When Peach Blossom and I got married in 1979, we operated pretty primitively for quite a few years. The first two winters, we fed our hay with four head of draft horses and pitchforks. We started using a tractor after that, but it was an open air (no cab ) IHC 706 with a Farmhand loader. I didn't even have the good sense to get a canvas "comfort cover," so there were some cold rides while feeding hay in those days. We still used hand-held pitchforks up until 1990. At that time I acquired a diesel IHC 766 with a cab. We also got a stackmover with a hydraulic hydra-fork to pitch the hay, which was still in four-ton loose stacks in those days.
We got the nice new calving shed in the early 1990's also. Even now, we still use our old calving shed, which is 30 feet by 80 feet. There are 17 box stalls in it, and our horse barn has 14 box stalls in it if the doors ever thaw out so we can use it again. Some years we hardly use the barns, and some years we put a lot of pairs through them.
Besides running our own place, Peach Blossom and I leased my dad's ranch in 1994. We started baling our hay at that time. That is the year I got the Agco Allis 8630 FWA tractor. It worked good for both baling hay, and feeding with a six-bale hauler/processor.
We seem to acquire better equipment through the years, but are running quite a few more cattle now than then, so still have to work kind of hard. :roll: