Feb 25
Posted by Devona,
The best place that I have found tractor reports is online. I used to have a guy that I got them from at the local tractor supply store because he was really interested in antique tractors like the Oliver tractor and the Farmall tractor. But now most of that stuff is moving online. You can always go back and find some old information. But I am the kind of farmer that wants to be on the up and coming stuff. The different brands like John Deere and others all get reviewed in a completely unbiased way. This is just great for the fact that it cuts my overall research down by 75% because I can trust them.
I’ve found working with my local dealer to be the best way of buying a tractor. I sit down with him and work out the types of job I want the tractor to do. He then recommends a tractor with the right horsepower and attachments and is able to compare different models and give me prices so I’ll know how much I’ll have to pay.
I fitted chains last year and found they worked well. I looked into buying tires specially designed for soft ground, but their cost was very high. The chains have worked well, but I did have a couple of breakage’s when I drove over asphalt.
As well as choosing the right tractor is also helps to know what’s available in accessories. I’ve fitted tire chains to my tractor this year as a precaution to getting bogged down. There’s nothing worse than getting bogged down and having to abandon your tractor to go find someone to pull you out. The chains work well, but you need to watch your speed as they can slip if you go too fast.
There are many foreign suppliers of tractors here in America today. Companies like Mahindra and Kubota have developed huge markets in their home countries and are now doing the same here. These companies have huge manufacturing plants capable of producing a wide range of tractors capable of performing many tasks with a wide range of accessories also available for farmers.
There’s a big market opening up for tractor suppliers with home owners. The garden tractor has been developed so people with a reasonable size yard can use these tractors for many jobs that had to be done by hand. Many of the tools used on farm tractors like discs, plows, hoes and grass cutting are now available on the garden tractor making gardening much easier and faster.
Twenty five years or so ago I had no trouble buying a tractor. The most you had was about six brands and they all did more or less the same thing. So, it was easy to go out and buy a tractor. I’m finding it much harder today. There are now dozens of brands available and more coming to the market each year.
Tractor dealers are so much better today as with so much choice available to farmers it’s important to have some form of guidelines to work to before spending your money. Dealers are so much more knowledgeable nowadays as they are able to give you tractor test reports and their personal experience as well.
In the old days buying a tractor was a simple business. A tractor was a tractor with simple technology, simple gears and simple levers. The days of the simple one-bottom or two-bottom tractor is way gone if you’re looking for something new. Now the choice is so vast you need to sit down in a darkened room for days sifting through the choices available from all the manufacturers to work out what you need.