I am looking to buy a small organic farm in Vermont, and want an older, simple, reliable tractor. The land is level, 20 acres of tillable land, 20 acres of timber. It will need to pull a plow, rake, logs, wagon and a combine if I can find an old one. I prefer a diesel, and parts should be readily available. Something along the line an Allis Chalmers D17 diesel makes me smile!
A John Deere 3020 comes to mind. Do a search on Machinefinder.com
for a 40-100 hp tractor and see what comes up.
Bear in mind that some of the old tractors you might be thinking about are considered classics and may cost more than some that are 10 or 20 years newer. Also, parts might be hard to come by.
October 19th, 2009 at 7:56 pm
Many of the older small tractors were very well built. Parts for Ford, Massey, and John Deere might be easier to acquire.
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October 19th, 2009 at 8:00 pm
For that size farm, about anything would work. I’m not ‘very’ familiar with lines of small old tractors, but Ford makes a pretty reliable machine. For only 20 acres, a 3000, 3600, or 3610 (all the same, just different years) would probably suffice. A step up (about 52 hp) would be the 4000, 4600, 4610, which should pull a 2-bottom plow pretty easily, and about any 2-row implement you would need for that matter. Parts availability shouldn’t be very limited either, although in your location, there may be a wider selection of many makes. It will be a bad feeling knowing the only part is in The Netherlands, and won’t be in for 2 wks, and you need to be in the field (happened to me on a baler). Or searching high and low across the country for parts to an antique tractor when you are in the middle of harvest.
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October 20th, 2009 at 5:36 am
A John Deere 3020 comes to mind. Do a search on Machinefinder.com
for a 40-100 hp tractor and see what comes up.
Bear in mind that some of the old tractors you might be thinking about are considered classics and may cost more than some that are 10 or 20 years newer. Also, parts might be hard to come by.
References :
Farmer for 30 years
October 20th, 2009 at 10:44 am
20 acres is the size of my yard, try to find on old ford 8N. parts are easy to get and they work well and burn little gas.
or find an old massey 265 they last for ever and burn little diesel, an easy on and easy off type of tractor.
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October 20th, 2009 at 5:45 pm
If you’re going organic, how about a couple heavy horses? That would be far more in keeping with your image. And two or three good quality well broke horses could definitely handle the work you listed. I know a guy who farms 600 tillable acres with four horses.
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October 21st, 2009 at 4:59 am
A massey ferguson 165 would probably suit nicely. They have approx 60hp and will pull most implements. Available in diesel, fairly economical. Don’t know if it could manage a combine though, maybe a MF 185 with 75hp, or is this too big?
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We are farmers and have run various MF tractors for 25 years in Northern Ireland. They are very reliable,run like a dream and can handle most implements.