How many remember these days?

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The first part of the first paragraph was from a reply I had given on another post but here it is agin along with much more. The thrust of my post is not about Allis' but about the farm economy of the so called roaring 70's and dismal 80's.
In my area back in the late 70's we had a real good Allis dealer and he switched a number of John Deere farmers into Allis equipment. One of our best neighbors (they let Dad house and milk his cattle in their barns when Dad's barn burned in 76') were all John Deere but bought a new 7040 PS. The farmer loved it and it started better than his 4430 and 4630 so it got the winter chores. I remember his son's, who I idolized, hated this Allis because they were raised on John Deere. I would ride with them (I was 7 years old) in the 7040 in the winter sometimes and they would rev it way up and dump the clutch to try to wreck it. When they went belly up in 1980 the tractor was dented up and the radiator and grill was smashed so it sold cheap but another neighbor bought it and fixed the radiator and then carried on the abuse for another 20 years (he would brag on how he would only change the oil every 4 years and how those new Deutz engines couldn't handle that, he was a frugal Irishman). It's still going today but is used for blowing snow by the second owner's son.

Another farmer who Dad shared rented land with switched almost every piece of equipment he had to Allis. He had a big Allis planter and many other tillage pieces and a 185 (Dad rented the 185 to plant with and it was a nice tractor) and a 7030. This was during the 70's too and he went belly up in the early 80's. It was to the point that the farmer had welded the tie rods on the 185 so that it only turned to the right and the 7030 was skidded up on the trailer after the local technical college bought it at his sale. The planter was missing parts and had broken boxes. I'm pretty sure he purposefully wrecked everything he had so the banks wouldn't get all their money from the forced sale. Those days I'll never forget. I was in my teens.

Saw another neighbor get all his machinery getting loaded up onto semi trailers (all Deere and Steiger) while on the bus on our way to school in the morning. That was right next door to Dad's farm. 

Another farmer sold out before losing everything but came out good at almost $3000/acre or so he thought. He sold contract for deed but the new owner went bankrupt and then continued to run the land for 3 years without payment and didn't pay the taxes either. Guess who got to pay the back taxes and had no income for three years. It ruined the guy and he ended up bankrupt himself and he is still pumping gas at the local station now in his late 70's.

Edited by Lonn - 01 Jan 2011 at 11:32am

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Lonn Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Orange Level Joined: 16 Sep 2009 Location: Назарово,Russia Points: 29773	Post Options Post Reply Quote Lonn Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Topic: How many remember these days? Posted: 01 Jan 2011 at 11:30am
	The first part of the first paragraph was from a reply I had given on another post but here it is agin along with much more. The thrust of my post is not about Allis' but about the farm economy of the so called roaring 70's and dismal 80's. In my area back in the late 70's we had a real good Allis dealer and he switched a number of John Deere farmers into Allis equipment. One of our best neighbors (they let Dad house and milk his cattle in their barns when Dad's barn burned in 76') were all John Deere but bought a new 7040 PS. The farmer loved it and it started better than his 4430 and 4630 so it got the winter chores. I remember his son's, who I idolized, hated this Allis because they were raised on John Deere. I would ride with them (I was 7 years old) in the 7040 in the winter sometimes and they would rev it way up and dump the clutch to try to wreck it. When they went belly up in 1980 the tractor was dented up and the radiator and grill was smashed so it sold cheap but another neighbor bought it and fixed the radiator and then carried on the abuse for another 20 years (he would brag on how he would only change the oil every 4 years and how those new Deutz engines couldn't handle that, he was a frugal Irishman). It's still going today but is used for blowing snow by the second owner's son. Another farmer who Dad shared rented land with switched almost every piece of equipment he had to Allis. He had a big Allis planter and many other tillage pieces and a 185 (Dad rented the 185 to plant with and it was a nice tractor) and a 7030. This was during the 70's too and he went belly up in the early 80's. It was to the point that the farmer had welded the tie rods on the 185 so that it only turned to the right and the 7030 was skidded up on the trailer after the local technical college bought it at his sale. The planter was missing parts and had broken boxes. I'm pretty sure he purposefully wrecked everything he had so the banks wouldn't get all their money from the forced sale. Those days I'll never forget. I was in my teens. Saw another neighbor get all his machinery getting loaded up onto semi trailers (all Deere and Steiger) while on the bus on our way to school in the morning. That was right next door to Dad's farm. Another farmer sold out before losing everything but came out good at almost $3000/acre or so he thought. He sold contract for deed but the new owner went bankrupt and then continued to run the land for 3 years without payment and didn't pay the taxes either. Guess who got to pay the back taxes and had no income for three years. It ruined the guy and he ended up bankrupt himself and he is still pumping gas at the local station now in his late 70's. Edited by Lonn - 01 Jan 2011 at 11:32am
	-- --- .... .- -- -- .- -.. / .-- .- ... / .- / -- ..- .-. -.. . .-. .. -. --. / -.-. .... .. .-.. -.. / .-. .- .--. .. ... - Wink I am a Russian Bot

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Stanley Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Bronze Level Joined: 16 Oct 2009 Location: PDC, WI Points: 188	Post Options Post Reply Quote Stanley Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 01 Jan 2011 at 3:41pm
	I remember. A sad time in the history of US agriculture.

