When I was a kid we enjoyed playing in the old threshing machine. With its many hinged panels and compartments it became our "submarine"

Name That Tractor!

Coxswain

CBC at it's very best. The modern side of Saskatchewan.

Time for "Stuck in the Mud" contest again.

Picture is not that clear but looks like a John Deere "D".

Minneapolis-Moline or Cockshutt

Oh my Gawd! I remember the giant sloughs outside Edmonton in the spring.

A subtitle to the picture might be, "prelude to food riots".

A picture worth a thousand words. The CBC rising (or is it sinking) to their level of incompetence.

The melt is in full force now. A few more warm and breezy days and we will be out on the high ground at least.

Pretty fuzzy picture (just like the CBC), I'm guessing a WD6 International.

In 1979 there were no crops sowed till May 28 in my area of southern Sask.We got the crops off with no frost damage.There was ten inches of snow on May 16.

How best to describe the CBC's incompetence?

UN-BEH-EFF-IN-LEAVE-A-BULL

I'm with the LS from SK; JD "D" (large diameter flywheel on left side, plus placement of stacks).

Melita, Manitoba? It's supposed to be a SK story.

Looks like a McCormick 15-30 on rubber to me.

Pathetic! They try to put so much doom and gloom into the story but they can't find a Saskatchewan farmer willing to collaborate. And they forgot to blame Harper!!!!

Looks like a later model John Deere model D.

Way back when Minneapolis-Moline closed its doors, folklore has it that John Deere bought the M-M factory to use a warehouse to store John Deere toys.

Deere never sold on price, but quality. They've seen a multitude of competition come and go, but research and development is what put them and kept them on top.

We have two model D's in the family. A 1925 and a 1928 model year and we can still get some parts for them!

Sadly most city dwellers think that is what is still used for farm equipment.

John Deere D. Yellow wheels and you can see daylight under the hood, so it's horizontal engine.

Sadly most city dwellers think that is what is still used for farm equipment.

That tractor might still be useful for some work. I mean, I would take one if someone offered me one!

As for the other machine -- forgive my ignorance (yes, I live in the burbs and just drive through farm country on my way to and from work, but I am interested in old machinery like this) -- what is it?

A similar machine was parked for years in a field immediately north of the Queensville, Ontario, cemetery. I was always surprised at how well the galvanized sheet metal on the thing had held up, making me wonder if someone might still be using and maintaining the thing.

While these machines are no longer efficient, are they still usable? I mean, if one really wanted to use one?

Man, it must have cost a fortune back then to get the fullly-buoyant option.

"As for the other machine -- -- what is it? "

I already told you - a submarine.

"That tractor might still be useful for some work. I mean, I would take one if someone offered me one!"

yup, those old tractors are handy for odd yard work. Still use a '46 Oliver 70 as a loader, clearing snow, and for plowing the garden.

CBC NEWS: After $600,000,000 refit, Canadian submarine sighted on Sasketchewan proving grounds.

Great header Kate. The crop of 42! That is a thrashing machine.

Besides the smooth forehead, hasn't Iggy trimmed his uni-brow?

That picture brings back memories of Grandpa's farm. He had an old Fieldmarshal tractor that he used to drag the old threshing machine to the middle of field then roll out its flat belt, cross it twice and put it on the tractor's pulley then carefully align the tractor and threshing machine's pulleys and tension the belt. For those who don't know the silver machine is the threshing machine which was used to separate the grain from the straw. The smaller machine behind the threshing machine is a double disk drill (seeder). The farmers might wish they still had a double disk drill because they could seed in mud just as well as dry soil.

Aww, the image of quaint Saskatchewan farm practices could be worse.

On the bright side, this low-tech style of farm machinery will be back in style in the post-fossil fuel age after the UN passes the Declaration on the Rights of Mother Earth (and the "inalienable rights of other members of the Earth community -- plants, animals, and terrain.").

...roll out its flat belt,cross it twice...

Isn't that like "pulling a 360 to get outta here"

I think I can safely say that there is no other place on the internet where you can read a comment thread like the one above.

You had to cross the flat belt or else it vibrated off of the pulleys. You had to cross it twice to get the threshing machine's cylinder to turn the right direction.

Come to think of it the old Fieldmarshal's engine could run forward or backward. You had to be careful when you cranked it or when you put it in reverse it went forward!

Kate at 2:49,

As a wise person once said (on this blog):

"not everything is political" ;)

Jack
[.....John Deere D. Yellow wheels and you can see daylight under the hood, so it's horizontal engine......]

That and it's too close coupled for the other suggestions....that shot of daylight is the instant dead give-away.

