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Got a sale bill yesterday and there are 3 older IH's being sold...........two 1066's, and a 1086. These are off of an Amish dairy farm, and were used to power such things as stationary silage choppers, as they weren't used in the field. One is still on steel, and one has a cab. I know there aren't many here in Kentucky that are interested in tractors like this, but if anyone is interested, I'll gladly pass the info along.

Back in the 60's Amish near here bought a NEW 3020 JD and had the dealer pull gears out of the rear end to disable it. Rigged a tongue to the front end so they could move it with the horses. Put a belt pulley on it to run their threshing machine, etc.

Dad thought it was such a waste of a good tractor-we were using 8N's, B JD and H Farmall!

A line from an old Doctor Who show, Doc Holiday is stepping out for a walk, says, "Maybe I'll get a bottle. " His girlfriend, "Ain't it amazing, what a man will do for something he truly believes in."

We have a large contingent of Amish about 60 miles from where we live. Back in 2004, we had couple of them build some fence for us. They had an "English" man bring them and their equipment to our place. English to them is just a non-Amish person. They are not allowed to own equipment that is self propelled, at least that is what one of them told me. However, they had a skid steer with a post hole digger on it. Since it was leased, they could use it. The head fencer told me about their project to mount a diesel engine on a big round baler. They would then pull it with horses, six I think he said. How they would move the bales I don't know.

A few years later, we had a Menonite company build a small horse barn. They drove pretty new Ford diesel pickups. So my take is if the religion doesn't allow what you want to do, just change religions.

We have many types of Amish and Mennonites here. Some are strictly horse and mule farmers, while others use tractors. Some of these use steel wheel tractors, while others use as modern a tractor as any other farmers use. The IH's are on an Amish farm that uses only horses, however, they have to have something other than a horse to power their equipment such as the silage choppers. They'll cut the corn and haul it out of the field on wagons, then use a tractor to power the chopper to chop it and blow into either a silo or a pit.

They also will put a motor on a hay baler, pull it with horses, and that's how they bale hay. Same way with a corn planter. Most use a 4 row JD, with a small gas engine to power the hydraulics, and pulled by horses. It's actually pretty amazing the way they figure out how to use equipment, and still stay within the guidelines their church lays down for them. Some of the things they do are also pretty stupid, as far as being hard on both man and animal.

Anyway, there are lots of older tractors here that they have converted to run on steel, and several types of these steel wheels. Some have a rubber cushion, that probably rides better, while some look like they would beat you to death. They don't do the roads any good either, especially in hot weather, when the pavement get's a little soft.

I remember "Equipment with Lugs Prohibited" signs on the blacktops when I was young.

The county repaved a road that runs beside my farm a few years ago, the same day, while the asphalt was still a little on the warm side, a Mennonite with a steel wheel tractor went on it, and you can guess what the result was. I complained to the local magistrate about it, and he said he'd tried to tell the highway department that they needed to do something about those steel wheels, but that they said there was nothing they could do. Freedom of religion is how they put it.

To that, I say bullchit. Religion has nothing to do with ignorance and stupidity.