American farmers

kiwi pom

Member
Location
canterbury NZ
Most are switching to hopper bottom bins. Unless they’re big barstewards that have bin sweeps installed. Grain vacs are also common. Shovelling is only done by guys who have prioritized other things and are willing to get in and shovel.

Transferring is for quality control. Core the bins to help cool them down, stay on top of bugs and heating. Get a check on quality. Make sure nothings going on inside.

Safety issues are usually complacency. Local guy here died last fall because he fell trying to jump from one bin to the other. That’s hardly the bins fault... In most cases you can’t fix stupid. Guys go years getting into bins and never have an issue so they keep doing it. But unfortunately one day there is an issue and they’re working alone or it’s just so catastrophic that it’s a big issue. If we ever go into bins at work it’s with air monitors, harnessed up, with SRLs to pull us out and at least 4 people on the “job”. It’s treated as a confined space. OH&S hasn’t reached that level with the on farm version.

I'm not knocking bins at all, it's more the safety culture at farm level, not just in North America but some of the things these YouTube farmers do are flat out dumb.
You see more multi purpose on floor storage in the UK because the building can be used for many different things, including outside of Ag if the owner wants.
At the end of the day you do what's right for your situation.
 

Blaithin

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Alberta
I'm not knocking bins at all, it's more the safety culture at farm level, not just in North America but some of the things these YouTube farmers do are flat out dumb.
You see more multi purpose on floor storage in the UK because the building can be used for many different things, including outside of Ag if the owner wants.
At the end of the day you do what's right for your situation.
The bin vs shed thing has been hashed out a few times. Biggest differences are:

Distance travelled. Farmers here aren’t going to build sheds in every field, bins make more sense, and sometimes bags make even more sense.

Ease of segregation. Fields here are large, there can be a variety of things happening in them that affect grading. The ability to bin separate instead of everything in a shed is a useful tool.

Im thinking there’s also some big differences in marketing between the countries. And farmers here don’t really have the need for so much storage space.

Each place is different. I spent the afternoon steaming out the well at the barn that was frozen and making a new drain hole farther down. That’s not something most on here would ever need to do. Meanwhile I don’t need a convertible shed for grain/livestock/vehicle storage.
 
PUH is a UK thing and unknown in continental Europe. I normally have to show a video to explain what they are and the standard reply is "why?" 🙂

To be fair, the PUH is a LOT handier than having a ram on every trailer to jack it up prior to coupling as I know some farms use in Europe. The ladder hitch lets you run with the 'drawbar' higher than it otherwise would but doesn't seem all that strong to me being designed around a ring and pin system.

You would have to be pretty sore on a pick up hitch to break one? They have a mechanical latch and are bolted on/in just like a regular drawbar? In fact, on Deeres I know the regular drawbar on US spec tractors actually extends farther out than the UK system so the UK one would be stronger?

To be honest, I suspect there are threads on European and American forums with farmers asking why they can't have the UK style hitch and just as mystified as ourselves. I can't see any downsides, I've seen high houred tractors that have done serious work on big bales and the like and never seen much wear on the pick up hitch besides that experienced by the hook- easily remedied by using a ball and spoon system which at least lets you grease the thing properly and at least tries to keep itself clean.

Going back actually I remember we managed to bust the funky drawbar thing on our MX Magnum due to the grief it had pulling a Solo.

You gotta scratch your head at OLF who clearly likes big bolts and impact guns when he fits his automatic coupling thing to one of his Deeres and complains the UK system is rubbish. Yet his trailer and draw bar look about as strong as a hazel whip and would be totally unsuitable for pulling a tanker or silage trailer.

 
Last edited:

glasshouse

Member
Location
lothians
To be fair, the PUH is a LOT handier than having a ram on every trailer to jack it up prior to coupling as I know some farms use in Europe. The ladder hitch lets you run with the 'drawbar' higher than it otherwise would but doesn't seem all that strong to me being designed around a ring and pin system.

You would have to be pretty sore on a pick up hitch to break one? They have a mechanical latch and are bolted on/in just like a regular drawbar? In fact, on Deeres I know the regular drawbar on US spec tractors actually extends farther out than the UK system so the UK one would be stronger?

To be honest, I suspect there are threads on European and American forums with farmers asking why they can't have the UK style hitch and just as mystified as ourselves. I can't see any downsides, I've seen high houred tractors that have done serious work on big bales and the like and never seen much wear on the pick up hitch besides that experienced by the hook- easily remedied by using a ball and spoon system which at least lets you grease the thing properly and at least tries to keep itself clean.

Going back actually I remember we managed to bust the funky drawbar thing on our MX Magnum due to the grief it had pulling a Solo.

You gotta scratch your head at OLF who clearly likes big bolts and impact guns when he fits his automatic coupling thing to one of his Deeres and complains the UK system is rubbish. Yet his trailer and draw bar look about as strong as a hazel whip and would be totally unsuitable for pulling a tanker or silage trailer.

What a load of cack
 
I agree, the thing he is waxing lyrical about looks pretty useless to me, for starters the effective drawbar on his tractor is way further from the back axle and looks as flimsy as fudge and it's in a prime location for getting dirt, dust and whatever the treads throw up attached to it.
 

Stewie

Member
Location
Northern Italy
To be fair, the PUH is a LOT handier than having a ram on every trailer to jack it up prior to coupling as I know some farms use in Europe. The ladder hitch lets you run with the 'drawbar' higher than it otherwise would but doesn't seem all that strong to me being designed around a ring and pin system.

Actually I think the PUH would have been handy in the old time when it would have saved all that manual jacking the trailer up and down. Now with the hydraulic legs you just connect one more service when you are outside the cab anyway.
The biggest downside of the PUH imho is that is fixed in height and would not fit with half the trailers here. A ladder hitch looks pretty strong as well.

1612947613151.png


I have to say I have no gripe with the PUH... I have probably done more trailer work in England than at home without any issue. But it is not something I would miss particularly.
 

Sausage

Member
All that drawbar in OLFs video will see tension and compression as it is a dolly trailer. It’s not like the drawbar is carrying load, which ours have to deal with. As far as I can see there is nothing wrong with the ladder hitch, perhaps a bit more fiddle to connect up and got to back up, connect pipe for jack, connect drawbar, any PTO or pipes you couldn’t connect the first time
 

adam_farming

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Suffolk
IMG_6041.JPG



They do have some telehandlers in the US! We borrowed this one from a farmer in Colorado to change a final drive on a combine in the field. Must admit I did do a double take when it arrived as it was the last thing I was expecting to see. Of course, it was hauled in on a swan-neck pickup trailer....🤠

Also in Colorado looking round a JD dealer on our day off (talk about busman's holiday) we found this:

IMG_5993.JPG


Back at base it was the standard bobcat for feeding round bales to cattle and workshop stuff, also dead handy for moving dolly type header trailers backwards.
When it wasn't on the harvest run pulling the grain cart we also had the 8310R for odd jobs. Makes an ideal loader tractor!

IMG_5495.JPG
 
I’m on a skid steer group on Facebook and tracked skidsteers mulchers and graders seem to be big business over there

I love my skid steer but last thing I’d want it for is a day mulching
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

  • 0 %

    Votes: 77 43.0%
  • Up to 25%

    Votes: 62 34.6%
  • 25-50%

    Votes: 30 16.8%
  • 50-75%

    Votes: 3 1.7%
  • 75-100%

    Votes: 3 1.7%
  • 100% I’ve had enough of farming!

    Votes: 4 2.2%

Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

  • 1,286
  • 1
As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
Top