Which tractor/equipment for 70 ac grain farm

Hello all, wondering about taking advantage of the 70 acres of workable land on our family farm and possibly buying a dependable Diesel tractor to pull a set of disks, packers, levellers. Not sure whether to get an older 1066 with no cab or say go to something along the lines of a 3288..it has to be red as my late Father would roll over if I rolled anything Green in the shed..We primarily rotate corn, beans, and wheat, but not sure if i need to spend the extra money on 4 wheel drive thinking maybe duals might do....Please make suggestions and how wide of disks i can pull with suggested tractor and what equipment I should look at purchasing to compliment disks..thank you

(quoted from post at 08:37:50 09/14/12) Hello all, wondering about taking advantage of the 70 acres of workable land on our family farm and possibly buying a dependable Diesel tractor to pull a set of disks, packers, levellers. Not sure whether to get an older 1066 with no cab or say go to something along the lines of a 3288..it has to be red as my late Father would roll over if I rolled anything Green in the shed..We primarily rotate corn, beans, and wheat, but not sure if i need to spend the extra money on 4 wheel drive thinking maybe duals might do....Please make suggestions and how wide of disks i can pull with suggested tractor and what equipment I should look at purchasing to compliment disks..thank you

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Something like an 856, 966 with a set of rear duals will do everything you need for 70 acres. a 16 foot disk will be a good match, and a 6 row planter won't even give it a work out. A cab is entirely your choice, but I would not pay extra to get it.

A lot depends on how deep your pockets are and if you expect the 70 acres to pay for itself and the equipment, or if this is a hobby, and how much time you have to devote to working it.
My thinking is it will take along time to pay for any of those listed so far on 70 acres of corn and/or beans. Prices are great right now due to the drought, but if history means anything, it ain't always going to be this way. I'd look more along the lines of a 560 or 706... you can still get the work done reasonably fast with that size tractor without the expense.... JMO of course.

Cousin had 1066, 1466 and 5288. All great tractors but the 88 series is like jumping into a Caddy compared to the 66s. He also had an 886, not a fan of the 86 series.

BTW the 1466 was a work horse. Better to have a little bit too big of a tractor than one too small.

I was thinking the same...A 966 would be plenty of tractor for 70 acres.

Depends on location also. Like earlier said a 706 can do alot of work and cheap to be had also.

Get at least a 9 or 10 series, a lot more tractor.

Rusty's got the right list of equipment.

I have a 50 acre farm and I have a cub, super A,
1953 H, 450, 766 tricycle diesel, 966, and a 1456. I
use all of them.

I have a 50 acre farm and I have a cub, super A,
1953 H, 450, 766 tricycle diesel, 966, and a 1456. I
use all of them.

Wow! My dad and I worked 120 acres of Corn, Peanuts, & Tobacco plus running 100 cows with a 200, Ford 2000 Dexter and a SA (the SA was used only to cultivate the Tobacco). After I went away to college my dad got a 656 diesel but he did it for years with a C when I was too small to help. All four tractors were pieces of iron.

Duplicate post..sorry

Wow, thanks for all the quick replies guys..My Late Father had restored a cub, super A, W4, 400, and the original tractor to our century farm a nice ol Super H, that like a fool I sold all of them except the wore out old super C and a gorgeous Super M with a crop row front end, and thought maybe I could pull our neighbours borrowed planter with either of them until I hopefully got a few dollars ahead of the game..Being 52 yrs old and remembering my uncles new internationals back then, and always thought the stance on them looked so tough..I think there was an 866 and maybe a 806 and a 1066 in there too...I don't need FWA, but my neighbour keeps telling me how, which I beleive, i'd never go back to 2wd once I had one, but I'd be grateful to have a nice clean older diesel that I could always spruce up later once I had the time and money to make her shine again..How many furrow plow could I pull with these tractors guys?? thank you..
I ran into a fella today, that had an older massey 30hp that he pulled a 2 furrow plow and a 10' set of spring tooth cultivators and also an 8' set of discs to work his 12 acres but he said it took him quite awhile with that narrow plow...I'd prefer to be able to at least think i could work our property once over with the discs in a full day or maybe a day and a half...I'd thought of Max $20,000 for tractor only..I'd rather spend a few extra dollarsand get Hopefully something realiable but I'm seeing alot of IH from the 70's and 80's for sale with 6500-7500 hrs on thm, and that kinda tells me I'd have the extra cost of maybe redoing the engine....what's the average cost of a Complete overhaul $3000-$5000 on the engine, then I need to think maybe injection pump and heavens knows what else might need redoing

