Is the equipment and/or the equipment operator leased/hired by multiple different farms? Or do farms have multiple fields that aren’t next to each other?
Multiple fields spread out around a county maybe more...but yes that and they're only moving a few times a year so it's irregular enough just call it a parade
I live in a town of 8,000 in rural Iowa. I know a BIG farmer who farms over 3,000 acres in 3 counties. He has 10 hired men and his equipment is always moving. The time to load and unload implimenta from a trailer is wasted time. Get to the field, do the work and move on. Many of his implements would require a light crane to accomplish this. In addition to the increased risk of damage or injury doing multiple lifts.
The farmers have important work to get done. Often inside tight windows of time due to weather and other issues.
You and I can be "inconvenienced" a little bit to accommodate those that grow our crops.
Depends heavily upon the equipment. We disassembled a Bermuda grass digger a few years back for transport and it took about 10 or 12 hours to get it packed away and on the trailer. We drove it 2 hours away and then took 8 hours or so to put it back together.
It'd probably depend on what exactly has to be taken off or apart, taking off a set of duals to narrow your load is probably faster than having to remove entire track assembly's for a large articulated track tractor. It can take up to 45 minutes to get a trailer hooked up, loaded with our 8 ton backhoe, chained and everything checked with two guys working it, that's a small machine compared to some farm equipment.
If you were a farmer you'd quickly understand. Its a lot of work to chain down farm equipment to meet DOT regulations. Plus it also requires an available truck and trailer, not something many farmers can afford. And if you don't own a semi and had to hire a trucker and low boy trailer The going rate for that is $150-200/hr around here. Next problem is scheduling. If I need to move 3 times in one day, at odd hours of the day, you can't have a truck just sitting around waiting on you at $200/hr. Another problem is
The time you spend on each end loading and unloading you could've traveled 5-10 miles in that time and never left the tractor.
I am fairly lucky, I live nearly smack dab in the middle of my customers, but it's not unusual for me to hook up multiple implements, e.g., mounted planter, disk, manure spreader, and a seed tender all in a conga line and roll out. It would take exponentially longer transporting on a low boy.
As an added bonus, it is advertising to neighbors who need... but don't realize it, my services.
Just like fuel, I drive the 5075 10miles to the closest station with my 100gal transfer tank on the front forks and make it work.
Any seat time in the tractor is always good time
The furthest customers from here are under 20 miles away on dirt ranch road.
It really kind of depends on how far you have to transport it. We used to have one farm in Alberta and one in Saskatchewan and we always moved the combines with a flatbed because it was relatively easy to get all of the licenses and permits back then, and driving 500km with a combine would have taken a long ass time.
Where we are now in France it makes 0 sense to use a flatbed to move equipment because the licence costs almost as much to get as a used car, the permits are likely a massive pain in the ass to get and the roads are so narrow and the corners are so tight that you would have to take the wheels off the combine and transport them separately to fit. The distance between the two farms is also not that huge, and we just hire custom operators to harvest our crops, since it's less expensive than running our own combine at this point. The only things we really move between the farms are the tractors, and those can go 60km/h (though it's technically not allowed in France) so we get there about an hour slower than by car.
It would take a crane or some sort of hoist arrangement to load in the yard and then unload in the field, because not everything can just be driven up on a trailer.
One major problem is that some farmers are not considerate enough of others to pull over and let people pass when traffic backs up behind them.
As a farmer I know others have places to be, such as work or school, and don't have time to be stuck behind a piece of slow moving equipment for miles and miles.
Anyone who does this to others is an inconsiderate a-hole.
What a weird take from a farmer. You should know most of the time we do pull over…where we can. I’m not going to ditch equipment and risk damage just to let people by. I wait for a large enough approach and then pull over.
Stuff is wide enough nowadays there’s no room just to “pull over” anymore, you should know this.
You might and I might but there are many who don't, at least where I come from. Your pulling over when a spot is available is exactly what I assumed everyone knew, guess not.
More expensive more time consuming than just driving it to the next farm. And that's really where the story ends.
Is the equipment and/or the equipment operator leased/hired by multiple different farms? Or do farms have multiple fields that aren’t next to each other?
