Just starting out--any equipment advice?

My farm is hilly, lots of woods, and fields are small ~20 acres each. I want to do no till.

Any advice on which of the above "next" tractors I should buy?

Any advice on a good corn/bean planter to start out with?

Any other sage advice on equipment purchases?

I don't have much $$ and I don't want to waste money buying junk.

One suggestion I'd have is to try no-till on a couple strips first. Maybe you can hire a guy with a good no-till planter to come in and plant it. See what kind of emergence you get, see how your spraying program does on weed control, compare yields. I'd never put my whole farm in an experiment.

I'd agree with grey wolf that the JD 7000 is a good planter, and can be modified for no-till operation. Since you're probably going to have to hire the combining done, you might want to check to see which custom combine guys have 4-row wide (38" heads). Most all are 6-row narrow (30" now) for corn. That's the main reason you can get 4-row 38" JD 7000s (even with liquid fert) for around $1000 now.

Unless you go exclusively no-till, you'll probably want to pick up a good disk and a disk-chisel. With disk chisels and/or chisel plows, you can't go with many chisels unless you have enough HP and weight. 12 HP+ per chisel on a disk-chisel pulled in hills and clay soil is a reasonable bench-mark.

I've got both red and green tractors and like them both. They've never gotten in a fight in the shed. A good tractor for your purposes is one that gives you adequate HP and weight for your implements, easy to maintain (both in terms of dollars and parts availability) and a good dollar value. Of the next tractors you listed, I'd go with the 806.

I've got a 656 (last tractor I bought new) with over 10,000 hours. It's my loader tractor, pulls the baler, no complaints about it. Have a Super M and an H as well.

I've got a 4020D that I wouldn't part with for anything in the world. Hands down best tractor I've ever had. No matter how hard you work it, it won't take more than 2-2.5 gallons/hr. I've seen several sell for $20,000 plus. Can't pull my disc chisel, though, so I have a 4840.

Three tractors I'd look at: 1. JD 4440, 2. JD 4020, JD 4000. None of them are going to be cheap.

In that area (planter) the first place to start is making sure you have good row cleaners. You definately need to have very minimal residue in the row for soil warm up (the key for good corn germination). A seed firmer and then good closing wheels.

The power issue isn't as big of a concern in the hills as tractor weight. Side draft will be a big concern, so the smaller the planter the better unless you aren't too concerned with even spaces rows on your guess rows.

I'll second paul on not much power needed to pull the planter. I pull a 10X30 (converted 8X36 25' wide)JD 7000 with liquid starter with a 930 Case idled down to 1500 when planting @ 5 MPH. Hydraulics will be your weak point to lift the planter with an older tractor.

Notill requires a really good planter, so focus on that. A 300 will pull a 4 row, and for small fields on small total acreage, you are probably looking at 4 row if on a budget?

Beans are better on narrow (15 inch or less) for notill, corn you are looking at 30"? Since you like red, the new (800 or better, preferably better) IH/Case planters have a very good rep for notill. Stay far, far away from their 400 series, uneven corn stand, and does not plant well on hills, doesn't do notill as well. Good & notill does not come cheaply..... .

A bigger tractor would be good if you were getting into tillage, but for no-till, put your money in the planter and sprayer, forget the tractor talk. Any of the tractors you mention will be fine, but who cares, the focus is getting the crop in the ground & up as best as possible, focus on what is important. Any old hp will drag it across the field..... Look for the planter, if it's 3pt then you need a strong 3pt; if it's an air planter, you might need a strong hyd system; and so on. Focus on the planter, worry about yet another tractor after you get a planter decided.

That's my opinion, but I suppose you won't like me either. :) Just that your message strikes me a little odd somehow. :) Best of luck on the search. :)

--->Paul

Just to clarify, i've had my "old" tractors for a few years. Mainly bought them to eventually restore. My 300RC has a trip bucket loader, the Super A is used for small farm jobs such as mowing and cleaning the barn, and the M is there for pulling wagons, etc.

I'm puzzled why everyone has a problem with me having 3 tractors. Would it make everyone happy if I only had 1?

You are asking about starting farming & planting stuff. To me, the most important piece is the planter I guess. Can't possibly tell you what tractor to buy for your operation, without knowing what you plan to pull with the thing!

No-till means different things to different people. No one in my whole county does real notill, I have to drive almost 100 miles to get to lighter, drier, warmer soils where it works somewhat. But people go to rippers & various chisel plow designs & call that no-till around here. Their fields look just as black as my plowed cornstalks which I don't shred or disk.

So, I guess I'm just wondering what it is you want to do.

From that, pick a planter & some minimal tillage equipment (for fixing problem areas, compaction, etc.).

And then, at that point, figure out a tractor you need.

Just hit me as funny, that you state you want to get into notill farming, you list the tractors you have, and you want to buy more tractors.

But, what about the notill? What about the planting? felt like you forgot that.

Yes, my reply & others were a little off the wall, not very helpful. Guess it was hard to be helpful when it looks like you are putting the cart before the horse, and I meant to be a little funny. Sorry if it didn't come out that way.

Yes, you probably need more than a 300 to pull a real notill bean drill & real notill corn planter of any size.

How big of equipment are you looking at? It would be easier to help you if we had some clues. Many folks around here want 2 row corn planters. Maybe you are like my neighbor with 100 acres, but he bought an 8 row planter because it was cheap - he plants the end rows and is almost done! ;) ;)

Around here, IH 56 planters were ok, and the updated 800 air planters are acceptable. In between, everybody bought green for corn planters as well! :) But now adays, the Case machines have better depth wheels & closing systems for true no-till planting. Lots of people are swapping these red parts onto their green planters.

Dawn & Martin & many other companies make add-on row sweeps/ coulters & closing wheels to retrofit planters to work in your soil types. It's not cheap per row, but without tillage, that planter needs to make a perfect seedbed in one shot, while spacing out corn in a perfect spacing on really tough damp ground. Need all the right equipment for your soil conditions.

So again, we come back to the tractor - whatever pulls it, really. Least of my worries if I were going to try notill..... . ;)

I've pulled my (regular tillage) corn planter with a narrow front mid 50's 40hp tractor, an 85 hp turbo tractor with cab, and a 27 hp compact little loader tractor. Doesn't much matter - the old tractor didn't have enough hyd to lift it full of fert, hate planting with a cab on, and the compact would be low on hp in wet conditions. The planter, however, matters.

Seems odd you would shop for the tractor before knowing the planter is all. But, more tractors is a good thing - I have 7. :)

--->Paul

Mike

Mike

Mike

As for my tractors, it's true I cannot drive more than 1 at a time, but each has it's own job.

I'm looking to go with a more "modern" unit for actual farming.

Is there something really bad about any of the IH tractors I mentioned or do you just love green better?