My Mistake, the Super M doesn't have a Row Crop front end..Dad Sold that wide front end as he always liked the narrow front end, which it sits in the driveshed with now..But it does have 2 capped 90* steel elbows on right side in front of brake pedals and then another capped fitting on the left side, which i assume is for the hydraulics, but I'm not sure if they will be live or not..I'm pretty green at all of this other than my enthusiasm

Our Soil is clay/loam

Well, one thing you haven't said is what your overall plan is. Is this going to be a "gentleman's farm", a hobby, or are you looking to turn a little money on this? Of all the various tractors listed, size and ease of use translate into time. It all comes down to time. Heck, the SM will farm your 70 ac with no problems. However, it will do it in twice the time of some of the 66 series or 88 series tractors listed. (and it won't do it as comfortably either). That said, the SM will do it, and the H will do it. Our father's and grandfather's did it, so can you.

While I know little to nothing about the total capabilities past the letter series tractor's, I do know that if this is retirement hobby for you, time is something you might have. If this is a "i have 70 ac tillable, and want to turn a little cash from it" then the newer and larger tractors are the way to go. You will have to look at the buy back ROI on your initial investment to aquire the tilliage tools.....tractor and all. If you have time and modest cash flow, go with what you have. If you have little time and lots of cash, buy the newer, larger equipment.

It all boils down to time and available investment cash my friend. Only you can answer how much of that you have.

PS back when I was VERY young and on the farm, Dad farmed 300 tillable acres with a SM and an F-20, with 2 hired hands. That included 50 milkers, 5000 chickens, and 150 hogs. Hired hands mostly tended the animals, and dad, his sisters, and my grandparents did the field work.

Dad was on the way out of farming when I came along as he went from truck driver on the side to working in a mfg plant. When the livestock was sold, most of the fields became hay or rented out to the neighbor. Dad did have one of only a few combines in the county, and the last thing to go was him doing harvesting for the neighbors. I can't remember the model of combine, but it had a C-60 engine on it, and you had to bag the grain. It had a dump platform on it, and when you had 6 bags full, you hit the foot level, and dumped them in the field. No hopper or side delivery chute on it, just bagger platform. my favorite part was "stomping" on the foot lever to dump the bags. I believe it had a 5' swath......fog begins to drift in after 50..............

OK a diesel tractor that has been well cared for with 6500-7500 hours on it can easily run another 3k-4k hours. Heck my BIL who takes terrible care of equipment ran a 826 IH over 11,000 hours from new to first rebuild. And a 4-5 bottom tractor on 50 acres isn't going to get a lot of hours put on it year. I can do 10-12 acres a day with a 23 hp 8N and a 2-14 plow. With a 60 hp tractor I can pull a 4-16 plow a mile or 2 an hour faster. Jump up to an 80-90 hp tractor I can pull that same 4-16 plow even faster yet or add another bottom or 2 depending on soil conditions.

Width in cut times MPH = acres a 10 hour day. A 4-16 plow = 5.33 times 4 MPH=21.3. At the same figures a 12 foot disk time 4 MPH means that you can till 70 acres both plowing and disking in less than a 4 days. Going to a small tractor and plow like an 8N translates into about 10 acers a day plowing 10 hours a day and another 20 a day disking with a 5 foot disk. SO with the 80 HP tractor you should be running about 40 to plow and disk, another 10 or so to plant. so what 50 to 60 hours a year? Even at 100 hours a year a tractor with 3500 hours remaining should run about 35 years. I know guys who are putting 300 to 400 hours a year on thier tractors if not more. But they are farming way over 50 acres.

Here they figure 2 foot of disk for every 10 HP. So an 80 hp tractor should pull a 16 foot disk.

So the question goes back to how much money do you want to spend VS time you have to spend farming. You also have to take into account profitability. Value of the harvested crop minus depresiation of equipment minus inputs minus repairs. Inputs for corn or soy beans can run in the 200-300 per acre range just to get seed in the ground. It's going to cost me about 200 an acre to put in alfalfa next spring with a nurse crop of oats. So don't expect to make a ton of money on 50 acres.