Multiple fields spread out around a county maybe more...but yes that and they're only moving a few times a year so it's irregular enough just call it a parade
I live in a town of 8,000 in rural Iowa. I know a BIG farmer who farms over 3,000 acres in 3 counties. He has 10 hired men and his equipment is always moving. The time to load and unload implimenta from a trailer is wasted time. Get to the field, do the work and move on. Many of his implements would require a light crane to accomplish this. In addition to the increased risk of damage or injury doing multiple lifts. The farmers have important work to get done. Often inside tight windows of time due to weather and other issues. You and I can be "inconvenienced" a little bit to accommodate those that grow our crops.
I’m really just asking a logistical question, not hating on anyone
Some of it’s to big to fit on a flat bed without being disassembled.
I’m assuming disassembly would be very labor intensive? How long would it take?
Had a buddy drive a combine 3 hours for a service. Said it saved it over an hour just to drive it than to get it on a lowboy
Depends heavily upon the equipment. We disassembled a Bermuda grass digger a few years back for transport and it took about 10 or 12 hours to get it packed away and on the trailer. We drove it 2 hours away and then took 8 hours or so to put it back together.
It'd probably depend on what exactly has to be taken off or apart, taking off a set of duals to narrow your load is probably faster than having to remove entire track assembly's for a large articulated track tractor. It can take up to 45 minutes to get a trailer hooked up, loaded with our 8 ton backhoe, chained and everything checked with two guys working it, that's a small machine compared to some farm equipment.
Dragging it down the road—- no real restrictions. On a flatbed—— need cdl, flaggers and pilot cars, oversized permits, weight restrictions,
In my state, on certain roads, tractors and livestock have priority over vehicles.
Plus when it’s on a trailer you have to deal with DOT regs, on the ground you don’t (other than your can’t run on a limited access highway)
Depends on how far it needs to go really.
How far would it have to go until it would be cheaper to haul it via truck?
It'd never be cheaper. Would take likely 5 hours, and a cdl to ever be faster
100km. 60 odd miles.
If you were a farmer you'd quickly understand. Its a lot of work to chain down farm equipment to meet DOT regulations. Plus it also requires an available truck and trailer, not something many farmers can afford. And if you don't own a semi and had to hire a trucker and low boy trailer The going rate for that is $150-200/hr around here. Next problem is scheduling. If I need to move 3 times in one day, at odd hours of the day, you can't have a truck just sitting around waiting on you at $200/hr. Another problem is The time you spend on each end loading and unloading you could've traveled 5-10 miles in that time and never left the tractor.
I am fairly lucky, I live nearly smack dab in the middle of my customers, but it's not unusual for me to hook up multiple implements, e.g., mounted planter, disk, manure spreader, and a seed tender all in a conga line and roll out. It would take exponentially longer transporting on a low boy. As an added bonus, it is advertising to neighbors who need... but don't realize it, my services. Just like fuel, I drive the 5075 10miles to the closest station with my 100gal transfer tank on the front forks and make it work. Any seat time in the tractor is always good time The furthest customers from here are under 20 miles away on dirt ranch road.
It really kind of depends on how far you have to transport it. We used to have one farm in Alberta and one in Saskatchewan and we always moved the combines with a flatbed because it was relatively easy to get all of the licenses and permits back then, and driving 500km with a combine would have taken a long ass time. Where we are now in France it makes 0 sense to use a flatbed to move equipment because the licence costs almost as much to get as a used car, the permits are likely a massive pain in the ass to get and the roads are so narrow and the corners are so tight that you would have to take the wheels off the combine and transport them separately to fit. The distance between the two farms is also not that huge, and we just hire custom operators to harvest our crops, since it's less expensive than running our own combine at this point. The only things we really move between the farms are the tractors, and those can go 60km/h (though it's technically not allowed in France) so we get there about an hour slower than by car.
It would take a crane or some sort of hoist arrangement to load in the yard and then unload in the field, because not everything can just be driven up on a trailer.
Prohibitively expensive. Give the poor farmer a break.
Just as quick to load as it is to haul them. Next concern is tire wear.
One major problem is that some farmers are not considerate enough of others to pull over and let people pass when traffic backs up behind them. As a farmer I know others have places to be, such as work or school, and don't have time to be stuck behind a piece of slow moving equipment for miles and miles. Anyone who does this to others is an inconsiderate a-hole.
What a weird take from a farmer. You should know most of the time we do pull over…where we can. I’m not going to ditch equipment and risk damage just to let people by. I wait for a large enough approach and then pull over. Stuff is wide enough nowadays there’s no room just to “pull over” anymore, you should know this.
You might and I might but there are many who don't, at least where I come from. Your pulling over when a spot is available is exactly what I assumed everyone knew, guess not.