Great nostalgia..

[ironglows]

Being a farm boy through the 1950s, this is nostalgia for me.  Those of you who also were farm boys, these films may evoke old memories.

  First, from International Harvester;

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVq6AmTJ52I

  Next, from Ford;
 
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mn8ySyvv6Ko

 

[oldandslow]

The first video brings back memories although my only experience with Farmall tractors was hiring out to a neighbor to try to keep his "M" lined up with the rows. That thing had about three rounds of slack in the steering between left and right so you had to pay close attention to what you were doing. At least it was a job that brought in a little spending money for a farm kid. He also had a UB Moline, usually called a Twin City, that was much more user friendly and had quite a bit more grunt than the Farmall. I drove it deep breaking after harvest when it was chilly weather. It ran on propane and was temperature sensitive. We hung a tow sack over part of the radiator to keep it at 180 degrees. The power fell off rapidly below that temperature .It also had a heater. It was a treated canvas rig that covered the sides of the tractor from the radiator and flared out around the driver's seat and also had a back you could close when it was really cold. It worked really well but was a far cry from the cabs of today.  You almost needed a ladder to get up on the seat but it was comfortable after you got there. A couple of years after I left home one of his hands that came from Mexico started filling it with propane. You just vented the tank to the atmosphere back then and the driver lit a cigarette right beside the vent after staring the fill. The tractor was a total loss.

He also had a Ferguson which was pretty much a Ford with a slightly darker paint and I drove it some. The muffler was attached firmly to the right floor board and your foot would cook even in cool weather if you used the floorboard and there really wasn't a good place to prop it up. I put up with it because it was money in my empty pocket.

Our tractors were Allis-Chalmers which were hands down better than the Farmalls in my book.
 

[ironglows]

The tractors on our farm were a Farmall "H", and a Farmall "C". I used the "C" for any jobs it could handle, since it was nearly the same power, and handled much better.
  I left the farm into go in the Army.  Years later, after spending a couple hitches there, as soon as I got home from overseas, I took a job of parts manager with the local IH/New Holland dealership.
  The guy who had the job before me had ordered some of those canvas half cabs for Farmall "M" tractors, such as you described, for sale in our area.  We don't use propane on tractors here, but he must have got his part number wrong..because the dozen half cabs he ordered, came through with the cut outs for propane.

   Well, they would work OK on the gas or diesel "M", no problem, but we had to sell them at a reduced price. reduced.  So I placed on a high rack with the windshield on top and the canvas stringing to the floor.  Fresh out of the army, I was amazed how it looked like a military protective mask, so trying for a bit of humor, I put a sign on it saying... "ELEPHANT GAS MASK AT REDUCED PRICE, WILL WORK FOR TRACTOR CAB"..
  Most people got a chuckle over...but then I had one old farmer come in and looked it over very seriously, while rubbing his chin..  Presently he spoke up, saying.."you know, iI think that will work for a cab!"..  I had to hide my grin as I leafed through the .parts files..

[oldandslow]

The picture of the large large Farmall made me think of something that happened after I moved to NM. It could have had serious consequences but didn't. Those large Farmalls were known as "wheat land" tractors in our area and no one had any use for them because all the farming on the south plains was row crop and four row tractors ruled. One enterprising farmer decided to go into business deep breaking for hire and bought a Massey Ferguson wheat land tractor to pull his rig so he could plow deeper and set it with up with a cutting colter to steer it. You plowed one round completely around the field and then dropped one set of wheels into the furrow. The colter was on an arm that extended out in front of the tractor and was connected to the steering linkage to follow that furrow when you lowered it down to engage the dirt. No one was on the tractor and it would run around 10-11hours on a tank of diesel. One day he filled the tank at the end of the day and started it back to going for the night. The next morning the tractor was gone. It had jumped the furrow and took off across country plowing along. It was easy to track of course. After that he had a night hand that's job was to watch the headlighst of the tractor to make sure it was plowing where it was supposed to. There were a lot of people living on farms back then and that tractor would have plowed right into a house or barn if one had happened to be in it's path the night it had it's run-a-way. 

There was a guy that farmed a lot of acres just west of the town where I went to school and he kind of pioneered the start of big plow farming. He rigged up two D-6 Cat's to pull 12 row planters that he had fabricated. There was a 2x12 board mounted across the planter behind the plows and two men walked them checking to see that all the planter boxes were working right. I suppose now there is an electronic devise that monitors everything on the huge planters used today.

[powderman]

OLD steam tractor VS New John Deere. http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=FLQhvruimfs


WORLD RECORD 66 bottom plow. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vLNQyJqcE5I

Old steam tractor pulling 20 bottom plow. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WNS38av6LcQ

[Ranger99]

I suppose now there is an electronic devise that monitors everything on the huge planters used today.

