Tractors - Post them.

[btfarm]

And there is nothing wrong with that. Nice to see the vintage iron still farming strong!!

Very nice to see!:thumbsup:

 

[Kessler Farms]

We don't actually work the Super A other than just the occasional raking hay for photo ops. My son (seen on the Super A) restored it as an Ag/FFA project his senior year of high school. My grandfather bought this tractor new in '52.

 

[Brandon C.]

one more thing say i scrap the whole corn idea and go the hay route an plant alfalfa an sell outright? what would be the pros an cons of this?

 

[durallymax]

Alfalfa is a very expensive crop to grow. It costs between $180 and $400 per bag and that bag will do about 3 acres depening on your seeding rate.

Alfalfa also needs tons of phosporus and needs sulfur too.

If your low on P you'll be spending money there or spreading a lot of manure.

I'm guessing you'll have enough sulfur though being in pennsylvania where industry pollution was big back in the day.

Alfalfa also takes a lot of care to produce but it is a really tough crop. It's one of the few that can stand dry weather sue to it's long taproots.

Also you can leave your stand out there forever 5 years is max 2 years is the minimum 3 and four are very common we do three.

Once you kill that alfalfa field you have to plant something else, typically corn. You can't plant alfalfa after alfalfa because it releases a toxin that will kill the new alfalfa.

Crop rotation in general is very important for the control of diseases an pests.

Another downside of alfalfa is the equipment needed. If your just going to grow alfalfa younmore than likely will be baling it I assume which really doesn't require tons of equipment but still a big investment.

Also the window fit making good hay is very small and if something happens in the middle if harvest the value of your product just dropped significantly.

I suggest you grow both.

 

[Brandon C.]

Well I do know its tuff but there is good money in it if you can do everything right. I think id do a little of both cron an alfalfa more alfalfa though. we will see in time i guess but i do know i really want to farm.

 

[GM Guy]

If you want to hay, all the professionals I know rely on Hesston balers. big squares, im sure krone and others make a decent one, but as far as small square bales, nothing beats a hesston. The inline small square makes a much more uniform bale than the offset loading design.

 

[GM Guy]

Everyone dealing with compaction, have you looked into the Tye paratill? it fluffs the soil quite well. too well in fact, stay out of the pivot tracks, or else you will have to run it a few times around dry.

 

[GM Guy]

Well, our little 200 acre NW KS operation is just a sideline to the small time custom harvesting we do in South Central ID (family farm location, family farm is rented out, we are first choice in harvesting) and the machinery brokering we do in both states. So needless to say, we use whatever hasnt been sold yet.

Dad's favorite stuff just so happens to have been absorbed into Agco. He loves his Minnie Moline Oliver and white tractors, and his 7K series Allis' for their affordability. (how many 160 hp half modern farm tractors can you buy for less than 10 grand? not the best in the world, but the bang for buck ratio is quite high) and of course his Gleaner combines.

right now the farm fleet is a brown belly dualed up 7060, a single tired Blackbelly 7060, a single tired Blackbelly 7020, a 2-135 with duals, and a 2-105 with duals. A 4-150 white bought for dirt cheap might be attempted to get to the field. we do blade plowing on our operation (alfalfa crowners, sweep machines, whatever you want to call it) and have a set of 4-6 nobles and a set of 4-5 flex kings (going to replace with a set of 5-5 flex kings) We have anything from a 50s A gleaner to an R7 gleaner, usually run L2s.

For those concerned about compaction, look at how much a gleaner weighs compared to the competition. We got done many weeks early, and were the only ones running in the county for a while because of the nice light weight of the gleaner. And the cheap cost, excellent durability and ease of maintenance doesnt hurt either.

 

[durallymax]

Everyone dealing with compaction, have you looked into the Tye paratill? it fluffs the soil quite well. too well in fact, stay out of the pivot tracks, or else you will have to run it a few times around dry.

The good old paraplow.

The fact still remains that no matter what you do you cannot get rid of compaction completely once its there.

 

[durallymax]

For those concerned about compaction, look at how much a gleaner weighs compared to the competition. We got done many weeks early, and were the only ones running in the county for a while because of the nice light weight of the gleaner. And the cheap cost, excellent durability and ease of maintenance doesnt hurt either.

unless it starts on fire:mad2:h

Maybe Gleaners in your area are different but around here they dont seem to get much done. That and the fact that we have a terrible gleaner dealer.

A Gleaner A86s dry weight is 39,340lbs. A Case IH 8120s Dry weight is 36,043. John Deere 9770 dry weight is 32,765lbs

The gleaner isnt so light.

 

[busdriver75]

unless it starts on fire:mad2:h

Maybe Gleaners in your area are different but around here they dont seem to get much done. That and the fact that we have a terrible gleaner dealer.

A Gleaner A86s dry weight is 39,340lbs. A Case IH 8120s Dry weight is 36,043. John Deere 9770 dry weight is 32,765lbs

The gleaner isnt so light.

that's what makes equipment decisions around here, dealer support. all equipment manufacturers have good equipment, but stuff breaks. if you don't have a good dealer, basically you have a 100k tin can sitting around sometimes.

