Wheatland tractors

Luke470

Member
Hi all,

I am very new to the tractor collecting hobby but am very enthused about it and can see how it can quickly become an obsession!

I'm wonder what they are referring too when they say Wheatland tractors? What makes a tractor a wheatland?

Thanks !
 
Wheatland was a term used by IH (and maybe some others) for a style of tractors made going back I believe to the 40's. They were always a wide front end and designed for fields where a tight turn wasn't necessary. A lot of them were sold in the midwest. They worked best for working fields as they were not built for row type operations. Most had a similar size motor to a Farmall version. I'm not sure what all the other differences were - I'm sure someone will be able to explain it better.
 
Generally a Wheatland has: no 3 pt., Smaller Diameter Tires/lower to the ground, often a heavier drawbar style.
As stated they were for larger fields, not row crop usually used for dryland grain operations.
 
You'll hear "Wheatland" or "Standard" tractor terms used interchangeably. A wheat land
or standard tractor usually has a lower profile with smaller tires and a wide front
often the tire track isn't adjustable. Back about 100 years ago when they started
making tractors they were all pretty much standard. International Harvester got this
bright idea to make a narrow front tractor with higher ground clearance to allow
farmers to cultivate row crops. International then started calling the row crop tractor
McCormick Farmalls, the standard tractor were Deerings, then later Internationals.
Often the manufacturers made their biggest tractor a standard only version Like the
International 40 and 9 series tractors, The John Deere D, R, 80, 820 and 830 and the
Case L and LA. When you grow wheat and other small grains you can't cultivate it so you
don't have the need for the maneuverability and high clearance found in row crop
tractors. Also wheat farms were bigger or tended to be single crop farms earlier so
they made bigger tractors to cover more ground. Wheat land farmers basically used
tractors for tillage, planting and harvest.
 
Look at the tractor photos. The IH W-4, W-6, and W-9 are all wheatland versions. Then look at Farmall H, and Farmall M. Those are the row crop versions of the W-4, and W-6. You can clearly see the difference. Row crops were needed for just that, row crops. Tires went between the rows when cultivating, and needed width adjustment to coinside with the row width. They were also taller to allow tractor to go over crops.
 
Some company's wheatland models included wide,
close-fitting fenders that essentially wrapped
around to the cowl to provide improved dust
protection when operating in windy conditions.
The Deere 5020 is a good example of this.
 
We bought an 856 wheatland new. It had normal sized tires
but a fixed front axle (our 966 could have the front adjusted to
meet row width). It had two remotes on the rear but no three
point or PTO. It had a really heavy duty swinging drawbar with
a greasable roller. The fenders on it were rounded and quite
wide out over the tire tread. it had no lights on the fenders -
they were in the top corners of the grill like our 66 series. After
a few years a really bad cab was put on it and the fenders
were taken off I can't recall what happened to them but they
weren't anywhere on the farm. They probably went to the junk
man. Someone would love to have those now, I'll bet. That cab
didn't have heat or even a fan. The doors swung forward to
open and we would open both and tie them open over the
hood by the fuel cap.

That tractor did all of the field work except for cultivating
sedan. We kept it until it was traded in on a gently used 1086.
The IH dealer had rebuilt the engine once but I think that was
the only thing ever done to it. It was quite the workhorse.
 
International 560W (Wheatland)
<a href="http://s128.photobucket.com/user/JJ4h340/media/My%20560W/560WD003.jpg.html" target="_blank">
560WD003.jpg" border="0" alt="560WD dropoff 3 photo 560WD003.jpg"
</a>
<a href="http://s128.photobucket.com/user/JJ4h340/media/My%20560W/560WD005.jpg.html" target="_blank">
560WD005.jpg" border="0" alt="560WD dropoff 5 photo 560WD005.jpg"
</a>



Farmall 560 (Rowcrop)
<a href="http://s128.photobucket.com/user/JJ4h340/media/560rc_zps8b5335cd.jpg.html" target="_blank">
560rc_zps8b5335cd.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo 560rc_zps8b5335cd.jpg"
</a>
<a href="http://s128.photobucket.com/user/JJ4h340/media/farmall-560-rear_zps4c88b2d9.jpg.html" target="_blank">
farmall-560-rear_zps4c88b2d9.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo farmall-560-rear_zps4c88b2d9.jpg"
</a>
 
As others have said a Wheatland or Standard are generally interchangeable. I refer a Wheatland as a tractor designed to push or pull the piece of equipment and a Row-crop can Push, Pull, AND Carry the equipment. There are exceptions but this pretty well sums it up.
 

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