(pictures) farming with steel tracks

Hello all, some may remember the pics I posted last year. Thought I would share some I took this previous year using cats to farm with. These were taken just southeast of the palouse region in north central Idaho. We grow mostly wheat in rotation with legumes. Our land is fairly flat compared to the palouse but we have longer slopes on our ground near the canyon and our steepest farmed slope is about 40%. Elevation change on the farm is 2,100ft to 3,200ft with 30 inches of rainfall.

We got into the fields after a very snowy early April and started working ground in late April 2009 and finished up the spring seeding in late May, we are going to farm some of the neighbors CRP so I disked some of that up in June/July. Harvest was late July to early Sept. Fall work was Sept and Oct.

I would be happy to answer any questions anybody may have.

First off a pic of the lineup after we got spring work wrapped up.

1943 D4 2T with a 7u engine and angle blade, 1973 D4D 84J SA, 1960 D6B 44a, 1974 D6C 17R SA

the two SA cats do the most work and run at 5mph+ but the old "B" is limited to 4mph and we dont use it much anymore

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I will throw in a couple of my favorite non cat pics from the year, run a pair of JD 6622 hillside combines for harvest also two massey wheel tractors for light work and transporting equipment down the road

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enjoy! questions/comments welcome

hello North Idaho Farmer ,nice looking country ,good old cats ,thank you for posting ,bruce oz

Great Pictures, thanks for posting them. I like the guidance and mapping system in the Cat. Probably kind of hard to put on an auto steer though.
Jim

Great pictures, really interesting stuff!

Looking at the 44A, it looks like it's been going around the hills in the same direction so long, it's gotten tilted a bit. Sort of like the old joke about being on land so steep, you have to have cows with legs longer on one side than the other.😄

Fascinating photos thankyou
Love the cabs, great landscape shots 😊 😊 😊

Thanks for posting great photos bring back good memories our son worked in south Idaho, American Falls in 03. Much drier than your area I believe We spent a month there and had a great time hope to do it again.
I found it hard to believe where a Cat could sow crops they let me loose on a 55 challenger, I could see where someone had been before and survived so we went for it. All our area is flat so a big difference
Not real sure about your winter temps a bit fresh for me I had never seen snow till we went to Idaho in September. I don't think you would like our summer 43C here this week, would melt your snow in no time.
Cheers wimmera farmer(Victoria Aust)

Wonderfull pics , Thankyou for them!. Whish we had that river as close by ,to us, here in Sunny, dry {mostly}Queensland,OZ !!. I still think those Cats are the cheapest way to work big areas. If the soil aint to bad on pin and bush!. Our creek flat black-soil and black soil Darling-Downs soil here dont wear tracks or pads at all . But tyres wear fast!!..dont know why , but thats the truth of it !!...Regards, pete. ps.. still use 9U for lot of farming ground here!& 3T.

I'll bet those cats sound good with the long stacks on them although you probably cannot hear the bark in the enclosed cab.I see that one of the cats might have an A/C compressor sticking out of the engine compartment,do you have A/C in them or just filtered air or what?
I can see it could get boring after a few days chasing tracks around the vast area that must be tilled.Thanks for the great pics.Ron G

farm cats rule!

Top class photos there, scenery is amazing too......must be a pleasure to get up in the morning, fire up the machine and head off to the fields.

What brand of cab is that? some kind of after-market variety?

North Idaho Farmer-
Great theme for a calendar, really. Wonderful photos-you have a real knack there.

Nice job and thanks for posting.