Rick

I guess the thing is, I still have a small bussiness that I operate from spring til fall and do nothing during the winter month..I had thought if I took the time in the spring once the land was dry enough to work and plant it, and do that work on weekends, then I could continue to operate my regular business through the week, but I feel it's more a lbour of love with hopefully some profit from the crops too..I was thinking how nice it would be to get an older diesel from the 70's and do it up once I had the time in the winter...somthing I'd be proud of as I know Dad would approve of too if he was still here with us...But some of these ol girls are still upwards of 15K with a fancy paint job and newer tires But high hours....don't know if it's better to look for something in the 90Hp class 2 wheel drive open cab and find a decent set of duals for it, even if it looks beat up but with Lower hours rather than go for the pretty aspect and hope nothing goes wrong with it..

I feel to consider spending $20-25K to get going with a tractor, plow and set of dics would hopefully get me rollin ground initially..

(quoted from post at 06:14:04 09/15/12) Thank you Tom, I guess the thing is, I still have a small bussiness that I operate from spring til fall and do nothing during the winter month..I had thought if I took the time in the spring once the land was dry enough to work and plant it, and do that work on weekends, then I could continue to operate my regular business through the week, but I feel it's more a lbour of love with hopefully some profit from the crops too..I was thinking how nice it would be to get an older diesel from the 70's and do it up once I had the time in the winter...somthing I'd be proud of as I know Dad would approve of too if he was still here with us...But some of these ol girls are still upwards of 15K with a fancy paint job and newer tires But high hours....don't know if it's better to look for something in the 90Hp class 2 wheel drive open cab and find a decent set of duals for it, even if it looks beat up but with Lower hours rather than go for the pretty aspect and hope nothing goes wrong with it..

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Charlie, you have to remember that asking price and sell price are 2 different things. You are not going to find many people willing to pay 15K for a tractor that needs another 5K worth of work. They expect a 15K tractor to be field ready. My BIL bought a 1586 about 10 yeas ago for 16K. He used that as his primary tillage tractor on a 1000 acre diary/beef/grain farm for about 8 years. It's just now in need of an engine rebuild plus he had to put a clutch in it about 5 years ago.

5-10K should by a dencent used diesel tractor in the 80-120 HP range. I'm farming avout 70 acres of crop land with a 1206 Farmall that my son in law and I got for 5500. It's been runing strong for 3 years for at the cost of a clutch. I use it year round, it has snow blowing and feeding to do in the winter. Like I posted before, at 70 acres of crop land you would be hard pressed to put 100 hours on a 80 plus HP tractor a year. So something with a 10K engine life at 6500 is still good for another 3500 hours or in your case 35 years. May not be pretty but it gets teh job done.

If I were you I would look at a 700 series. The 706 is a little hard starting when cold but is efficent and can pull a 4-16 plow at 4 MPH, run a 10-12 fott disk or field cultivator. 4 row corn planter, 12 foot drill.....

Rick

Rick

Your right tanker.. i agree I don't need to spend big money on a tractor to get me going, and just because they're asking $9500 for a tractor because it has new paint on it to pretty it up doent mean I'm going to pay that either..I know how much hard earned moeny Dad had into those old farmalls when he restored them and I knew what they Should bring ,but I ended up selling them for $2800 ea and I almost cried when i watched them being loaded up,

I think an open cabbed 966 (or similar) might be a good tractor and yes maybe I should look at the 706 as you suggested, but what about parts availability for these ol girls...were there more 966's maybe then say the 706, as there might be more parts around for them?? I just wondering if that makes a difference at all...I want the best all round tractor that proved its self over the years for reliability, that can pull, even if it's another 2' extra of iron,which in turn will allow me to get the job done sooner without spending tons of money to get going...i'll admit, i'm green but keen..Thank you again..Ernie

(quoted from post at 06:54:04 09/15/12) Your right tanker.. i agree I don't need to spend big money on a tractor to get me going, and just because they're asking $9500 for a tractor because it has new paint on it to pretty it up doent mean I'm going to pay that either..I know how much hard earned moeny Dad had into those old farmalls when he restored them and I knew what they Should bring ,but I ended up selling them for $2800 ea and I almost cried when i watched them being loaded up,

