Tractors - Then vs Now

Been reading a lot about farm tractors in the 50's until around the time IH sold to it's ag line to Tenneco/Case to form-up the CaseIH line.

Very interesting to read about all the color tractors on farms that were 100 - 300 acres. Full time farmers on those family farms. JD, AC, MF, IH, etc.

With all the BTO's, not sure if a family could survive on 100-300 acre farms today and thrive like a middle class family. But I do see a fair number of part time farmers and they are still running the old iron from the 80's and back - with a sprinkling of newer stuff here and there. Although some have what seems like new everything.

When the Farmall's were going head to head with Deere and tractors like the 4020, etc., lots of great posts of these farming experiences.

But what about today. What would a farmer be using on a farm that would be bought new. Not sure what the acrage would be to justify the newer stuff - but there must be some stiff competition out there among new/late model tractors.

Deere vs CaseIH vs New Holland. Seems like the older tractors - families were all green, red, orange, etc.

Anyone out there farming TODAY with newer stuff that can share equipment brand and models of choice - are you green, blue or red? What models of tractors are being bought today that 30 years from now (if the electronics hold-up) will my boys be reading about and seeing on the used tractor lots?

What do you got, why that brand/model and why not something another color?

I'm only running old stuff on my hobby farms but the idea of today's tractors running in the future comes up on here from time to time.A lot of us have the opinion today's tractors will all be in the junk yard do to no one being able to afford all the electronics that will need to be replaced along with worn out everything else.One of the reasons so many of the old tractors are still around is the manufacturing quality at the time of production and their simplicity to be worked on by even amateurs today.

(quoted from post at 16:15:08 10/30/14) A lot of us have the opinion today's tractors will all be in the junk yard do to no one being able to afford all the electronics that will need to be replaced along with worn out everything else..

Click to expand...

I don't think it's going to be the expense rather it's going to be availability. The OEM isn't going to keep up with the electronics forever and aftermarket will only make the ones that are most in demand if they make them at all. OEM isn't really interested in selling a few parts for older equipment. They want to sell new equipment. I went in for a circuit board for my CaseIH baler. NLA, can't get the whole box either. Got lucky one of my SIL's, an electrical engineer by trade, was visiting at the time and we were able to trouble shoot it and identify a bad diode and a resistor. But basically if he hadn't been here the baler would have been junk. The same will happen with the new tractors and combines.

Makes me wonder if the government shouldn't run a cash for clunkers for tractors??

Rick

OH, Bill, to answer your question. It depends on the dealer and area. For example most of the BTO's here are running Deer, CaseIH or NH. AGCO isn't big here because of dealer support. So basically it boils down to dealers in a given area.

Rick

I was all red growing up and still have letter series tractors that do regular jobs on the farm. For field work it is all green. They all have the same good engine (except the 4020) and are very reliable. The dealer support is really the main reason for the switch over. An 8430, 4440 and 4020 do lots of work. Newest is a 7800 that is a 96 (I think but I can't remember). It is an excellent tractor but there have been some gremlins and quirks that mechanical tractors don't have. The one that comes to mind is the three point hitch warning light flashes incessantly when you are using the pto. Something about the sensor that recognizes whether you are running 540 or 1000. Same shaft, you just turn it around. Honestly, it scares me as I know the repair bills will be out of sight eventually. It had a $7500 repair bill last year as. They had a team stare at it a week to figure out why the hydraulic pressures were off. It turned out to be a backup pump for the steering. I don't know why that has to mess up the loader and everything else, but it did. Other than that, It has been good thus far and has about 7000 hours on it.

The 9500 combine has enough sensors and relays to keep things crazy. It isn't uncommon for the thing to take $5,000 to get it ready for the year. There is a lot of guessing by the Deere combine guy (and he's pretty darn good) on some things and they can't even figure out how all of the systems always impact each other. We finally got the reel height problem fixed by changing out the auger swing solenoid. There were lots of parts thrown at it until that was discovered. I'm not sure I want a newer combine to deal with.

There are lots of new Fendt tractors being sold here. I'm not sure the tractors are superior to others, but dealer support is second to none. We used to have a great Deere dealer here, but support and parts have really suffered since Deere's policy of destroying all mom and pop dealers.

