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The best combine for small scale farmer

J

Johnson 23

Member
I want to buy a combine but what is the best small scale combine for a small farmer with less than 50 acres i pefer a gear trans gas or diesel i am looking something i can get parts for i have some mechanical ability i can fix some things and i know a retired mechanic if i dont know how to fix it for anything i need

I also need these

Corn head
Rigid head
Flex head
Pickup head
Chopper
 
Gleaner K or F series...Lots of used parts around, cheap to buy, easy to set, run and maintain...but, like any old combine---Have fun!


Ben
 
I absolutely second the Gleaner K or F series. I've run "second best" combines all my life, finally bought a nice late model K2 from a fellow member here last summer. That little beauty is a dream come true.
 
I would go for a Make that a lot of them were built, for it will be easier to find new as well as used parts, advise, and that should tell something how well they worked. I'm partial to Masseys.
 
I would also go with the Gleaner F. I had an LII for my 300 acres. had very little trouble with it. Before the Gleaner I had a Massey 510. I would not wish that combine on my worst enemies.
 
Any brand or model of machine will be a nightmare if wore out, had poor care, poorly adjusted, or had a guy mess it up from not knowing what he is doing. They were all made to work, but some work better than others.
 
I agree with tractorguy. If you can find a "garage find" from an old retired farmer that has low hours and good care I would not worry about the brand. You can tell what kind of care it had by looking at the rest of his equip. in the shed.
 
I am a huge fan of the JohnDeere 45;55;95;105 combines.Currently own 55 and 95.Ran a 45 for 15 years,great little machine. Just 'outgrew' it. Still regret selling it. All late model 'squarebacks'.Easy to work on,trouble free and do an exelent job. Downside is tey are over 50 years old,last one was built in '69.So,some of them have an awful lot of wear,sheet metal is starting to get thin.Some parts are starting to get hard to find,JD lists several as NLA(NoLongerAvailable). Still good machines that I would recomend to anyone.The 4400;6600 hundred machines,you couldnt pay me to own one of those.My second choice would be a Gleaner,or an IH Axial Flow.BTW,No matter which combine you buy,order a book ASAP. A combine is too complicated to just 'wing it',especially for a 'newby'.
 
Absolutely! If it's worn out,rusty or other,pass it by. Look carefully,remove the covers/trapdoors... and crawl inside and LOOK. grab and wiggle things to check for (excessive)wear.Look at belt condition,amount of 'crap' sitting on/accumulated on it,condition of operators statio,condition of tires(tires are huge)...As said,a brand/model common enough to have plenty of parts available.Plus,tell us how mny acres you want to do. 50? or 300?
 
Here is a combine what do you guys think about this one ??

https://www.tractorhouse.com/listings/farm-equipment/for-sale/199348565/john-deere-40
 
Gleaner K is a 2 row machine, might be a little slow in corn?

Gleaner F would be my choice, I have 3 independent dealers less than an hour from me. Well, the F2 or F3 would be the better choices. I can find a lot of parts here at the dealer on the shelf, well supported still.

Nothing wrong with the other lines mentioned. I ran a JD 45 early on, ran a Gleaner F, F2, F3, M3, L3 ever since, simple machines to work on.

Paul
 
Here in 200 bu corn (which actually is 170 bu but gotta coffee shop talk a little....) I could harvest 100 acres of corn by myself with a 4 row F.

It got challenging as I added acres. With help, someone hauling, the F would be good for more acres. It was always lacking in grain bin capacity, had to dump so often, could not make a round, some of my long fields it barely made a half a round. That really slows things down. Here in Minnesota that white winter is always a threat to shut you down, gotta keep harvesting.

If you have a real job and farm on the side, you have to hope for good weather and work evenings and weekends, the combine needs to move.

A K can sure handle 50 acres of crops, just depends if a person has that time. Not sure how big the bin is on a K, how often one needs to unload.

If maybe there is a chance to expand a bit in the future, getting an F gives a person a little more capacity.

They are all about the same machine, K, F, M, L. Just get a little wider each size up.

I wonder how Gleaner came up with their letter system, Ive never heard a reason for all the crazy lettering, theown in the older E, C, G. None of them followed alphabetically or anything.
 
Let's just not get carried away though. Remember late last summer when somebody in the U P of Michigan was looking for a combine for 20 acres of corn, 20 acres of beans and 20 acres of oats? A K or F would have been all he'd ever need, but within three or four days he'd been talked in to "needing" a 6 row/20 foot machine with RWA. We seem to forget what we farmed with 40 or 50 years ago.
 