The big ones have been using GPS guidance for a long
while now. The operator just sits and lets it go for hours
and it does it's thing. Used on the big cotton and maize
operations . None around here, but I'd imagine the big
bean growers use the same thing

[ironglows]

Our farm, being a dairy farm used row crop tractors, since we also planted a lot of corn, which of course, had to be cultivated.  So dairy farms around here didn't switch to wide fronts, until atrazine came along to eliminate cultivating.
   Row crop tractors were somewhat tricky on steep hillsides, and with the brake split to  help in a pivot steer, it was just that much more dangerous.
   So far as I can see, all the various brands of tractors were good machines, with the owner's preferences ruling their purchases.
   The Ferguson was originally built in England.  Henry Ford went in partnership with Ferguson just long enough to get a claim on the excellent and now dominant 3 point hitch, which was invented by Harry Ferguson.
  The Ferguson was about the same size and shape as the Ford 8n..except  the Ferguson had an OHV engine as opposed to Ford's flat head 4.

[BUGEYE]

I loved our Minneapolis Moline with the hand clutch.
But I could flick it back and forth with my right toe.

[ironglows]

I loved our Minneapolis Moline with the hand clutch.
But I could flick it back and forth with my right toe.

  Yes, those old Minnie-Mos would get right down there and lug.  I enjoy the antique tractor pulls, but don't give a hoot for those multi engined "hot rod" tractor pulls.  Those hot rods would have no place on the farm..so they should be considered some kind of anomaly!

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3svts0ReTaI

[oldandslow]

I watch the tractor pulling show on RFD TV and enjoy them all, especially those smog creating super stock diesels and the little single engine mini's. The pulling tractors of today are just the farmer's version of modern drags racers. I also like the antique pulls but no tractor pulling of any kind goes on anywhere in this part of the world anymore that I'm aware of. It's been over twenty years since I've been to an antique pull and that was just east of Yuma, AZ which is a long drive from here. We were doing the snow bird thing for a few weeks not that we get much snow to run away from but it was tee shirt weather there where it was coat weather here. Seating was bales of straw strung along both sides of the track.

Back when my kids were in high school (70's) we had tractor pulls in this area and we attended quite a few as I liked to take action pictures of the pulls. We attended the state championship pull off which was held in Clovis, NM that year and there was a family by the name of Blagrave from Ackerly, TX  pulling in the heavy super stock diesel class. They ran two Farmalls and one was named the Red Horse Two brothers of high school age drove them and the one that drove the RedHorse was named Steve. That night the sled didn't transfer it's weight and the Red Horse had a runaway but got stopped before doing any damage. They left a lot of room at the end of the track in those days. Steve Blagrave is still running the Red Horse today and won a national championship a year or two ago with it. Of course it's a far cry from the original Red Horse.

There was a guy running a M-M that was named Mini-Mo at the same time but it was a gas rig. It was stretched out with two 454 chevy engines and other than being long with two big exhaust pipes sticking up instead of one looked like any M-M and was a crowd favorite. He was a frequent winner in his class.

[Bob Riebe]

One of the National Tractor Pulls is in my home town a matter of blocks from my house.
I have intended to go for year but never got there as it is the same weekend as the local supposed Water Carnival and I have a cook-out for remaining family and friends.
I may get there but I can still listen to it.

Back in the days there were a lot of Allis, Minneapolis-Moline, Case , Oliver and John Deere where I was raised .
Farmalls/International were also in the mix but many farmers had multiple brands.
The little Ford N series were/are extremely common , even now; oddly the Ferguson which was the little Ford with a better engine, is not common but Massey-Harris which merged with Ferguson was.

[ironglows]

  Around here, the big name by numbers was probably Farmall, followed by Deere, AC, Massey, Ford, Case..then likely Oliver with a Cockshutt (Canadian Oliver) thrown in now and then, that's my guess anyway.
   You could go 40 miles east, west, north or south and the numbers may be very different.  Actually, I think much depended upon the local dealer..his service, competence and friendliness.
       

[BUGEYE]

I loved our Minneapolis Moline with the hand clutch.
But I could flick it back and forth with my right toe.

  Yes, those old Minnie-Mos would get right down there and lug.  I enjoy the antique tractor pulls, but don't give a hoot for those multi engined "hot rod" tractor pulls.  Those hot rods would have no place on the farm..so they should be considered some kind of anomaly!

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3svts0ReTaI

Yep it was a good tractor.
I’m like you about tractor pulls, I like to see the different classes of farm tractors, not fire breathing monsters that usually explode.
But that said, I really prefer horse and mule pulls.  Nothing like a pair of prancing draft horses to get my interest up.

[ironglows]

Yes, those prancing draft horses were are a sight !  We had horses on the farm also, mostly for woods work, as the tractors took over more of the regular field work !
  Ours were Belgians, with an occasional Percheron to be had.  The Clydesdales seem more flashy to watch, with their abundant "stockings", and their exaggerated gait !