I’ve always wanted one since I first saw it in People’s Park in West Plains when I was only two years old. It was a custom in those days for the local tractor and farm implement companies to show off their latest wares in the public parks. The tricycle John Deere tractor I saw had the alluring smell of brand new machinery: that certain type of grease you only smell today on the big Caterpillars blended with the odor of new rubber. Most farmers, including Dad, were partial to John Deere because it had been around so long and had built the American farm. Even if horse drawn, the machinery was likely to be John Deere.
It only occurred to me occasionally that I might be able to move back to the farm in retirement. A tractor was always in the back of my mind. I wanted the farm to stay in the Cherry family and that meant farming on a small scale to make it look good and keep sprouts, weeds, and trees from overgrowing the place. Besides, I actually like the haying process. It comes from being around two farms in my youth: Grandpa Newberry’s farm west of Leota and the Cherry farm. Harry Truman used to say you can solve the world’s problems behind a team of horses.
I admit the process of finding the right tractor model took more than 20 years during which I actually considered buying foreign. From my personal research I concluded John Deere’s cost about 20% more, but they had more iron and that means a lot on tough jobs even if you just have a utility tractor like my JD 5055D (55HP). Of course, fitting the tractor to the jobs you anticipate is a slippery slope. Where do you stop? It seemed every little addition cost $5,000: more horsepower, 4-wheel drive, and a cab at a whopping $19,000. I won’t mention the big farmers in Kansas because that’s chump change to them. For example, if they grossed $500,000 in a taxable year, they might get back enough money in taxes enough to buy a small tractor.
My particular needs were clearing out the internal fences, bush hogging, and haying so I bought a loader (the hydraulic front lifting arms) with a bucket and a 3-in-1 gripper. I also bought a 6 foot bush hog and a used rake. Despite what you might think, the Ozarks are going back to wilderness and the farmers for the most part are gone. No more are there diversified crops like sorghum, cotton, or corn. Nature won, but I feel no remorse when, for just a fleeting moment, I can make the place look really good before I’m planted.
In the winter the priority is picking rocks, cutting sprouts, and burning the big brush piles the gripper stacked. Now it’s haying time and I’m ready because working on farm can be fun. It beats offloading trucks, typing purchase orders, or doing inventory. The drought ended in the Ozarks and the farmers are waiting for a break in the rain to start mowing hay. Right now, I just finished hitching up my disk mower. Luckily, last year I took a picture of its set-up done by the JD salesman. I still needed help from my share cropping neighbor to get it right. It looks like spaghetti to me.