My dad had a K with a 330 head, it harvested over 100 acres of corn plus 50 grain for years....we did have 3 drivers, just keep someone in the seat and you can get a fair bit done.

Ben
 
Some good comments have been made.

Are you working a full time job and farming nights and weekends, farming full time, or retired and farming for entertainment?

If you are farming for profit, the quality and design of the heads can be just as important as the combine.
 
For 50 acres,you need to find a 4 row machine.Is there a local farmer that you are friendly with that you could coerse to helping you harvest your crop?
 
I have combined corn that yeilded so well I could not make a full round. Had to take 4 rows down and 3 rows back. Even so,due to the long rows,sometimes it just about ran over befor I got back.These days,I normally combine less than 50 acres with a 95(4 row) and one little single axle grain truck. At one time,I combined over one hundred acres with a 45(3 row) and two grain trucks.
 
Massey pioneered the self propelled Combine 1n 1938 and No other company made a combine till the late 1940's. MF still had 60% of the market share in the mid 70's. That means all the other makes combined equaled the remaining 40%. Massey was the leader and king of the combines the first 40 years. Just ask an old timer!
 
That's right. No other company made a combine like Massey. I believe Massey was the only one to put the engine UNDER the machine. What a dumb place to put an engine. Made a simple task like changing points and condenser an impossible job when the header was down. I don't have to ask an old timer I've been around and under old Massey combines. Old timers where still using those darn super 90's in the the late 90's here.

I have Watch several old running, shedded, usable Masseys on estate sales bring $75. Old Gleaner A and C's for $500. F and G Gleaners for $1000. I know what a miserable machine Massey combines are. I will never recommend anyone buy one. For a small farmer a Gleaner F or G makes much more sense. A John deere 55-95 are okay. I don't think they had quick detached heads. At least the ones I've been around didn't.

A small farmer needs a combine that is cheap, simple, and easy to fix. That is simply not a Massey.
 
For sure. Its easy to up things a little when its someone elses money....

I see a good K series combine bring pretty good money, they are popular still for plot combines, and such.

An F or an M sometimes is priced a little cheaper because of it.

I guess that is why Im starting to branch out to bigger machines, its value for the dollar. My L3 and a 20 foot bean head was $6700. I see K machines they ask for $5000 no heads.

Takes a bigger shed, but which is the better value. 50 acres or 500 acres....... with JD, the 9500 combines were really nice machines, and so popular they are kinda cheap. Gets difficult to see someone working with a 95 or a 6600 when the 9500 is a lot more machine and really not too expensive...... Just a perspective.

Dad used to get 80-90 bu an acre when I was a kid, 30 bu beans. A few decades later and Im getting 170 corn, some years 50-60 beans. Other years 25-30 beans, I dont have good ground for beans.... anyhow. I find myself spending more time hauling the grain, then I do in the combine harvesting it these days. The volume is so much higher, as a one person deal I bog down. Combine sits too much. Im not big enough for the hired hands stuff, so its a tough deal. The good years when I have a field make 210bu an acre, if I need to dump on both ends there is so very much more wasted time fiddling at both ends. I can see where grain carts got popular, as yields go up more and more time is wasted not actually combining. I farmed a couple years with a pair of 220bu gravity wagons and got done easy. Now I have 4 wagons, 365 to 480 bu each, and takes forever to haul away, thr. Thry fill up so quick......

I think I made 3 people mad the day I bought that $6700 combine. There were 3 people bidding on it, and they were pretty intent. I was interested but the first 5 bids the auctioneer got someone else before my hand got counted, he saw I was interested but I couldnt get in. Those three finally got to their slow down, not bidding point, and I bid once. All three rolled their eyes and walked away. Was kind of a funny deal, its an auction, thats how it goes. I was expecting one or two of them to keep pushing me up a bit yet.

Well, I rambled on here, not making much sense. Spent too much time typing to just throw it away tho.
 
Massey had the combines made low for hauling on trucks for the Harvest Brigade. Engines were moved on top in 1963. I had 2 different guys come to buy my 1970-1980's MF 760& 860 model combines They run both MF and Deere combines of that age. They both said their next combine would be a Massey because they were easier to work on than the Deere.
 
