By Tom Collins
LOYALIST TOWNSHIP — A beef farmer is warning other farmers to watch out for their farm equipment after a power take-off shaft was stolen from two of their machines.
Cindy Asselstine at Loyalist Township near Kingston said the PTO was stolen from her haybine in the middle of August. She said her husband left the haybine in the field, and when he went back a few days later, the PTO was missing.
“He came back a few days later and said, ‘okay, my PTO shaft doesn’t just fall off,’ ” she said. “He even went out there with a metal detector just in case. We have a feeling, whoever it is, it’s probably someone who is just new in farming, and doesn’t have any money. They’re stealing equipment to make theirs work.”
Her husband now takes the PTO off his equipment and locks it up every time and re-installs it before going back in the field.
PTOs, which cost about $600, are interchangeable between the same models. A PTO on a John Deere will work on any other John Deere tractor, but not a CASE.
Someone had also stolen a PTO from their snowblower about a year ago.
