Abandoned Equipment

I've thought about this often, but why do farmers who seem to quit farming just let their equipment sit idle for years and rot?? There's an old farm about a mile from me with a 8630 JD sitting out in the yard, as well as a 4440 with a front end loader. There is also a huge barn a few hundred yards away and most of the barn has fallen down, revealing a JD 6600 sitting inside. There's also other implements around the pasture. Everything is all grown up in weeds. All this equipment came from the same era and I can only think about what that farmer thought when he bought these pieces new. (If he did). They were some top-of-the-line things back then and probably cost a fortune!! (If you ask a JD guy) Imagine going and buying a farm yard full of new equipment such as a Case IH Quad Track, Gleaner S97, etc., using it a few years, and then letting it sit. 

Especially with JD! LOL

The other line is that it's 'sentimental'.....been in the family for years( decades)..

gee whiz, if it's that's precious WHY is it rotting away in the back forty ?

I have found that IF you're very nice, not pushy, say 'it'd go to a good home, be used properly' you can get the odd piece...

Jay

i allways wondered why things got parked where they got parked like if a combine dyed out in the field it would just get farmed around  or just unhooked where they got done with it never to go back to the yard.         when i grew up every thing was parked in a straight row  in the yard even if it had to be hauled back in pieces never to move again 

And then some of those old farmewrs got attachment to their equipment and figure when they are gone, the heirs can take care of them then...

My elderly neighbor Rosella has dimensia SPL ? and is living in a home with others in same predicament . Her kids cannot get along and the oldest son cannot make any important decisions without running it by his sisters lawyer and getting before a judge because his sister and him don't talk . Basically nothing happens , 2 houses are sitting vacant ( Rosella's House and her rental house next door ) . They have not been lived in for a couple years . Heat and power are still on at Rosella's , the rental has no water , heat or electric , needs a lot of work done , but siblings cant make a decision together so they fight and nothing happens . If animals get inside it wont be long before they are worthless. Rosella has 3 cars , a truck , Wd45 , camper and they are all rotting in the ground . I mow and take care of the yard , I send a bill once a year and it takes a month to get paid . People stop me while I am mowing and ask if anything is for sale . I have to tell them to wait for the auction that will eventually come .I am sure by then everything will be worthless .Maybe it is best as I will be in the market to buy this property . I tried to get them to have a clean up day .Rosella and her husband never threw anything away . Lots of wood , rocks , concrete pieces , at least 2 roll back dumpters full of junk in the yard , farmstead . You should have heard the sister howl about throwing away all her parents valuable stuff . They don't get it and never will . Just one situation that explains why stuff sits

I also wonder if in some cases the bank still has something to say about it.

Locally we've had some good luck getting some of the old equipment, and putting it back to work. A buddy & I do food plots and have a ball doing it. We've been reclaiming scrub land, cleaning up old farm dumps, doing proper soil nutrition and putting the land back to good productive working land again. The equipment we're buying is what no one else wants. The stuff is too small for the bigger farmers and too big for the typical food plot guy with a 30 HP Kubota.

A few years ago we put out the word we were looking for a cultipacker. We were contacted by an older farmer who liked what we were doing and made us a **very** reasonable deal.

But we sure have seen a fair amount of stuff go to rot as well...

Edited by Play Farmer - 03 Feb 2016 at 7:33pm

I think Gerald has a good point, I was thinking the same thing. I know of guys who have held on to equipment for years just so they don't have to pay taxes on the sale of the equipment. They would rather sit in a barn or outside and rot than let the government have any of their money, Lol.

Ambition may enter into this as well. In his later years my grandfather cut all his poorer pieces of equipment into prepared steel size chunks and we hauled it off for scrap. It was his way of cleaning up things. My wife was firmly told if I die who the auctioneer will be to liquidate the iron.
The guy the wife and bought our farm from had his equipment sold as his health failed. In this last 8-9 months of his life he sold us the house and last few acres. We arranged a life lease on the house for him.   When he passed all that remained was the contents of his house and his car. Between his death and his funeral the family took what they wanted from the house. Three hours after the funeral luncheon we had keys to the house. He controlled who had the farm, but lived in his house up until the last 2 weeks, and the son that was executor of the estate had an easier time settling things up. All were content when it ended.