 

[GM Guy]

very true on dealer support. a guy we know has to go 120 miles to get lexion parts.

we have a pretty decent gleaner dealer here locally. as far as weight, the "true" gleaners, the transverse rotor ones, are the lightweight ones. The A series is a well designed combine, better than other axial rotors, IMHO. But it isnt light, that is for sure.

 

[durallymax]

A local guy runs an 8120 Case. That thing puts some corn through it.

Dealer support is why we buy what we buy, but some things we just buy because they are good no matter how far away the support is and other things we dont buy no matter how good the service is.

 

[GM Guy]

A local guy runs an 8120 Case. That thing puts some corn through it.

Dealer support is why we buy what we buy, but some things we just buy because they are good no matter how far away the support is and other things we dont buy no matter how good the service is.

highly agreed. I have to go 50 miles for a GM dealer. GM shut quite a few down around here.

Dad's one friend has no trouble driving 200 miles for Gleaner parts, but then again, the trip is rare since he has a parts machine, but he still doesnt mind the trip if he needs something. Looking at the ease of changing belts on an 8820 JD is enough to keep him running Gleaner!

 

[durallymax]

Our CLAAS dealer is an hour away. Their service rates are $120/hr. But the Machine is much better than the Deere in our opinion and our Deere dealer, while closer with a very good mechanic, can never get us parts. Their response is always we can have it here tomorrow, screw that we chopping now. This year we robbed all of our parts off of new units on the lot, with the exception of the main computer when it failed.

Our closest Agco dealer is just up the road. But i can say that after the two we have now I will NEVER EVER buy one again. Our White 8610 (Agco DT180) has broke down about 50% of the time we go to use it, the dealer doesnt know what to do with it anymore and their mechanics are very smart. However we are looking into purchasing a 933 Fendt from them soon. Our Case IH dealer is just as far away. We have two older magnums a 7110 and an 8940. On the 7110 we have put a fuel shutoff solenoid in it and adjusted the shifting linkage in its 10,000 hours of operation since we bought it new in 1991. On our 8940 Magnum i have replaced the exhaust manifold (common) and thats it in its 6,500 hours of operation since we bought it new in 1998 and that tractor has had the living snot worked out of it with the pump turned up. Now our newer Magnums, MX240 and my uncles MX255 have been fairly good to us. Our MX240 just came back from the shop with a new transmission, but that was expected as we have 100hp over injectors in it and its spent its life either on a tanker or pushing up silage which are the two worst things you can do to a tractor. The MX255 just died the other day, it wont go into reverse. It has a TS performance chip on it and has spent its life on a tanker and was one of our chopper tractors back in the day.

If it were my choice I would run all Fendt primarily even though I am diehard Red.

 

[GM Guy]

By pulling tanks, you mean pulling the big liquid manure tanks with the shank unit mounted on the back, to shank in liquid manure, correct?

do the Fendts have issues pulling tanks, and did you guys have a tough time learning the controls? My one buddy here at college from Indiana has nothing good to say about them. I guess he thought the cab was like the space shuttle, and it apparently did not pull the tank at all when trying to shank in the manure. The story sounds like they used too small of tractor on the tank, what size of tractor is the best for tanks?

I personally have heard that they are quite nice, reliable, comfortable, efficient tractors.

 

[GM Guy]

what kind of issues did the white have, and which ones havent been figured out yet? Sounds like you have a lemon, I usually hear nothing but praise about whites.

 

[durallymax]

what kind of issues did the white have, and which ones havent been figured out yet? Sounds like you have a lemon, I usually hear nothing but praise about whites.

This is not your run of the mill white. It is an Agco white. They were made for two years. Its not a lemon, they all have stupid issues. Our Agco DT200 is nearly the same tractor and has similar issues.

Basically what happened is the only thing they got right is the Cummins 8.3l Engine. The transmissions were not good, we have put one in each of them and they shift like abosulte dog shit, damn near as bad as our old 2096 case 3 spd powershifts we had back in the day. They also constantly need to be reprogrammed so that they shift better. We do this on a monthly basis. I cant express how terrible their powershift transmissions in these tractors are.

The cab is far from comfortable, but it is functional. The overall ride of the tractor does suck due to the short wheel base.

Now onto the electronics, all I will say is that AGCO could not wire a tractor. The wiring is the biggest issue on these especially our white. Weve replace every sensor and wire on that thing at least once.

I wont even go into the sequence for how to get the PTO to run while in park, its quite an interesting combo of what you have to do, due to an electrical glitch. And even when you do get it going it will just randomly stop.

Then there are the two very frusterating issues the White is having right now and has had for the past year, but they have gotten worse lately. While driving it will just randomly downshift from 18th to 1st gear within about 5 seconds time, its one heck of a ride when it does it especially when going down a hill. The other issue it has is that it randomly will just go into nuetral, it did this again last night. You will just be driving along and bam, nuetral, and you cant get it out. We did have success over the weekend getting it out of nuetral by unhooking the batteries for 10 minutes but this did not work recently.

