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Re: Re: Re: What is a good first tractor?
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Posted by Gerald J. on July 27, 1999 at 08:12:51 from (208.142.211.86):
In Reply to: Re: Re: What is a good first tractor? posted by 6 ROW FOR 15 ACRES ? on July 26, 1999 at 20:51:58:
When growing corn in rows it has to be combined. Its not profitable to own a combine on less than a couple hundred acres unless you can get a whole lot of custom work to help pay for it but that wears it out. Its going to need rows in 30" spacing and 6 (or more) at a time to interest any combine owner I know these days. All the other corn heads have been melted into cars and trucks or have rusted into an unusable condition. Can that two row planter be spaced less than 38 or 42", I doubt it? In the ground I work, without herbicides, any bare ground any time that its not frozen (or completely shaded) WILL grow stuff whether I planted it or not, this Iowa dirt isn't like the abandoned ash piles of the original Victory Garden. So its important to cultivate when the corn is fairly tall. Growing crops is far less a matter of encouraging the desired crop to grow than continually discouraging the foxtail, thistle, button weed, and cockle burr. The Oliver 66, IHC M, or JD A do clear fairly well, but don't have modern PTO or three point generally. And aren't strong enough to lift a 6 row planter or cultivator. Point is that the 3020/4020, especially if gas, can be bought with diligent shopping (I did it last year, bought a 4020 gas, wide front, for $5250) the price of a good utility tractor like the MF 135 or the 4000 series Fords that have been mentioned on this thread. And it will get the field work done faster than the small tractor, won't run up a lot of hours and won't be worked hard so should last a long time. And there's an ample supply of used and new parts because there's a large number in daily farm use all over the country. The 4010/4020 were made in very large quantities. True the JD '20s are not known for fuel economy in the gas versions. For the price difference to get a diesel 4020, I can buy gas for the next 14 years... Even at 8 hp/hr per gallon. I've farmed my 25 acres of crop ground first in oats, then hay, mowing and baling for about 8 years, now in a 6 year rotation of alfalfa, corn, beans and corn, with a MF-135 until last year. The seed beds I create with the 4020 grow half again as many beans per acre and up to four times the corn because I can cultivate more timely and can run the rotary hoe through faster. I shouldn't be disparaging the 135, I need to put its hood on, adjust its hydraulics and sell it to pay for the 4020! Gerald J.
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