Amazed !

[hiddentacocatneddih]

I work in Arkansas and the tractors they run in the flat lands around blytheville are massive. Like the sign in Caruthersville MO says, this is CASE IH country. Tons of RED. Across the river by the house is quite a bit of JD greene. I havnt seen any AGCO tractors. I saw a blue/yellow combine i would guess NH and it stuck out like a sore thumb out in Arkansas.

We see tons of big quad tracks go by the house. They are so insanely HUGE!!!The implements they pull could probably till my 6 acres in 1 pass.

 

[Diggin It]

What you're seeing is the difference between hobby farmers (us), family farmers (my neighbors) with several hundred acres and corporate operations with many thousands of acres under contract. The first two groups own our land and machines. The third group may not 'own' much of anything other than the land and buildings used for their base of operations.

 

[oosik]

Here it's the huge JD's, Cat or IH Case. Most with either full tracks or those triangular track units on each wheel. Last summer - while motorcycling down south - met a Cat tracked tractor pulling a folded disk setup. Even with both side wings folded up it was still wider that the 24 foot paved county road.

Wheat is king here and the fields go beyond the horizon. Everything regarding wheat is scaled up. It's the economy of size factor. Folded down that disk setup was close to 90 feet wide. H**L - some farmers are plowing in two different time zones - all with a single piece of equipment. And at the same time.

 

[kenmac]

Yep, the disc they pull behind those large tractors look like they could disc several acres at a time. I guess they have to be that large, or it would take them a month to disc the fields.

I never knew Arkansas was big in farming till I visited my son there.
My son knows one of the farmers and he farms several thousand acres. I can't imagine having several thousand acres !

Just wonder how they farmed that much land back in the day when a 30-50 hp tractor was considered a large tractor ? lol

 

[Diggin It]

Imagine even doing 5 or 10 acres with a mule or horse and single plow.

 

[ruffdog]

Once you go big, you can't go back. If a small farmer buys a big tractor, then he starts breaking all the attachments because he has way more power now. So then, he has to spend a bunch more on bigger and better attachments..........

It is a cycle that doesn't reverse it's self.

 

[TheMadOne]

Yep, the disc they pull behind those large tractors look like they could disc several acres at a time. I guess they have to be that large, or it would take them a month to disc the fields.

I never knew Arkansas was big in farming till I visited my son there.
My son knows one of the farmers and he farms several thousand acres. I can't imagine having several thousand acres !

Just wonder how they farmed that much land back in the day when a 30-50 hp tractor was considered a large tractor ? lol

Short answer is they didn't. Farms didn't really get big until things like the steigers and Buds became available, and even then it took time for the larger equipment to spread. Speed is everything when it comes to tillage and planting. You have to hit your ideal window or suffer huge percentage losses off your yield.

 

[ruffdog]

Speed is everything when it comes to tillage and planting. You have to hit your ideal window or suffer huge percentage losses off your yield.

That is it.

 

[M5farms]

They didn't farm that much land back in the day here . a huge farm was maybe 500 acres . Back in the early 90's we had 500 acres of peanuts and that was HUGE in those days we did everything with 150hp tractors. WHen older guys died or retired the mega farmers started leasing and to be about to keep up with thousands of acres you had to buy or lease bigger equipment to cover more ground faster. The profit margins were greater in those days also and it did not require as much land to live comfortable. The cost of everything is 3 times what it was but the price for the commodity is the same as it was back then. Its volume only business now

 

[Jchonline]

This kind of came up in another thread.

Yanmar's biggest machine sold in the US is 59 HP/4442 lbs. Not near big enough to be a working farm's "big" tractor.(I am, of course, generalizing. I'm sure someone, somewhere, is "farming" 800 acres with one)

LS offers 100 HP/7,714 lbs. It would be...difficult to run a dairy/cattle operation with such a light tractor. Maybe if you lived on dead flat ground.

TYM's biggest machine is 105 HP/8666 lbs. Not big enough for a lot of tillage. You could maybe run a smaller dairy/cattle operation with it.

Kioti offers 110HP/9064 lbs. Like the TYM you could maybe have it as your "big" tractor on a smaller dairy/cattle farm, where row crop acres are minimal and you're primarily doing hay and pasture maintenance.

Kubota's biggest tractor available in the US is the M7-171. It's a medium sized tillage machine. It "only" weighs 15,000 lbs. You could run a modest sized, 500ish tillable acre farm with it before things got out of hand.

Case Magnums, JD 8Rs, Fendt Varios, challengers, etc all push well past 200HP/20,000 lbs. And Quadtracks, JD 9Rs, Versatiles, etc are on another tier beyond that. A 9620R weighs 43,000 lbs minimum, has 620HP, and could pick the M7 kubota up with its 3pt. Weight is work done when it comes to tillage.

Most of us are older boys playing with toys while the real giants are plowing hundreds or thousands of acres a year.

JD just announced a 6 series with 250 PTO horsepower and 21,000 lbs of 3 PT lift. Crazy.