White 4-210 too much tractor?

ChampagneNBeer · Jul 6, 2020

Hi All,

I have an inherited White 4-210 that is in excellent shape and am trying to learn how to farm.

Thought is to learn tillage, planting and harvesting with the equiment I have inherited on the property - grains, grasses, clovers, legumes, beets/turnips, spuds, etc.

Anywho, I only have 400 acres or so of fields to work with and really am just learning - hoping to get a few acres in this August as I learn the seeders and grain drill.

Long story short, is the 4-210 too much tractor?

I don't run the thousands of acres my grandpa did nor do I really know what I am doing 😂.

I think all the equipment I have can be pulled by my other, smaller tractors, cept maybe the spuds picker.

Guess I am just looking for advice for farmers who know what's what...

I like the idea of having "4WD" but man that 4-210 is a biggins.

Would y'all learn on a smaller tractor or run and learn on the biggest tractor you have?

Janicholson · Jul 6, 2020

It is a very nice desired tractor. What you do is your's to decide. If you never intend, and know you will never put 500 in tillage or "big" hay making, its value when sold correctly will buy 2 or 3 smaller more nimble tractors that will be practical for limited time/dedication. Jim

jon f mn · Jul 6, 2020

400 acres of the type farming your doing is about right for that size and vintage tractor. I would expect most farming that much have a near 200hp tractor as their big one.

Leroy · Jul 6, 2020

Big dission on size would be are you working now and if so how many hours would you have avaible to do the farm work? If nothing else to take up your time a smaller would handle that many acres but if you are working a 60 hour a week job then even at its size it will not be big enough.

paul · Jul 6, 2020

If you intend to farm 400 acres, that would be a minimum size tractor.

If you are going to rent out 350 acres and hobby farm the remaining 50 or less, then a smaller more nimble tractor would be a better match.

You mention an interesting selection of crops, what is the actual market for those? Are you looking at a farmers market and horse hay type of farm? 400 acres of that would be a handful and then some!

Sounds interesting.

Paul

Tgrasher · Jul 6, 2020

Often times, you get short windows between rains to plant. Having this tractor to do tillage with, will make it so much quicker and easier. The White is an excellent machine to work with. I use a Steiger 310 panther, White 2-135, and a Case 300. You didn't say what there was to put behind the White but good used tillage equipment for it goes cheap because there is so much of it around. Keep the White.

rustred · Jul 6, 2020

its just right if you have the machinery to go with it. other wise just the tractor is not much good if you need to buy machinery to match it.

SVcummins · Jul 6, 2020

Well a 4-210 will not work at all for the row crop harvesting or care of those crops the beets and potatoes it would do the preplant tillage and that’s about it .

Fordy20 · Jul 6, 2020

When I was in high school we famed 730 acres with a John Deere R (40 some hp), a John Deere unsyled A and a 42 B. I had to look up on the internet to see the size of the White and that's pretty big and clumsy for only 400 acres. One nice 100 hp row crop tractor like a 4020, 4240 or 856 or newer models of that size and configuration I would think would be a lot more useful and enjoyable for you.

EFV · Jul 6, 2020

There is no such thing as too much tractor,but lots
of instances where there is too little operator.
Learning about farming the way you describe is like
playing solitaire. Two minutes after you get going
there will be somebody looking over your shoulder
telling you what to do. They will also point out that
you're doing it wrong. Good luck and enjoy yourself.

oliverkid · Jul 6, 2020

4-210 was built with bar axles and a three point specifically so you can still row crop with it. They go down 30 inch rows just fine.

Scott 730 · Jul 6, 2020

(quoted from post at 11:47:15 07/06/20) Well a 4-210 will not work at all for the row crop harvesting or care of those crops the beets and potatoes it would do the preplant tillage and that s about it .

So a 4-210 can't pull a beet topper, beet lifter, or potato digger???? :roll:

paul · Jul 6, 2020

EFV, I enjoy the varied advice here, but yours is probably the most valuable!

My answer is as a corn and soybean farmer trying to fit about that much acreage in the short summers of Minnesota, between the all too frequent rain storms here. When you get a chance to go you gotta go double time, and get the job done before the next rain. Winter is always coming soon here, no time to wait things out,

With the varied and unusual crops mentioned, and 400 acres, that is an interesting question, I probably would end up being that voice over the shoulder saying well you can’t do that, and you need to do this.... but I wonder what the location and markets are for the original poster and the crops mentioned. I think here potatoes are mostly a contract crop, you sure wouldn’t plant 200 acres of them and then see what happens come fall.....

But 400 acres is a good chunk of land, my crops you invest close to $1000 an acre in the hopes to get a little over $1000 an acre return. Do it wrong and you have messed up a lot of money in one year. Taxes alone here would be $16,000+ a year on 400 acres, one doesn’t have the luxury to screw up too much or you go in the hole real quick.