JohnCO Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Orange Level Joined: 11 Sep 2009 Location: Niwot Colo Points: 8992	Post Options Post Reply Quote JohnCO Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 01 Jan 2011 at 3:52pm
	It wasn't as bad here in Colorado, although I do remember some people hurting and having to sell out. I think the cattle business helped keep people afloat. Seems like things were going great in the late '70's. I remember a neighbor buying a 1958 Ford F600 with a wood rear dump box at an auction and paying $2,000 for it. There wasn't much available around that time and he needed a truck bad. A few years later, trucks like that were $5-600. We got in the logging/firewood business about then. Everybody was installing wood stoves because energy prices were going up and there was talk of a natural gas shortage. Kept us going until things settled down later in the '80's.
	"If at first you don't succeed, get a bigger hammer" Allis Express participant

AllisFreak MN Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Orange Level Access Joined: 07 Dec 2009 Location: Minnesota Points: 1505	Post Options Post Reply Quote AllisFreak MN Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 01 Jan 2011 at 4:33pm
	I remember sitting in Vo Ag class in 1985 and the first thing the instructor told us at the beginning of class one day was; "I read in the paper this morning that Allis-Chalmers is on the verge of bankruptcy and they just sold the farm equipment division to Deutz, first we lost IH and now Allis. Are you guys sure you still want to get into farming? " Sad times indeed.
	'49 A-C WD, '51 A-C WD, '63 A-C D17 Series III, 1968 A-C One-Seventy, '82 A-C 6060, '75 A-C 7040, A-C #3 sickle mower, 2 A-C 701 wagons, '78 Gleaner M2

ToddSin NY Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Orange Level Joined: 08 Nov 2009 Location: Newark,NY Points: 1034	Post Options Post Reply Quote ToddSin NY Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 01 Jan 2011 at 5:01pm
	The funny thing is John, how many times have we heard there is a shortage of oil, fuel, natural gas, and so on? Then after they jack the prices way up all of a sudden there is no more shortage.

CTuckerNWIL Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Orange Level Joined: 11 Sep 2009 Location: NW Illinois Points: 22810	Post Options Post Reply Quote CTuckerNWIL Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 01 Jan 2011 at 5:05pm
	I went to work for CAT in 77 and thought I had it made. After 2 1/2 years in Peoria with 23,000 Union members I was the lowest senior H inspector for over 6 months. I quit Peoria and hired in to CAT in Mt.Joy,Ia. In 1980 CAT had 300 pipelayers in the yard in Peoria sold to the Russians. Ronald got elected and wouldn't let the sale go through so Komatsu sold em 300 pipelayers. It seemed to go downhill from there in the construction Industry as well as the ag world. By spring of 82 I was laid off indefinitely. I think there are some 8,000 UAW workers in local 974 now days. Edited by CTuckerNWIL - 01 Jan 2011 at 5:10pm
	http://www.ae-ta.com Lena 1935 WC12xxx, Willie 1951 CA6xx Dad bought new, 1954WD45 PS, 1960 D17 NF

Wil M (NEIA) Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Orange Level Joined: 11 Sep 2009 Location: NEIA Points: 478	Post Options Post Reply Quote Wil M (NEIA) Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 01 Jan 2011 at 5:05pm
	Lived through it as a teenager and it altered the course of my life forever. Along with altering the course of agriculture and this nation and society. Edited by Wil M (NEIA) - 01 Jan 2011 at 5:08pm
	"Yet there are soulless men whose hand and brain tear down what time will never give again." Anderson M Scruggs

JohnCO Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Orange Level Joined: 11 Sep 2009 Location: Niwot Colo Points: 8992	Post Options Post Reply Quote JohnCO Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 01 Jan 2011 at 5:25pm
	I have to agree with you Todd. As I remember it, there was quit a bit of proven gas reserves but the cost to extract most of it was too high to make a profit. As the price of natural gas went up, companies innovated and improved their drilling rigs and learned how to directional drill and fracture the rock to get more petroleum from the same pad, not having to move the rig. Soon there was plenty of gas but no way to get it to the consumer, then the big pipeline building craze started. I guess it's always been a moving target for the economy. One of the reasons I enjoy growing produce and hay is that it's consumed locally, people have to eat and so do animals. There are fewer horses in the county then 5 years ago, and more hay grown but it is still leaving my barn and the Farmers Markets are still increasing sales every year. Things could be a lot worse.
	"If at first you don't succeed, get a bigger hammer" Allis Express participant

Chris (swIA) Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Orange Level Joined: 13 Sep 2009 Location: Prescott, IA Points: 319	Post Options Post Reply Quote Chris (swIA) Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 01 Jan 2011 at 5:30pm
	Dark days. I was in high school then and that is the main reason that i don't farm full time. Who knows what life would be like now if things had been different.

JC-WI Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Orange Level Access Joined: 11 Sep 2009 Location: wisconsin Points: 33660	Post Options Post Reply Quote JC-WI Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 01 Jan 2011 at 6:56pm
	In the spring of 1973 our ag instructor Adolf Schmidt, asked what us rumdums were going to do when we graduated out of high school. Some had plans for collage and some had jobs already and a few of us said that we going to farm. The instructor said Good luck. I figured that people needed to eat, there would be money in farming. If I knew then what I know now, I would have done things some differrent... but I didn't know what a secretary of ag in DC had in the back of his mind. CHEAP FOOD. - Didn't help gov didn't allow sale of products to some countries and allowed import milk meat fruits etc. into this country by big corps. and depress our prices. Anytime the prices headed up, they would step in and more imports came in. Them they were hollering get bigger or get out then it was get more efficient, get bigger, blah, blah, blah. Then along dairy herd buyout program, what a joke...took the old guys out left and right, forced the ones still milking to add on another 20% more cattle to keep up their cash flow and it took 2 dollars off our price. which which with 20% more milk coming from the ones left, the surplus quantity didn't disappear. Then the farmers seem keep expanding, instead of just a few cows, it was a few hundred cows. Today, many don't even consider you even a hobby farmer if you milk 30 cows. So what will the future hold for the farmers in 2011 and beyound?