I think this truck qualifies as spec'd out.

no, most people with hobbies like those are self employed or owners of businesses.

Farmers dominate tractor pulling because, um duh, its tractor pulling.

Having your own business allows you to finance your parts and expenses through the business and write them off, easy for farmers on pulling tractors, sure $30,000 may be a little steep for one turbo for the "semi" but the pencil pushers dont know that.

The guys doing the big time national stuff have some money.

There is very little sponsor money in tractor pulling.

One example is Boyds, they run xx,000 acres, have a trucking company and an excavating company. They campaign three Pro Stock tractors and run at the top. Their old tractors were for sale for $150,000 without the engines. The engines in the pro-stocks can cost up to $200,000. And the pro-stocks actually arent the biggest class but do seem to cost the most.

Not to mention the costs to run the Grand National Circuit. 5 years ago my neighbor did it and said it cost him $25,000 just in travel, and would never do it again.

The guys who dont have the money will sell everything they have, refinance their house, sell their house, and do whatever they can to compete.

So dont always let the shiny truck and trailer fool ya, go back to that persons home and you may see that shiny truck and trailer and competition vehicle is all they have.

 

your numbers are a little off but oh well, boyd grain farms is a different affair than Boyd&Sons.http://farm.ewg.org/addrsearch.php?...IN&fullname=boyd&stab2=IN&b=Search+Businesses

Keep in mind this is over a 15 year period and also realize the amount of land they run. If you look at the report you will see the last time they collected any subsidiaries was in 2005 and that was due to a disaster, and in 2004 they got negative subsidiaries so 2003 was the last pure commodity subsidiary they got.

now as far s what they have in their personal names and other business names, well i dont know them that well to know what all they go under.

But its call working the system, i sense some jealousy because you dont know how.

Now as for their tractors, Green Streak 1 and 2 are Lucas Oil tractors, they foot most of the bill, Green Streak X is a boyd tractor.

OMG its public record, everything is these days, peoples taxes, prices on their houses, assessment values, court cases etc etc.

You sound very jealous of the farmers.

The bottom line is that the subsidiaries are there for a reason. Are they excessive? i don't know, but i am positive that if you were on the receiving end you would be sitting with your mouth shut. Its the way things are, everybody wants everybody elses money and when that doesnt happen people get pissy.

90% of the corn in my area is hauled by farms that are "bored", if you dont like it haul something else. Its the easiest job in the #### world. Get loaded by somebody else, grab ticket (dont even have to get out of truck at most places), drive, get to destination, the pit operator opens your hoppers for you or signals you to dump, you never leave the truck. Easy as pie, you shouldnt get paid much.

They have a lot of things, but what we dont know is the behind the scenes, maybe there just a few payments away from loosing it all. I can tell you the government subsidiaries are not whats keeping them going. They help through the tough times.

I am a dairy farmer so lets talk milk. The price floor is around $9. At that price we cannot survive, heck at prices higher than that there is negative profit. When milk was at $9 it needed to be at $14 minimum to cover our inputs. The nice thing about being a whiny trucker is that when you would be loosing money (say hauling a load that pays $500 and costs you $700) you can just say no and park the truck. You cant do that to the cows, you cant say no bessie your not getting milked and your not getting fed. Your only choice is to milk them, or sell them, when milk is at $9, animal prices are also at all time lows , so you wont make much selling them and once you sell them, your done.

Again, I dont care about the grainers, im a dairy farmer and without the support in the tough times, you wouldnt have milk, cheese, ice cream or your whey for getting buff and tough so you can go kick some grain farmers ### for making too much off the government.


Off rant.