Tractor News Kubota gearing up to play with the big boys

[TheMadOne]

Kubota Adds Higher Horsepower Tractors With Buhler Partnership | Successful Farming

Looks like Kubota will soon have 265-365HP tractors with orange paint and a dedicated maple syrup tank.

I wonder what CNH's response to this will be? They never really had a product worth fighting for in the compact/subcompact market, and seemed content to let dealers sell the occasional M instead of a Maxxum, but now there's an orange competitor to their bread-and-butter magnum/genesis line. There's a lot of dealers who sell red/blue and orange.

 

[oosik]

JMHO I think it''s going to be difficult for Kubota. They will have to break the strangle hold that the green, red & blue boys have on the big tractor market.

 

[TheMadOne]

JMHO I think it''s going to be difficult for Kubota. They will have to break the strangle hold that the green, red & blue boys have on the big tractor market.

That stranglehold, at least in my area, is already broken. I see more JCB fasttracs, Fendts, and Challengers then I ever would have thought even 10 years ago.

Add to that Kubota's near ubiquitous dealer network and you could have a recipe for success.

 

[oosik]

In all my 38 years here in Ea WA state I've only seen one JCB and it was a commercial backhoe. Fendt & Challenger are unknown species.

There are dealers that will sell you a Fendt but, so far, no takers.

 

[Bigpuddie]

Fendt is probably the best, non articulated tractor built. Their transmissions are second to none. Versatile builds the best articulated tractor with is Cummins power and Caterpillar transmission.

 

[TheMadOne]

In all my 38 years here in Ea WA state I've only seen one JCB and it was a commercial backhoe. Fendt & Challenger are unknown species.

There are dealers that will sell you a Fendt but, so far, no takers.

Fendt and JCB are great for my area. Their setpiece is high road speed. Which in the northeast, where farms are split along the same lines that were developed well before economy of scale really kicked off, is critical for a lot of farms and custom operators.

Fendt also has a really nice setup for running things with the rear remotes. Much more feature rich than JD and CNH typically offer, though they are catching up.

 

[oosik]

I understand your situation completely there, TheMadOne. Here, you can cultivate with your tractor going in one direction for two whole days and still not reach the end of a single ownership. It's called the Palouse, it's all wheat and it's economy of scale farming.

When you see that gigantic green monster topping the rise - it looks truly awesome. That's until you see the disk being pulled behind that is 100 feet wide.

 

[looch]

“We want to be good, not necessarily big. And if that makes us big, good.”

Beautiful.

 

[sixdogs]

Buhler is Versatile and that is a big and well respected name with American farmers. Kubota is going to get noticed if this works out.

 

[Ivan49]

In my area there are farms that have been all green as long as I can remember and I am 70. They are now some blue but most are going to orange. One farm has 5 Kubotas and I was talking to him last fall and he said he will never own another green one. I saw his brother just got a new Kubota last week.I am also starting to see a lot of Fent tractors by the guys that are doing custom work. One operation has 15 big ones each pulling a 4 axle crap spreader.