Farm Equipment: Then and Now

kruser

Well-known Member
So, it seems back in the late 50's and early 60's you could plant or harvest 10 to 20 acres per day at a cost of about $3000 to $7000 per unit.
Now it looks like the BTO's can plant or harvest 150 to 200 acres per day/per unit at a cost of roughly $600 to $700,000 per unit (Plus a little more for grain carts, semis, storage facilities, etc.)
PS: Info from the Ag Display at the Illinois State Fair

Any comments ?
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(quoted from post at 16:33:08 08/14/18) 30 acres a day with a 560 and 4 bottom plow would have been a long day.

A 560 plowing 30 acres a day is akin to the 12 row corn head doing 200 acres per day. It’s possible with no hiccups but not nearly the norm. The combine operator will be in a much more comfortable environment though.
 
That 560 and plow were kinda pricey for 58. My uncle bought a new 4010 diesel with a wide front and 4 bottom plow in 61 for $6000.
 
Like the fact that it came fro Ill. state fair. This old Tennessee kid drove an exhibit tractor for the IH company there in 1958 and again 1959. Got to meet a bunch of nice folks.
 
I look at it more on a per acre cost.

The MH 444 @ $7000 for 10 acres is $700 per acre
Lets say you worked it 10 days for 10 years just so we can compute a cost per acre out some.
That is $7 per acre for that machine.


The JD S780 @ $715,719 for 200 acres is $3578.59 per acre.
Using it 10 days for 10 years (the same as above)
That is a cost of $35.78 per acre or over 5 times the cost per acre.
I wonder if it has over 5 times the comfort level.


Now I see why farmers think they are so broke.
 
Assuming 16 in plows and 80 percent efficiency running 4.4 mph 12 hours would do it but like you said he would have to stay with it for sure.
 
Ok I have a question for anyone around when these older units were the norm. What was the Odds of buying a 6000 or so dollar tractor n plow and being able to pay for it? How long did a farmer expect it to take to pay it off? I am not sure I could ever be able to pay the interest payments on a quad trac. , let alone the principal. Al
 
Double the time harvesting....Now you are down to about 18 dollars per acre and after 10 years the machine has only 2000 hours. (assuming 10 hours per day actual harvesting time) That's when it starts to make some sense, since custom rates here run 30 to 35 dollars per acre, counting fuel and operator.Add a few more variables....the Massey would be pretty useless in a muddy field where the combine would roll through a lot more....operator comfort, no comparison...the combine shells the corn as well, so the end product is more flexible in its use....I would also imagine the combine would use less fuel per acre since its not dragging a wagon along.

Interesting comparison.
Ben
 
My great grandpa started our farm/homestead in 1910 and finally quit in 1969. Never borrowed a penny his whole life and didn't buy anything unless he had the money and then some. Owned 7 different tractors starting in 1927 and ended his farming career on a 4020 diesel powershift. Always bought a new car every couple of years too and basically kept his machinery updated.
 
My dad always paid cash for his tractors,I've always paid cash for mine.We both never had/have the latest and greatest but had good solid tractors that did the work we needed done.
Think the most I have ever paid for a tractor to use on the farm was $5,000 most have been in the $1500 to $3500 range.Have been baling this year with an Allis Chalmers 185
I paid $1000 for it. Spent about $300 getting it ready to use which included a new battery and a $50 cab I modified into a canopy.Baling with a NH 851 baler I paid $350 for 2 years ago.
Too much good equipment and tractors around these days at bargain prices for me to ever think about the high priced machines.I'm always looking for a bargain I can use on the farm,just bought
a Allis Chalmers Series IV D17 with a bad motor otherwise real nice tractor for $1200.Have a good motor off a combine I'll get in it this Winter,a friend runs a scrap yard he gave me the motor a couple years ago.
 
Last year Ben the fellas doing custom corn combining wanted $50 per acre, and the three guys I was talking with told me, that?s the last year at that price. Looking like 55-60 bucks per acre for this fall. I quit growing grain corn a few years ago, just a exercise in futility.
 