I think an open cabbed 966 (or similar) might be a good tractor and yes maybe I should look at the 706 as you suggested, but what about parts availability for these ol girls...were there more 966's maybe then say the 706, as there might be more parts around for them?? I just wondering if that makes a difference at all...I want the best all round tractor that proved its self over the years for reliability, that can pull, even if it's another 2' extra of iron,which in turn will allow me to get the job done sooner without spending tons of money to get going...i'll admit, i'm green but keen..Thank you again..Ernie

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Don't know for sure but I bet you can find just as many parts for the 706 as the 966. They made 144192 706's and there are a lot of those still being used. I'll bet that you can still get a lot of part fom CaseIH. I have been told that the 560 and 706 used the same engine.

Yea you can pull a bigger plow and other tillage equipment with the 966. Here a 1566 isn't worth much as they were considered fuel hogs. But you can pick em up cheap. One in nice shape sold this past spring for 6500 with near new rear tires, hug duals, new TA and about 1K hours on a rebuild.

Location will also play a part on what is avaliable and cost.

Rick

(quoted from post at 06:54:04 09/15/12) Your right tanker.. i agree I don't need to spend big money on a tractor to get me going, and just because they're asking $9500 for a tractor because it has new paint on it to pretty it up doent mean I'm going to pay that either..I know how much hard earned moeny Dad had into those old farmalls when he restored them and I knew what they Should bring ,but I ended up selling them for $2800 ea and I almost cried when i watched them being loaded up,

I think an open cabbed 966 (or similar) might be a good tractor and yes maybe I should look at the 706 as you suggested, but what about parts availability for these ol girls...were there more 966's maybe then say the 706, as there might be more parts around for them?? I just wondering if that makes a difference at all...I want the best all round tractor that proved its self over the years for reliability, that can pull, even if it's another 2' extra of iron,which in turn will allow me to get the job done sooner without spending tons of money to get going...i'll admit, i'm green but keen..Thank you again..Ernie

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Around here, there were quite a few 1066s, not so many 966s, but back in the day, those 706s were everywhere, and there is still a bunch of them around and still working. Maybe not working as hard as 30 years ago, but still being depended on an almost daily basis. No problem at all getting just about any part you might need.

If you do go looking for a 706, you might want to look for one with a 3 point hitch rather than the 2 point fast hitch. Simply because 3 point implements are easy to find, and good, useable 2 point fast hitch implements are nearly all in the scrap yard by now.

We farmed a section with an 856 and a 966. They are nearly the same power. I spent lots of time in the 966 but still preferred the 856. The 966 had a nicer cab on it. I would use either in a heartbeat. They would do you well.

I would take that M and get some equipment to match it. We farmed about a 1000 acres with two M's for quite a few years. It might take longer but is a heck of a lot cheaper than buying a bigger tractor that you don't really need.

All this talk of a 706...Get a '7' with the 310 German diesel.A 756 is the same tractor with the better shifters.Easier to start,more power and longer lasting than the old 282...BTW,I have a 706 with the 310.10,000+ hrs and still going strong.Its also turbocharged and turning 96 horses.

did you possibly ad an extra zero in your reply?? you worked 1000 acres with 2 M's ?? How wide of disks can you pull with one of them??

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I feel an open work station will most likely be most practical for me as the 25x50' driveshed having smaller doors to allow the Super M just to squeeze under the top of the roller doors, I'll have to revamp the gable end roller door to get a wider tractor in and if I had to get an umbrella to help shade me as I watched my uncles do for years then I'll have to do without a cab, but I can't buy an ol beater tractor with the front wheels pulling different directions whobbling back and forth..

if you guys think say the 966 was and remains a reliable unit, I'd rather wait for the right one to show and maybe see about giving it a new home, but something thats been looked after..I always feel you get what you pay for in most cases other than just a quick paint job..

So living up here in SW Ontario, there aren't the tractor numbers as there are in the US, so I might have to have one trucked up..What sized and type of attachment will i need, how many furrow plow and a 16' disk will work that tractor enough

(quoted from post at 07:30:13 09/16/12)

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I feel an open work station will most likely be most practical for me as the 25x50' driveshed having smaller doors to allow the Super M just to squeeze under the top of the roller doors, I'll have to revamp the gable end roller door to get a wider tractor in and if I had to get an umbrella to help shade me as I watched my uncles do for years then I'll have to do without a cab, but I can't buy an ol beater tractor with the front wheels pulling different directions whobbling back and forth..

if you guys think say the 966 was and remains a reliable unit, I'd rather wait for the right one to show and maybe see about giving it a new home, but something thats been looked after..I always feel you get what you pay for in most cases other than just a quick paint job..

