| HuskerJ - 10/31/2025 07:35
To use your example of the $40,000 Steiger vs the $400,000 new 4WD, I will say this:
One of the most successful farmers I know of would have 3 of the $40,000 Steigers. Between them, he would have less downtime than the one new one (assuming he only needs one to do the ripping). On top of that, he can have a second one hitched to - say his grain cart - and on the foggy days when it doesn't go to pick beans, he can rip the fields that he already picked without having to rehitch.
Going with the old tractors, he does have more repairs, but the cost of repairs is pretty low, and he is not captive to the dealership to get them fixed.
I think strictly by economics, that would be the way to go, but you also would be giving up convenience and comfort of the newer tractros, as well.
Heck, I know a guy with 2 1680 combines (Ok, one is a 1688), one of which is always going. If one goes down, he just jumpe in the other, and fixes the first on days it doesn't go to harvest. When both going, he does beans with one, has cornhead on the other. Has less than $40K in both machines, and I have never seen him have both down at once yet.
That sounds like our usual mode of operation. We keep 2 challengers and 1 massey combine in the shed, all rotary machines class 6, 8 and 8.
We pick corn with one and cut soybeans with the other. We almost never have to stop and wait for the dealer to fix something during harvest, just switch out machines. If we sold all 3 today we might get 100K. The only thing I dislike is paying so much income tax every year, but have paid for a decent amount of land in 40 years. I couldn't imagine buying a 300 or 400K machine. I guess everyone has to do what works for them.
I don't believe i have ever depreciated machinery on my tax form either, just bought in a year that I could write it off immediately.
Edited by Ks-notill 10/31/2025 14:48
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trade equipment or not
