Tractor Choice

[Western promise]

I am hearing more & more farmers are buying the tractor of choice that the driver wants! Is this happening as I know getting the right person is not easy in agriculture. My personal opinion is if they get there model of choice it is looked after , true or false?

 

[KB6930]

I know of a couple of cases of this because if they didn't get what they wanted it wouldn't last very long .

I'm lucky my preferred choice at the moment is my bosses choice as well but wouldn't matter what I have to drive it would still be maintained and used as should be

 

[D14]

I am hearing more & more farmers are buying the tractor of choice that the driver wants! Is this happening as I know getting the right person is not easy in agriculture. My personal opinion is if they get there model of choice it is looked after , true or false?

Yes more and more common. Good operators know they can’t be replaced easily so they do have the upper hand within reason. The best thing to do is involve them in the costs of how it’s paid for and running costs so they can see the premium brands just don’t stack up unless doing many many hours.

 

[njneer]

Bit of a tricky path to follow , you want to keep your good men and keep them
Happy but at the same time financial implications have to be considered.
Unfortunately many end up in a situation with the tail wagging the dog and end up with a gun held to their head and buying a machine way in excess of their needs and pocket to satisfy their staff.
Also some find to their cost that when the operator doesn’t get the brand his ego demands that the brand bought suffers terrible abuse , destined to fail to make the point that they should have got brand x instead of brand y .

 

[rob h]

Farm near hear changed brands years ago because his driver pestered for change.the reason was if he liked what he drove he would look after it. If he didn't he would be rough with it the complain when it's broken.

 

[An Gof]

Farm near hear changed brands years ago because his driver pestered for change.the reason was if he liked what he drove he would look after it. If he didn't he would be rough with it the complain when it's broken.

That driver needed the sack, no room for people like that in a business.

 

[T Hectares]

If an employee of mine couldn't accept that a Tractor choice was a product of many factors from reliability to cost of ownership, dealer back up and suitability for the job, then I don't think we would have a particularly long relationship.

And if that employee put a single brand above other factors of employment then that's really sad, it's not like any of the main brands are particularly bad is it??

 

[Munkul]

There's give and take. If a skilled operator is spending plenty 16 hour days in the cab, his input is and should be valued. Not necessarily kowtowed to, but part of the decision making process.

 

[7610 super q]

Drive a Ford 4000, or foot up the arse.

 

[getting on]

Drive a Ford 4000, or foot up the arse.

I drive a Ford 4000 with a sprayer on the back. Long may i continue, i don't want a kick up my ar--.

 

[rob h]

To be fair the bloke more or less runs the place. And good staff are hard to find.they weren’t having any problems with the previous brand .it just made life easier for the farmer

 

[7610 super q]

I drive a Ford 4000 with a sprayer on the back. Long may i continue, i don't want a kick up my ar--.

Must have spent 6-7000 hours on a Ford 4000. Didn't do me any harm. Wibble....
TBH, any tractor less than 10 years old, of any make should be a joy to drive. All this crap about only wanting to drive certain brands..... spoiled brats.

 

[rob h]

If the aircon works any tractor built in the last 20years isn't a bad place to work.

 

[Richard98]

I can think of a few cases round here where that has happened. Drivers wanting a new tractor so changing the engine oil and putting waste oil back in, coming to the headland, lifting the plough and stomping on one brake hard enough to spin the tractor on the spot etc. It’s a tricky balancing act, keeping staff happy so they look after their tractors but also not letting them run the show and dictate what you buy regardless of if you need it or not-it’s easy to spend someone else’s money. In an ideal world you’d move people like that on but finding good staff is near impossible these days. That’s partly why we only have family labour on the farm nowadays, everything gets looked after as our own

 

[rob h]

There's only me and my brother hear .We used to get help for cultivation but half the day was spent organising and running round and doing repairs on what he was using .so we bought bigger gear and do it ourselves now.with a bit of help from family

 

[colhonk]

I asked my driver, so I said what I prefer, so I bought what I considered the best deal for me,myself and I . Mind,that was a good few years ago.

 

[Richard98]

On a similar note, that reminded me of our last full
employee who retired in the 1990s, before my time but he was renowned for being awkward and dad has endless stories about him. One friday he decided he didn’t want to go baling over the weekend so he ‘re timed’ the conventional baler and managed to push the feeder arms into the string box. Dad came home from work and spent the weekend repairing the baler, got it going on Sunday night ? He hated dad and my uncles being on the farm when they were teenagers, god forbid if anyone drove ‘his’ tractor, so they’d move the seat back when he’d gone home for the weekend. Come Monday morning he would be savage thinking someone had used it over the weekend ?

 

[snarling bee]

As long as the 'new' tractor is better than the old tractor I would have thought most would be happy.
The trouble we have is that nobody wants to drive the JDs since we have had the 4220 Fastrac.

 

[tullah]

They sound the sort of drivers who won't do anything other than sit in their cabs.

 

[tullah]

On a similar note, that reminded me of our last full
employee who retired in the 1990s, before my time but he was renowned for being awkward and dad has endless stories about him. One friday he decided he didn’t want to go baling over the weekend so he ‘re timed’ the conventional baler and managed to push the feeder arms into the string box. Dad came home from work and spent the weekend repairing the baler, got it going on Sunday night ? He hated dad and my uncles being on the farm when they were teenagers, god forbid if anyone drove ‘his’ tractor, so they’d move the seat back when he’d gone home for the weekend. Come Monday morning he would be savage thinking someone had used it over the weekend ?

Had a combine driver here like that. When it was time for the relief driver to carry on at lunch he would kick up a fuss. I pulled the fuse on the air con after he went home at night. Relief driver duly returned the fuse when driver went to lunch and had a comfortable hour on the combine. When grumpy returned at 2 he explained how he found a loose wire and repaired the air con. Soon changed his tune about relief driver.