Tractor HP for chopping and plowing

[Waldershrek]

Still in the quest for equipment, looking for a tractor to pull a chopper and a wagon. How much HP should I have and more specifically which models should I be looking at.

I was under the impression 100-120 HP tractors is plenty for chopping and plowing.

 

[Duffster]

Still in the quest for equipment, looking for a tractor to pull a chopper and a wagon. How much HP should I have and more specifically which models should I be looking at.

I was under the impression 100-120 HP tractors is plenty for chopping and plowing.

It will all depend on the size of your chopper. I wouldn't say that 100 hp is "plenty" as you can never have enough but that is what we use.

 

[Waldershrek]

Well chopper I'm planning on like a NH 900 or comparative size. The land here is not excessively hilly or anything.

 

[Duffster]

Well chopper I'm planning on like a NH 900 or comparative size. The land here is not excessively hilly or anything.

We have a NH 790 and pull it primarily with a JD 7420. A heavy windrow on an incline and the tractor lets you know it is back there.

 

[art]

We've sold many 900 NH choppers and they will run with a 100 to 120 PTO horsepower tractor when set up properly. Larger forage boxes on hill could be a problem with a lighter weight tractor trying to hold it on the hills especaily if the conditions are wet.

 

[jagyzf]

What are you chopping? Corn or haylage? Hay takes more power, have used 80 hp in corn with a 2 row head, 100 hp seems like the minimum in hay with a 10' mower, or you just go slower. 140 hp I could go about as fast as I could stand to drive on flat ground with a hay head or 3 row corn.

Personally I like the JD choppers with the segmented knife head. Pulling that vs a NH I could chop faster doing hay, I liked the set up better. I think due to the cutting head being so much heavier it acted like a flywheel when you hit a "slug" and wouldn't bog the tractor so much. Didn't see much of a difference in corn NH vs Deere, both a good machines. Stay away from Gehl, hard to get parts for.

Around where I am 80 hp 4wd or 100 hp 2wd will pull a 4 btm plow at a decent speed.

 

[farmerjim]

i think you're on the right track w/ the 100+ hp tractor as it could be used for mowing/plowing/discing/chopping. for chopping, corn is a little easier and takes some less hp than if you were harvesting some hay forage. just remember to keep your chopper size in check w/ your tractor size. when i worked on a dairy we chopped w/ a jd 4440 about 130hp if i remember right, a 2 row jd corn head and later they got a 3 row corn head and also had a hay head for the chopper, the chopper was set up to run on the 1k rpm pto. we also towed a fargo dump box behind, for when the trucks were on the road back to the silos. on a side note you could get away w/ a lesser hp tractor and small older chopper, we used to chop about 10ac of corn w/ our jd2010 and 1 row jd chopper it ran on 1k rpm pto it did the job but was a slow. for our small family beef operation it was fine.

 

[Waldershrek]

Well it will be corn to start but probably haylage eventually.


Originally I wanted a 4040 but was told it probably would struggle with chopping so now I've been looking at some 4230's, 4430's and 4440's. I was told the 4430's have problems with the rears breaking while under load (plowing for example).

I guess I would have never guessed that haylage was harder on equipment that silage.