North Idaho Farmer Yes everything is irrigated, except for some parts of the delta where the water is pumped out of the island.

I have a picture of two crops grown without water, The first picture is of some safflower that taps into the high water table once it is established, and the other picture is some Hard red winter wheat grown in the delta. If you look at the picture closely you will see strips of weeds breaking through every 150'. This is from where a trencher was ran to make spud ditches that connect to the main drainage canal that pumps water back into the river.

There are fewer and fewer steel cats out here however in jobs such as slip plowing or deep ripping where the ground is worked 4' -8' deep prior to planting a permanent crop you still see steel tracks.

In conditions such as making or closing irrigation ditches or soft conditions you still see steel tracks. With the high cost involved with labor, moving equipment and fuel you see fewer and fewer steel tracks. With drip irrigation the drip tape is installed with rubber tracks using RTK GPS, every tillage operation now requires GPS to prevent destroying the drip tape.

some more cats working on ditch work and a challanger with a Hann bedder discing and ripping 66" processing tomato beds.
The background in the last photo is a vineyard planted in Syrah

"tanker" wrote:

My 20 has pto- was used to run corn picker & sugar beet digger- county had 2 ea slide bar D8'S W/ PTO-- I made a pto setup on my 2U for 1000 rpm- dark now but will fetcha pic tmro--

Pic of hi hp 1000 rpm pto on 2U-also pic of inside cab on same-- ref other thread on seats- went to local bone yard & for $25 got a velvet power seat from chrysler 5th ave w/ cup holder etc

North Idaho Farmer
Great pictures and a great thread, the ''35 JD'' combine really perked my intrest, because it looks to be a carbon copy of a ''Holt/Cat 34 or 38'' ( I can't judge the size) right down to the galvanizing, pretty much the same as the ''Cat 36'' and the ''JD 36''. This must have been a transitional or left-over machine when John Deere first took over the Caterpillar line in 1935-36. The Western Harvester Co/Holt combines used the Wisconsin engines and the Holt/Cat (post 1930) combines used either the Wisconsin or Cat engines, distinguishable by the Cat having the fan drive shaft over the top of the engine, the later production Caterpillar machines abandoned the Wisconsin all together in favor of their own engine. John Deere used the Hercules engine but I can't tell from the pictures what powers you machine. I would really like to see more pictures of it, I think it is a very rare piece. Thanks Tad

Of the pictures in the old Caterpillar brochure, is the small pull type combine behind the D2 an Allis Chalmers?. This would be unusual, given the JD and Caterpillar relationship at that time.

CR- more nice pictures, some of those cats sure run at odd angles doing that work.

Tad Wicks- model 35 combines were common around here, somewhere I heard that JD made them from 1936 to 1941, I was told this was a 41' model. I know it was similar to a 36 except a little smaller. Some cousins just down the road ran a model 35 and then switched to a 36 and had to pull it with a D6 instead of a D4.

Went out today and snapped a few more pics of it.






the next two show the leveling, it was done by hand and basically just moved the one wheel up and down.



the header puncher would just reach back and push the lever forward or back to keep it level. My family didnt farm much steep ground back then but the cousins did, occasionally the header puncher would get confused when turning on a steep hillside and level it the wrong way and just about tipped the whole thing over

Not to side track this thread but Tanker I have to ask about your steering clutch controls are these of your design or are they after market?There has been a thread on here about after market hydraulic steering controls I think for some of the D8's.Cup holder on your seat is a nice addition to have.A cupola neighbors are partial to that type of seat on there TD18's,I still like the old bench type when on very steep hill sides,maybe if I rode one of those more I would grow to like it as well.Back to someone else questions about PTO's they were used around here some but engines on balers,combines,and sprayers was more common.Thank all for sharing.
Ray

"Art wrote:

Of the pictures in the old Caterpillar brochure, is the small pull type combine behind the D2 an Allis Chalmers?. This would be unusual, given the JD and Caterpillar relationship at that time.

