We were too busy the first year to have a garden but we did work on clearing the future garden area. We broke ground that summer in preparation for planting wheat, one of the only things we could plant that late. At that time the only plow I had was a dearborn two bottom plow. There were roots in the field and they would bring me to a dead stop sometimes. I would have prefered a one bottom plow to break the sod, but you use what you have.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In order to harvest the future crop I wanted a combine. I thought about buying a self propelled old combine which can be picked up pretty cheap, but my sights were soon set on a Allis Chalmers All Crop pull behind pto powered combine. The advantages were the ability to harvest almost any crop, no engine or drivetrain to break down, and they are smaller in size. The best model was the AC 72 with a 72″ head and no canvas drapers that wear out and must be removed each season.

I figured the likelihood of finding a good Ac 72 that I could afford was small, so I broadened my search for any AC All Crop. As luck would have it I did find an AC 72 for sale in far north Missouri at a dirt cheap price. The previous owner last used it in the 90’s and he said it was working fine when parked in his shed after it’s last harvest.

As soon as I had the time I made the trip to look at the combine. I found it was just as stated, sitting in the corner of a shed ready to come to a new home and be put back to work. I looked the combine over thoroughly to make sure it was usable. The combine was in great shape and I was sure it was worth the price, so I bought it.

With everything in place we were prepared to plant wheat. The soil was prepared but we didn’t have a drill or a spreader. Since it was only an acre we spread the seed by hand. We grabbed a handful and tried our best to spread the seed evenly. When we had the entire field spread we used an old bed spring pulled by an ATC to cover the wheat.

The wheat came in well. We were ready to try our luck with the combine next year. It was still undetermined how well the 8N could run the combine. The combine manual called for a 3 plow tractor, and a 8N is a two plow tractor. Worst case scenario we would do it by hand.

Our plan was to put in a second crop of Peredovik (Black Oil) sunflowers after harvesting the wheat. We had picked up a four row Oliver planter to use for this purpose.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When it came time to harvest the wheat I spent a day servicing the combine and cleaning it. The amount of greese zerts on one of these combines is incredible. If it moves it can be greesed. The 8N and the AC 72 worked very well together. The 8N had plenty of power for running the combine. The combine did its job as well as any modern combine, maybe better. I was so proud of the rig I made a video of running it for youtube.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is a link for the youtube video of my 8N running the AC 72 (turn your speakers down, its loud):

 

Youtube AC 72 Video