Feild cultivator/tractor recommendations

[Anonymous-0]

Well, I am PLANNING on min tilling my ground and some rented ground next year(50-possibly 400 acres in coming years), so that being said I think I am just gonna buy a decent feild cultivator and big enough tractor to pull it. Looking at prices it looks like 30-36 foot IH's are pretty reasonably priced. $2000-$10,000, but then I need to buy a larger 4x4 to pull it, which is gonna costs???? I have lighter soils, want to make 1 pass on the feilds and be able to plant, I also will ned to incorperate 3-6 tons/acre chicken manure on up to 100 acres, feilds sizes are from a 5 acre triangle to a pretty square 80, possible bigger in the future. Am I Better of with a smaller digger and tractor. Seems like they end up costing the same if not more. I want to keep the 1st 3 years as simple as possible. Any recommendations out there? Price recommendations would be appreciated as well. I need to buy this fall, so I am able to have everything ready to go come spring.

 

[Anonymous-0]

You've got a wide spectrum of choices, both with good sides and major downsides.

The first thing that I want to go over is your field sizes. Seems to me that if you're planning on also expanding your ventures, you will need at LEAST 25 to 35 foot tillage equipment. Acres per hour are vital to profit, and if you plan on running a 15 foot cultivator behind a smaller two wheel drive tractor, you're going to be spending a lot of time on just one job for 500 acres.

HOWEVER, the problem with going big for the first time is the initial cost of the equipment and tooling. If you're going to buy, say for example, a john deere 8400 fwd with duals for $80,000 over the fall, that gives you about 5 months of downtime before you even plant, and another 4 or so before you can harvest. Of course, you're going to need your 30 foot cultivator, your 24 row planter, and whatever else you plan on getting. IF you do go big, you COULD wind up holding up at least a hundred thousand dollars for collateral for the operation you are starting.

If you are a first time farmer... I'd hestitate to do any 400 or 500 acres and just do the 80 acres for the first 2 years or so. But keep in mind, that if you go with big equipment with only 80 acres of crop, you're going to be stressed with not finding enough income to pay for the big equipment. SO that leaves you with choices: you can either go all out and tool up for the 500 acres, or you can start off smaller for the 80 acres. Do not fart around trying to accomplish 500 acres with machinery that is too small.

I have no idea on what you're thinking or what you plan on doing, but starting off small is a good way to build up your confidence and experience.

 

[Anonymous-0]

Good advice. This coming spring, what I have lined up , is about 110 acres, 3 feilds are smaller. 5 -7 acre size. The rest of the land is bigger 20-40 acre peices, all could be 2 longer feilds. I have a freind that will seed the corn for mew with a large planter. I plan on purchasing an older drill to seed oats, rye, and soybeans. At least that is what I am planning, many freinds are suggesting wheat. I will not be buying too new of equipment, for the same $$ reason you stated. I have to keep my funds diverse and will not be dumping it all into equipment, but I do know I have to buy some things to get started. I want to build up slow, do it right, and put money in the bank, and pay down debt. So many say it is better to custom hire combining and spraying. Si, if I have seeding taken care of for a few years, I figured I should get the tillage equip and a tractor to pull it. Then cross fingers and hope for no breakdown on the only tractor that can pull the darn digger. Dont think I will be able to keep up with Allan in NE's equipment aquisition rate.

 

[paul]

The good news is, if you buy reasonable older stuff, you can sell for around what you have in it in a couple years.

--->Paul

 

[Anonymous-0]

I would rent a big tractor and buy the field cultivator. If you are truly going no-till you won't need the cultivator for more than a couple years.

 

[Bill(Wis)]

Best HP numbers I can come up with say 4-8HP per foot of working width. So a field cultivator that's 30 feet wide will take between 120 and 240 HP. Average that out and you're at 180. That sounds about right but it depends on how deep you go and how fast you want to go. Deeper, faster, then you better look at the high end of the recommended HP numbers. There is just tons and tons of equipment out there in those size and HP numbers.

 

[Anonymous-0]

Last time I used a field cultivator to work in fertilizer I created a hard pan out of the top three inches of dirt. I'm not doing that again. So I went full no till.

Gerald J.

 

[Bill(Wis)]

Forgot to mention an old rule of thumb. feet of working width multiplied by speed across the field in miles per hour gives you an approximattion of acres tilled in a ten hour day allowing for normal stops. Example: 30 feet wide at 7 MPH = 210 acres or 21 acres an hour. Your HP affects the outcome a quite abit. If you pull 30 feet at 3.5 MPH (105 acres) due to HP limitations but can pull 15 feet at 7 MPH you will have ended up with the same numbers (105 acres).

 

[Leland]

I would spread all the chicken poop first then rent you a big tractor with a zone builder or ripper and churn things up first ,a lot of notillers do this every 4-5 years to break up compaction here the yeilds always jump the first couple of years then drop as the soil tightens back up

 

[Anonymous-0]

Sure, you can go with a 70's or 80's tractor, perhaps a john deere 4640 or 4450 with MFWD which can run between 19,000 and 35,000 depending on what it is.

I'm thinking, for your use, that you should have a 120 or a 135 horsepower tractor with MFWD and a cab. Duals will help a lot. Again, John Deere will have parts on hand most times for these Deeres, but that is NOT to say that International wouldn't be a good tractor too (1586, 1466 yada yada)

You might want a loader on it too. You just never know how handy a quik-tach loader can be sometimes.

Now, I stand by my belief that you should stick with the 110 acres for a while. You just need some money in the bank and some money into the equipment.

I always say going too fast with stuff creates a huge load of debt later. Please don't.

 

[Anonymous-0]

The one son and a neighbor farm a 1000 or close to it. They have a24 foot field cultivator and a 18 foot Danish tine field cultivator. This spring the field cultivator was never used, the danish tine was. They rent a tractor and a ripper in the fall from a neighbor that does that as a way of making a little extra income. He used to rent their chopper. See what you can find where you trade machinery with neighbors. When I worked for a dealer we always rented used tractors. They had to pay for their keep on the lot. For the first year or two you may be much better off leasing a used tractor for a week or two. Buy a no till drill, that will help on your expenses as well, work great for wheat and beans, oats here are a think of the past.

 

[bradk]

Here"s the set-up we bought this spring.$7200 for a 3675 hr. Versatile and a JD field cultivator w/knock-off"s for $3000.

Before we knew it,we were done with spring tillage.There"s deals like this around here in southern MN. ~brad

 

[paul]

My Ford TW-20 (about 135hp?) cost $10,600 and my 22 foot Vibra field cultivator cost $600.

Handles 250 acres real well here in MN.

I'd spend more on a better field cultivator be4 spending more on the tractor. The old IHC cultivator works well, but doesn't have clearence for getting low-till trash through it.

Lot of good old tractors around here in Minnesota, go to some estate auction sales. Stay away from dealers or consignment sales, you pay more & are buying other's problems that they traded off/ are dumping.

--->Paul