Snog, Marry, Avoid ....

[IOW91]

Always the same on this forum, if you asked where to get the best pint of larger on the Isle of Wight someone would start beating a drum about the cider in Scotland is better

Always the same on this forum, if you asked where to get the best pint of larger on the Isle of Wight someone would start beating a drum about the cider in Scotland is better.

Thing is you can always justify the cost of a pint .... Needs/wants and all that .

 

[Tomr10]

What will the driver look after more? I think your trying to talk yourself out of buying a new one.

 

[Fendt516profi]

What will the driver look after more? I think your trying to talk yourself out of buying a new one.

Have you seen his jcb

 

[Tomr10]

Have you seen his jcb

I did think that

 

[Sid]

Which is why I said you need to be doing 2000 hours a year to get it to stack up. Last week I went to look at a privately advertised bale trailer. It was a contractor and he’d got 15 tractors all within 3 years old. All on full 3 year warranties. He’d got 5 on order for delivery in January to replace the 5 oldest as their warranties run out at that point. All his tractors are doing 1500-2500 hours a year and he said the main reason he keeps the finance houses in business is his operators who are basically dictating their tractors are swapped. He said staff would ultimately finish his business because he’s struggling to pay them enough as it is, but as soon as the equipment isn’t fresh they’ll go elsewhere because there’s no where near enough tractor drivers around anymore and he said getting people just for so silaging season is nigh on impossible so that’s being mopped up by sub contracting to one man band farmers sons but they are starting to want £50/hour for pulling a trailer.

If your contracting and have a decent customer base should be new every time.

If you farming and doing similar hours same thought process would be that.

Speaking to a driver for one recently and his mate wants a new brand X tractor as a like for like change, issue is the owner of the business has paid 50% of what the tractor cost new in repair bills.
"It ain't happening " he was told!

 

[Bald Rick]

Had a quote on one of these MF 8s ... didn’t look too bad until you add £8k for 5 yr warranty and £4K for GPS

Still no further forward with our thinking

Probably end up keeping our existing machine ... and watch it go bang at a key moment

 

[Enry]

Had a quote on one of these MF 8s ... didn’t look too bad until you add £8k for 5 yr warranty and £4K for GPS

Still no further forward with our thinking

Probably end up keeping our existing machine ... and watch it go bang at a key moment

£40/week for 4 yrs warranty (assuming standard is 1yr?) doesn't sound too bad....GPS is £800/yr and will surely have residual value? Id say the beauty of that model is that they will be keen to get some out there and make sure they deliver on the promise. Get it bought

 

[Gerbert]

Had a quote on one of these MF 8s ... didn’t look too bad until you add £8k for 5 yr warranty and £4K for GPS

Still no further forward with our thinking

Probably end up keeping our existing machine ... and watch it go bang at a key moment

If I remember rightly your main tractor no has 7k hours. If it has been cared for it should be pretty reliable for a few thousend hours to come, maybe even upto double the hours. This might just be the moment to buy something used with a few thousend hours, if that costs less then swapping for a new one it makes sense to me. Then you keep the older tractor untill it suffers relialibility issues and do the same again. Local contractor tends to keep his tractors untill over 15k hours if they keep being reliable, then swops it for a new one. Downside it that get fukk all for the old one, upside is that the value of the tractor goes down very slowly after 10k hours so those last 5k hours are pretty cheap. And if you have enough tractors the relative loss of value when one goes bang is pretty low.

 

[ColinV6]

I think the best answer here is do what you think is right for YOU.

The varying opinions on here show that nobody is right. It’s all what works for your farm, and also what you WANT.

I’m probably way over tractor’d for my farm but who cares. I love it and it gives me pleasure to use it

 

[ollie989898]

I think you'd be insane to buy an 8 series Massey- if they prove to be a rare thing going forward then the resale value will be beyond pants. I would look very carefully at resale values and also threaten to kneecap the people driving it so that they take proper care of it.

 

[ollie989898]

If your contracting and have a decent customer base should be new every time.

If you farming and doing similar hours same thought process would be that.

