Changed my mind..

Instead of replacing the 1206, 806, 1750, and 870 with 2 newer upgraded trators this fall, I am instead gonna use harvest sales to pay off all operating/ coop balances, buy 90% of my seed this October, and 85% of my expected fertilizer. Push off all unneeded sales of grain to 2012. Added hearter and radio to 870, and we have it running really great now with the tune up. Going to give that a decent paint job, but nothing to perfect. 1206 is in process of getting the works cosmetically as everything else was gone through other than motor, but motor was checked out by IH and dyno'd and doesnt even use any oil. 806 gets new paint, 1750 gets new paint and they both have rebuilds within 500 hours. I will farm with these one more year as I have locked in decent fall 2012 prices for a decent amount. Betweeen now and next fall, I will watch the auctions and private sales for what I want as I will have free and clear grain to sell, a good operating line of credit with no balance due. When I do buy one tractor, I will put all 4 up for sale and let the 2 with the best offers go. I see too many guys my age and younger right now buying newer stuff on credit and I know that the checks from grain and livestock sales have the bank in the pay to order of line. I do not want to get in that situation.

Sounds great to me!

Sounds like a pretty good plan to me.

Rick

One thing to think about,you have done all this work to theses tractors why not keep them a couple years longer,and use the extra to purchase some more land.if you can pay for all your seed,and fert,wouldn't land be next.down here se wi,quite a few 60 acres parcels have gone up and sold under priced.The way banks are nowadays,very picky.the only people that can afford to pay that down payment has been farmers,who sold their grain and now have more acres to run.just my 2 cents steve

I would think about keeping one of yours, and getting one bigger newer tractor. You will outlay half the cash for the tractors, and still have a nice utility tractor to run augers, rake and move wagons around with.

It is prudent to wait until you have the CASH.

How about running them 4-5 more years or longer, til they are ready for the bone yard. With what you've done to them they should make you good tractors for years to come. Then, bank the cash from the grain sales each year and use it to pay cash for land as it becomes available.

I've always tried to operate on a cash only basis, from the day I could until now. I could buy more land, actually quite a bit mroe at they way its selling under valued here close to me but Im running as big or bigger than I want to be. So, excess cash goes into tax exempt municipal bonds. That way its generating tax free income and becomes its own sort of 401k.

Any time you can get into a cash position it just makes life easier all the way around. With your crop unencumbered you have many options then. I would farm with what you have until they start getting unreliable. The high prices we are enjoying right now will not be here forever. Build up some cash reserves. So you are ready to buy when the values go down.

All equipment, that is newer, is over priced right now. When the grain prices come back down I look for a real slump in equipment prices. Those big greedy guys will have trouble meeting the high cost of rent, land, and equipment payments. Plus many will have newer and low houred equipment. The demand will fall off for the used equipment.

Land and equipment is at all time highs right now. This is not the time to be buying. Wait for a while. Both will come down in price.

Sounds like a plan to me. I would run the tractors you've got until you start having problems with them. They all sound like they are in good mechanical condition. Bank the cash until you NEED to buy a newer tractor. Operating on cash instead of credit makes life a whole lot easier. When good buys come up, the guy with cash is usually the winner. Just my 2cents.

Keep what is yours free and clear. With proper good maintainence they will do the job for a long time. That is not to say you will never have any problems ,but new can also be problems sometimes even bigger.....Sometimes the grass only looks greener!

I would be leery of the new tractors with their EPA compliant engines. If they are as troublesome as the truck engines you might wish you had your simple old tractors back.