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For tech-weary Midwest farmers, 40-year-old tractors now a hot commodity

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Re: For tech-weary Midwest farmers, 40-year-old tractors now a hot commodity

#151

Post by macinjosh »

Waterluvian wrote: post #139
macinjosh wrote: post #98

My grandfather, rest his soul, was a 3rd generation rancher and farmer. He bought 2 John Deere tractors in the '80s and used them for 35 years. They are still being used to this day on the ranch. Growing up, I visited the ranch regularly. Farming and ranching is very hard on equipment so the tractors often needed repair. My father and grandfather could seemingly fix anything on the tractor without even needing to go…

Thanks for sharing this about your grandfather. > The world changes and sometimes it sucks but that is how progress is made. This touches on something I think a lot about. Massive driverless farms, in my mind's eye, looks like one puzzle piece towards the utopia of the future. But you do lose the human aspect. It reminds me of Star Trek where Picard is working with his hands on a vineyard. Capitalism is abolished so…

I like to think that these advances allow us to spend more of our time finding and creating new kinds of art. The common factor between now and then is humans. Humans are artful beings so I am not worried about losing that. We'll just have to look to different places for it.

Re: For tech-weary Midwest farmers, 40-year-old tractors now a hot commodity

#152

Post by lb1lf »

cpach wrote: post #64
wetpaws wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because there is no competition in the US.

Does farmers in other countries somehow enjoy a plethora of tractor manufacturers to choose from?

Living in a rural, Norwegian area, I can remember seeing the following brands of tractors recently - Fiat, Zetor, Case, John Deere, New Holland and Massey Ferguson. I've probably not paid attention to at least a couple more - I am not a tractor aficionado...

Re: For tech-weary Midwest farmers, 40-year-old tractors now a hot commodity

#153

Post by dwnvoted2hell »

earlINmeyerkeg wrote: post #128
macinjosh wrote: post #98

My grandfather, rest his soul, was a 3rd generation rancher and farmer. He bought 2 John Deere tractors in the '80s and used them for 35 years. They are still being used to this day on the ranch. Growing up, I visited the ranch regularly. Farming and ranching is very hard on equipment so the tractors often needed repair. My father and grandfather could seemingly fix anything on the tractor without even needing to go…

The greatest innovation in the history of mankind was a land consolidation. It took what 100 peasants all making enough food for subsistence living to 100 peasants be able to make enough food for thousands of people. It's not sad, it's progress.

I wouldn't call it all progress. I mean, we require fertilizer and pesticides today. There was a time when neither was needed.

Re: For tech-weary Midwest farmers, 40-year-old tractors now a hot commodity

#154

Post by Someone1234 »

gen220 wrote: post #147

We recently had to bin a beloved TV, and were looking for a "simple" 4k TV (i.e. not a smart TV ) to replace it, and were surprised to find that they simply don't exist! We ended up uncovering a 6 year old 1080p TV that was still in the box at Best Buy. All in all, this problem might present an opportunity -- there might be new markets for these types of devices (dumb TVs, tractors, refrigerators, air conditioners, t…

Just don't hook the "smart TV" up to the internet. Then you have a dumb TV.

Re: For tech-weary Midwest farmers, 40-year-old tractors now a hot commodity

#155

Post by knolan »

My father is an agricultural mechanic here in Ireland. Lots of farmers here use very old tractors. It’s not unusual to see David Brownes, Case Internationals, Massey Fergusons, John Deeres and Zetors going back 20 – 30 years or more.

There’s a strong industry of companies selling spares too. Many farmers simply can not afford they new stuff and in many cases they are huge in size making them unsuited to small out buildings on family farms. That’s before all this new wave of shitty behaviour towards repairing rights and software.

Re: For tech-weary Midwest farmers, 40-year-old tractors now a hot commodity

#156

Post by mushufasa »

gen220 wrote: post #147

We recently had to bin a beloved TV, and were looking for a "simple" 4k TV (i.e. not a smart TV ) to replace it, and were surprised to find that they simply don't exist! We ended up uncovering a 6 year old 1080p TV that was still in the box at Best Buy. All in all, this problem might present an opportunity -- there might be new markets for these types of devices (dumb TVs, tractors, refrigerators, air conditioners, t…

well, if you just don't network the 'smart TV,' you can still have a dumb tv while benefitting from the subsidized hardware.

Re: For tech-weary Midwest farmers, 40-year-old tractors now a hot commodity

#157

Post by steveklabnik »

macinjosh wrote: post #98

My grandfather, rest his soul, was a 3rd generation rancher and farmer. He bought 2 John Deere tractors in the '80s and used them for 35 years. They are still being used to this day on the ranch. Growing up, I visited the ranch regularly. Farming and ranching is very hard on equipment so the tractors often needed repair. My father and grandfather could seemingly fix anything on the tractor without even needing to go…

I come from at least three generations of cattle farmers. My dad had to work a tool and die job, because unlike his father, it was already not possible to raise a family via family farm.

It's really brutal.

Re: For tech-weary Midwest farmers, 40-year-old tractors now a hot commodity

#158

Post by ianmcgowan »

hcarvalhoalves wrote: post #113
brenden2 wrote: post #16

The technology itself is not the issue, the problem is that companies are at war with their customers. These companies will go to any length to extract as much revenue as possible. Milking your customers is not good for business, especially if you drive them into insolvency. I hope in the future there are more companies that try to align incentives with their customers, such that their business practices help custome…

Not long ago, it seems companies were still in the business of making tractors, or cars, or cakes, or something... Nowadays it seems every company is in the business of making money and paying bonuses for directors. The rest is an excuse.

There are some robber baron's from the late 1800's that would like to have a word...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robber_baron_(industrialist)

Re: For tech-weary Midwest farmers, 40-year-old tractors now a hot commodity

#159

Post by wvenable »

skywhopper wrote: post #65
wvenable wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why was this downvoted? I just made the same comment before noticing this one already done. Competition is what solves these kind of things.

Sure, but how do you propose to introduce competition into this market?

Well the market has already been identified.

Re: For tech-weary Midwest farmers, 40-year-old tractors now a hot commodity

#160

Post by CharlesColeman »

AnimalMuppet wrote: post #137
CharlesColeman wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If customers don’t want this stuff, why isn’t there a competing company offering non-DRM tractors? Because modern capitalism is not a system that will magically fulfill customer needs, despite propaganda to the contrary. The way the system actually works is that the wants/needs of the capital-holders take priority over the wants/needs of other stakeholders (e.g. customers and workers). The other stakeholders are of…

> The way the system actually works is that the wants/needs of the capital-holders take priority over the wants/needs of other stakeholders (e.g. customers and workers). The capital-holders did not (in most cases) get a "you are now free to hose your customers" card. The cases where they are free to do so are cases where there is a lack of competition. So "modern capitalism is not a system that will magically fulfill…

> So "modern capitalism is not a system that will magically fulfill customer needs in the absence of competition".

But modern capitalism, at least in the American context, is a system being drained of competition. Competitors conspire to destroy it by merging and acquiring each other, and the deregulatory economic zeitgeist that's been in force for 40 years means the government has done little to foster it.

Markets tend towards equilibrium, and bitter competition is a kind of disequilibrium.

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