Tillage Question (for the big tractors)

[Illinoisdmax]

Whats the minimum HP I could get away with to plow, disc, and plant? Bigger crop fields, but good soft riverbottom soil. I know that bigger's better, faster and more efficient but I don't have a bottomless wallet.
I was thinkin around 120hp but just don't know if it would have the balls to actually be a primary Tillage machine.

 

[flusher]

Whats the minimum HP I could get away with to plow, disc, and plant? Bigger crop fields, but good soft riverbottom soil. I know that bigger's better, faster and more efficient but I don't have a bottomless wallet.
I was thinkin around 120hp but just don't know if it would have the balls to actually be a primary Tillage machine.

Depends on whether we're talking new or used equipment. You can buy a lot of big hp if you shop for used equipment. My neighbor grows hay on 200 acres or so using a early 1980s Steiger Super Wildcat with about 200 hp engine that he bought used for about $8K. Another neighbor grows alfalfa on 30 irrigated acres. When he established the field about 4 years ago he used an old IH 4366 (about 225 hp engine) that he got for under $10K and a double shank ripper to break up the hardpan.

Good luck.

 

[GolfAddict]

It's really going to depend on the size of your implements. The 120hp ag tractor you suggest would be plenty big enough as long as your implements are matched.

 

[Gary Fowler]

Back before the last ice age (60's and 70's)when I farmed a bit, my Dad and I farmed over 400 acres rowcrop and used two tractors. One was a Ford 9000 (120HP) with dual rear wheels and other was an AC 190XT (95HP) and either of them could pull a 14 foot heavy disc for primary tillage in medium clay loam soil. With the 9000, I could single pass disc about 15 acres per hour which is not bad for that size equipment. We would double disc then row up and later plant. We didnt do the no-till farming that you often see today. Our equipment consisted of one heavy breaking disc, one medium duty disc, one land conditioner for seed bed prep, one set of disc row hippers and one set of planters all of which were 4 row (14 feet wide). You dont really need the 250+ HP tractors to farm with unless you are running thousands of acres. Lots of IH fans used the 806 model all the way up to 1456 as that was the biggest row crop that they made back then. We didnt have the luxury of having one of the big 4 wheel drive million HP tractors that can only be used for primary tillage and then parked the rest of the year. We had to have utility tractors that could run all the operations from start to finish. Dual rears on these tractors gave us extra traction and then could be removed for cultivation.

 

[bigbull338]

depending on how meny acs your going to farm you could do it easy with 2 old iron 150hp tractors.an as said if you shop you can find them worth the money but it takes time.

 

[Duffster]

Whats the minimum HP I could get away with to plow, disc, and plant? Bigger crop fields, but good soft riverbottom soil. I know that bigger's better, faster and more efficient but I don't have a bottomless wallet.
I was thinkin around 120hp but just don't know if it would have the balls to actually be a primary Tillage machine.

You can legitimately farm with 20hp.

Realistically a 5 shank disk chisel with ~85hp in front of it would be the min IMO.

 

[slowzuki]

How many acres? Guys used to work 80 acres with 35 hp machines and 2 bottom plow. You can moldboard plow that in 2 days with less than 100 hp. 2 short days with a disc chisel.

 

[deereman75]

When my dad was growing up, they farmed a half section of barley with a john deere 830. It took a long time, but worked fine for it. The 830 had about 75hp, but could out pull a new bigger kubota. They later upgraded to a john deere 4230, and then a 4440. The 4440 was about 125hp, and it was as big as they ever needed. You can easily get used 4440s for around $8000-$12000. If you want bigger, you could easily get a used steiger for under $20000. I would say if you have less then say 200 acres, something in the 120hp range would be big enough. As I said, you could get by with as small as a 80 or 90 hp tractor, it would just take longer

 

[Farmwithjunk]

When my dad was growing up, they farmed a half section of barley with a john deere 830. It took a long time, but worked fine for it. The 830 had about 75hp, but could out pull a new bigger kubota. They later upgraded to a john deere 4230, and then a 4440. The 4440 was about 125hp, and it was as big as they ever needed. You can easily get used 4440s for around $8000-$12000. If you want bigger, you could easily get a used steiger for under $20000. I would say if you have less then say 200 acres, something in the 120hp range would be big enough. As I said, you could get by with as small as a 80 or 90 hp tractor, it would just take longer

4440's for $8000? Where? Even high houred 4440's typically sell in excess of $20,000 these days in most cases. Saw one sell for $29,000 and change just a couple weeks ago. Some really nice 4440's are selling in excess of $30,000. IMHO, they're the best all around tractor Deere ever built. VERY popular. Under $20,000 is a big time bargain based on average resale value. At best, you can knock off a couple grand if it's an open station 4440, but there aren't a great deal of them. Almost 90% of the 4440's were built with SoundGaurd cabs.

$8000 to $12,000 will just barely put you on a well worn open station 4020.....

 

[bigbull338]

to find them high hp JD that cheap you have to stumble into the deals.they bring from $12000 to $25,000 around here or more.