We had a K for a number of years and jumped up to a F3 a few years ago. I am still shocked at the difference in that combine vs the K. Don't get me wrong the K was great but the F3 is more than you think it would be. Defiantly get something with a power fold auger. I highly recommend a F2 or F3 or even a M2 or M3.

Jim
 
A MF 205 or 300 model would be a good choice of small combine. Massey pioneered the quick attach head system in 1967 and were first with hyd swing unload augers. MF won the National Corn picking contest in the 1960's with a MF 510 held in Iowa at the Farm Progress show. The winning combine was owned by Hans Sulzer of Monroe Wi.
 
When you really think about it, of all the K and K2s ever sold new, with the exception of maybe one doctor and one lawyer, I doubt anybody with a 40 acre farm ever bought one. New combines in the 70s were sold to farms with a few hundred acres at least.
 
Yes that is the big problem i am on the east coast where cars , trucks , farm equipment , houses everything is 1/3 to 1/5 more expensive here then out west i see small combines there all the time cheap sometimes even free but i am 1200 to 1500 miles away and i work 6 days a week so i never have time to go get one of them and trucking is very expensive i cant find a trucker for less then 3.00 a mile so even if somebody gave a combine completely free the shipping/trucking would eat me alive i cant afford this and here there is no small farm equipment hardly everything here is 8 or 10 or 12 row stuff

I use 4 row cultivator , 4 row planter , 4 row muddle buster , 4 row bedder i had to buy all these 4 row implements in another state small equioment is hard to find the smallest combine for sale in nc are 9500 or 9600 jd combines i DO NOT WANT ANYTHING JD it will never happen i will never own anything JD no way i will quit farming 100% before i buy JD
 
Lol on the Deere. I had a few Deeres, but now I have all Case, except for my combine which is a 1971 Gleaner F w/13 header. I traded riding mower for it that I was asking $300 for about 10 years ago.
 
Would you sell it or know where i can find one cheap it has to have a manual gear trans

I have worked on way to many hydros i wont buy anything with hydro now i hate working on them in the years i worked at the dealer they were allways failing
 
i really need a good machine i would pay for a little extra if you help me find a good one and i would also a would pay even a little more extra if you can help me find somebody to haul cheaper than 3.00 a mile

I only really need a good one but being that far away i can't really see it in person but you having one you can probably check one out for me and tell me if it is good
 
I'll see what I can find. I looked at this one, it sold the end of January in Indiana. It was in good shape, I would like to have it but didn't need it. If we can find a good one that you need hauled, hopefully we can find a truck needing a backhaul that would make a deal.
cvphoto79378.jpg
 
Very beautiful case 660 i would love to have got that one

Is it hard to find this

Small combine with chopper
Corn head
Rigid head
Flex head
Pickup head

Are case combines or heads easy to find ??
Allmost any small combine would do gas with gear trans those 2 are easy for me to work on

So combines go for 400 to 900 for small good obes with a head ??

Thank you for helping me find one and maybe helping with me a hauler

i am learning more about them , how to set them reading up on these forum
 
Around my area that's a good average price. And in my opinion as well as several others I know, a Case combine will do a much better job of cleaning the grain than most. The smaller Gleaner, IH and Deere are the ones I usually see for sale or at auction. I've seen a few Gleaner F diesels with both heads for up around $2000 with low hours.
 
How many good ones can be got for 400 to 900 range

If you see another case 660 or another small combine that will clean the grain good let me know that is what i am looking for i have to admit i did really like the look of the case can parts still be got for the case 660
 
Jd made the best planter in the 80s or so, still very capable. So I own one of those.

Wife said no green tractors tho. We kid each other. Those green ones are too expensive.....

I have a JD swather, because they were very popular in the day, easy to find and worked good enough. Slant 6 engine......

Paul
 
I'm not sure on parts. There are a few guys on this site who would know for sure. One guy is John Saeli from external_link (315)-585-9826 he can tell you a lot more about them than I could.
 
I agree....dad bought his K from the original owner, who farmed 300 plus acres with it and a 2 row corn head. Smaller acerage farmers had pull type combines in those days.

Ben
 
I will second the Massey 300 . I had one for about 7 years or so . If you were doing corn that was a CORN EATING monster . In good corn you were not going to keep up with it with two gain trucks and four wagons just hauling 7 miles . Once you got it set stuff it in second gear and about 2/3rds up on the variable and let it feed . I could pull the best grain samples off that machine beating anything around .Never found it hard to work on and other then drive belts and a couple bearings on the cylinder drive and normal maintenance . I use to do custom work with it and run close to 400 acres of corn thru it plus mine every year .
 
