Complete set of STEEL WHEELS for a 2N war years. Nearly unused and in excellent shape from arid Western Montana (no rust); $1200. 27 miles west of Missoula, MT. John Local pick up only. 406-626-4700 (MT)
Author Archives: N-News
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1952 8N: er’ah, maybe really , 1950!
By Jeff Johnson. N-News Autumn 2016. Vol. 31 No. 3
My wife and I decided to move out of the suburbs and build a house on the old family farm in central Indiana. I asked my uncle whether I could get by with an overgrown lawn and garden tractor or if I needed something bigger. The man with the John Deere 4430 said, “You need more tractor than that.” I soon found the 8N. But it wasn’t pretty! As I degreased and lightly sanded the frame, I found the serial number – 8N 279422. I thought, “Hey wait – that’s a 1950 serial number!” Continue reading
Think Like a Multifunction Tool
We all can’t help but frame problems (and their solutions) in the context with which we are most familiar. When you are a hammer, everything looks like a nail. I guess the trick is to look at the world (and your tractor) through the eyes of a multifunction tool. Continue reading
Driverless Tractors are Here
The autonomous tractor not only recalls a century-long displacement of human labor by technology in farming, but underscores how productivity-enhancing technologies have already transformed farming for all but the niche producers. Continue reading
Self-driving Cars? What about Tractors?
We’ve seen industry after industry ‘disrupted’ by the introduction of new technologies, with automation in particular making great inroads. Farm yields, of course, have long benefited from the substitution of machine for human labor. But did we expect to see machines driving tractors so soon? With actual ‘farmers’ out of the mix, will farming one day be reduced only to administration and management tasks?
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On the Seat & In Your Head
On the Seat & In Your Head There is something about driving a tractor that is so similar to riding a motorcycle it is uncanny. Obviously it isn’t speed or that feeling of the wind in your hair. Nor is it about the physics of counter steering or leaning into a corner. But there is something there in the “non-thinking” aspect of both endeavors. When I am running the mower on the tractor, or more recently cultivating the garlic with the 861 a few months ago, I am not actively thinking about anything. I am purely in that moment. I am observing where the front wheels are, glancing over my shoulder to watch the discs cut through the earth, focusing … Continue reading
1954 NAA
By Wayne Musser. N-News Summer 2016. Vol. 31 No. 3
When I was about twelve years old, I learned to drive the tractors. I was doubly blessed in that both of my grandfathers were dairy farmers, so when one grandfather didn’t need me to help put hay away, the other one did. My grandfather chose the NAA with live PTO for hay baling. Last winter, I restored the NAA. I hope it will continue to provide reliable service for the next generation. Continue reading
Signs of Spring
By George Blosser.
Growing up on our family ranch in California, I learned to drive our family’s 2N Ford tractor at a very young age. Fifty-five years later I tried to locate our original family tractor. I couldn’t. So I gave up looking and searched for an 8N and located one in the State of Arkansas. A restoration process was immediately started to return the tractor to its condition as delivered from the factory in 1952. Continue reading
Thrift: Getting By & Making the Most of What You Have
By Gardner Waldeier. N-News Winter 2016. Vol. 31 No. 1
Thrift. noun. The careful use of money, especially by avoiding waste.Making due with what is available is paramount these days. I needed a good dry place to keep my tractor and set to making that thought a reality at the 1799 farmhouse where I grew up. So I built a lean-to style pole barn off the end of the house recently and did the whole project for around ten dollars. Continue reading