raised wheat and milo and we also raised forage sorghum which we field chopped and put in a trench silo. We continued to grow silage feed until about 1980. All silage feeding was done by hand. We usually had a small field of alfalfa which was baled with a JD pickup wire tie baler which he used to do a little custom baling with also. We had a '41 1/2 ton pickup and dad bought a new Chevy 2ton truck in 1948 which was used to haul wheat to the local elevators, closest was 5 miles and furthest was 7 miles. Dad retired the '41 Chevy and bought a new 1/2 ton Chevy in 1955. In 1959 dad traded the old '37 JD D for a new JD 730 diesel tractor and I thought we were really in tall cotton then. Started farming on my own in 1964 and still do a little hobby farming with a small bunch of beef cows.

Wow! Dredging up many memories. You asked.
Both of my parents grew up on farms in mid-Michigan. Farming was with horses. They left farm life in the late 30's and went to work in Flint, Mich. They went back to the farm for a short time as my dads parents needed help.
In 1942, they moved to Ypsilanti, Mich and dad went to work in a Ford factory in support of the the war effort. The B-24 Liberator was being built about 3/4 mile, as the crow flies, from our house. He was at a Ford support factory making parts. (I have an ID card that says he was a certified aircraft generator repairman). I was born in 1943. Dad went to work for Kaiser-Frazer after the war. They were building cars in the former Ford B24 plant.
We lived in Ypsi until 1950 when my parents bought an old farm house with a barn and 27 acres about 5 miles south of the Willow Run Airport It included an old Oliver 70 Hart Parr and implements. The land was low/wet and there was a lot of brush. He started clearing it by hand and my older sister and I dragged the brush to piles to be burned.
Dad had gone to work for Kaiser-Frazer after the war. They were building cars in the former Ford B24 plant. So, he worked secruity for Kaiser and tried to farm in off hours. Kaiser folded about 1953 and dad was layed off.
He bounced a couple of jobs before being hired by Ford at the Warren, Michigan tank plant. A very long drive during those times. Fortunetly, he was only there about 3 months and got to transfer back to the Ford Plant in Ypsilanti in 1954.
Also in 1953 he had acquired the 1951 Ford 8N (which I still have) with an Economy 2-14 plow and two row Dearborn cultivator (they are long gone). That was when I started driving the 8N, cultivating corn and soy beans.
Meantime, I also hired out to the dairy farmer next door driving his Oliver 70 or Farmall H, helping to collect hay and straw and pulling the hay rope lifting 8 bales at a time into the loft.
Dad started renting additional nearby fields and our operation eventually grew to about 100 to 120 acres. Needing more power and a 2nd tractor, dad bought a Famrall H, 2-14 trailer plow, 8'disc and a 4 section spring tooth drag harrow. (literally, drag that down the road to fields a mile away) He also found an old Allis Chalmers 4' cut combine.
He later acquired a Woods Bros Dearborn one row corn picker and a Dearborn 6' cut combine with it's own engine. Wow! 6'! Goodbye A/C.
Through all of this, he was still working at Ford and I was taking on more and more responsibility.
By 11, I was taking the 1950 Chevy pu to the field and and was responsible to maintain tires for all family vehciles (3) and equipment that had tires.
We needed hay and grain wagons so dad and I built 2, 7'x14'. One was frame of and old wooden wheeled wagon that dad put pickup I-beam axles under. It was wagon steer, meaning the whole axle pivited to turn. The 2nd one was also pickup axles but had auto-steer. We auilt 24 high grain boxes that were removable for hay work. (OH! another story for another time)
I basically left home in 1963, coming home from schoolto help when I could.
In 1965, dad had torn town 2 barns and a toolshed about 8 miles from the farm and was using the lumber to build a 24x40 garage. I was home for the summer and working with him.
Oh, Oh! I met a girl/woman. I was 22, she was 25. 6 months later we were married (now 55 years). I went to work at Ford, the same plant as my dad.
In 1966 our son was born and dad was into another project (and still working at Ford). He bought a house in Ypsilanti that had to be moved or torn town to make room for a new hospital.
He had a foundation poured on a corner of the farm and he hired a house mover.
I helped him with the move and the putting of the roof back on (removed rather than $5000 to utilities for dropping wires etc) 24'x 34' move 8 miles in one hour and the rest of the day to get across a 4' deep ditch and set onto the foundation.
My wife and I bought the house in 1967, living there 17 years and raised our 3 childeren. It was fortunate that we bought it. My dad died in 1968 at age 53, second massive heart attack. Mom was left with my youngest sister, 14 years old.
Neighbors thought that I should continue to farm as my father had. Nope, I had enough.
In 1983 we bought 6 acres about 10 miles away and built a new house in 1985. Mom sold the farm a couple years later and moved to an apartment.
Well, you say, end of story. Almost. There is something about owning land and working the dirt. I had no desire to farm BUT, land was/is a magnet to me.
In 1993 I bought, on a land contract, the 6 acres adjacent to our house (then I told my wife) Three months later I bought, on another land contract, another ajoining 5 acres (then I told my wife).
NO! I did not try to farm it. We started planting trees and playing on the property. Annual hayrides and often a recreational fire.
We have since split the land, developed a road and parcels, and sold the property and only have 3 acres remaining. At 78, that's enough. I mowed it today with a new Gravely zero turn. What a breeze!

As a child my family ( mostly my Dad) farmed full time from 1963 until about 1980. Dad owned and farmed 570 acres for the most part alone. My parents had an appliance sales business. Mom ran that and helped on the farm. Dad had a new MF1130 with plow , disc and chisel plow , a 4020D JD , and a couple smaller gas tractors. We row cropped about half the farm in beans , milo and wheat. We had gleaner combines , no corn head and therefore no corn. The only custom work done for us was an occasional crop duster. We always found a way to finish it ourselves. We had 150 angus. Pigs early on. We had square bales into the early 70s , then the allis rotobaler. We got an IH large baler , mower and a Nh rake in 1978. I loved it. Building the grain bins and the machine shed. Watching the crop duster and the veterinarian. Getting a rifle for my birthday. I fondly remember the day we acquired the Kneib square bale loader. I had bucked my last bake off the ground ( or so I thought until working on a commercial hay crew in high school ). There were tragedies too. The loss of many cattle in the winter of 78/79. An accident that later required hardware in my spine. And my parents bitter divorce that changed everything.But growing up on the farm was a dream like childhood. I wouldnt trade the memories for anything. Would do it all again in a heartbeat.

Boy, this is a fun read.
I was born in 53. At that time Pa was farming with a 36 JD. B--42 JD. A and bought new in 52 a Case D. Milked a handful of cows and raised pigs and chickens. Running about 180 acres of corn, beans, wheat , oats and alfalfa. Then in 58 he traded the Case D for a new Case 700. In 60 he bought the farm that I am now on. 280 acres. Quit milking the cows and bred them to a Herford bull. In mid 60s he traded the A for a 60 JD. and added a 50 JD. He farmed that 280 acres until the day he died in 1992. He had lots of opportunities to buy and rent more land and had the cash to do it but not interested. Just wanted to mind his own business and do the best job he could with his 280 acres. He was very successful and died a very wealthy man.

I also was born in 1942, in Branch County Mich. 1945 My father came home from serving in WW2 and we moved to a farm, which was rented. When I was 8 yrs, I was operating a Farmall H. Doing light work, discing, dragging, hauling manure etc. Soon we had a second tractor, a Farmall F-12. When I was 12, we moved to a bigger farm and 'my' tractor was a Farmal Super C. Later we had a Farmal 656(a 4 bottom plow) and a Case DC(a 3 bottom plow)(I have the DC now). We rented extra land and for many years I helped work the 500a. Growing Corn, Wheat, Oats, some Barley and of course HAY! Also we had 30 Holsteins,(for milk) 10 to 12 hogs,(for babies) 40-50 sheep(for babies) & chickens.(for eggs). A very typical 40's-50's Michigan farm operation. We made a living..... Much of the land was low and heavy.. It was very hard work, I guess you could say 24/7. After I graduated high school, I enlisted in the USAF and became an electronic technician. That was my life's career. For many years, I did enjoy 'going back to the farm' at planting or harvesting time. Unfortunalely,I was the only son.

