[QUOTE=Bleedinred

Tanker, don't know of much that will kill them in bluegrass without taking it out,

I haven't gotten the chem or real lable yet but if you google milestone herbicide[dow ag] it might be worth your look -- it's for pasture & says it won't harm most grasses:cool: can be grazed etc- didn't read the whole thing but might go in bluegrass.. can be used in christmas tree plantings also..

Bleedinred- disk ripper would be pretty handy in deeper soils, wouldnt be able to go really deep here mostly would run into rocks or even yank up some nasty clay.

I agree nothing beats winter wheat on spring legume ground if there is good early fall rain. We were really hurting this past fall, got an excess of rain during harvest but by the time we started seeding wheat around Sept 20th it was dry again and didnt get enough rain to germinate until mid Oct. we really like to seed our wheat early, most years there is enough moisture to get the wheat up in late Sept. We often figure on 10% yield decrease if winter wheat is planted on recrop ground other than legume.

Couldnt imagine only doing three years of grass then having to pull it out. Guys here usually figure 6-7 but have pushed it to 8-9 years recently, burned every fall of course.

That is Bertha hill lookout in the picture, just northeast of the town of Headquarters and a little south of grandad bridge over the Dworshak Reservoir

[QUOTE=North Idaho Farmer; If the tree was infected one spring/summer and it wasnt until the following summer that you cut it then I would see why there wasnt any bugs but usally I can see them if the bark is peeled off in late fall or winter as the tree is dying.[/QUOTE]

I will have to look more carefully @ this one- what ever it is it tunnels into wood- not just under the bark- thought maybe the bugs crawled along ground from tree to tree so spraying bottom 3 ft would get em- are red elms are all gone & now there is an ash bore starting to take the ash- some oak leaf blight to- bout only ones that aren't currently being bothered are cherry & walnut.

Bleedinred,
I don't know any of the people in that area, we just dove through there on our way to visit, I did see a fellow between Benton City and Prosser on the North side of the Yakima, like most farmers, was outstanding in his field:D , actually he was cultivating his vineyard, so I stopped and talked for awhile, he grew grapes, cherries, and apples and then one of the larger growers of the area stopped and talked, I really enjoyed myself and got a bit of education also, as well as them I hope. I left them with a few bottles of our Zinfandel and that was the last time I was there I think that was in ''07''. A funny coincidence though, my neighbor right across the fence is Diffenbaugh, probably no relation.
My 453 has the D-360 it is a ''74'' machine, they used the D301 for only about a year and a half, ''72'' and part of ''73'' give or take. The first 453's were just Hydro 403's with a little bit different sheet metal, a variable speed cylinder and variable speed fan. The D301- 453's were horribly underpowered as were the hydrostat 403's, the hydro seemed to suck up a lot of power. I also widened the rear axle on my machine and added big rubber like the ''95'' JD, the little tires would wear out between the diamonds very fast from the stubble because they weren't running in the same track as the front tires. It did have the Full Vision cab made in Colfax Washington, know as the standup cab, I still had to hunch over to stand up, but sometimes you just got to strech your legs. Like everything else, it is just amazing to see how far they have come with these machines, they are great and they cut a baffeling amount of grain, but you still have to be able to pay for them, there is not enough grain left in San Luis Obispo county to keep one machine busy for a season. Too Bad, pretty much a shame, now if they could make them pick grapes or plant and grow houses???????, you could sign me up for a couple, at least:D . Tad

"Bleedinred" wrote:

Hey Tad, are some of the Deffenbaughs still farming in the Horse Heavens? Years ago some teacher friends of mine were combine jockeys for Al and his son. I went out there one day and couldn't get over the D6s and 7s they were running.

Further up this post I mentioned my daughter and husband are grape growers/wine makers up the Potlatch River valley east of Lewiston. Their land is surrounded by tribal or DNR land so they don't have to deal with spray drift, one of the reason they bought this place. I concur that the amount of work required for the end result is obnoxious. Fifteen acres is a lot if you want it pruned right and have to do it yourself--do you have any future plans for it?

What engine is in your 453? I spent quite a bit of time on one of those a century ago.

OK, keeping it yellow, who can give me a run down on Ag6 controls? I'm a little lost here. Steering clutches and shuttle on left side?

Ah yes, the AG6. Now that's a good way to get this thread back on (steel)
track.



Yes.....and no. Yes, the steering clutches are on the left....just ahead of the
left arm rest...they turn with you as you swivel the seat ( really slick) I assume that what you call the shuttle is the forward/reverse and no, it is
not on the left. The master clutch is on the far left; F/R is grouped over with
the transmission levers to the operators right. Three separate levers for the
transmission ( somebody at Cat had a Brain Lock on that one)



The ultimate Ag crawler on steel from Cat.....a real hotrod.....built from the
ground up as an ag drawbar tractor....all kinds of spiz from the 3306....weight
forward design to keep the nose down....7 roller track frame......variable HP.