Those older Oliver and White tractors are good machines, I’d hate to see you give it up and not find something like it again for a long time if you find you do need it.

Paul

SVcummins · Jul 6, 2020

Be about like socks on a rooster but.i guess you could and
have 1/4 mile headlands on each end

SVcummins · Jul 6, 2020

Going down the row is the easy part trying to dig potatoes or beets and get turned around is the hard part

Kickinbull · Jul 6, 2020

Develop a market, work your way backwards. Keeping in mind what you have to work with.

caterpillar guy · Jul 6, 2020

Keep it for now. You didn't have to buy it and to replace it would be costly in these low price times. you also have not said where you are going to be doing this. Potatoes usually are on sand and beets like heavier ground or irrigation. Beets will grow on sand just need more water though.
Quite the selection of tractors an 806 and a white 4 210. As for the headland argument It is all nonsense. We use a couple of Stiegers with no appreciable extra headland needed to turn. The equipment will dictate the headland size more than the tractor. They will all require about 2 passes for a headland just a 12 foot disk will be a narrower strip than a 30 foot disk.

flying belgian · Jul 6, 2020

I just never heard that said before.===help me. my tractor has to much power.

SVcummins · Jul 6, 2020

I can promise you a 100 hp tractor will work circles around either of these especially the Steiger with hydraulics that are weak to lift a chisel plow let alone cycle a loader

ChampagneNBeer · Jul 6, 2020

Thanks for the input.

Yeah, I am in northern MI and our season isn't long nor predictable for weather as well.

Regarding land, I don't have any intention to jump into trying to farm 400+ acres, but my thought was to learn the tractors and equioment then try some demonstration plots on a micro scale.

From there, I could see what worked and what didn't and what was marketable in my local area

Worst scenario I turn the land to hay fields and let them sit for another half decade 😆.

ChampagneNBeer · Jul 6, 2020

Yeah, kinda my thought and since I have zero idea of what I am doing and learning as I go, I would hate to destroy/ruin equipment that is absurdly costly to fix.

I have been using and working through the 806D and even that is more complex that the JD Model A, and it's not like the 806 is rocket science 😆

ChampagneNBeer · Jul 6, 2020

Hi,

Good question.

Long story short, the plan is start small with demonstration plots to see what works and what we can market - and what is most enjoyable 😀

The current demos ideas are cereal grains, legumes, clovers, alfalfa, corn, sugar beets, maybe soybeans etc.

Thought is, if all else falls apart, we can pant for hay and straw and move to some form of bailing.

As for behind the White, really have a bunch of options, most which shoild be able to be pulled by the 806D - 4 bottom plow, IH 720 offset disc, JD 8250 grain drill, milleston cultivator seeder etc.

Not suree how much HP the potato planters, cutters and diggers take but think those might need more butt than the 806 has...

ChampagneNBeer · Jul 6, 2020

Hi Paul,

Good question.

Thought is to start small, try demo plots and see what we like and works (market etc).

As for market, we really figured to try our hands in a bunch of things to see what we enjoyed best, so that could be anything from hay to straw to feed to farmers markets etc.

Concern isnt really about being a "big" farmer or making money, but more so about what we enjoy, works for us etc.😀

Really excited about it and the learning, biggest worry is destroying expensive equipment 😕

caterpillar guy · Jul 7, 2020

MI has one of the most diverse agriculture's the the country. IF you are asking about sugar beets and taters your in around Munger/Indiantown or over closer to the Edmore areas. Yes there are taters grown in a few other areas. Most of them are in those areas though. I'm in Shiawassee county. At Owosso MI.

2 9600 · Jul 7, 2020

sv you obviously have no idea what you are talking about on the steiger , that is a 1000 series puma,27gpm . the same tractor as a 9000 series caseih to say they wont pick up a chisel plow is a waste of your breath .

Robert (ID) · Jul 7, 2020

When I was younger, the farmer i worked for had a White 4-270, The even bigger brother to your 4-210!! Its main purpose was tillage. We pulled a 9 shank hydralic reset ripper, 18ft disk and a roller packer all at the same time. It was a horse.. but in the fall we would take the duals off and pulled a 4 row siderow potato digger with it.. It just kinda toyed with it....

SVcummins · Jul 8, 2020

That couldn’t have been handy . I see some guys around American falls pulling 4 row Lockwood harvesters with a couple Steiger row crop specials they have 8 degree steerinf on the front axle before the articulation moves which still can’t be handy but more so than a regular 4wd

2 9600 · Jul 8, 2020

I have two of them sv. you would be shocked at their handling . they are narrow frame, bar axle . I have never had less than 12 row on one .but I would not be surprised if they could turn back on 8 .30s .quick turning .the 8 degrees . is just for 3pt to stop tail wiggle when in rows with mounted toolbars. why would you have such narrow ends

White 4-210 too much tractor?

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