In Texas,cotton was king and boll weevils were the archenemy. Once weevils appeared they quickly destroyed crops. That meant having tractor fueled and ready with blower mounted and poison onboard. We applied DDT powder with a pto driven blower while dew was on so powder stuck to leaves. Dew only fall's when there is little to no wind. You drove fast trying to stay out of dust but it was impossible to stay clear of the cloud. What would Dept Of Labor and OSHA think today? Here's something most people living around cotton don't know. Most nights during hot growing season,it's much cooler in a field of cotton than other places. For that reason it's the first place dew fall's. When dew dried and dusting stopped, farmers had to check fields for dew during night so dusting could resume quick as possible until all fields have been dusted. Water born spraying replaced dust in early 50s so spraying went non stop until all fields were covered. Airplanes soon started spraying so that sped things up considerably. I have many fond memories of the pilots and planes but few of cotton farming as a whole. Dad went flat on his back with TB in 1946 and was unable to work until he died. I was the youngest at 3 and my 13 year old sister the oldest of 5 kids. When mom passed in 2010 I told people if only we were half the man mom was the world would be far better today.

We moved to the only home I knew til I got married the year I was born in 62. Grew up milking cows and farming 3-400 acres. When dad moved he had a case 830d case-o-matic, the DC I have today and a Ford jubilee. He started milking 38 cows in the one barn then added 28 in another. Never had a pipeline in my time on the farm. Later dad added another dc and in 1970 a new 870. Then traded the 830 for a 730 comfort king. In 76 the 870 got traded for a new 970. I remember him talking about it because the dealer came to him and asked him to trade because he had a buyer for the 870. He allowed dad just twice as much for trade value as dad paid for it new. Dad really thought that was something. The 970 was dads last new tractor, but he did add a used 1070 later.

I was 8th of 9 kids. We started chores in the barn when we started school. First job was running water for the calves and putting the milkers together for milking. About the only chore mom did in the barn was washing the milkers and bulk tank and she never missed a day of those.

My first tractor driving was driving the 830 pulling the rock wagon while all the others picked rock. Was maybe 4 years old at the time because my feet didn't come close to the floor. But with the com transmission all I had to do was add gas to go and let off to stop and steer. And dad was always close by. I know I drove the Ford by kindergarten because that was the year I drove over my little brothers head while mom and I and he were picking the missed corn in the field. Didn't seem to hurt him at all. Lol. Big day for me was my 15th birthday because I got my official drivers license that day and dad bought me my first car. We all got a car when we got our license and all the gas we could burn, the cost was we had to milk the cows both before and after school and do all the other work as well. I also got $20/week spending money which was plenty in the 70s. All the other kids got a car like a Ford galaxy or some such. But for some reason dad bought me a 67 Pontiac firebird with fat keystone wheels and the works. He never said why he did that for me and I never asked. But I sure wish I had that car today. Made dating quite easy. Lol.

I got married and left home in 1981 and dad sold the farm a few years later.
I have many fond memories of that time and can't really remember anything seriously bad. I guess I never thought then about whether it was good or bad but I think it was good. I would love to do it again.

Oh there is definatley a connection,i hated to be around sprays/chemical.i had a good neighbor who did his own spraying,for the wheat and barley, i was over to his place one evening and there was something floating in the spray tank, he stuck his bare arm in the tank, up to past his elbow to get it,well we buried him about two years later, i didn't touch that crap unless i had gloves on! To see a good friend die of cancer wasn't or isn't fun !