I'd say you have a poor mechanic. 9500s shouldn't be that hard to work on and diagnose. Have you seen these newer combines? They are nothing but a computer and sensors that also cuts the crop. My JD mechanic tells me every time someone brings in a 9X00 for work, its almost a fight to the death to see who gets to work on it.

I'm not disputing any of what you said but I heard the same comments when tractors such as the JD 8000 series hit the market back in the mid 90s. The oldest of those are one year short of being 20 years old. Pretty sure they will be around 10 years from now making it almost 30 years. But 50 years from now, not so sure.

In the small part of the world I live in here in northwest Iowa I see an increasing number of new green tractors. Can't give a reason for it, seems to me the red dealers around here are just as good and plentiful as the green ones. I can think of three farmers who were red for generations but now have green tractors. Blue isn't represented well here for several reasons, one being families with a strong red or green background who will never buy anything else and the other reason, and another reason, only one dealer for many miles and that dealer doesnt seem to be thought well of. Challenger is very scarce both wheeled and tracked.

I live in an area with bigger farms and the corresponding bigger tractors and combines. Jim

Well, case IH and new holland are basically the same tractor as they're owned by the same company,fiat.so that leaves us with deere and agco.Where I live all 4 are close by(less than 20 miles within each other).with that deere is king for now but losing ground,followed by case ih and a toss up between the latter 2.As for me blue is #1 and the only way I would ever buy a deere is if it was a choice between that and let's say a kerbota hands down deere then.

I guess I fit the small farm category you described .Farm around 300 acres milk 50-60 cows. This year I bought a new Kubota 135 with loader. Last year I bought a new CaseIH silage special baler. The dealership I have delt with for the past 30+ years was IH, then CaseIH and now is Kubota. Many folks on this forum use their tractors to make some hay move some snow ,bush hog and the like. I do everything from plant grain , corn, hay, all the way through to harvest, chopping corn and hay, and making big round bales. While I have about 7 tractors, I spend many hours Case 930 or 1030 doing light jobs, like spreading manure cutting hay wrapping bales , where they work just as well now as they did back in the 60's. But when it comes to loader work I need the size and power of a newer4w4 tractor.I spend a lot of time on a tractor and a nice cab and a smooth ride make for a nice job on a hotter than h@ll or cold windy day. I really don't see much in any of the new tractors that where the same in the old tractors other than the names and colours. I don't think that new tractors will last as many years as the old tractors did because the farmers that buy them now work the h@ll out of them in the first 10 years , and they cost more to fix than they are worth compared to the next new tractor. And just like myself, no one wants a tractor that is having a sick day when you need it.Bruce

About equal parts JD and CIH around here right now. Have a decent NH guy about 40 miles away. I would say the CIH is gaining the upper hand here mainly because of the dealer. The CIH guy sells Kubota and there are quite a few of them around. Quite a few Olivers, Whites, AC's, old Case and MF around on the smaller farms yet.

Not a full time farmer here but travel by lots of fields and farmsteads every day on the way to work and back. Just see Deere and Case/IH tractors that the BTOs run, one big one has both. For combines the same. A couple of closer neighbors have New Holland and older Ford tractors but one has a green combine and the other a (new) C/IH red one. Just recently saw two newer JCB 4WD tractors pulling big tank type spreaders on some nearby fields. I think it's the big pig operation a mile or so away spreading manure before the ground freezes.

East Central Iowa

JD
Case IH
New Holland
Everyone else

You can still get into a new 75 horse tractor for about the same price of a new 4x4 pickup. And I see lots of new pickups around the country. I think part of the reason small farmer doesn't buy new equipment is because he don't have to. In workability there has not been very much advancement in the last 40 years. Like Bruce, I just bought a new loader tractor. It's small compared to the big guys standards. (65 horse) but for feeding cows it's just what I need. And I thought I could justify the cost. My Dodge pickup is 10 years old and has plenty life left yet. I sure don't need one of those.

There is no case IH vs new Holland as it is all fiat . Pretty much fiat vs agco vs deere