They had one of these Bad Boys at SRS Ranches for several years. It was
back when I was only there part time, so I didn't get to run it as much as I
would have liked. When I did get in it, I would start to drool immediately.
Didn't have an implement on the ranch that could really load it. Plowed some
nights with it, paired with a D5B. On one hill that the D5 had to drop into 2nd
(pulling 10 eighteens) the AG6 stayed in 5th with the same load. A total run
away. Halton Tractor would never own up to it, but I know ( from the mechanic's reaction when I grilled him) that they had been into the fuel rack.
It was really juiced. Another neighbor demoed one & an early CH 65.....the
AG6 out worked the CH65 hands down. The early talk was that Cat was going
to offer both....the AG6 and the Challengers. Unfortunately for those of us
that like steel.......the lure of the rubber belts and the ability to move down
the road ( on pavement) proved to be too much. So.....the production run
on the AG6 and it's smaller brother the AG4 was limited. They are pretty rare.
I had to travel over to the Condon area to get pictures of one.

Another look at the controls.....the master is left out on this page for some
reason:





As mention above, there are three levers for the transmission. A little un-handy; not sure what the idea was. I was told that there was a plan
a foot to fix that nightmare & go to a single shift lever. If I'm not mistaken,
the tranny was based on the D6D, so it shouldn't have been too hard to
change. One little complaint I had ......when swiveled to the right it was
just a tad awkward to get to the master in a hurry. A small price to pay for
the luxury of having the frictions so handy ( right at your finger tips on the
arm rest)

Saw an ag 6 in person once or twice but didnt get a good look at them, have also seen ads for a couple different ones for sale the past few years, still going for alot of money. Not sure I like the look of them myself but here is a pic of one I downloaded off the net, over in the western end of the palouse.

Ah yes, the variable hp settings. Wasn't that originally designed for the 5x's to keep from blowing final bearings? I remember a friend of mine over at Sprague, WA had one and I think he told me his was variable power. A lot of us know if you juice a 98J-D5 it's only a matter of time before something breaks. I know this from experience...tranny AND final for me, another final for the next guy. That old 5 sold for $3,000 last fall at auction and it had had the living daylights run out of it. RIP

Do you know if the Ag6 uses the radiator core banks like the 65's? I will have to do some digging but I have pics of various experimental rubber track rigs--can't remember where they came from--will go looking shortly and put some up here. I think a prototype Challenger is in that shot.

Tad, the 453 I ran was a 301, way underpowered and over-noised! I never really liked that thing compared to the 6602, but that's water under the bridge. I will say it was one of the best bluegrass machines made as far as cleaning, simpy because of the long shake, chaffer extension and no shoe delivery augers to stir things up. My neighbor still runs one for that crop along with a 1470, and when the going gets tough he runs the 453 while the other one rests. That's the only one running in our area, so hang on to yours as it is becoming a collector's piece.

Thanks for the Ag6 pictures and instruction, NIF and 98J. With any luck I'll get to drive one a little some day.

my brother and myself dryfarm here in calif. i have been following these posts and really enjoy them. we have used crawlers to farm with for years.i grew up on a hd 9 and a hd5, started harvesting on a 151 hillside. in the early 90s we bought a pair of hd15s then in 2004 we bought a pair of ag6 cats we really like them a lot . we rent a ranch up by antioch ca. that has some steep hills and they are just the ticket.we pull 24 ft towner discs with them. we still have a couple of 453 hillsides but they are pretty tired. we custom harvest with 2 8010 combines with 36ft macdons. i take the combines back east every year to oklahoma and do the midwest run finishing in driggs idaho about middle of sept. them come home and do rice and corn till nov. the havesting is fun but i like the farming more. our one place in hickman is rented out to almonds but we do get to dry farm in antioch although its an 1 and half hour commute. we just bought a d5 in oregon last week looks alot like the one 98j has. our web site has some pictures of the hillsides at work back in the 70s. barnesharvesting.com our ag6s have the update on the shift lever one lever but only 5 speeds. mine has 1thru 5 my brothers has 2thru 6 we have looked at the linkage but cant figure how they're different. well enuff rambling sure enjoy the pics of the northwest though. thanks jeff barnes

AG6 pulling a Y&J ditcher. The AG6 is notorious for destroying the rear end when pulling chisels in 1st gear. They are good for landplaning and pulling some of the bigger discs.

Good to see you on here Jeff.Great website site too.Just about all the old grain farms gone around here.My best memories were there on the Brand place.