Beginner

Hello everyone. I'm just starting out farming. My wife and i just bought 15 acres and are looking for a self sufficient way of life. So we want to grow and and sell veggies. So I'm trying to find the right tractor for our needs. I'm currently looking at a ford 3600 for $5000 or a ford 8000 for $6000. Ive read reviews that say they are good tractors and they seem to be more affordable than others. I would be using it to till and cultivate. The total billable land is 12acres but we currently lease it to farmers for soybeans but will want to use it all if it in a year or so. Any advise would be great for this new farmer thanks.

The smaller Ford would be much more suitable for your veggie venture.......8000 Ford is 100 hp tractor and would just be overkill...in my humble opinion .


John

Welcome to YT!

Both of those are good tractors. However, I think the 8000 would be a bit much for that few acres. If it were me, I probably wouldn't go above the Ford 5000 or so, but the 3600 should be fine.

As with used cars, get the best you can afford - meaning, get one that has all the documented work/repairs already made, engine purrs, hydraulics work, no welds, etc, etc...

For only 15 acres,a3600 would be perfect.the 8000 would just be an 'albatros' for your small operation.

Go with the 3600. It's better suited for your needs.

That's what I was thinking too. Is that 3600 priced right in your opinion?

I agree with the others.

For a tiller, you want a slow gear, real slow. I'm not so familiar with the 3600 line. I assume it has at least 8 gears? Or more? So you can get a
nice slow one.

Paul

Go with the 3600. Then in a few years, get you a good Farmall Cub with a good set of cultivators.
Richard in NW SC

The ford 3600 is a good choice for a general purpose tractor but 5000 is a lot of money for one
this day and time, you should be able to buy it for substantially less money, 3500-4000 would be
all I would go if it was in top shape with excellent tires.

I am not a farmer. But I have seen plenty of new ones going broke around this county as I deliver feed. I would say take this advice.
Don't act like you know it all. Because you don't.
Don't be afraid of asking questions.
Don't run out and buy a bunch of equipment. You may never use.
Buy only what you need. Not something that. Will sit in the weeds and rust,because you really didn't need it.
Get to know your neighbors. Be a friend not someone they will run from.
Don't think you will get rich. Ain't gonna happen.

Thank you for that advice. We moved out there in April and have made friends with the farmers in the area and they have been very helpful. Our goal is self sufficient more than getting rich. We're in a time where people don't know is where their food comes from and we are excited to learn.

Thanks I will see if the price is negotiable that's the price I would like to be at anyway.

I do service work for a guy who is doing exactly what you are trying to do, with the exact same tractor! He is currently a carpenter, restoring old houses in Cleveland. He is hooked up with 10 or 15 restaurants in the area to buy his produce, which is mainly garlic. Just at it a couple years, he moves 8000 bulbs of garlic a season. Combined with the other restaurant-style things like herbs and lettuce, he'll be able to quit his day job as soon as he expands his 1-acre garden. (his place is 12 acres too). Start checking with stores and restaurants while you're waiting to take possession of your land. (The 3600 is the right choice, by the way.)

Get the 3600 Ford, price is fair if it runs good, looks
good and decent tires and paint, I sold a 3600 Ford
last summer here in south Alabama for $6000 , new
owner was tickled to death, I hauled it 25 miles for
him , I miss the tractor now and wished I had kept it
but like money too

I have no idea where you are at so that is a big consideration. Do you have a short growing season like in the north or a long growing season like in the south? So only one crop per year or multiple crops per year. What about water supply, depend on rain or irigate? Pond or well? Then what type of crops are you thinking of? Makes a difference on what implements you need. Then is your land good loam or sand or heavy clay or jackwax? Again what you need to work it and what crops you can grow. How close are you to larger cities that might have a good farmers market? Then where I am located there are 2 produce auctions one located about 50 mile east and one about 60 mile northwest of me. Anything like that around you? That 3600 Ford IF it has a 8 speed transmission should handle a 5 ft tiller if your ground can stand the tiller. That tractor might only have a 4 speed transmission and that would NOT handle a tiller. And you do have to have a live-independant PTO for the tiller. Do not know if that tractor was made with the S-O-S transmission but stay-away - run away as fast as you can with one of those. If it is a 4 speed you would be limited to a moldboard plow and disk and to do the small sections for that king of operation is trouble. As I told a gentelman several years ago on this site devide up the total area into perhaps 50' by a 100' spots with a grass drive between every one to mow with lawn mower so you do not think when I finnished one section I have enough seed left I will just plant more and then have to much crop to get rid of at that time. And do not plan on doing any cultivating with a Ford of any model. They are only made for a 2 row cultivator and you need something that will cultivate only a single row at a time in width of 25" row spacing to a 60" row spacing. depending on the crop. The 60" for mellons and pickles. the 25" for onions and the kile, about 39" for grean beans and sweet corn 40". And the only tractors out there that could do that are the Farmall Cub with cultivators or the scarce Allis Chalmers G that is designed as a vegitable cultivating tractor only. I do have Amish friends that are in the produce raising business and selling direct from home and in the auction that is less than a half dozen mile from his place. And he has put up the hoop greanhouses to get a longer growing season for his tomatoes and the Candy onion is a big seller. Can you see yourself planting 10,000 onion seeds a year and setting the plants by hand? Hope this is not too much info for you. But if you do devide things out like I sugjested in those small sections a tiller will work OK in them, a plow will not. And those small sections would work to space a crop out for every week or every 2 weeks for planting and harvesting instead of it all comming at once. But that 8000 Ford is size if you were working 500 acres instead of 15 acres.