Not sure about the quality thing about the John Deere D though....their popularity was due they could run on distillate(kerosene/coal-oil) and were simple to over-haul.....but needed overhauling more often. Crude would be the proper, term, not quality, in that vintage....

John Deere R.

"I already told you - a submarine."

Mine was a rocket ship.

I suspect that is a John Deere model D. The model R had the exhaust stack closer to the operator while the D had the air cleaner intake closer to the operator.

Sorry Nick - the JD "R", although still a 2 Cylinder, was larger and much faster and came out in 1949 and no longer had a Flywheel - an electric start or Starter motor on the diesels (the R" was JDs first Diesel)

That's a John Deere "D"....you can tell by the twin stacks...one intake, one exhaust plus the set back seat....plus the tin work/radiator....just so ya know !!

It seems the "D"s have it.

To confirm, call

Rural Municipality of Arthur (pop 440 and decreasing)
138 Main St
Melita, MB, R0M1L0
(204) 522-3263

They'll know the tractor, and they'll be tickled with the attention.

The ducks will be happy. The greater tragedy is the loss of arable land. The price of grain and feed will rise and the poor will be rioting in third world countries. Cheers. ps: don't see downtown Toronto or Vancouver planting wheat, or allowing chickens to run free - so perhaps domestic peace is not so secure. You don't need a HD tv to live but take away bread and meat -different story.

I have pictures of my father working on a threshing machine which is being powered by a steam engine. Burning the stalks I think.

The ducks will be happy. The greater tragedy is the loss of arable land. The price of grain and feed will rise and the poor will be rioting in third world countries. Cheers. ps: don't see downtown Toronto or Vancouver planting wheat, or allowing chickens to run free - so perhaps domestic peace is not so secure. You don't need a HD tv to live but take away bread and meat -different story.

And here is a video of a less water logged version.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdYoumKTVgs

But Glasnost - now that you have drawn attention to Melita - all the liberals in their Volvos will be moving there to hide from post-election embarrassment?

Sorry, slow day here.

On the bright side, this low-tech style of farm machinery will be back in style in the post-fossil fuel age after the UN passes the Declaration on the Rights of Mother Earth (and the "inalienable rights of other members of the Earth community -- plants, animals, and terrain.").

Posted by: LC Bennett at April 25, 2011 2:42 PM

I can just picture a bunch of useless greenie lefties doing the stooking.
Ya think they will last a whole hour doing that sort of physical work?

Ya think they will last a whole hour doing that sort of physical work

They're more likely to be distracted by the field mice that need saving.

I remember this story from last year and the year before that and the year before that. Almost like it happens every year, yet it seems fresh and threateningly exciting for CBC. Where I am the ground is still too cold to the bare arse for planting.

I can just picture a bunch of useless greenie lefties doing the stooking.
Ya think they will last a whole hour doing that sort of physical work

I think roving coyote packs would fare well on a steady diet of Elois, Gaia would smile. :)

The tractor is definitely a "styled" Model D of 1940's vintage. We had a pair of D's, one was a 1938 unstyled hand bomber and the other was a 1947 electric start. They both burned in the mid 60's so my dad stripped a bunch of parts off of the '47 and put them on the '38 and made something of a Johnny Cash hybrid. We threshed with an outfit like that in the photo back around 1960-61, the separator was an Addison. Even then it was a thing of the past, and like today, all of the oldtimers came out to watch or pitch. I still fire up the old D once in a while and pick a few stones although there isn't much call for a 40hp field tractor anymore.

We use two IH model"C"s on our farm .One is a '49 model and the other is a bit newer.We have larger tractors also but these run nearly every day.We trade the larger ones off for newer but not these two.

From the CBC comments:

note to earlier posters re: the headline photo: there are neither '"thrashing" nor '"trashing" machines. It's probably a threshing machine. Although honestly I think it may be a complete combine harvester - not too sure. I don't know farm machines as well as I do my speeling. What's a letter, here and there, though? Eh?.

First off, "thrashing" and "trashing" are perpectly acceptable names for the equipment in the photo. (If you are of the Ukrainian persuasion, it's definitely "TRASHING"!!!) No one I ever knew growing up on the farm actually called it a "threshing" machine. Nor did I ever hear a combine called a "combine harvester". Kind of like those that preface hockey with the word "ice". There is a term for these kind of people. It's called "city slicker".

And Kate, you're right...where else but SDA could we have a thread like this?. And tomorrow the topic might be economics or nuclear theory!

Too freaking funny. First I thought this was just Kate putting up a good ol' picture with a caption, but just for fun went to the CBC story... and there it was.

