Snog, Marry, Avoid ....

Which Way?

  • Buy new

    Votes: 125 76.2%
  • Buy used

    Votes: 37 22.6%
  • 12-24 month hire

    Votes: 2 1.2%

  • Total voters
    164

Bald Rick

Moderator
Livestock Farmer
Location
Anglesey
Need to replace our big tractor (require 200hp+ boosting up) but am not sure of best way forward.

Buy new - expensive but warranted
Buy used - cheaper but could be a bag of spanners
Long term hire - not overly cheap but no hidden costs unless over hours. No equity either

Tractor likely to clock 1000+ hrs on triple mowers, 6m power Harrow or strip tiller, large silage trailer, large slurry tanker and fert spreading
Front links/PTO and guidance a must

Thoughts?
 
I am out of my depth here but I will still give my opinion as I know @Bald Rick won't be happy until I do and I may well ask his advice before the end of the year on a subject he's an expert on..
Avoid s/h , new is ok other than paying for it , I know someone who says he is better off hiring a telehandler than buying one
Whatever you do keep it secure as there's an article in this week's farmers guardian saying gps are been targeted by thieves
 

Daniel

Member
My preference is new or ex-demo but keep to 5-6000hrs, more ideally, rather than chop in as soon as the finance is up.

For some reason if you’ve had something since it was new you don’t mind the repair bills as much when it gets older?!

We don’t clock as many hours as you but we do have a weekly egg cheque coming in which helps confuse the bank as to what you’re up to…
 

dave mountain

Member
Livestock Farmer
2nd hand if you can find one you know the history of with low hours, otherwise new is probably best bet, as long as you dont mind waiting for it
 

dave mountain

Member
Livestock Farmer
No one in favour of hire?

Son seems keen to go that way but I’m not so sure
hiring only makes sense if you only have it less than half the year but need to have a nearly new machine for whatever reason. other wise you are better of with old iron. imo old iron is always the default best bet unless your work means there are serious productivity advantages from the features a newer machine, or if reliability is crucial. currently i am running an extra older tractor for a back up rather than changing for new as it made more financial sense.
 
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How much is a tractor of the required size and power per week? Fork out all that cash, even in winter when it can't turn a wheel, and end up owning nothing at the end of it?

Also, if it is a dairy farm and with staff that are perhaps hard on kit then a hire company will want it back in grade A condition, won't it?

Can you source a new machine that will go back at X hours with a near guaranteed buy back price? Didn't Clive do this with his Fendt?
 

dave mountain

Member
Livestock Farmer
How much is a tractor of the required size and power per week? Fork out all that cash, even in winter when it can't turn a wheel, and end up owning nothing at the end of it?

Also, if it is a dairy farm and with staff that are perhaps hard on kit then a hire company will want it back in grade A condition, won't it?

Can you source a new machine that will go back at X hours with a near guaranteed buy back price? Didn't Clive do this with his Fendt?
no place for staff that are hard on kit anywhere any more, even on dairy and livestock farms. a 100k tractor is a 100k tractor, no matter what kind of farm/contractor owns it, and it needs to be looked after. rather pay an extra couple £ per hour for a decent operator than have endless repair bills and downtime.
 

Ali_Maxxum

Member
Location
Chepstow, Wales
Honestly, even knowing full well how absurd new prices are, I would go new (we have this year). Didn't think we would have another new tractor after the last one but trying to find low hour/ex demo at the spec we want with any sort of decent finance was just impossible so it made more sense to go new again. Looked very closely at hire and talked myself out of it, just didn't stack up against HP.
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

  • 0 %

    Votes: 79 42.5%
  • Up to 25%

    Votes: 65 34.9%
  • 25-50%

    Votes: 30 16.1%
  • 50-75%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 75-100%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 100% I’ve had enough of farming!

    Votes: 6 3.2%

Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

  • 1,287
  • 1
As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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