I found the most deadly thing in the world . I use to clean the sprayer nozzle by tapping it on the boom put up to my mouth and blow it out I use to the love the feel of the 24d on my bare hands because it was nice and cool in the summer heat

I was born in Nov 1949. Dad and Mom started farming (first generation farmer, that had worked on other farms growing up) on Mom's G'mother's 90 acre farm in 1950. About 25 acres of river flat, and most of the rest gravelly loam, so it was good land. There was a one row dairy barn that held 17 cows, and a big old open barn with a wooden floor for loose hay, as well as a chicken coop and a few other small buildings. He started with a Farmall C, never had horses. About 1954, he traded for a new Super C and plow, cultivators, mowing machine, and carrier, all fast hitch. Somewhere in there, he acquired a Case C, too. About '54, he started taking the wood floor out of the big barn, so he could turn the barn into a cow stable. I remember the time when I was helping take up the planks, and there was a skunk underneath. I panicked, but Dad said he's more scared of us than we are of him, just be calm and he'll leave. Didn't get sprayed. Dad had 2x12 planks sawed from trees in the woods, a lot of maple and oak, for hay mow floor joists. I still have some of them incorporated in my barn that were salvaged when the barns were torn down in the early 70s. The big barn ended up with about 20 more tie stalls, with low concrete curbs between each cow, a couple box stalls, a hay mow, and 2nd floor chicken coop on the side of the hay mow. also a barn cleaner that was a rubber mat in the gutter behind the cows, that rolled up under the end of the cleaner chute, after it carried the manure and dumped it in the ground drive New Idea spreader. In 1957, he added a shed alongside the big barn to be able to house more animals.
BUT in 1958, he had a chance to buy a 400 acre farm about 7 miles upriver from home, with about 200 acres of cropland. He didn't quibble about price, but did get a very nnalert from the widow that he bought it from. My first lesson in economics- you'll pay twice for something with regular interest- once in the cost and twice in the interest. He added a 3 year old Farmall 300 and soon a 300 utility to the Super C and Case. After a couple years, the Case C had problems and was replaced by a Case D. The barn had 100 stanchions, and he was milking about 90.He added one of the first Herringbone double 4 parlors in the county in 1961, and a bulk tank. We still had the use of Grandpa's farm, so around 1962, Dad asked the old neighbor if he could borrow a side rake for the hay at the old farm, because all we had for a rake was on old David Bradley beater that whipped all over the road if you went much over 6 mph. the rake that showed up was a NH PTO rake hooked to a 3 year old IH 460 Hi-utility. 6 cylinder AND power steering. Raking was my job, and I was in high cotton.
By 65 and 66, we were plowing with the 300 and FH 3 bottom plow, the Super C and 2 bottom FH, and hired the next door neighbor with their Farmall 350 and 3 bottom FH plow. Dad started looking for a bigger tractor to cut plowing hours. We had a 706D, JD 3020 and 4020, probably an Allis190XT, and a couple other brands, all lined up by the driveway. Very impressive and I wish I had a picture. Toward the end of the tryouts, the local Case/David Brown dealer showed up with a 880 or 990 and a 3 bottom plow on his truck for us to try. Dad was milking, so he told me to go see what I thought. I wanted no part of a DB, so the dealer and I went down on the flat where we had been demo'ing. I wanted to stall the DB, so I buried the plow as deep as it would go, but the SOB just kept chugging along. Dealer went back to the parlor and told Dad that boy likes to plow deep, doesn't he? Oh well. Before Dad made any purchase deals, he heard about a Farmall 806 that had been used 1 year on an irrigation pump in the Finger Lakes, and then the owner died. Narrow front, no fenders, just Fast Hitch. He bought that, and the 5 bottom IH 550 plow that we had been trying out. 1968 saw the addition of a 656 High Clear gas utility from a small dealer that had been using it as a lot tractor, until the floor plan came due. We spent the summer of 1970 changing the stanchion barn to home made freestalls, with a barn cleaner feeder in a shed off the side of the barn. The Super C became the scraping tractor. In 1971, a brand new IH 826 hydro came, traded the worn out Farmall 300 on it. Very interesting times.
I worked for Dad until 1980, when my wife and I bought our own farm. I had accumulated a JD 3010, Farmall M, and an Allis D14 to start with. A few years in, I got the 300 utility from Dad and resurrected it, and its still here but needing another rebirth. When Dad sold out in 1989, I bought his Super C, and had it here for about 2 months before it burned up in a barn fire. I also bought the 656 High utility and NI loader, and that is still here and working. My brother has Dad's 806. I looked for years to find another Case with brake pedals on either side of the seat, like the one Dad had. Not even sure od the model, but it had big old fenders. A guy in the tractor club had one that matched, and now it is here. Finally, last winter, I was able to buy the 460 Hi Utility that I drove in 1962, and brought it back to life.

