farming with older equipment

I like to read the post on here and just wondering do some farmers on large acreage ( over 1000 acers) still use older tractors and combines only to farm with. I guess I am talking 20 year old and older equipment. Here in central IL, you hardley see equipment over ten years old working in the fields anymore.I guess everyone must talk about me around here. I farm 3200 acers with a 5288 5088 1486 and 1466.

I farm in the S.J.V. of calif. started in 1967 with cotton,hay,grains, could not afford new. Used mostly used all I.H.began slow trasition to J.D.in the 70's ended my row crop days with all j.d. purchased used.In 2000 trasitioned out of row crops into Almond orchards, my line up is a 81, 4440 j.d., 76, 2640 jd, 80 ,2640 jd ,96, 2755 j.d..These tractors do great job, my fear is that calif air pollution board may make me retire them in next few years.

Myself i do not see a thing wrong with it . Over here that is all we farm with and nothing as new as the 88 sires . Got one farmer that up till two years ago his big horse in the stable was TWO S?MTA's one was bought new and the other i found him and each year before plowing i go tune both p and he is good to go. The list of equipment that i service now is (1) 2255 oil All over (1)1950T four,Four S/MTA's (10 WD 45 bought new and still on the same farm and still looks super good , 706 GASSERS (1) 966 (1)400 Gasser (2) Farmall H's (1) 720 Deere diesel (1) JD A (1)JD B (1)JD 50 and a hand full of M's and S/M's (1) JD 55 Combine and one Almost dead Massey 410. That makes up what is around me that i take care of in my semiretirement And all of it is used each and everyday doing what it was ment to do FARM OH yea (2) 1066's

We don't do the tillage type farming any more around these parts in Missouri and just do the hay thing now for raising feeder calves. When we are in the hay fields those old letter series Farmall tractors far out number the somewhat newer one (a Farmall 450) with the independent or live PTO pulling the baler around. I was picking up some parts one day for my Farmall M at the CaseIH (or whatever it is now) dealership and paid with a check. I asked if they needed some ID and was told farmers using those old Farmalls always have good checks unlike those with the new fancy stuff, Hal.

It's got be old or I can't afford it.

There are a hand full around here that still run some older equipment that farm around 2000 acers and I bet they have more money in the bank than a lot of them do. Probley in another 20 years or maybe less you won't even need to be on a tractor or combine. My brother inlaw has GPS on his new John Deere tractor and don't have to have his hands on the wheel when planting the same with the combine but he sure has LOTS of break downs with his new stuff. I really don't think a tractor made today will be running in 40 years like my 806;s that are still going strong that might still be going 40 more years. There is one farmer in the aera that farms around 2500-3000 acers and still runs a 1460 and a 915 combine.

Usually simpler stuff and no computers.

I bet there isn't more than a dozen farmers in 3 county's around me that farm strictly for a living. (1 runs 4 Allis 190xts), (1 ran 2 966's, 2 1066's and just recently purchased 2 brand new Cat's) and another runs 2 oliver 1750's and a 966 with a 1066 rearend and these farmers all farm 2000 or more acres.

We farm 1600 acre"s here in IA. We have a 3588,1586,1086,1466,1066,684,560,400,M and a B. We may do it a little slower, but when my neighbor wines his butt off that he couldn"t plant one day for 9 hours cause his GPS quit, we got way more in than he did that day too... Love IH"s

My equipment isn't old, I just live on a working museum.

Good friend of mine bought a JD 4640 new in either '78 or '79 and still farms with it. Of course he has a newer 4WD N-H (Versitile) but the old 4640 still does a lot of the work. When I used to take vacations and weekends to help him with harvest and working the ground, I put a lot of hours on that tractor. Not a real large farmer, but generally has 1000 to 1200 acres of wheat, in additiion to several acres of alfalfa, sorgham and milo.