Yo Art!! No clue about the make of the small combine in the brochure. Did a little digging around on Google & came up with a little tidbit ......Deere's answer
to the A.C. Model 60, was the JD NO. 6, built in 1936 that had a similar cross
wise threshing set up.....spike tooth cylinder, on rubber, PTO or engine power.
Wonder if it could be one of those???

"Tad wrote:

North Idaho Farmer
Great pictures and a great thread, the ''35 JD'' combine really perked my intrest, because it looks to be a carbon copy of a ''Holt/Cat 34 or 38'' ( I can't judge the size) right down to the galvanizing, pretty much the same as the ''Cat 36'' and the ''JD 36''. This must have been a transitional or left-over machine when John Deere first took over the Caterpillar line in 1935-36. The Western Harvester Co/Holt combines used the Wisconsin engines and the Holt/Cat (post 1930) combines used either the Wisconsin or Cat engines, distinguishable by the Cat having the fan drive shaft over the top of the engine, the later production Caterpillar machines abandoned the Wisconsin all together in favor of their own engine. John Deere used the Hercules engine but I can't tell from the pictures what powers you machine. I would really like to see more pictures of it, I think it is a very rare piece. Thanks Tad

Tad: Deere obtained the rights to the CAT 36 combine in 1936. The 36 enjoyed a very long production run......1926 to 1951. There were several variants, the 35 & 33 model numbers being smaller versions of the same base
design:



I grew up on a 33-H, getting to pull it for 5 years with a 7U D4.....here it
is in 1967. the last year that we ran it:



That old girl is still parked out back.....and two others that were bought as
parts machines.

The 36B was the last version built, and there were several that were used
here until the 1970's. This machine spent years harvesting for the H.A. Miller
Ranch near Dufur, and is now parked at the Dufur Threshing Bee Museum:



In the shot above you can see the rack & pinion arrangement that leveled the
separator on slopes up to 50%. On the 36B, only the left side wheel moved;
on the earlier 36A, both left & right side wheels were moved. The basic "36'
design featured 3 cleaning fans and 3 elevators. The return elevator went
up the right side of the separator, taking tailings from there rear of the separator shoe back to the feeder house. On the left side of the machine, material from the front of the shoe went up to a recleaner for a finishing touch. The forward elevator on the left side took the clean grain up to the
bulk tank. Notice on NIF's pictures of the 35 the chute coming down off of this clean grain elevator. This took off fines & weed seed that was bagged
on the side of the combine. The 36B parked at Dufur has had this feature
blocked off. Here is a close up of the leveler gear box:



Finally, a picture I downloaded off of the net....if memory serves me correctly, this is a Holt 36 ( Holt, then Cat then Deere) up in the Palouse
harvesting peas. Note that there is NO bulk tank. The crop is being put into
sacks, placed on the chute on the left side of the machine, then dumped in groups of 5-7 sacks. Classy looking old Cat out in front. Needs to have some
bigger head lights installed.

Thank you 98J and North Idaho Farmer for your pictures
After 8 years of lurking, this thread has encouraged me to join this BB.

I grew up on the edge of the Palouse in Eastern Washington. My first experience with cats was with my best friend. We took turns with a 7U D4 pulling a set of rod weeders on his father’s farm. That was the highlight of the summer between 2nd and third grade!

I was thrilled to see a picture of and old McCormick model 51 combine. During harvest, when I was 10 years old, I got my first real job as a truck driver at 10.00 per day. The truck was a 1955 GMC 2 ton. Since I was new, I was supposed to wait until the boss stopped the combine and then pull along side to be loaded. About 3 in the afternoon, I decided I was just as good as the big kids, so I tried to pull up to be loaded on the go. You guessed it……The inevitable happened and the big rubber tire of the Model 51 lost a big chunk of rubber at the same height as the corner of the truck bed and I lost my job!

The great thing about farm work as a kid was you were “needed” on whatever farm you were working on so you could get out of school for spring work and if you were real lucky, you could miss a month of school in the fall for harvest and plowing. I really miss those hours spent on the old 7Us and D6 9Us. I even spent some time on an old AC model M. Thanks for the memories!