Tractor Talk: A Rookie's Guide to Buying a Tractor
By Joanne Meszoly
But how, precisely, do you determine a tractor's suitability for your setup? First of all, forget about all the things that matter when choosing a car--its make, model, year, mileage and luxury features. Tractors are all about work. Draw up a job list you expect the fuel-powered workhorse to perform, and let that be your guide. Farm-equipment dealers are the primary resources in deciding which tractor will best power the implements needed to do the jobs under your farm conditions.
According to Hood Geisbert, an implement dealer with 50 years' experience in Urbana, Md., most horse-farm owners choose compact tractors with 16 to 45 horsepower. Exactly where in that power range depends on your plans for the machine. "Talk to a reliable dealer and tell him what you plan to do, how many horses, how much property," says Geisbert. "Then check with a neighbor and friends to see if they agree with the dealer's recommendation."
Invest in a little more tractor than your job list demands. If you buy the bare-minimum horsepower to operate the implements routinely used, the machine will be in a constant state of strain and more likely to fail. Additionally, by buying the lowest possible performance, you won't have the power you need for occasional larger jobs, such as resurfacing a track.
"Go in there realistically looking at what you plan to do with your tractor," advises Stephenson. "If all you plan to do is mow and a few other things, then a lower horsepower tractor is fine, about 35 hp or less. But the minute you think about real 'farming,' like making hay, you're going to need at least that much and probably something more like 50 horsepower." At the same time, beware of overbuying power and size. A large tractor takes plenty of maneuvering room and runs into roadblocks in small sheds and gates. "You don't want to get a 70-horsepower tractor with the idea that you might make hay but then discover that the tractor is too big to get in your barn or down the aisle," says Stephenson.
article continues below|
|
One way to get more useful power without sacrificing maneuverability in smaller-farm circumstances is to buy a tractor with four-wheel drive. The additional thousands of dollars expended for this feature pay for greater stability on slick, steep or rough terrain. What's more, four-wheel drive does less damage to the ground than a two-wheel-drive machine trying to keep traction on a slippery surface. "It allows you to do more with a smaller tractor," says Geisbert, "and when you resell it, it's worth a whole lot more."
What Equipment Should You Buy?
Tractors are nothing but untapped power until they're paired with job-specific implements, which connect to that power in three different ways:
- Via the drawbar for simple pulling
- Through the power takeoff (PTO), a spinning driveshaft that connects to implements drawn behind and, with special installations, to "belly-mounted" and front-mounted equipment
- By a hydraulic system powering cylinders that raise and lower a three-point hitch, usually on the rear of the tractor, a front-end loader/bucket and other movable attachments.
Even small tractors today have all three power options, but older used tractors may have only drawbars and PTOs, and if they're really ancient, there may also be a pulley on the side to operate a belt to a stationary machine, such as a feed grinder. The equipment you select needs to be matched with the tractor in size, power source and capacity, so before settling on a tractor, check out new or used must-have implements to be sure they're compatible.
Manure spreaders are the usual means for disposing of animal wastes onto cropland or pastures. An apron chain on the floor of the spreader bed is pulled from front to back, under the bed and back to the front again, to feed the litter to the "beaters," which flail the contents out behind. Most manure spreaders are powered by the PTO, which makes them capable of off-loading while the machine is standing still as well as while moving. The smaller-capacity, ground-driven models operate only as the wheels revolve.
Ground-driven models are mechanically simple with fewer breakable parts, but they may require more horsepower from the tractor than PTO-driven models because a lot of power is needed to draw the load and push the weighty manure through the beaters. Spreader capacity is measured in bushels (a large "muck" bucket holds roughly one bushel), and five-bushel to 40-plus-bushel models are available. On average, daily stall wastes per horse measure one to two bushels.
Mowers come in three types: sickle bar, hammer knife and rotary. A sickle mower has a series of triangular knives affixed to a bar that slides back and forth between a line of stationary fingerlike sections to slice grass stems close to the ground. A sickle bar is the usual cutting element in haymaking equipment because it leaves the grass stems whole in a swath to be later raked and turned to dry before baling. In a hammer-knife mower, a series of knives spin on a reel, producing a smooth finish and throwing the fine cuttings up and back.
