Question: Is a combine cheaper in 2017 than in 1981?

[Sheepwheat]

Here at least, the 70’s and 80’s were indeed the golden years of grain farming. I have my dads income tax returns from those years. It is eye opening. Under 40 bucks an acre total costs, which includes animal costs as well. 40 bushel canola, and wheat, canola sold some years for up to 13 bucks a bushel, often 7 to 9...

Needed probably 12 or 15 grand to live on. The rest went in the bank and collected 14 and 15 per cent interest.

Now, if you were too dry, too leveraged, it was a different thing, like it is now...

[Partners]

Back in the 80's. A combine was worth the same as a quarter of land..approx..100 to 130 thousand..
So now land is way to cheap..

[blackpowder]

Top quarters here now $800k.
Back then guys retired and bought a house in town with $ from 1 quarter. Be a nice shack here now days even at $600k.
Another. Are the two combine scenarios comparable if bought used at half price??
I once bought a 14 yr old 1680 for $50k. Wouldnt touch a 14 yr old 9240 for $300k. Only time will tell

[burnt]

Yes the ITC of 10% plus 50% depreciation first year was a nice tax deduction back then....but geez I remember we were barely making any money plus the interest at 16% too. It’s way easier to make it work today. The under 50 crowd has no idea how brutal the 1980,s were to survive. I hope they don’t have to see it or us who did get the repeat again.

What interest rate would it take today - 8%? That's what it was for my earliest loans. But not for long...BOOM!

I wonder if 8% would be just as disastrous today as 22% was back in '81.

I've used the measuring stick of a year's wage's buying power back then compared to a year's wages buying power today.

I also think it was easier back then. In fact, I know it was.

[Hamloc]

What was the price of grain on 1981....I think some are forgetting some of the important pieces of the equation.....

5 dollar wheat then would be 15 today....

Yield doesn't factor in because if the manufacturers make to many. (yield for deere and case collectively) they don't drop the price.

The work got done in 1981 but had more neighbors.....


Some things are priceless....

Wheat is still 5 dollars today, that would be $1.95 in 1981 dollars. A $550000 combine is $214500 in 1981 dollars. So if it was hard to pay for a $110000 dollar combine in 1981 with $5 wheat, how hard would it be to pay for a $214500 combine in 1981 with $1.95 wheat, which is what you would be doing using today's values in 1981 dollars. No contest in my mind, combines were more affordable in 1981.

[bucket]

Bought a brand new jd 9500 with a pickup header for 155200 in 1997....


Kept it for 14 crops....simple reliable.... not a high tech machine but an improvement over a 7720 and 7721 at the time....

Affordability starts with the purchase price but ends with reliability. ....today's combines don't hold a candle to what was available back then...

Machines today are made for a three year life cycle it seems and they get traded or needing a rebuild. ...why?

[tweety]

Hamloc, you're just saying stuff, but makes no economical sense for the original question.

So, if we can agree its twice as fast the combine should cost 562,000 ish.

Seems pretty much a wash, although the whining is also increasing at the same rate as inflation since 1981. OMFG, give it a rest - no one cares about your money problems you made for yourself so STFU about them.

Farming is a profitable, stable career, always has been, always will be.

[Hamloc]

Hamloc, you're just saying stuff, but makes no economical sense for the original question.

So, if we can agree its twice as fast the combine should cost 562,000 ish.

Seems pretty much a wash, although the whining is also increasing at the same rate as inflation since 1981. OMFG, give it a rest - no one cares about your money problems you made for yourself so STFU about them.

Farming is a profitable, stable career, always has been, always will be.

Actually Tweety I don't have any money problems. My combines are payed for. You response was quite ignorant and I wasn't whining, I simply pointed out that today's combine value translated back to 1981 using what we get for wheat today in 1981 dollars would be unaffordable. Today a combine can be shut down by a bad sensor. Didn't happen in 1981!

[tweety]

I didn't say you were whining hammy

A better comparison might be a TR85 and CR9080