this post was submitted on 14 Nov 2023
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Oh, we have tractors, all right. I could take a picture for you out in our equipment yard that would have 60 tons of tractors in it. I think the scale of this all might be where the disconnect comes from.
When I say, "pick up chem" I'm talking maybe a couple of 1000L totes that would be forked on the back, and that's just a makeup order because I was short on foliar fert during spraying, the main part of the order came on a semi-trailer. They aren't going in a van, even something like a Sprinter, which I'd be surprised if it's any more fuel efficient than a pickup. When I pull a trailer, it's a 30' flatdeck gooseneck, perhaps with a 7630 tractor chained to it or a 25' horse trailer with 16 steers on it. I'm going to drive those to an auction market 150 km away, and while I'm gone, the other people on the farm need to do similar things, so yes, we all have trucks because picking and choosing which vehicle you take to hope that it's the right size when you get out in a field to do something, and realize you needed to grab a pickup is silly. We don't spend money (and the imbued energy implied) on 4 sizes/types of vehicles that might just barely do the job that particular time.
We usually get 8-10 Europeans staying with us over the summer on workstay programs and even the rural ones have no concept of how farming is done in Canada and the US, and come away with a completely different view of farming life here. I'd say you would be surprised and might come away with a different opinion than what you've experienced yourself.
I know you're contemptuous of us and how we do things, but perhaps it's the same thing you'd find yourself doing if you dealt with the same challenges.
They don't care. You can say that you make a living using a vehicle that works for you, for good reason, and that you prefer it to alternatives. And their answer will be "No, you don't." Their head is that far up their own ass. So much so that you are now involved in industrial exploitation, apparently. Top hat and monocle, too, I'm sure.
I actually fully agree that scale is a big part of the disconnect here. Even where I'm from, people in rural areas from the north and south are talking about wildly different scales when they talk about "farming". Hell, for my standards, the scope you describe doesn't count as "farming" at all, it's a full-on industrial exploitation. May as well call an Ikea factory an "atelier".
This isn't news to me, in that I've been around all those places enough to understand the difference between their respective scales, but I've crucially not actively done work in the others. I have no idea of the kind of use cases that would justify a fleet of pickup trucks rather than specialized vehicles. I know that no size of exploitation chooses to go that way locally, nationally or eeven continentally, so there are definintely alternatives. I don't know that I'd say I'm "contemptuous", though. More "amusedly snarky", perhaps.
Also worth noting that the post I was originally responding to was specifically bemoaning that they couldn't find smaller pickup truck options, so I doubt they were worrying about that type of haul.