... honestly I think it may be a complete combine harvester - not too sure

Now there's an understatement.

Glasnost, so this is what it looks when it's surfacing, I can hardly wait for the call "dive dive dive"

Eskimo, ever hear of a "swatter" or a "hogger"?

Spent many an hour on the Versatile swatter, glasnost. Swatting rape seed no less! Can you imagine the horror of a CBC type reading this? OMG they would say, RAPE on the family farm! Hurry and get the grief councilors out to the country! heh heh!

How 'bout a viber-shank? Not "vibra" shank, like it's spelled, but VIBER-shank!!!

This is fun!

Eskimo at 5:24 PM: "And Kate, you're right...where else but SDA could we have a thread like this?. And tomorrow the topic might be economics or nuclear theory!"
============
And that's the Saskatchewan I know and love.

And isn't Melita right beside the Souris River?

Thrashing, threshing. I grew up hearing both.

I was about 10-12 years old when the last harvest done by a threshing/thrashing crew was taken in in the area where I grew up. People came from miles and miles around to take pictures of the passing of an era. That was a half century ago, CBC, just so you'll know.

OK somebody has to say it . . . this is obviously proof of global warming causing the oceans to rise.

That is salt water.

Yet the equipment in that picture is still more advanced than Cubas agriculture.

Don't know about anyone else but I clicked on the link, found out it was CBC, went straight to Kate's comment section where old machinery was being discussed. I mean really who cares what CBC has to say? We're talking about old farm machinery here!

Your comment LC Bennett reminded me of another vehicle that my Mom and Dad talked about;
http://www.awesomestories.com/assets/bennett-buggies-horses-pull-cars.

It was not a vehicle either of them wished to ever see again!

We threshed with a McCormick Deering separator and a JD D on steel on the belt right up until 1970. Great memories. That was on a farm north of Whitewood Sask on the Qu'Appelle Valley.

Most of the old timers I knew that used the machines called them thrashers. They knew that the job they did was threshing.

And now at our farm we run a 480 HP JD 9870 with a 400 bushell hopper and a 42 foot header out front, harvesting 250-300 acres a day. Makes you wonder what we will have for equipment 40 years from now....

Definitely a thrashing machine. Tons of them standing around southern Ontario rusting. Drills too.

The flat-fendered JD tractor is a -little- old, don't see many except at the fall fair. But 40's-50's tractors are seen out getting the job done every day.

I'm thinking about getting one of those crazy old garden tractors that look like they're on stilts. Just the thing for killing the weeds in a large tomato/herb/pepper patch, and its another antique to fiddle with. Two hobbies satisfied at one go. ~:D

The Phantom

I'm with ya on the trashing machine and leaning towards the IH WD6 as Al the Fish noted and if I'm not mistaken that is a set of drills behind the thrasher.

Phantom, neighbours of ours when we were on the farm had a mid 60's John Deere 4020 that they bought new. They still use it to feed cows every day. I recall talking to them a few years ago and they said it now has in excess of 30,000 hours, maybe closer to 40K as the hour meter broke years ago! We had two 4020's that each had a respectable 15 to 20,000 hours that are probably still running today even after we sold them back in 1986. Not too many people could claim they have 30,000 hours on their prime use automobile. Multiply that 30K by 80 to 100 km/h and you'll see why!

ryan.....think what Grand Dad would have thought if you told him that there would come a time when farm equipment would have GPS guidance and auto-steer like they do today.

And the city folk think THEY are the only ones that are hip and modern. Real men text their wife and kids from the cab of the tractor, not from the Starbucks! heh heh!

altaguy at 7:02 PM: "That was on a farm north of Whitewood Sask on the Qu'Appelle Valley."
=======================
Hey Altaguy, I'm a valley girl, too. North of Indian Head.

Any low heat unit rice seed available?

Hey Louise. Then you know the Qu'Appelle is a very beautiful place.

I'm sure CBC sent that imbecile so called commedien Rick Mercer out to Sask. for this report. Rumor has it, he is still wandering around looking for that Johnson Bar they told him about. Those tricksters at CBC.

I'll go with a W-6 IHC. The problem with the photo is double exposure.

Related

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2009/07/06/f-prairies-drought.html

The caption mentions the location, but does not credit the artist. Maybe another billion per year and we'll start seeing work one would be willing to put your name on. Who's the real antique, the machinery in the photo or the CBC?

altaguy at 10:29 PM: "Hey Louise. Then you know the Qu'Appelle is a very beautiful place."

Indeed. It's a jewel. I grew up right beside the river, which is pretty swollen right now.