Iron addiction

[BreadWinner]

We run 2 500 hp , not sure why some farms need so much iron. Maybe your neighbours have more operators. Not much sence in having tractors with no help to run them. Some farms need more iron if they like turning more dirt.

[farming101]

Freewheat, your a farmer after my own heart.
You got us beat on the combine repairs. Needed some haywire this year!

[sawfly]

part of the problem here is our narrow
window. like 100 -120 days to do it all.
i am glad other guys buy new stuff, and with smaller items i do too.

i will gladly buy 3 yr. old stuff at 1/2 price. if i get the chance.

my problem is erring the other way.
being too cheap. too often.
and end up in the poor man buy twice
category.

save your pennies for this spring ,could be some deals,

except everyone else will want the same 50-60 ft. precision drill too , and they will end up costing more than the 75 ft. ones.
i guess we will find out if the market for the giant stuff is still there. kinda doubt it.

[freewheat]

I feel bad. I forgot oil and grease costs.

[grassfarmer]

I'm running an old, high hour JD loader tractor just now freewheat - the first thousand hours I put on it I only spent $40 on repairs (a broken door handle mechanism) plus the oil and grease as you say.
Next thousand were more expensive - probably broke $300 on repairs, LOL.

[BreadWinner]

$340 on repairs for 2000hrs of use, how about tires, fuel filters, belts, alternator, water pump, etc. Sounds like you have a fountain of youth that your tractor drives through daily.

[vvalk]

Depending on your deal and multiples trading every year isn't as expensive as some of you think. A combine can be done every year for $15-$18 an acre. New quad tracs can be done for well under $10. Not saying that's cheap but it's not always about the expense. Lots of farms give up $50 an acre revenue to save $10 in costs. Freewheat, not trying to call you out but I remember many times on this thread you had trouble getting a crop in or off do to some sort of equip problem or not having inputs in place etc. I live in southern Alberta where the big boys farm. Almost every one of them runs new equip and trust me they make a lot of money and they are not stupid like many of you think they are.

[farmaholic]

....depreciation. It's a real cost, maybe not so much after a certain point in time(age), or as high as the tax form allows. From new its horrible but it does continue to a certain point. So buy the 1000 hour tractor, but you better realize ownership isn't free for that piece of machinery either. Wear it out and find out what it costs to replace it with another 1000 hour tractor.

Thank goodness for people who buy new...

[vvalk]

Grassfarmer. $340 in 2000 hours. Where do you come up this stuff? No wonder everyone farms cheaper then me. Freewheat repairs are $0.50 an acre?

[Richard5]

Breadwinner, sorry, choice of words made it sound like critism. More or less general comments but if anything I wanted to stress the tax thing. You never win at the tax game, its always a 5/6 to one ratio

I have enough talent and interest in fixing a bit so I will run a bit older equipment in general, especially for everything other than combines. I feel I have a wider window or can rotate shifts/hours to seed/sprayer but when its time to harvest I like a bit extra capicity.