First of all you need to ask your self what are you going to put on your tractor. a small tiller. 2 bottom plow, small disk, cultivator. That will dictate what size you need. is your land pretty flat, somewhat hilly, type of soil. if its already in beans then its probably pretty good soil. are you planning in using a planter or hand planting. several questions you need to ask,. when ever you do decide to do it take some samples to your local place that will test your ground to see what will grow the best. for what acres you are talking about I think any 50 horsepower tractor will work. might need to be a row crop tractor if your going to do a lot of cultivating as they tend to be higher than other tractors. very important to know who you are dealing with as to how long has they had the tractor, what maint they performed. don't know how much experience you have as far as mechanical but if you cant do the work your self you might be in for a surprise. tractor prices will depend on locality . here in Missouri I would suspect you could buy that tractor for 3500 or less. use the internet to find out information on any tractor. do all the research you can especially on parts. problems will arise on tractors and some parts are extremely hard to get. what ever you do I wish you good luck in your adventure.

I did market garden for many years, our big crop was Tomatoes and sweet corn . We also grew cucumbers , zucchini , green and red
peppers, squash , pumpkins , and spanish onions. I think that the Ford 3600 would be a great tractor for you for preparing soil, and such
but.... If you are going to garden on this scale you need a tractor to scuffle row crops with. I had a IH Super A with mounted scufflers
that was the best rig for doing weed control, as you could get in close to the plants , and with the tractor being ofset, you looked
forward and down at your work area. Unlike a conventional where you have to drive over the plants and look back over your shoulder at the
cultivator behind you , with the off set tractor the cultivator is under the middle of the tractor. Another thing to consider is that the
Super A was set up for 48 inch rows, perfect for row crop garden. The 3600 Ford will be much wider. One other piece of equipment that is
very valuable to a row crop truck patch is , a one row transplanter. I had a Holland one row , two people rode the transplanter While one
person drove the tractor pulling it. We would transplant bare root tomatoes , peppers and onions with this unit. Around 2000 tomatoes ,
1000 peppers , and God only knows how many onions. Best of luck!

You can't go wrong with an older Ford and
a 3600 is an outstanding example of one.
Price varies somewhat in different regions
of the country but in these parts $5K is
about average - for a decent one - not
"restored" but no smoke or rattles, good
tin, average paint and good but not
neccessarily new tires. For that price you
can expect to do some small niggeling
repairs to it but no major jobs like a
clutch or engine work.
The 8000 on 15 acres would be a little
like using a .44 mag to shoot mice with
Other models to consider are the 2000s,
and 3000s which are nearly identical to a
3600. Also a 2600.

I have used a Ford 2600 since 1980. It has a Wagner loader on it which came off my old 9N. The 2600 and the 3600 are the same tractor, but the 3600 has a slightly bigger engine. For you, it would be a very good machine, provided the PO took good care of it. About 2 years ago I had to replace seals in the power steering pump and new seals in the fuel pump and new return lines. It was ~ about 35 years old at the time.It uses very little fuel and it has a low speed engine.

3600 is the right choice.......5k should get u a really nice one.

Location is the key. You can't touch a nice 3600 in my part of the country for less than 6500 to 7000. I have a very nice 4600 that I turned down 10,000 this week. Any Ford tractor in my area will bring a premium. My friend sold a 861 5 sp last month for 6500.00. A 4600 with a bush hog loader brought 12,500 a few days back. It all depends where you are located.

The Ford 3600 would be the better of these two tractors. I would also look for a tractor to cultivate with. An IH "A" or newer IH 140 would be perfect for single row cultivation. If you start out small an older walk behind two wheel tractor/cultivator would be cheap to start with. Then work your way up.

Now for how to plan your crops/ground. You need to research your local market and see what is in demand and what is in surplus. An example is sweet corn. Right now everyone has sweet corn to sell so the price is depressed, $4 a dozen on average. IF you had sweet corn early in the season then you can get $6 a dozen or maybe even more. So you can make good money early but the profit potential tapers off as the season goes along.

There are crops that I would call high volume produce those would be sweet corn and tomatoes as an example. Meaning there are many producers plus personal gardens producing them. So the profit percentage is less for these crops. Then there are more specialized crops that will demand a better price IF you have the market AND can grow a good end product.

