Just a thought....tractor related!!

oldtanker · Apr 30, 2018

Someone made a comment about how the old tractors would still be built if people still farmed 80-160 acres.

Well fast forward to today. I don't think so. People are different. They don't want to have the top down all the time. They happen to like both heat and AC. Guess what, I do too. These old machines that we enjoy would not be on small farms with younger people. Jut look at cars. In 1970 or so most cars even an AM radio was optional as was AC or any other of the nicer creature comforts. Today find a car/truck that doesn't have all that stuff! They would be the same way with a tractor today. Heck I haven't seen a farm sized tractor that's open station new from the factory in years.

Rick

SVcummins · Apr 30, 2018

Unless it?s raining or snowing I like my open air
tractors . Sometimes it?s cold sometimes it?s hot but
I love it

banjoman09 · Apr 30, 2018

Now thats different! I like it!

SweetFeet · Apr 30, 2018

oldtanker,

I think you hit the nail squarely on the head.

tracto-man · Apr 30, 2018

Mostly true, there's just an occasional odd
ball like myself that prefers the open.
Working at a farm once I had to drive a
tractor with cab. Hated it and never drove
a cab tractor again. Maybe it's just cuz
I'm young, lol

jeffcat · Apr 30, 2018

Bet you just like watchin all of them wheels going around.

SodBuster87 · Apr 30, 2018

I just watched an old ad for a Farmall Cub. It said that it could plow 3 acres a day. So if a farm had 20 acres tillable. It would take a week straight just to plow it. No body wants to spend that much time in the field anymore. Now days credit is more readily availible as is plastic money. So to do the same field a person would buy a 4-5 bottom tractor be done in a couple hours . Also most of the small farmers have jobs off the farm so there is a need to get things done in between their job. I.e. faster. And equipment was not as power hungry back then. Planters, manure spreaders, mixer mills etc. Have all gotten bigger along with the tractors

Sod Buster.

Royse · Apr 30, 2018

"It would take a week straight just to plow it."

Used to take me at least that long with a JD 50 and two 14s.
Depending on the year, 40 to 120 acres. Long, relaxing, days.
Most people don't plow anymore around here. Except for "plow days".

oldtanker · May 1, 2018

(quoted from post at 20:39:11 04/30/18) I just watched an old ad for a Farmall Cub. It said that it could plow 3 acres a day. So if a farm had 20 acres tillable. It would take a week straight just to plow it. No body wants to spend that much time in the field anymore. Now days credit is more readily availible as is plastic money. So to do the same field a person would buy a 4-5 bottom tractor be done in a couple hours . Also most of the small farmers have jobs off the farm so there is a need to get things done in between their job. I.e. faster. And equipment was not as power hungry back then. Planters, manure spreaders, mixer mills etc. Have all gotten bigger along with the tractors

Sod Buster.

Yea, I think they were referring to a time when people supported themselves and raised a family on 120-160 acres. Thing is those folks didn't "live large". Heck lot of farmers I knew in the 70's didn't have a fancy house, care or truck. Kids wore hand me downs too. Life has changed. Now everyone has to have everything now. Most young people would not work a job and farm on the side. Farming would cut into their bar time. I not saying what's right or wrong, just making an observation.

Rick

Bruce from Can. · May 1, 2018

Farming isn?t the same now as it was in the 60?s and 70?s when we saw the end of open tractors.
Example would be on a Dairy in the northeast , cows where kept in the stable, hay in small
squares in the barn and corn in a tower silo. Other than maybe one tractor on spreader duty.
Tractors sat in the shed for 5-6 months a year. Most farmers would not need a tractor more that
50 hp to make small squares and put up 15-20 acres of corn silage. Now a 50 hp tractor is not
nearly enough to handle a round baler , and where are you going to find a small enough chopper
for it to pull? Tractors replaced manpower on most farms . Big round bales of hay, large pit silos
for corn and hay silage, and big tractors running every day all year around operated by one or two
men. In all weather, heat , rain , snow and cold. Farming just isn?t the same, why would the
equipment be?

Keith Molden · May 1, 2018

I had to buy a cab tractor so I can breathe but I still prefer a nice open air tractor except for when it's too hot, too cold or raining and or snowing, LOL. personally, I'm gonna blame the global warming for all the folks wanting comfort instead of being real MEN like we think we used to be. Fact is, I never saw a tractor with a cab on it when I was a teen, never even heard of any. We were happy to be driving something and wasn't looking a some horses behinds. Just my thoughts, Keith

showcrop · May 1, 2018

I agree with Keith, If it weren't for all the problems associated with global warming, we could all still be on open tractors, LOL

Bruce from Can. · May 1, 2018

And one more thought Keith . When a man reached 60 , if he was still alive , he retired to town and his son took up the hard work on the farm . Now the young folks leave , and a army of old birds still continue to turn up crops equal to what these farms produced in the past on their own. If a cab on the tractor is the tool you need to be able to do it , so be it. I feel no quilt. I put up more hay and feed more cows than 3 farms used to do. And we still get the same living as one would.