Speaking to a driver for one recently and his mate wants a new brand X tractor as a like for like change, issue is the owner of the business has paid 50% of what the tractor cost new in repair bills.
"It ain't happening " he was told!

All well and good but with labour becoming increasingly scarce it might not be so simple.

 

[som farmer]

dairy farmers have a reputation for being rather 'hard' on tractors, undeserved of course ! But sometimes it pays to px regularly, while they still look alright. On the other hand, 2 brothers near us, have an old tractor, for each implement, saves time, hitching up, and taking off again, which one is correct. Actually the latter, because several of his old tractors, are rapidly increasing in value, and most of ours, are depreciating.
,

 

[kiwi pom]

Timeliness and weather are key. Can have very short windows on the Sainted Isle and then everyone is screaming

True but you use a contractor for silage anyway so have to wait for them to be ready before you mow. If you're a big customer with plenty of work and pay on time would you not get someone pretty much when you wanted?
Just the tractor is costing big money, then you have to put a machine behind it, run it and basically add a labour unit. There's always the danger of losing focus on the cows too, which is I think why you moved away from doing your own silage?
It might be handier but do the numbers work? After all, the cows have to pay for it all.
Just saving a 30k salary would get a fair bit of work done.
Just trying to think outside the box a bit.

 

[ollie989898]

What do the operator(s) want more to the point?

 

[box]

If it's too hard to make a decision, the right decision is probably to do nothing.

 

[Dead Rabbits]

600 cows plus heifers to feed and sh!t to haul with short weather windows. Why is this even a discussion? 1 day of not running when you need to will make anything look cheap. One week of something not running during a critical time and you have likely lost the value of 6 months of payment easily.

Get something low houred or new coming and trade the old one off. Or keep it and sell it on your own. Trade in value is usually sh!t anyway.

 

[H200GT]

Whether buying new or second hand, they can all break down when you need them most and let you down. You cant beat having a backup machine IMO, and whatever you decide I would try and factor getting a backup in.

 

[Speedstar]

Had a quote on one of these MF 8s ... didn’t look too bad until you add £8k for 5 yr warranty and £4K for GPS

Still no further forward with our thinking

Probably end up keeping our existing machine ... and watch it go bang at a key moment

Buy a Fendt may cost more to buy , warranty is second to none, second valve is the best there is, over all will be the cheapest tractor you ever own per hour of work & your driver will be happy.

 

[kiwi pom]

600 cows plus heifers to feed and sh!t to haul with short weather windows. Why is this even a discussion? 1 day of not running when you need to will make anything look cheap. One week of something not running during a critical time and you have likely lost the value of 6 months of payment easily.

Get something low houred or new coming and trade the old one off. Or keep it and sell it on your own. Trade in value is usually sh!t anyway.

You could flip that the other way though and say with the short weather windows and a large work load its better to hire in a big team for a couple of days and do the work on time, than try and do it all yourself with one tractor.
Get 2 or 3 sets of triples and a couple of foragers in all at once, or a team spreading slurry while another ploughs and drills because the weathers about to change.
Can you get the contractors? I don't know but you certainly could just up the road in Cheshire especially if you paid on time. Heaps of contractors all fighting for work and undercutting each other.

 

[Sid]

You could flip that the other way though and say with the short weather windows and a large work load its better to hire in a big team for a couple of days and do the work on time, than try and do it all yourself with one tractor.
Get 2 or 3 sets of triples and a couple of foragers in all at once, or a team spreading slurry while another ploughs and drills because the weathers about to change.
Can you get the contractors? I don't know but you certainly could just up the road in Cheshire especially if you paid on time. Heaps of contractors all fighting for work and undercutting each other.

Weather is the key to this.
Seen it this spring with a wet May, everyone wants to go at once. Some contractors buying 2nd machines to get the work done others just saying you'll have to wait.
You can save alot on money by getting more milk/beef from forage with better timeliness.
You need a contractor who is on the ball with the right mindset , with the right equipment at the right price, not dragging their heels and inflating their prices , they soon lose customers.