Hello to all
I am new to this site and farming in general.
I was just wondering out of interest what you look for when buying a tractor for your area of farming.
are there certain things you require if say you are a vegetable farmer that a dairy or ceral farmer does not need so much
im sure there are a million and one different things that are important for different tasks but if you dont mind taking the time id really like to know.
perhaps if there is enough interest in this topic we could make a poll of certain things.
Many thanks
Steve

What are you looking to do with this tractor & what's the situation with the piggy bank?? A fella once told me "Nothing is cheap, some things just cost less to begin with!!" Just a cautionary tale I guess. Buy quality & get backup, it doesn't matter what colour, they all go wrong occasionally. Those green & yellow ones look good, 5M or 5R eh..

So what features would you requre if you were an arable farmer? or dairy farmer? or even in Forestry?
any areas that you might consider essential depending on the work?
shuttle, power shift, auto diff lock, certain cab features that you could not do without? No. of spools and thier function??
I ask the question solely out of interest. What makes one tractor more suitable than another? the answer must be its suitability to the task it is intended for. But what are the things that make one tractor suitable to say and crop farmer and not a dairy/cattle farmer. and what things might make you say I gotta have that one over another one.

If it is of interest I could knock up a questionaire covering tractor features and options so people could post what is important to them. this might be easier than sending messages back and forth. then I could keep you updated with the results. It might be interesting and might lead to further discussions about who needs what and if there are other ways of doing things. Let me know what you think.
I find it all interesting stuff
steve

i have an smallish farm, so i have an massey furguson 5455 with an sloping bonnet, and being in today climate you need an cab with air conditioning, an tractor that short in lenghth, but has the horse power to do the jobs.

In an ideal world you would have a fleet of 6 to 10 tractors and you could chose the most suitable tractor for the job in hand. Unfortunately this world isn't ideal so we have to compromise.

In my case ( hill farm, beef and sheep and steep slopes ) I would say 100 to 150 hp, 4wd, low centre of gravity, air con, air seat, 50k for road-work, loads of powershifts and 3 yr warranty with 3 yr 0% finance.....oh and good dealer backup.

Not asking for much, am I ???

 Thanks for all your replies.

Does anyone have any other comments?

I have knocked up a questionaire over the weekend about different features of tractors. Would anyone be interested in having a go at it?

Steve

welshnwilling:

In an ideal world you would

Welsh, In my ideal world tractors are well down the pecking order!!!! But thats another story for another day.

Reliability throughout the life of the machine would be one thing everyone looks for and seldom gets it. Kubota has a new distributor over here and have quite a good line up around the 100HP bracket.

For livestock loader tractor .

Big oil pump , few electrics - big cab with space for net wrap and sheep dog

Power shuttle

 Plenty head room-  roof hatch for loader

Long service interval -  fuel economy

Looked at Kabota at Highland show my head hit the roof ! made for short people

No room for cat never mind my  dog in JD and Deutz

Lockable free spinning front diff - reduce tyre scrub for loader work

 Most importantly good " local "dealer - no Massey or Valtra near here

 So what did you buy in the end??

New HOLLAND 6030 Delta with plus 5 trima loader.

 First Ford in13 yrs

Surely if it has New Holland on the bonnet, it aint not no Ford!!!!

tractortech:

Surely if it has New Holland on the bonnet, it aint not no Ford!!!!

I've also got a 6030 and I'd say it was more Fiat than Ford. Excellent tractor though !