I knew a young fellow who started farming vegetables and fruits for the wholesale market. He bought some extra land near the family farm, rented a lot, and really went to town. Sadly, he died very suddenly at the age of 47. The family couldn't continue his operation, so they sold the equipment. At the sale, there were about 40 tractors, almost all letter-series Farmalls or their successors (for example, A, B, C, 130, 140, H, S-H, 350, and so on). He had a mechanic come in during the winter and take care of any problems, AND he would do exterior restorations wherever things looked ratty. Because of the nature of his operations, he wanted a number of tractors that would do certain jobs without having to mount and unmount equipment. He'd set aside a few tractors with cultivators on permanently, a few others maybe with planters, sprayers, etc. He probably had no more invested in these 40 tractors than he would have in maybe 2-5 modern ones (depending on size, of course). Incidentally, every one of these tractors was an absolute beauty, and at the sale, they brought very high prices from collectors. The idea behind all this was versatility at a low price. Can't speak for the economics of it all, but it sounds like it made sense. One thing it does point up is just how long a well-made tractor can run. Farming with a 60-year old tractor is just amazing. In a way, it tells you how good some of what we call "old" was, even as long ago as 50 years--fairly comfortable, fairly easy to drive, fast enough, and reliable. There is a generational thing, here, too. The generation that preceded the letter-series IHC tractors would be dinosaur-like today. Imagine working with a steel-wheeled 10-20 or F-20! For that matter, I wouldn't much want to farm with these tractors on rubber, either. I spent (mis-spent?) all my youth and early adulthood on those beasts. I loved them in their day, because we didn't have anything else to love, but I have to admit now that they were awful hard on the driver.
I think I should point out that not ALL this man's the tractors were IHC, but most were. IHC had more dealers in that part of the country than any other manufacturer, and for that reason (I think), most farmers bought IHC equipment because it was easy to get parts and repairs closeby. I never thought IHC was especially innovative--some of the other manufacturers would come out with newer things first (six-speed transmissions and independent PTO come to mind)--but the quality was always there, and that counts for a lot (In 22 years, my father's 10-20 NEVER required any repairs, and I don't think his F-12 did either in the 15 or so years he used it before replacing with a '41 H, which he ran until 1961, when he replaced it with a '51 H; that was still in use with a Bush Hog in 2001--not too pretty, but it ran just fine).

Seems like if a guy has a 1000 acres tillable, he has money for newer equipment.

Our farm was originally a 1/4 section, up to about a half section now, maybe a little more, 400 acres or so. Half tillable, half pasture. Newest tractor is an IH 826 that does all of the tillage work and baling. 706 for loader work. The M and H are still in the machine shed, but don't get worked much. I think I was the last one to use the M to bale small squares with 2 years ago just for fun. The H does some cultivating and cycle mowing occasionally. The H and the M get basically no maintenance anymore, but never refuse to start right up and work. Probabaly haven't had the oil changed in well over a decade, maybe two, with just a quart added here and there we they need it.

I forget the model our JD combine is, but it's old, I think maybe the first of the closed cabs. Just a 10ft. head I think? Only brand new piece of equipment Granddad ever bought, and he went in halves with his friend. The swather is an old Hesston open cab. Small baler was a 14t forever up until a couple years ago, got a used JD 334(?) to replace it. Got an old Hesston big round baler.

It seems the problem with using the older stuff today on large acreage is the efficiency, or lack thereof. When those tractors were popular and in use, a farmer had 2 or 3 sons working with him. These days it's mostly one guy working by himself so he needs to get the work done a lot quicker, requiring bigger equipment for less passes, etc.

We're running cow/calves at about 60-80 head, and sell some beans. But that doesn't really support the farm on it's own. Gotta work in town too.

We peaked at about 230 cows milking, and 180 young stock. We used a 3788 (til we blew the pressure plate apart), 1566, 2-1066, 786, 756, 400, 300, SM, H, and a B, CIH 4240, and a 190xt and a 7580. Forgot the Steiger, but it was only good for pulling a disk or packing silage.

My father raises cattle and has about 80 head on 140 acres and makes his own hay. I help him during hay season and we run a Ford 6600, Ford 841, JD 3020, and a Farmall 504. He also has an ancient Case backhoe.

CT