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| Same boat here-250 acres-good regular job-3rd year farming. I have an understanding wife who lets me spend what I make on the farm back-at least for a few more years. My main tractor is a JD 4630-paid 10k for it and about $1,000 in repairs over first year and nothing the last 2. I would love to have something newer but I look at most things in a cost per acre. Depreciating the tractor over 5 years and assuming $500 per year repairs I am running about $10 per acre-assuming 0 cost recovery at the end which I hope is not true. :)
I am no till so I only put about 60-80 hours per year on my large tractor....pulling wagons, anydrous, and working gulleys, etc.
With anything remotely new that would pull the anhydrous bar (which is what I use my big tractor for) would cost at least 35k-probably closer to 50k. Even if depreciated over 10 years I would be looking at $20 per acre. I can't really afford another $10 per acre. Plus I can do a lot of repairs on the old tractor myself-with the electronics and in the new ones I can't do much-and if a $2,000 circuit board goes bad only thing you can do is replace.
So for me it is a no brainer-besides I have tried to buy 90% of my equipment with cash-utilizing custom until I can afford it-I don't see me accumulating 35-50k for a newer tractor. If I had 400-600 acres that would probably change and I would look to newer.
If you look hard you can find some good older tractors that are just as reliable as newer ones.
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