NY Farm Show

[countrygal]

NY Farm show is going on at the NYS Fair Grounds Feb. 21,22,and 23. Three buildings of equipment and other farm stuff. Toys too. Since there's no school next week, it's a great place to take the kids and let em climb on a tractor or two.

[frankcor]

I'd go but kids would probably start climbing on me. I think the boat show is next week, though. I prefer when the models climb on me.

[countrygal]

haha. Nope, no models at the farm show. Dairy Princesses, but sorry...they're all under 18 and closely guarded.

It's funny because the equipment dealers all unhook the horns from the tractors so they don't have to hear them being honked, but the farm kids know how to hook them back up so you hear it anyway!

It's a pretty fun time. Last year they had a robotic milker there that was interesting to watch.

[frankcor]

countrygal, ya gotta love those ingenious kids. I enjoy the agricultural and animal exhibits at the State Fair and I appreciate the contribution the industry makes to our economy in upstate NY. And I'm always a huge fan of the butter sculpture!

I'm not certain a farm equipment show can hold my interest, but you definitely perked my interest at the mention of a robotic milker.

(get your mind out of the gutter -- I'm a mechanical engineer at heart!)

[dgriffin]

My sister got hooked up to a robotic milker. It came parcel post one day by mistake. She thought it was a set of bagpipes from her subscription to Instrument Of the Month Club. When she tried to play it, it sucked on her lips something horrible and she's had a lisp ever since.

[Clipper]

Than God it was your sister Dave and not you are your brother. It could have been a tragic loss to the family gene pool and future little griffins, not to mention painful. Only the one cup would be on your mouth in an attempt to play the instrument, and no telling what the other three might have found to latch on to. Whew, close call.

[countrygal]

Oh...you guys are bad!

We toyed with the idea of a robotic milker for about 10 seconds. It's very expensive and we have too many cows. One robot will only milk about 40. Our machines are computerized and we're pretty happy with them for the most part.

[Clipper]

Gee countrygal, when I was in highschool and taking agriculture, I won the tractor driving contest at our FFA fair one year. It was a real blow to the boys who were brought up on the farm because I was a "townie" who worked on a farm, haha.

We used to assemble equipment for a local machinery dealer. If ya know anyone that happens to buy a manure spreader or field chopper, and it comes in several little crates with some assembly required, I learned to do that sort of thing in high school ag class, haha.

I still go to the farm shows here at the fair grounds. I have no connection with agriculture any more, but I enjoy the equipment and chatting with the wonderful people that run our country's farms.

Thanks for the contributions you make to our world.

[countrygal]

They still have tractor driving contests around! I'll bet it wounded some farm boy egos! lol

You're welcome and we hope to continue on for many years to come!

[dgriffin]

I used to have a subscription to the American Agriculturist and always enjoyed it. Dairy farming has always intrigued me since childhood (on Cornhill!). My old barn here had 4 cows in it (1930's subsistence farm) until a few years before I bought the place in the '70s.

[frankcor]

I came close to buying a 30-head dairy near Stuben when I first got out of the Army. A friend owned the farm next door and the plan was that both of us would work both farms, giving us a slight economic edge. But I changed my mind when I saw him mounting headlights on his tractor. Even in my mid-20s, I still needed to sleep at night and this guy was running 24-hours a day.