I had a 300 for a while. It was a good machine that ran clean samples of corn and grain both, I'll give you that. Only trouble with mine was that it wasn't a quick attach.
 
Mine spit out a rasp bar and needed the whole cylinder replaced. I made the mistake of replacing it with a New Idea Uni. That thing ran more trash in the grain tank than it put out the back. I bought a sheller for it to run corn. That did a real good job.
 
Did the 300 have a probelm with the clutch sitcking my dad said he fixed one where i sat in the shed he said it would stick about every 2 or 3 years and that you had to clean it good he fixed that one in 1971 i think or 1972 i havent even seen a 300 or a 205 in 15 years
 
I never had a problem with the clutch myself, but when I bought it, it had a problem on the dealer lot. They fixed it before they delivered it. I bought an Oliver 7300. The clutch was stuck on that one. I had quite a time breaking that one loose but got it done without tearing it apart.

As far as the 205, I've only seen one in my life. A neighbor had it. Seemed like a nice little machine. He only had a grain head for it. I don't know where that one ever went after his auction.
 
There is a cool 40 john deere with grain table and corn head if you want something small in Shirley In on face book. a lot of stuff on face book because of no charges.
 
a small gleaner would be my choice far easier to work own than most other models and you can still get parts, most of the bearings, belts and chains can be bought thru aftermarket suppliers, check with Oakley combine he has been dealing in gleaner combines, parts and repairs for a long time located in Oxford N.C.
 
I'm a little late to the discussion but here in Eastern NC you're really left with two choices as far as dealer and parts availability: JD or IH. And I agree with you, I wouldn't wish a higher-houred JD combine on my worst enemy. In the end, you have to look at what is the easiest to service/get parts for.

I don't know what you want to spend, but if I were you I'd look for an IH 1440 or 1460 or caseIH 1640 or 1660. They are the simplest, easiest to work on, and parts are plentiful, both genuine caseIH and aftermarket. There are a few good caseIH dealers in eastern NC. You'll have a hydro transmission, but IMO you'll be better off than with a gear drive. They're both a little bigger than you seem to describe, but if you're trying to get corn picked and there's a hurricane coming, you'll appreciate the extra capacity. Put a 4 row corn head and a 15' grain head in front of one and you'll never run out of capacity on it.

Second choice would be an even split between a MF 300 and a Gleaner K2 or F2. Then you get back to parts/service availability. Oakley Combine Salvage in Oxford wouuld be your go-to for Gleaner stuff. Also, you couldn't farm in eastern NC back in the day without a MF 300 and a Farmall Super A/140, but if you'll notice the Farmalls are still here but it's hard to find a good 300 in NC anymore. There's a reason for that. (And I like 300s. They are little corn-eating monsters but take a lot of tinkering as they get older!)

Good luck,
Al
 
I have not read through all of the replies(and there were a WHOLE lot more than I dreamed were heading your way, but IMO, the bigger-the better regardless of acres :) !!
 
I have a barn kept, field ready JD6600, 443 and 216 heads that I used this past year I could let go cheap and Im not too far away in MD but since youre not interested in JD...:). Seriously though, Im also trying to farm in my spare time and the 1.5 mph harvest speed that it could barely manage in average 150 corn/45 soybeans was much too slow for someone that has a full time job outside the farm. I picked up a 6620SH Titan 2 with 643 and 216 heads this past fall that Im hoping gets me through each harvest season a little quicker. Say what you will about hydro trans but Ill never go back to the gear drive 6600 again if I can help it..
 
Face book Market place. at the moment there ae several 300's like five massey 540's a couple 510's a 410 and a couple 550's and we are thinking about the one . . Lots of 1440 and 60 I H's seen one 1420 . Plus a bunch of Deere's in all sizes . Then comes the hard part getting them hauled , and with the price of fuel going up you may end up with more in trucking then ya paid for the combine . Long gone are the days of getting a combine moved for two bucks a mile on the one way.
 
I would recommend the Gleaner f2. Easy to fix and maintain, 4 row corn capacity, reasonable parts. Easier to shed than an M2 or L2, although these can be bought pretty cheap. Just don't buy any high-houred machine or one that hasn't been taken care of.
 
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