To add to that the White needs yet again another transmission

So why dont we get rid of it?? Beats the living hell outta me. Ive been telling my dad to get rid of it for the last 3 years. But he says we cant afford to, I tell him we cant afford not to. O well.

So has Agco gotten better with the new B series?? I have my doubts, the first ones over here I got to drive 1 hour to the training days. Along the way we learned that they had their programming wrong. When you would turn on the A/C the heat would come on, and when you turned on the heat, the heat would still come on. It was 90* that day.

 

[durallymax]

By pulling tanks, you mean pulling the big liquid manure tanks with the shank unit mounted on the back, to shank in liquid manure, correct?

do the Fendts have issues pulling tanks, and did you guys have a tough time learning the controls? My one buddy here at college from Indiana has nothing good to say about them. I guess he thought the cab was like the space shuttle, and it apparently did not pull the tank at all when trying to shank in the manure. The story sounds like they used too small of tractor on the tank, what size of tractor is the best for tanks?

I personally have heard that they are quite nice, reliable, comfortable, efficient tractors.

Yes manure tanks.

The Fendts so far are the absolute best and biggest tractor you can put on a tanker used for road transit.

One thing some people havent figured out yet is that you cannot use an articulated to pull a tanker down the road. It is very unsafe in many aspects.

So that leaves high speed wheel tractors. Some people pull 9,500 gallon tanks all day, but 7,300 seems to be the most common to be both safe and effecient. And with the ballasting options available for them they are able to inject manure just fine.

Your freind wasnt one of the guys who blew up 3 fendts on tanks was he?? I know we had three come in from work with blown up engines from dumb drivers who were pulling 9,500 gallon tankers and when they would get to the field they would just pull the joystick back on level 4. The computers read over 3,500 RPm had been reached on all of them.

As for the Fendt handling the tank, it is very well suited for many reasons.

1. CVT, CVT, CVT, CVT i cant say it enough, CVT. The CVT is a must for hauling large heavy tankers non-stop. Im not talking John Deere IVT crap, those are not the same as a Fendt CVT, they are of a different design. The Fendt CVT is nearly indestructable even for most idiots. Up at the dealership where I worked they only replaced two. One was run low on fluid and the other one was destroyed by a dumb operator running at 0.4mph digging ditches in high range versus low range. Essentially it was the heat that killed it in that case as well. The Fendt CVT cannot be repaired by anyone other than Fendt, and its not just them saying it, it actually cant be repaired by anyone but Fendt. The CVT also helps save fuel and helps get the tractor to 35mph with little effort because it keeps the engine in its peak torque.

2. AIR BRAKES/TRAILER AIR BRAKES. Very very very important. The air brake design on the Fendt is amazing, the trailer hookups allow air brakes on the tanker which is much better than hyrdraulic setups.

3. SPEED, yes John Deere now has 30mph tractors as does Case IH and JCB has their 42mph tractor.

4. Efficiency and power. The 933 Fendt makes 330 engine horsepower at the rated rpm, but on a dyno at full throttle we were able to get it to make over 350 hp and over 1,400lb-ft of torque. Then fendt also uses this power efficiently through the CVT and sophisticated electronics.

5. IFS. The fendt has fully independent air ride front suspension with 1.5' of travel. It also incorporates stability control which will lean the tractor into corners at high speeds.

6. Full airride cab, the Fendt cab sits on full airide versus the two air bag/pivot point up front setup of other brands and older Fendts. This provides an excellent ride.

7. ISOBUS, and other sophisticated computers and controls make the Fendt the prime choice for precisions application.

8. Service. Fendt provides 3 years/3,000hrs of free service. This is not repairs, this is air filters, oil changes and such. Their warrenty is for the same length. So you have no costs other than fuel and tires for this period of time.

9. exhaust brake, nearly every fendt now has one.

10. Appearence. While this doesnt matter at all, the new Fendts have 5 color choices. Fendt Green, Fir Green, Black, Black Cherry and Steel Blue Metallic. They also have a chrome/stainless package.

now as for the controls. Im young and computer savy, I love the Fendt controls, there is nothing I dont like about them. Once set up the tractor practically runs itself.

heres the process for manure application.

1. Turn onto the road, tap the joystick to the right and it automatically goes to my cruise control setting of maximum speed. once it reaches that speed it throttles back as needed.

2. Set the joystick to level 2 and hold it back while simutaneously holding the exhaust brake when slowing down for the field.

3. using the foot throttle set to TMS drive to the spot in the field.

4. Push Go on the joystick and on the GPS/autosteer and kick back and relax.

5. Leave the field.

Its very stress free.

The controls however are very intimidating for many people. They take awhile to get used to. IMO the new 900 series controls are arranged much better.

I also love the cab because the ride is so smooth you really dont feel anything. The seat automatically sets to your weight, is air conditioned and heated.

I can sit in a Fendt all day and never get bored or uncomfortable.

Here are some videos of their controls. BTW the 936 is not available in the US.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WaQUkRtfOfs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mn0ZqaWQ7MQ&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tK0wqZunDxk&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUsSZqp_2JY&feature=related

 

[GM Guy]

looks like it is learnable in one day of field work. looks like my buddy is a little tech un-savvy!