It's just as irritating in the car world.  You get these geezers (who you know the Grim Reaper is hanging around, just waiting for the moment) who refuse to part with a car or truck because "Some day, I'm gonna restore it!"  My dad was a member of an antique car club sometime in the early 60s and said they were after a car some old bird had in his yard, but the old guy wanted too much money.  Time went by, and the car eventually disintegrated.

I subscribe to a periodical called Auto Restorer that had a great article, a few months ago, from a retired gentleman who wrote that he realized, one day, that it made absolutely no sense for him to hang on to all of his cars until he passed.  It would be better if he gave them to his sons and grandchildren (boys and girls) so he could see them enjoy the vehicles; PLUS, he would get the chance to make a great impression on the grandchildren by being able to wrench on the vehicles with them.  He concluded his article saying it was the best decision he ever made and it made a big impact on the lives of everyone.


Edited by GaryL - 03 Feb 2016 at 9:32pm

Not exactly the same but have a neighbor who buys tractor, combines, and other stuff, soon as he has trouble he just parks it and buys another,  has 7040,7030,a couple 190xts, 3 New Holland combines, a JD and an L, all broke down and you can't buy anything from him to try to fix, think he has ten acres of decent machinery that could all be repaired except some has stood for  too many years now.

Jiminnd...I guess you could say I do the same...one machine breaks, i'll by another if it's cheaper than what the repairs will cost me. then I have parts for the one I just bought! has worked very well for me thru-out my lifetime! when I decide to quit what i'm doing, ya'll will see ads on this forum first, and if no takers, it'll go to auction...1 piece ata time! a friend had his farm sale a few years ago, retiring....had a BIG sale, and after taxes and paying auctioneers, he had enough money to buy a new pickup...and that was all! and as ya'll know when you have an auction, a lot of stuff gets picked thru and a lot left for you to clean up, then you have people that walk thru your buildings and even try to walk thru your house! you may have some stuff you want to keep and put it in a certain place to hold onto. have seen people acctually break locks to get into a building to see whats in there! then you have the thieves working around the farm before, during, and after the sale! haul items off to another location, or use an on-line auction and the buyers have to take it, if not it goes on the next sale at the buyers expense!

Shameless don't you mean Massey Ferguson 

Yeesh, guess I'm in the boat with the others 'buying another tractor', sigh. Troy( #1 needed some parts, so I bought parts PARIS(#2) but... after changing 1-2-3-4 to 1-2-4-3 I didn't have the heart to steal parts off a good working tractor so....bought parts 'Rockton' which 'ran when parked' but has a loader and no brakes. Oops...redid the wiring and it runs fine...(still need parts for Troy though). Last year 'Milton' came here. Has 'real' loader and 11 gallons of oil in the rockshaft. Drained that,did some wiring and it's in shed #4. Hmm,still need parts for Troy though.... Along the way I bought the Gleaner A as the tires fit Troy,Paris,Rockton and Milton.Wife was not impressed and tires are still on it as it's 100% operational and in fine shape(better than me).Now the Cockshutt was supposed to be an 'engine donor' but it has a loader,factory rear weights,runs fine....and 7 squirts of ether does start the Buda dieselled A-C forklift..

so... I can see how and why some farmers have a lot of equipment laying around !!

However I WILL sell if the stack of green is tall enough.

Jay

Yup Shameless there isn't alot of money in it for agco when I can farm this land with a d17 probably better then I could with modern equipment.   I have often wonder it that didn't have alot to do with farms getting bigger and bigger and the smaller "difficult" fields just being deemed unfarmable.   Around here the fields are just small between the rivers and mountains but if you have the older small equipment they produce well. Sad as I struggle to try and get the farm going again and it feels like you can't make money on a farm this size.