For those of you that didn't see my hillside harvest pics check them out here
http://www.ytmag.com/cgi-bin/viewit.cgi?bd=harvest&th=40545
These pics I took over the past several years of our farming operation at the southeast edge of the palouse in Idaho. Before the 70's and 80's most all the steep hillside areas farmed with steel track crawlers because they worked better than wheels on hills. Now days rubber tracks or tires do most farming but there still are some using steel track cats including us. The two main cats we use, the D4D and D6C are both SA models which were intended for ag use and not for being bulldozers so they have faster working gears. The latest models made into the 80's had factory cabs and hydraulics, variable horsepower to give extra horsepower in higher gears, sealed and lubricated tracks, and bigger track frames for less compaction.
We do some no-till on fall seeded crops but we always do tillage for spring seeded crops. We grow winter wheat, spring wheat, lentils, peas, garbanzo beans, and sometimes barley and canola.
The tractors used are mainly a 1973 cat D4D and a 1974 cat D6C but there is also a 1960 D6B used on occasion. A 1976 MF 275 is used for spraying and fertilizing and a 1974 MF 1155 is used for a little light work and mainly to move equipment down the roads for the cats. Running this old equipment requires plenty of maintenance in the off season but the way we figure it is way cheaper to keep the old cats going than to buy new equipment for a small-medium sized operation like us.
Enjoy the pics, questions and comments are welcome.
http://www.ytmag.com/cgi-bin/viewit.cgi?bd=harvest&th=40545
These pics I took over the past several years of our farming operation at the southeast edge of the palouse in Idaho. Before the 70's and 80's most all the steep hillside areas farmed with steel track crawlers because they worked better than wheels on hills. Now days rubber tracks or tires do most farming but there still are some using steel track cats including us. The two main cats we use, the D4D and D6C are both SA models which were intended for ag use and not for being bulldozers so they have faster working gears. The latest models made into the 80's had factory cabs and hydraulics, variable horsepower to give extra horsepower in higher gears, sealed and lubricated tracks, and bigger track frames for less compaction.
We do some no-till on fall seeded crops but we always do tillage for spring seeded crops. We grow winter wheat, spring wheat, lentils, peas, garbanzo beans, and sometimes barley and canola.
The tractors used are mainly a 1973 cat D4D and a 1974 cat D6C but there is also a 1960 D6B used on occasion. A 1976 MF 275 is used for spraying and fertilizing and a 1974 MF 1155 is used for a little light work and mainly to move equipment down the roads for the cats. Running this old equipment requires plenty of maintenance in the off season but the way we figure it is way cheaper to keep the old cats going than to buy new equipment for a small-medium sized operation like us.
Enjoy the pics, questions and comments are welcome.