After Pearl Harbor, my dad went down to volunteer and was told he was to old. He said he was going to buy a farm then and the guy at the military enlistment center urged him to do it as an army needs to eat. He sold 2 tractors and bought horses and put down on 240 acres. Two years later he bought an Allis Chalmers (don't know the model as it was before I was born) and he paid off the farm. Going thru a gate it was so muddy the front end slid into the fence with Dad yellingWhoa! Whoa! My older brother dropped this on me the other night and it sounds like my dad to a Tee!

Dad bought the farm 160 acres after renting for years. Half farm ground and half pasture. Move on place in 45, I was one year old. Had a CC Case and team of horses. Horse, cattle and hogs went on one semi trailer to move. Did have a pretty new 3-14 Case plow and a Case tandem disk. High wheel box wagon and IH lister. In 51 horses left and the CC was traded in on a new WD and cultivator. Had to remove one bottom on the plow for the WD. Remove the wooden wheels on box wagon and put car front axles under it. My uncle and dad bought a new Gehl field cutter in 52 (both milked cows) and did custom cutting also. A new David Bradly side delivery rake, Viking 36 ft. grain elevator and Wetmore hammer mill was bought around 53. Junked the 34 Pontiac and bought a 51 Olds 88 and bought a 46 International KB2. In 57 dad bought a F-20 at a farm sale. I was big enough to do field work. In 58 traded F-20 for a M. Dad didn't want me to crank it. Big boys dream to miss school to do field work. Was renting 200 acres of farm ground also. Got rid of the International cream separator and bought a milk cooler. Mom and older sister loved not having to wash that. In 62 M was replace with a 400, Fast hitch plow showed up also. In 65 I was working in town and loaned dad some money to buy a new 656. The only tractors he bought new was the WD and the 656 and I still have the WD. Great times then.

My dad farmed 200 acres in the thumb of Michigan in the fifties and sixties. I don't know how he did it. he taught high school, farmed and milked cows. His big tractor in those days was a Farmall M with a narrow front and a trip bucket loader. I still get a chuckle about the fact that I don't farm but have two tractors that have hydraulic buckets. I think back and wonder how much easier it would have made things for my dad to have a tractor with a good loader.

I suspect that farming (or the path of farming) may have changed more in those twenty years between 1950 and 1970 than it has changed in the fifty years since then.

In 1950 most farms were widely diversified with maybe half or less of the acreage in row crops, the rest in small grains, hay and pasture. Diversification spread the work load out and reduced high peak demands for labor. There were a comparably small number of beef cattle, hogs and chickens on most farms, a couple milk cows and egg laying chickens for the family, maybe more for some extra milk and egg money. Draft horses were disappearing, some fertilizer and hybrid seed corn were in use, but few other chemicals. Farmers shared labor more, threshing and shelling corn with the neighbors. Health problems caused most farmers to retire in their late 50's to mid-60's and pass the operation to the next generation.

