"Norman D. Crow" wrote:
....
NY dairy farm, about 200 acres, rolling hills, milking about 30-35 head.

Cousin's place was outside Bergen--enjoyed getting to know several of
the locals there over a number of summers...

Uncle's first tractor was a Farmall Super A about 1950, later a Super C,
biggest tractor he ever owned was a Super H. His son did move up to a
Farmall 650, later a mid size Ford diesel, but nothing over 100HP. There
were times a little more HP would have been "nice", but not necessary for
day to day usage.

One major difference here was that it was settled so late and the open
country encouraged large-scale farming from the beginning. Our town
wasn't founded until 1888 when the railroad ended here before being
allowed to cross into the OK Territory. Grandad came out from central
KS in 1914 and started w/ mules, but got first tractors in the 20s.
Unfortunately I do not know what the very first was, but an early Twin
City was the first "large" one--it was about 30 hp I think. By the 30s
they used Cat Twenty-Two's for the flotation, one of which is still
operational (although I don't have it, sadly). I first drove the
Farmall M, then we got a 400 and 560. Our first big tractor was a Case
930 wheatland model. Grandpa bought a AC WD45 when he got older to have
something he could handle a little easier...it had the snap-coupler
system and we had so many implements for it that Dad upgraded it to a
D17 (about 50 hp, I think) when I was in high school. I did a ton of
row crop on it. When we went to six-row planters we got the first JD
4020. Dad then gradually stepped up over the years as it became
necessary to add acreage and as it became nearly impossible to get good
reliable help. He progressed through JD 4440, 4640, 4840s. I still
have the ('79) 4440 (w/ 4000 original hours) for the scoop and blade,
mowing around the place, etc.