hours on tractor

Here is how much I have been using my tractors. Before this coming year I have had 3.5 acres of tobacco, 20-30 acres of hay, and 30 acres of pasture ground. Ford 6700 is used for cutting and baling hay, mowing pasture ground, spreading all the fertlize, moving hay summer and winter, turning, disking, cultimulching, and field cultivator work on tobacco ground and annual hay crops (millet and ryegrass or wheat, all the spraying of the tobacco ground, and anything else that gets done that the is too big for the 960. I put (from the meter) 225 to 250 hours a year on it. The ford 960 (yes some are still being used) runs the rake and tedder in hay, pulls the tobacco setter, plows tobacco, pulls the fencing trailor, sowing seed and I use it alot to jocky tobacco wagons with. I put 45-60 hours a year on it. This year I will be raising 20 acres of corn and 40 acres of beans. The 960 will not be used much on this but the 6700 will disk the 20 acres two times, spread fertilizer, and plant the 60 acres. Don't know how much time that is going to take up. I am hoping not much with a 14 foot disk and 6 row planter.

Hope this helps.

Dave

Added a skid loader a few years ago and what I found was that it gets about 100 hrs per year on the farm but the hours on the cab tractor dropped to about 100 per year. Skid loader took over most of the loader work. The net effect was it took 50 hours less to do the same amount of work. Just amazed me how much time you save not having to stop to shift gears doing loader work. Skid loader also uses a LOT less fuel per hour than the cab tractor. I do get a few hundred hours per year with it off the farm for loader and backhoe work, runs around 300 or so. Its an early 90's 1845C Case.

That is about 100 hours a year, the acres came down over the years, about 180 now. Today the tractor disc's about 90 acres a year and not much other work.

How many field operations do you do with a your equipment (non-truck). With no-till, grain trucks, a grain leg, average full-time equipment and a self propelled sprayer you should have very little tractor time.

We"ll figure our 900 acres of grain on No-till corn, and assume the bean half is close enough for this estimate 12 acres/hr plant = 75 hours
10 acres/hour sidedress = 90 hours
40 acres/hr self propelled sprayer = 22.5 hours
2nd pass spraying = another 22.5
third bean spray is accounted for by figuring sidedress the whole 900 acres
straight from the meter 190 hrs combine
60 hours grain buggy
Plus I"m going to rip all 900 acres every 7 years, so I actually rip 130 acres/yr, at 8 acre/hr =16 hr.

Bush Hogging and other odds and ends don"t make me any money, so why should I put many hours doing these tasks? I"ll put in 80 extra misc. tractor hours for tile repair, bush hogging, loader, any minor discing( to smooth ruts) etc. plus I"ll multiply the total by 15% (except the combine, grain buggy and misc. since they are from the meter or added anyway)for transport, hookup, and machine repair and setup while running

So (75+90+22.5+22.5+16)*1.15 = 260
And 260+190+60+80= 550
So .61 equipment hours per acre
Only 310 hours is tractor time.

This should be fairly accurate, and a similiar 200 acre guy should somewhat approximate this percentage
Lets say (200/900)*470*1.1 for small equipment while keeping the whole 80 misc. hours = roughly 200 hours for a lean operation.
Optional is as follows: He should put roughly 50 hrs on the combine, so pulling gravity flows will add another 100hrs, maybe another 15 hours on an auger tractor, and 60 hrs of tillage, plus double his per acre time to spray with a tractor mount, minus the ripping and grain buggy time and he could be pushing 360 hours.

He"d also have to have 3 tractors + a combine for harvest. But in my lean operation scenarios you"d never need more 2 tractors + combine. Actually could use 1 if done right, but no one would risk having a major breakdown or getting stuck.

Anyone agree or disagree?

Trevor

Currently working under 100 acres a year, this one gets about 40 hours a year. We have a 2745 to plant and work ground as well, and the 1080 is used for finishing. The 2745 received about 50 hours for the year and the 1080 added about 30 as well. They all look like new and spend most of their life in the shed.

Heck, I wish I had a place to use it...

Aaron

Trevor

Did that tractor come out after the merger into AGCO?

That is one slick looking cab. Lots of glass. A lot like the Whites are/were.

Allan

You would put on more hours by far. You run 52 weeks a year. Where we run hard 4 weeks in the spring and another 4 in the fall.

A small farm (100 acres) with livestock would put on more hours per acre cause they may run the tractor every day for chores.

And some guys like to hear the tractor run so they start it in the morning and let it run all day, (:~})

There are many variables.

Gary

Don't understand it neither, 'cause the darned thing was running just fine when I parked it in July.

Am I pushing my tractors too hard? :>(

Allan

Darned thing works pretty good; is a bit old-fashioned by today's standards tho, I guess.

Sure works for me anyhoo. :>)

OK OK I made it up, but there colud be one.Smile

Jim