True Enough

[sithot]

The "Green" John Deere that's been running all over our property as of late around is $300,000 - $450,000 to play the game. Our red stuff was never so expensive but they were not cheap new.

If you want to spend money go out and buy a 400-500 hp chopper/combine. A Claas will do nicely. It's German! and they are the "stuff". Lots of ex-Deere drivers buying them now. You should see one go through a corn field. Like Grant through Richmond.

Tom

[Bullethead]

Cool... fast, expensive, German, and it's a JAGUAR! These things seem to be getting bigger, Tom. When I was a kid visiting my mom's family farm, it wasn't hard to understand the need for several huge John Deere tractors to handle 2000+ acres on the Tennessee river. That was just partial support for a mid-sized dairy operation. I'd never seen tractors with full cabins and AC before that, the picturesque "show farm" was just a couple hundred acres near Athens and used much smaller equipment. The gear needed to put food on the table sure ain't cheap.

[sithot]

Why we have gone to "Custom Harvesting". Can't pay for stuff like this and eek out a profit. Have a friend in the business that does this for us these days. That piece of Deere he uses is friggin' huge and will bring the mail. We chopped an entire field of grass for silage in an afternoon, bagged and all.

[mrgreenjeans]

Caterpillar does a rebrand of the Claas and markets in their trademark Gold and Black.

You can get them on tracks too if you really need traction in super wet quagmire conditions or in harvesting rice. Some are around here in the Red River Valley, but not many, as they are in that 1/2 million category.

The thing alot of people don't realize is the costs for alot of this stuff is not including the header attachment which depending on the width can run well in excess of 100,000. My neighbor and a partner sell a German brand corn head made by Geringhoff Industries that chops the corn stalk as it passes thru the cutting bar and eliminates the need for a second pass with another chopping / shredding machine. VERY high quality machine but expensive, and a very desirable product in high demand.

Not to get too political here, nor start a riot, but the costs are partially subsidized by you and I if we are a taxpayer.
Go to EWG.org, plug in the zipcode you wish to look at and watch the millions of dollars in tax subsidy the largest in the trough have drunk in; it's particularly disgusting when your own name is NOT on that list, but guys like pro football players, basketballers and the like who already are making mega millions , are thinly disguising themselves as farmers and suckling at that fat sow also........
REFORM ?????? Well, Yeah !

[sithot]

We are all about farm subsidy reforms. It's bullshit. I've got the State of Virginia site uploaded and it is amazing at the money some of these guys drag in. Now I know how they trade in a new JD every 2 years.

Tom

[mrgreenjeans]

-Some around here get about 500 hours on a new combine and its gone.
-60,000 dollar 4 door Crew Cab dually's ? Every year a new one, but it has to be the same color so they think the neighbor doesn't know that its new.
-been involved on the farm since I was 12 years old and my Grandpa and my Dad taught me how to drive a '49 Studebaker pickup and a John Deere 'D' pulling 3 bottoms. None in my family ever used a farm subsidy, EVER. Neither have I. If a guy cannot float his boat with out the poor local waitress, who is making taxable tip money helping support a guy's million dollar farm job, there is something wrong.
Just had this very conversation with my year end tax advisor yesterday. It is enough to make a guy puke. Especially when there seems to be so little done to stop the green outflow of bloodloss.

Most of the subsidy spent on new farm machinery is a complete loss thru depreciation. What once was a 500,000 dollar piece of equipment is worth 300,000 the following year, and in 8 years its a 50,000 dollar or less piece of yard art. One of the reasons so much gets turned so quickly with the bigger operators, or who forego the whole purchase plan and just lease by the hour or year.