By 1970 most farms started to grow in size and become much less diversified in crops and livestock. The chickens and milk cows left for dedicated poultry and dairy farms. The beef cattle and hogs either started to either disappear or grow into beef feedlots and pork confinement systems. Where the livestock was gone, corn-soybean rotation replaced corn-small grain hay rotations. Chemicals replaced mechanical cultivation for weed control. Genetics, fertilizers and improved weed control allowed corn yield to triple from 30 BU/acre to near 100BU/acre. Fewer tillage operations across the fields and larger equipment allowed one person to grow cash grain on 640 acres instead of 160 acres. Grain dryers replaced corn cribs for drying corn. Two or three neighbors might still share labor at harvest, but combines reduced the need for threshing and shelling rings. Mechanization and better health care allowed older farmers to stay in business longer, sometimes skipping the next generation passing the operation on to grandchildren, if they were still interested.

Those trends seem to be continuing today. Maybe you could call the 1960's the beginning of industrial farming?

Well Cotton was king in Texas for 50 years at least. In the mid 60's businessmen and farmers realized that you cain't keep mining nutrients out of the soil without putting something back. These folks teamed with Ag. Research Scientists from Texas A &M College (TAMU today) and formed the Agricultural Research Station at Renner.....name of the Texas town where it is (still) located.... today, totally surrounded by the city of Plano, Tx.

The published workings gave farmers a hard bound reference manual (I have one) for what works and what doesn't in Ag. which helped immensely in improving crop production and efficiency.

Today these small Cotton growing/shipping stations are nothing more than a wide place in the road but still bear the marks of Cotton, bale wagons, trailers, railroad sidings, bale shipping sheds along the tracks, gin mills and such. Some of the soil has recovered and a lot hasn't. Big Ag. comes in with the chemicals and heavy equipment and can make the Blacklands (referencing Houston Black Clay) known for it ability to hold moisture for hot, dry, summer Cotton crops very productive...have no idea as to the return on the investment. It's a bear to farm when it isn't in the mood. In the mood..........it's sweet! I forget the stats, but Texas Blacklands were a big player in Cotton production worldwide back in those days. Today it's crop rotation with wheat, cotton, and milo or corn...mostly corn.

Wheat is a good cover crop to clean up a nasty field. Next door wasn't farmed for 20 years and was a weed mess. Place sells, buyer needed it farmed, BTO leases it, comes in, discs a couple of times, planted wheat with some liquid in tanks on the tractor, like in December..imagine fertilizer and pre-emergent. Today plants (like a stem every half an inch) are some 15-18 tall, seed heads are already starting to form, solid deep green, smooth as a green blanket...beautiful.

We farmed in the 60's well through the 70's...
Dad grew up on a small farm in Ohio and in 69 decided he wanted his own place but prices were high at home so he packed us up and moved to WI. I was 3. He worked full time as an electrician for the local hospital and farmed a 120 acre dairy farm with 40 cows. Started with a JD a and B. Mom was a teacher at the local elementary school and helped by bringing home lots of extra animals like sheep and goats and horses (she was a country girl but not a farm girl if you know what I mean)
Dad was the last guy to run cans for the local dairy and we got a bulk tank in 71. Upgraded the tractors to a Farmall 460 and a brand new IH 444 with a loader, man was that a sweet little thing on the baler compared to the JD A, I got to drive the 460 on the baler when I was 5 cuz it was easier for dad to get me started and hop off to get on the wagon, I couldn't reach the clutch, just steered to keep it on the windrow.....

Thankyou for everyone sharing their stories and perspectives from different areas. I have 3 long and boring replies to make but will post them later when I find something larger then a phone to type on.
My three replies are for my dad, my mom and myself.
My dad graduated high school in 1952 so he has many stories of his youth and expanding the family custom farming operation in 1950s and 1960s.
My mom graduated high school in 1962 but still shared many stories with me of growing up on her families growing farm in the 1950s and 1960s. For example, she remembered her dad pacing the kitchen floor, considering if he could afford a new tractor, his first tractor in 1951.
And as for me, I was born into a time warp. I graduated high school in 2002 but I grew up driving oliver 66, ferguson to30, 1946 IH K6 etc