I have purchased several pieces of new equipment over the last 38 years of farming. Some I paid cash when I purchased, others I financed. And in truth, it was no harder to make the finance payments then it was going without/making do , while saving to pay cash. I only purchase equipment that I need, and will actually show me return in productivity. A example would be a loader tractor. I need a loader tractor every day all year round to feed cows, and move manure, so this needs to be a reliable unit that doesn?t need constant repair and have down time. So if I buy a used tractor and pay cash, then start pouring money into it for parts and repairs, and have the extra cost of purchasing and maintenance on a back up unit. It will cost me just as much or more than the time payments on a new tractor.
A new combine needs to have 3-4000 acres of crop ran through it every year to justify its cost. I have a friend that buys a new Case IH combine every two years, and gets new heads on every second combine. He cuts 4,500 acres per year. Pays cash, and says he always gets excellent trade allowance, and calculates his cost per acre on what he originally paid for the machine, and what he got for it when it was sold. These days the longer you keep a piece of equipment, it can actually cost you more, as the trade value on a ten year old combine is dismal compared to a two year old.
 
I've never forgot- my dad said right after WW II you could buy and pay for land in one year with a good crop of soybeans. Most didn't want risks like is common today.
 
With cows to milk back in the 80's . I could plow about 20-40 acres a day with an 806 on 6-16's. Would have trouble thinking 30 acres per day with that 560. With the old D-4 cat and 6-16's in 2nd which was 2 mph would only plow about 20 per day and that was from about 9Am after chores and going till dark non stop.
 
Ia agree if a operation has enough high value work it'd pay to buy new but I see high dollar tractor and equipment on farms all the time that are either not used very much or if used
they are doing low value work a much cheaper tractor could easily do.Also when I go to farm bankruptcy auctions its the ones with a lot of late model tractors and equipment usually.
 
If you're only working any given piece of equipment for 10 days a year, you're wasting money, then or now. Either you have too much equipment or not enough acres. You'll never be able to make the payments.
 
Yes, it's closer to that here as well if a grain buggy and wagons are included. Lots of competition for custom work here.
Ben
 
Dad figured 30 acres a day with our case 830 and 4-16s on a long day. But an 830 is a little more than a 560.
 
I wish I could explain my first twinge of a thought after seeing those pictures,but I still don't think I can make it clear even after sleeping on it
.
Seems like back in the 60s and 70s at least,the goal was to get this stuff paid for and make a living for the family. Now,the goal seems to be to see how many acres a person can farm whether there's a profit in it or not. Send the wife off to work to make a living and get insurance and make enough off the farm to keep about the same level of debt that can be serviced by farm income and crop insurance.

Maybe I'm all wet on that,I don't know. I've only farmed for a living all my life,I haven't tried to see how big I can get.
 
I think you guys have an advantage with your quota system. Back in the 70s and 80s a steady increase in production due to genetics and milk price increases that you could count on,made it easy to keep upgrading and modernizing. The increased income stayed ahead of interest and inflation,but anymore,carrying debt and farming just don't go together all that well. Best you can do is tread water and live on antacids if you have much debt.
 
Take $7000 in 1958 dollars and turn it into 2018 dollars and you get $59,731. $59,731 for 10 acres is $5,973.


http://www.in2013dollars.com/1958-dollars-in-2017?amount=7000


Today's equipment is much cheaper.
 
Another thing you guys are missing is you have to compare it on the same number of acres. So a guy farming say 4500 acres today would have had about 8 of those 560s and 7 hired men. Gotta add in the cost of hiring people too. Minimum wage was a buck an hour.

Neighbor with a CaseIH 9390 425HP 4X4 clims that he can chisel plow about 25 acres an hour. Or in that 30 acre 10 hour day he can do 250 acres. What would take 8.33 days with that old 560 he tills in one day. He claims about 32 acres an hour disking.

So add in the modern cost of hired help X7, plus the cost of tractors with ROPS (gotta consider OSHA) and yea, great way to create more jobs but where are you going to find young people today willing to spend 10 hours a day 7 days a week to get crops in?

Rick
 
You didn't need to farm 4500 acres then. I remember when a BTO out east of town bought an articulated Deere. I said I didn't know why he needed a tractor that size. My cousin said "To work all than land.". I said "Why does he need to work all that land?". He said "To pay for that big tractor.".
 
In 1963, corn was selling for $1.16 per bushel with an average of 55-60 bushels per acre in Nov. 1963. A Farmall 560 listed for $5500*. A JD 3010 was listed at $4700*.

*Prices from TractorData.com
 

...and that is why my dad is still milking 60 cows 2x a day since 1979. If he modernized to a 300 cow herd, he'd need to milk 600 to pay for it! The neighbors tried that when I was in grade school. I think they made it 10 years before it finally wore them all down trying to chase the debt.

But on the flip side, on the day he retires, I think that'll be the last cows to live on the farm. Too small to compete in the new market.
 
Shoot,I remember 30 years or more ago they said that to double the size of a dairy herd would require four times the investment. Probably more than that now.
 

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