fish_wisperer
Banned
ive been reading posts on this web site for awile now and i just dont see where its just for compact tractors. hardly ever anything over 100hp though.
i dont think this website is just for compact tractors
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Birdhunter1
Veteran Member
You're pretty much right.
Every once in a while someone will post something over 100hp but not often.
Every once in a while someone will post something over 100hp but not often.
texasjohn
Super Member
over 100 hp is a serious tractor... and I suspect that most of those tractor drivers keep their plow in the ground all day and are too tired to play internet at night. Too, 100 hp is another class altogether regarding cost, capability, attachments, etc. and those drivers tend to not be nubies.... but "been there, done that, multiple times" guys.
daTeacha
Veteran Member
RIght. I can't imagine a guy going out and buying enough ground to justify 150 hp, then dropping over $150k on a tractor, getting all the implements he needs, and finally posting here to find out how to start the thing.
Most of us don't actually use our machinery as a major part of our income source. There are some, but most of us make our living in some other way and the tractors are lifestyle toys, er, tools, not too different psychologically from the $1200 shotgun "justified" by the fact that it puts a bird on the table a couple of times a year. We could get along without them, but life is better with them.
Most of us don't actually use our machinery as a major part of our income source. There are some, but most of us make our living in some other way and the tractors are lifestyle toys, er, tools, not too different psychologically from the $1200 shotgun "justified" by the fact that it puts a bird on the table a couple of times a year. We could get along without them, but life is better with them.
Birdhunter1
Veteran Member
texasjohn said:
You obviously don't know alot of farmers do you?
100 hp tractors are not near as useful as you'd think as often they are too big for small jobs and too small for big jobs. On BIG farms often times a 100 HP (like JD 4020, Farmall 1206, IH 986, 1086, MF 1100) are not used for much more than running a grain auger or maybe having a loader on it to unload pallets of seed or chemicals (unless a forklift is on site, if the tractor is lucky it may get used to run a batwing occasionally or be used to push out downed tree limbs out of fields before planting.
But for farmers routinely working dirt 100 Hp machines don't cut it anymore, think 200hp minimum often 250-300 (JD 84xx, CASE/Ih Stx, MX 2xx).
Now for mid-larger cattle operations 100 hp tractors are often ideal machine for such as baling or running a large conditioner mower or disc mower and picking up round bales.
OP
fish_wisperer
Banned
i sure have recieved alot of help and learned alot about tractors from this website plus.
OP
fish_wisperer
Banned
oops delete the word plus.
Soundguy
Old Timer
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daTeacha said:
There are a few people in the ag area with the big iron.. and even fewer int he rest of the areas. one that comes to mind is markct. AFASIK.. he has a ford 8000.. that' somthing like 105hp.. etc.. Not sure what he paid for it.. but around here.. 8000's go in the 3900$ to 6500$ area..
Soundguy
daTeacha
Veteran Member
Yeah, like with cars, you can spend a lot or not on a machine. We don't have huge fields around here -- 40 to 60 acres in one field is probably about the biggest, so the local farmers don't need the really big stuff, but it really varies a lot from one operator to the next. Some guys have hilly ground, some have fairly flat ground, and some have a mix. Some have to travel quite a ways between fields and others are all connected. So you can find almost anything from an older International to a brand new Case or JD working a field, including the Amish guys with a 6 horse hitch pulling a 2 bottom plow.
If I travel west about an hour, things are flat, the fields might be 300 acres, and the tractors are about twice or 3 times the size used here, with appropriately larger implements behind them. It's impressive, and this is only Ohio. Makes me wonder about the wheat fields out west.
If I travel west about an hour, things are flat, the fields might be 300 acres, and the tractors are about twice or 3 times the size used here, with appropriately larger implements behind them. It's impressive, and this is only Ohio. Makes me wonder about the wheat fields out west.
Bob_Young
Veteran Member
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- Ford 4000; Ford 2000(both 3cyl.);JD40; 2004 Kubota L4300; 2006 Kubota B7610; new 2007 Kubota MX5000
In the Northeast, particularly, most fields are scaled to being worked by a smaller tractor, something under 100HP. Plots between woodlots, a woods and a road or stream, or a point of land between a steep hill and some other barrier come to mind. Larger plots were often broken up by hedgerows to break them down to a size that could be readily handled with the resources of 40 to 70 years ago...it was sort of a 'divide and conquer' approach.
Using a big machine on these smaller plots is an exercise in frustration. There's hardly room to turn around. The biggest machine I've operated extensively was the neighbor's NH8970 (about 200HP I think). Often you'd find yourself spending more time turning than working. The field would start big enough but narrow down to a finger or point between two natural barriers and have you chasing your tail.
On land that lays better, a lot of hedgerows are being torn out. This is being purposely done to permit using the larger machines. I have mixed feelings on this as I spent a lot of time as a kid prowling those hedgerows with a woodchuck gun. They provided cover for plenty of game and songbirds. Now, except for the hills, the place looks more like northern Indiana every day.
To me, it always seemed that once you got above 150HP in a tractor, you were in a different world. Machines of that class are built for business and bottom-line performance. If someone owns it, he better keep it productively working almost constantly or he's throwing his money away. Comparing a machine in that class to a CUT is like comparing an airliner to a Cessna Skyhawk. There's an order of magnitude MORE capability, but the dictates of common sense and economic reality result in an order of magnitude LESS freedom in its usage.
FWIW
Bob
Using a big machine on these smaller plots is an exercise in frustration. There's hardly room to turn around. The biggest machine I've operated extensively was the neighbor's NH8970 (about 200HP I think). Often you'd find yourself spending more time turning than working. The field would start big enough but narrow down to a finger or point between two natural barriers and have you chasing your tail.
On land that lays better, a lot of hedgerows are being torn out. This is being purposely done to permit using the larger machines. I have mixed feelings on this as I spent a lot of time as a kid prowling those hedgerows with a woodchuck gun. They provided cover for plenty of game and songbirds. Now, except for the hills, the place looks more like northern Indiana every day.
To me, it always seemed that once you got above 150HP in a tractor, you were in a different world. Machines of that class are built for business and bottom-line performance. If someone owns it, he better keep it productively working almost constantly or he's throwing his money away. Comparing a machine in that class to a CUT is like comparing an airliner to a Cessna Skyhawk. There's an order of magnitude MORE capability, but the dictates of common sense and economic reality result in an order of magnitude LESS freedom in its usage.
FWIW
Bob