So living up here in SW Ontario, there aren't the tractor numbers as there are in the US, so I might have to have one trucked up..What sized and type of attachment will i need, how many furrow plow and a 16' disk will work that tractor enough[/quote]

Charlie, You can use smaller implements than a tractor is able to pull too so don't count those out. My 1206 can pull a 20 foot plus disk but I have a 14 foot. I had that when I got the 1206. I just run 2 gears higher and less throttle to get my 4-5 MPH ground speed I want. And I'm not tearing up the disk.

Good tractors under the IH name for you would be 706/56 806/26/56 966 1066 1206/56 1466/56 and the 1566. All of those should be under that 20K figure and all of them were fairly good tractors. Don't just look at one unless there is some kind of connection.

Yea you can do it with an M but it's going to take some time and it's getting harder to find implements that small. I can buy a 4/5-16 plow for less than a 2 or 3 bottom 14 inch plow here, used. Smaller disks are getting almost impossible to find and I don't think I've seen a field cultivator you can use on an M for several years.

Rick

This isn't mine, but if I was looking for some cheap HP and didn't need a 3pt.

http://www.nextechclassifieds.com/listings/view/405436/

(quoted from post at 07:26:30 09/15/12) OK a diesel tractor that has been well cared for with 6500-7500 hours on it can easily run another 3k-4k hours. Heck my BIL who takes terrible care of equipment ran a 826 IH over 11,000 hours from new to first rebuild. And a 4-5 bottom tractor on 50 acres isn't going to get a lot of hours put on it year. I can do 10-12 acres a day with a 23 hp 8N and a 2-14 plow. With a 60 hp tractor I can pull a 4-16 plow a mile or 2 an hour faster. Jump up to an 80-90 hp tractor I can pull that same 4-16 plow even faster yet or add another bottom or 2 depending on soil conditions.

Width in cut times MPH = acres a 10 hour day. A 4-16 plow = 5.33 times 4 MPH=21.3. At the same figures a 12 foot disk time 4 MPH means that you can till 70 acres both plowing and disking in less than a 4 days. Going to a small tractor and plow like an 8N translates into about 10 acers a day plowing 10 hours a day and another 20 a day disking with a 5 foot disk. SO with the 80 HP tractor you should be running about 40 to plow and disk, another 10 or so to plant. so what 50 to 60 hours a year? Even at 100 hours a year a tractor with 3500 hours remaining should run about 35 years. I know guys who are putting 300 to 400 hours a year on thier tractors if not more. But they are farming way over 50 acres.

Here they figure 2 foot of disk for every 10 HP. So an 80 hp tractor should pull a 16 foot disk.

So the question goes back to how much money do you want to spend VS time you have to spend farming. You also have to take into account profitability. Value of the harvested crop minus depresiation of equipment minus inputs minus repairs. Inputs for corn or soy beans can run in the 200-300 per acre range just to get seed in the ground. It's going to cost me about 200 an acre to put in alfalfa next spring with a nurse crop of oats. So don't expect to make a ton of money on 50 acres.

Rick

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Thanks for taking the time rick for this info, and having the neighbour coming up to the house pumping me to get going with getting some equipment to turn a decent buck has really helped fuel the burning I've had the past few weeks to start farming..One side of me wants to do it for reasons non other than heritage as my forefathers have done and especially when we already own the land...yet on the other hand I realize the figures and profit margins I've been shown have not always been this way, although the past few years have been good to the farmers and thats certainly a worthwhile bit of insentive...overall, the feeling of doing something that's been a part of my family for over a Century and the fact I've been given the opportunity is something I don't want to 20 yrs from now say I didn't try..

like I mentioned previously, remembering the old 966 sitting in my Mothers side of the Families driveshed, and how rough and tough it looked and I couldn't wait til I heard my uncles were going to fire it up and put her to work...Just that in itslef is enough (at least now) to make me want to own this model...What is the difference between the black and white stripe models...white stripes were older?? what are the pros and cons of these models ?? thank you