one of the best things about my job is the farmers

They are not all of the same. I have one farm that has junk everywhere, a really bad driveway and not consistently done at the same time. They also have constant bacteria issues. They get caught making inferior product, they improve long enough to keep the inspector and plant happy, they go back to making garbage...
A cycle and.... A headache.

I have another that has a nasty bug problem and refuses to plow their driveway. One of our drivers tore the mud flaps off of his truck because there was over a foot of snow in the driveway. Another headache.

The good ones are exceptional and the bad ones.... Well they give others a bad name sadly.

They aren't all equal and neither is the quality of what they produce.

 

I worked for a farm equipment dealer when I was younger, and the dairy farms were generally the best to go to. Not all of them, mind you, but the majority were great people.

The ones I grew to despise were the crop farmers that didn't depend on a milk truck. Most of them had a straight truck to deliver their crops. Their farms usually weren't set up for a tractor trailer. Junk everywhere. Usually some broken down 4wd tractor to figure out how to load. One guy broke down in a plowed field, on the side of a hill. And yes, I drove the truck right to him. That was one bumpy ride.

The phrase I hated coming from a dairy farmers mouth? "The milk truck made it" ( usually when the driveway was ice or snow covered)

 

There was a time, when I would say you were spot on, and still are in the majority.
It has not been that long that I had to show a 21 year old kid that was born and raised on a farm, how to put a grease cartridge in a grease gun. (this was what most would call a bright young boy)
The same kid was into rodeoing My son in law was riding with him with their team roping horses when he had a flat, he was going to call triple a out to come change it. My son in law told him he would walk the est of the way if he did. lol
It seems like a lot of the newer folks whose parents owns the farm, does not have to learn much.
Now the same boy that I am talking about could, by the time he hit his teens, could match anybody on putting straight rows in and do it 16 hours a day, just didn't have to learn much else.

 

We do a lot of hauling for farmers and ranchers. Lots of lowbed work, some fuel, and a we'll jump in on harvest hauling if they get behind.
The ones we haul for are great. They're usually third or fourth generation on the same land and they know what it takes to make a buck. They pay their bills on time and they don't grumble much.
Just don't ask them about price supports....they kinda tend to fly off the handle and rant about price supports.

 

actually the guys at the plant thanked me for bringing it back. they have two wash systems serving 4 bays at that plant, so they could only wash one trailer at a time. it was also a lesson to me, remember to make sure i hang the elbow up when i unhook it from the trailer. i guess the longer we do our jobs within this industry the more we learn, it was a dumb mistake...... a learning experience.

i have one farm that on the weekends, they get their milking done and are no where to be seen. normally this is not a problem but their driveway is sloped and was a sheet of ice that day. i attempted to back up to their milk house a dozen or more times, everytime not getting close enough for the hose to reach. i have quite a bit of ash from heating the house, so i thought..... what i can i use that i dont have to pay for. this was my first year which had a steep learning curve, especially in the winter. everything was new. i was still really learning how to drive a truck on my own. now throw a smooth bore tanker in the mix along with gross weights that sometimes exceed 105K. it was allot to take in. what really mattered to me is that it was steady work and i could go home to my wife and kids when the day was over. was it dangerous for someone with only 1 year on a CDL YES, and it always will be. i have driven SOME van trailer and much more tanker. they both have their dangers. i hate van on a windy day, the tanker is much more solid placed on a day like that.

that coal ash has saved my goose too many times to count. we run in all conditions. rain, snow, sleet, ice. it can get pretty dicey sometimes.

 

Yes it gets pretty rough weather wise up in your neck of the woods.
I had to run up to syracuse yesterday and came up the back way from Oneonta and county RT 16 was a blowing drifted mess...

 

I work with the Ag community every day , and enjoy every day at work.

 

110%!
My great grandfather started a Bull service in Sikeston Mo. in 1938 to breed 6 different breeds that the region lacked. He needed trucks to do it. It all went from there and hasn’t stopped. We Added other things to the trucking chores since then and been in a different state for the last 47 years.