Traditional Farmer · May 1, 2018

In the USA we've become a 'sissy downed' society for sure,a hardship now is not having a 1K$ phone not working for an hour. And you can throw the old Hank Jr's 'A country boy can survive' out the window for sure.Most farmers now don't even raise a garden and
almost all the bigger operations rely on a large chunk of $$$$ from the Gov't to keep going.Enjoy while it lasts because spending a Trillion$ a year more than we're taking in won't last
that's for sure.

rockyridgefarm · May 1, 2018

(quoted from post at 04:35:17 05/01/18) In the USA we've become a 'sissy downed' society for sure,a hardship now is not having a 1K$ phone not working for an hour. And you can throw the old Hank Jr's 'A country boy can survive' out the window for sure.Most farmers now don't even raise a garden and
almost all the bigger operations rely on a large chunk of $$$$ from the Gov't to keep going.Enjoy while it lasts because spending a Trillion$ a year more than we're taking in won't last
that's for sure.

What we need is another Great Depression. Let’s hope the market drops to under 3000 within a week. That’ll learn the young’uns!

Cabs and demands for more comfort came about through the 60’s into the 70’s. It ain’t the spoiled kids today. It was the spoiled kids of the 1960s.

Bret4207 · May 1, 2018

(quoted from post at 08:35:17 05/01/18) In the USA we've become a 'sissy downed' society for sure,a hardship now is not having a 1K$ phone not working for an hour........

AMEN! Everyone has to have that freakin' phone in their hand 24/7!!! "Can't afford" their own health insurance but they can swing $150 a month cable, a couple hundred a year in smart phone insurance, a car payment, eat out 75% of the time, gym membership, etc. etc. Drives me nuts!

2underage · May 1, 2018

Most tractors sold today re still open station. It is still true that we older folks like the comfort of cab tractors with air and heat but the average buyer does not want to pay the 5 or 6 thousand dollar price for the cab. It is also true that most new tractors sold today are of 50 hp or less and may never be used on a working farm.

dhermesc · May 1, 2018

Couple that with the increased production and you start to figure out why those "comforts" are now standard. Working ground and covering 30 acres a day used to be pretty good. Now covering 20-30 acres an hour is the standard. Given the expense of a modern tractor adding a cab, AC and heat is cheap as a percentage of the purchase price.

ss55 · May 1, 2018

Would there be a strong market for new $1,000+ per HP tractors with only basic features when there is a good supply of used tractors in good condition with the same features for only $50 to $100 per HP?

Now-a-days farming only 80 or 160 acres in the grain belt would not be a full time job, nor would it come close to generating enough income to supporting a family. One or two good paying off-farm job or a high volume of livestock would be required to make ends meet and provide some employee benefits. There would not be money to purchase rent or lease new tractors. It would be tough to just purchase and maintain obsolete 50 year old tractors. Most 80 or 160 acre farms are either rented out to larger operators or farmed on weekends and evenings as a side job or a hobby.

rustyfarmall · May 1, 2018

(quoted from post at 19:43:50 04/30/18) Someone made a comment about how the old tractors would still be built if people still farmed 80-160 acres.

Well fast forward to today. I don't think so. People are different. They don't want to have the top down all the time. They happen to like both heat and AC. Guess what, I do too. These old machines that we enjoy would not be on small farms with younger people. Jut look at cars. In 1970 or so most cars even an AM radio was optional as was AC or any other of the nicer creature comforts. Today find a car/truck that doesn't have all that stuff! They would be the same way with a tractor today. Heck I haven't seen a farm sized tractor that's open station new from the factory in years.

Rick

That was me that made that comment, and I'm stickin' to it. The big reason that all cars have A/C and all those toys is because that is how the dealers order them in. We have no real choice. If you want a new car, you take what is on the dealers lot.

Now let's go back a few years. The dealers had only 2 or 3 brand new "demonstrator" cars on the show room floor. Those cars WERE for sale, but if you wanted something a little fancier, or a little more "plain jane", the dealer would build an order to your exact specifications, send that order to the factory, they would build it, and you got exactly what you wanted. Can't do that anymore.

As for "comfortable" tractors, we were installing cabs with heat and A/C on our tractors way back in the '60s, and MM had the "comfort-tractor" UDLX in the '40s. IHC also offered a cab for the Farmall H and M.

If the Case DC, or the Farmall M were being built today, they would probably be offered with an optional cab, and if you were farming just 80 to 160 acres, that is all you would need.

dhermesc · May 1, 2018

You think so?

There is a reason why most stripped down base trucks are sold to fleets - they are being purchased by people that won't have to drive them. Individuals for the most part won't buy a stripped down base vehicle for themselves to drive. You can't even get people to buy a cheaper to own and operate car even with the latest options loaded up on it. That's why Ford is getting out of the car business for the most part.

Individuals can still buy a stripped base Chevy "Work Truck" with a 4.3 V6, vinyl seat, no air, has a AM FM radio, (but will have AT) but nobody does - Chevy can barely move the few it produces off the lot.

ss55 · May 1, 2018

You can still custom order most vehicles with your choice of options. You do have to choose from the list of options that are available and you loose the 3 percent dealer discount, but you get the exact vehicle that you order. Some US production lines shut down in July for the new model change-over. You have to order before the cutoff date. Vehicles assembled overseas might require more lead time for shipping.

Just a thought....tractor related!!

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