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Cake day: June 3rd, 2024

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  • That was last quarter. You don’t have to be very good at economics to look at world crop supplies, the age of the current farming equipment fleet, and other such data and conclude this next year will be tough for ag companies like Deere.

    Of course the above is nothing new - ag is a cyclical business, you see the above ever 5-10 years. Previous to the current CEO the last layoffs of this type of position was the mid 1980s - several other CEOs saw the same signs the current one does and were able to manage it without layoffs.





  • bluGill@kbin.runtoAsk Lemmy@lemmy.worldChoosing a used truck
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    4 months ago

    Diesel is clearly better if you are driving 20,000+miles per year. However you are not doing near that, so it won’t be worth the extra cost. Today diesel is so much more expensive than gas that the real advantage is only that diesel engines last longer, and in your case the body will fail first.

    How much of your driving is towing vs unloaded? If you are only towing then a large engine is better - displacement = torque = more fuel efficient. However if you are mostly unloaded something like the Ford Ecoboost engine is much more fuel efficient unloaded and when towing you lean on the turbo to use more fuel (as much as the large displacement engine!) and so still have the power - but the engine won’t last as long overall and will break more often - thus not a good choice if you mostly tow.

    I would lean to the 3/4 ton trucks. While a 1/2 ton truck has the specs to do the job, all of them are aimed at the luxury car market these days, and so they will make compromises that make them not as good for real work. 3/4 ton still is targeted at people doing real work and so they will have better compromises. (if you were asking 30 years ago a 1/2 ton would be fine)

    Do you need something now? Electric trucks are just coming out and should start hitting the used market soon. They only do about 100 miles when towing, but are much more environmentally friendly if you can live with that limitation. I wouldn’t think about sticking with the truck you have now for 3 more years to see what happens here (and also 3 more years to get real world experience with how electric trucks really work for people in your application)








  • For most of history you would be better off if you could kill the next village over. You want to be friends with the people in your village, but if you kill the next one you can expand your farm/hunting/gathering grounds and then leave it to your kids - while otherwise you won’t have enough food for all the kids and your DNA is in danger of not getting passed on.

    In our modern world we mostly have plenty of food (and when we don’t lack of land is not the issue), but that isn’t what our DNA is evolved to “think”


  • That is the meme, but when I talk to military people they point out Russian incompetence. They do not believe NATO ships are that vulnerable. Ukraine is using a lot of tanks, but because they are using them according to good military doctrine they are not taking nearly as many losses. Note that Ukraine and Russia both got their tank instructions from the old Soviet playbook not a NATO book (though Ukraine as had NATO training as well), there is nothing about using a tank well Russia shouldn’t know, but they are failing to follow their own book on how to use tanks.