So I would work on getting your equipment in hand and working. While you are doing local research into what produce is currently produced and what produce is in demand. Keep you eye on specialty crops like mint or garlic. If there is a local market and you can grow them. these will generate a much better gross/profit on a smaller acreage.

Also look objectively at your personal skill level and likes. IF your an experienced gardener then the step up to a more commercial production size will be easier. If you have little gardening experience then you need to hone that skill too.

So start slow and steady. You need to build your knowledge and look to what your end market would be. Also be honest with yourself on what the competition is already doing. It makes zero difference what your cost is when pricing your produce. IF your cost is X and the market is X- then your going to lose money because you can not charge X+ just because your cost are higher.

Also what area you live in makes a HUGE difference in your possible success. IF your within easy drive distance to urban areas then you have a much larger potential market. IF your in the middle of no where then your customer base is going to be so small that generating much income will be much harder.

As below, do all the research you can. I'd put a business plan together before worrying about a tractor.

You might also consider a hoop house (or several). They can extend your season significantly, which also can raise your price point. Out of season veggies will command a lot more $$ than during the time
frame when everyone else has stuff. There are several successful CSAs in our neighborhood, and both do it on very few acres of land. They also work d#$% hard. Are you ready for that?

A last thing... NRCS has cost sharing for hoop houses. I know two people who have gotten it. Might be worth checking out.

Where you're located makes a huge difference in market gardening,you need to research your local markets.Location is important with tractors too,if you're in Southern VA or
Eastern NC the old IH 140,130 and the like are everywhere and priced cheap these days with about any piece of equipment you can imagine around.

I'll bring you some/ Where you at?

That's the problem, we are close to 2000 miles apart. I am afraid the trucking would eat up the profit for both of us. I'm on the VA-WV line.

And hardly to be found in northwest Ohio or northeast Indiana. Cubs yes and they will cultivate narrower rows than the bigger A, SA, 100, 130 & 140 tractors.

Cubs are fine in a small garden with loose ground but in my area they are just too under powered to get much done,much like the AC G.

Ditton on the 3600. I bought one a couple of years ago for $4500 here in SE Michigan. It was completely restored, haven't had a single problem with it. (Did have to replace a rear tire due to age). The older iron is built to last, parts are plentiful, easy to find (check this site's store).

(quoted from post at 11:36:42 08/20/17) Hello everyone. I'm just starting out farming. My wife and i just bought 15 acres and are looking for a self sufficient way of life. So we want to grow and and sell veggies. So I'm trying to find the right tractor for our needs. I'm currently looking at a ford 3600 for $5000 or a ford 8000 for $6000. Ive read reviews that say they are good tractors and they seem to be more affordable than others. I would be using it to till and cultivate. The total billable land is 12acres but we currently lease it to farmers for soybeans but will want to use it all if it in a year or so. Any advise would be great for this new farmer thanks.

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Just FYI on the self sufficiency end of things- You can read all t he Louis Bromfield, John Seymour, Doomer boards, back to the land boards etc you want. What works in one area may not work in another at all. Start small, start slow and for goodness sake, don't start buying horses and cattle and high dollar tools until you know if you even like the lifestyle. You might be better off buying a used tiller and seeing if you care for a small garden before jumping into a tractor that going to need a $$$ tiller, plow, disc, etc. I've been into that in my own way for 40 years. Dumping a pile of money into something you don't even know if you like at all is not a winning plan. And the biggest piece of advice I can give you- BELIEVE 10% OF WHAT YOU READ ON THE INTERNET!!! There are a heck of a lot of keyboard commandos out there whose experience is based on their reading on the internet, not actually doing it.

We are located in s.w. michigan the soil is mostly clay. We planted an acre and a half of various vegetables. We are planning on having the soil tested when they harvest the soy beans. Our tomoatos did well, peppers did well, onions did well we also planted zucchini and squash that flowered but hasn't gotten passed that we read that it wasn't pollinated well enough. We are doing a little at a time. We started a lot of the seeds in early March under grow lights and transplanted them. We just went to a local plant whole sales who we bought a lot of asparagus from and also many berries. the advantage that we have is we are on a thoughofare that is in the country on an official wine trail and there are a lot of tourist from Chicago that come down our road. we plan to sell to either with a roadside stand or at local markets or local restaurants.

You need a moldboard plow to turn the soil and the dry matter on top under. You also need a disc to work the soiland a harrow to smoth it down before using your tiller for final prep. Then a small tractor with a planter and a cultivator for planting and cultivating. For small veggies you can plant in narrow rows and cultivators can be reworked to do narrow rows easy. Just what crops are you planning on raising as you will need soil samples. Sometimes you mite need to spread lime. Weeds will be a big problem thats why the need to plow under residue. Just how much of the 15A you will be using will determine how much tillage equipment and types will be needed. Then a shed to protect everything to keep it in good condition.Where and how close are dealers that can help with equipment and service. Can you maintain your stuff oil changes ect. Veggie growing is not easy but can be fun if you have equipment to do the job.