let's talk tractors

[LabLuvR]

Yea, good point Davis!

[Chuck the Duck Slayer]

The Dr hasnt given us a budget to work with either. Knowing that he is a tight wad of sorts we need to wait until we have a given budget. Based on the suggestions thus far it appears that we are all basing our decisions on the fact 2th is a tightwad.

[Slaya]

I like the 5 series form JD. Have run the 5055 some, and it will do some work, and handles a 10' pull-type disc, and the 16' drill. User friendly controls, open floor, and will work circles around my little 38 hp 1050. I'm going to look hard at one of those when the time comes to upgrade. I am partial to JD, having run them since I was a boy.

Look at the 5055 and 5065.

[duckduckdog]

The Dr hasnt given us a budget to work with either. Knowing that he is a tight wad of sorts we need to wait until we have a given budget. Based on the suggestions thus far it appears that we are all basing our decisions on the fact 2th is a tightwad.

good point.... I change my recommendation

[JOHNSON]

good point.... I change my recommendation

Now that is more like it.

G

[buckshot1224]

ANYTHING LESS THAN 50HP AND YOU ARE PISSING IN THE WIND!!!!! PERIOD!!!

BG needs something in the 75-100hp. Doesn't have to be 4wd. 4wd is just something to break when you get into anything over 50hp unless you are some big time farmer.

And new crap pisses me off. The woods and limbs at BG will tear the plastics slap off of a new tractor. Get an older model will all metal fenders. (ie. 4020, 4230, 4240, 4430)

35-50HP 4wd with a loader and something 75-125hp with the right attachments would be perfect

I plant all our deer plot (probably totaling 15 acres) in one day with our 4430 (120hp I think). Is it over kill for some.......maybe. I'm in and out and on to the next task. I used to do it with a 70hp 2430, took 2 to 3 days....worked but was slow and you had to make an extra pass or 2 with the smaller disc harrow. Which cost fuel and time..........neither of which we have.

My favorite thing now is no till or strip till. You can save a ton of time and money on dove fields and some deer plots with this. Where we would spend a couple days plowing and getting a dove field ready to plant, we now spray one day (2 hours) and roll in the next day and plant (2-4 hours). A lot less fuel and a lot less time.

There are a ton of ways to get plenty of tractor for less money and save a tone of money in the process. My dad recently bought a 4430 (cab, a/c, dual that pop on and off) and we built a set of strip till planters.......all for around $15K. I planted our dove field in 2 hours with that set up.

K, call me if you want some help finding what I'm talking about.

[2thDoc]

some good advice here and quickly. thanks.

I agree its more than hunt club usage but we have done what I consider to be a decent enough job with our current equipment longer than johnson and cusporty have been alive. I readily admit we need a larger tractor, but i am not willing to buy a the biggest one we WANT but moreso one that is big enough for our needs... not to mention I am only ONE member of the group and am not the final vote on anything.

so...we have a front end loader. Its nice to have. Sure, it makes sense to have one on the "new" tractor but its not the most important step. Realize, too, that a "new" larger tractor also means "new" larger implements. There is much to consider but keep in mind I am not buying this tractor to save people's time, nor am I buying it to spend people's money. I want a decent tractor that will get the job done. I am sure anyone would want the 100horse, enclosed cab with stereo and GPS but is that the answer? NO. Its still a hunt club. Its not a working farm. This is not my livelihood. We need something that will plant 30 acres of duck ponds, 20 acres of dove fields...and a bunch of smaller food plots. You cant argue with math....

[JOHNSON]

Haha.

G

[Catdaddy]

In my opinion, 50ish hp is ideal.

It's not too big, but will still do work with some of the larger implements that make your life easier at the "hunt club".

The 30-40hp stuff seems a little small and the 60+hp stuff gets a little big pretty quick (plus the price tag goes crazy quick).

This^^

45hp is the minimum to get the job done with a decent disk

[Catdaddy]

Also:


shuttle transmision
4wd
and blue paint


Get that and start farming.

[buckshot1224]

The biggest factor in today's farming/hunt club operations is operating cost......time and material

[2thDoc]

there is no "cost/benefit" analysis that is going on here.

i should've said "what is a REASONABLE tractor for this job?

Lots of votes in the 50hp range....(not that i base my decision on a bunch of yahoos on scducks, but i do have to be realistic.) Again, i can appreciate the allure of the 100hp enclosed cab but not as a reward or a toy. we need a tractor that will get a reasonable job done in a reasonable amount of time.

[turbo]

The biggest factor in today's farming/hunt club operations is operating cost......time and material

Without the subsidies being available, what would it be?

Edit: This applies to farming moreso than a hunt club. We all know that hunt clubs cost money... period.

[jtmartin]

there is no "cost/benefit" analysis that is going on here.

i should've said "what is a REASONABLE tractor for this job?

Lots of votes in the 50hp range....(not that i base my decision on a bunch of yahoos on scducks, but i do have to be realistic.) Again, i can appreciate the allure of the 100hp enclosed cab but not as a reward or a toy. we need a tractor that will get a reasonable job done in a reasonable amount of time.

ahem....http://scducks.com/forum/showthread.php?t=92615.

[turbo]

[SCH2Ofowler]

I do alot of work similar to what your are wanting to do. @70hp is where I would try to be or bigger. Its a little bigger than what most are suggesting but by far my favorite tractor and the one I go to day in day out is the JD6415 4wd. Its around 90hp and pulls whatever I can put behind it(8-10' grain drills, 10' field cultivators, sprayers, 10 plows, etc.) and is still manageable in small .5 acre and larger foodplots.

If your looking used look at that JD6415 or if your looking a little smaller a MF283 4wd which is around 70hp and is probally one of the strongest I have ran of comparable hp tractors.

[2thDoc]

ahem....http://scducks.com/forum/showthread.php?t=92615.

ummm....no.

i dont need another "project" tractor. we have two of those already....

[2thDoc]

I do alot of work similar to what your are wanting to do. @70hp is where I would try to be or bigger. Its a little bigger than what most are suggesting but by far my favorite tractor and the one I go to day in day out is the JD6415 4wd. Its around 90hp and pulls whatever I can put behind it(8-10' grain drills, 10' field cultivators, sprayers, 10 plows, etc.) and is still manageable in small .5 acre and larger foodplots.

If your looking used look at that JD6415 or if your looking a little smaller a MF283 4wd which is around 70hp and is probally one of the strongest I have ran of comparable hp tractors.

good info. I will look into those. thanks

[2thDoc]

looking at the 5055 and 5065 slaya said.

Buckshot--i know we can do the no till and strip till but we got a LONG way to go figuring out some of our weed issues. a bigger tractor doesnt kill pigweed any better than a small one. we need to get on that, for sure.

[buckshot1224]

Without the subsidies being available, what would it be?

Edit: This applies to farming moreso than a hunt club. We all know that hunt clubs cost money... period.

Hunt clubs have budgets.......therefore that budget is based on T&M

The only difference between a 100 acre farm and a 100 acre hunt club is that the hunt club has no $$$ return. The base budget to get started is the same. (excluding subsidies)

Everyone has seems to have this idea that you need a 2000+ tractor that is 4wd and that is the part that kills me. You can spend 14K on a 35-50hp 4wd that is 10 years old or you can spend 11K on a 1980 100HP tractor that is 2wd and will run circles around the newer models. Plus they are a heck of a lot easier to work on.

We have 12-15 tractors.........the newest one is 1985 and I wouldn't care to have anything newer.