Old Vs. New

I had been lobbying Jim for a few months to buy a new Orchard tractor. Any more I don’t spend many hours in the tractor seat

but I do still plant the sweet corn, pumpkins, and squash. Jim was slow to warm up to the idea but this fall the 1976 John Deere 2030 which I bought with the farm 31 years ago started knocking and smoking. We had used this tractor as our primary cherry harvester puller, orchard mower, and weed spray tractor. The motor had been rebuilt once already.  So I knew Jim would have to allow a new purchase, (unless e fixed the JD2030 again).  Then another of our old workhorse tractors, the 1978 John Deere 2640, quit moving too. Something wrong with the hydraulics.

It is very expensive to fix these old diesels. We put $5,500.oo into one a few years ago and the value when fixed is still only $7,500-8,000. Both of these old John Deeres needed tires too which are now over $1,200 for a pair.  These 1970s John Deeres were very good tractors. The hydraulics were ahead of the rest of the pack and they used a hydraulic hi-lo to turn an 8 speed into a 16 speed. The brakes were always better than the competitions too.

John Deere has closed a lot of dealers, so the dealer is now about 85 miles from here. We have a dealer that we deal with who sells Kubota and New Holland much closer so that swung the deal.  New Holland has the style of tractor that we want for cherry orchards so we were able to buy a “new” tractor with some demo hours on it at a savings. This New Holland T4050 is  90 hp, 4wheel drive with a cab and air conditioning. It will pull the planter straighter across hillsides, it won’t bog down as much(the old tractors were 60-70hp two wheel drive) and the operator is protected from the elements when mowing the tart cherry trees. This style tractor is small enough to go between the rows in sweet cherry and tart cherry orchards without damaging hanging fruit. (it is still too big for close planted apples).

I was a little nostalgic to see the first tractor that I ever bought leaving the farm. I had paid $7,000 in 1980 and if it ran I could still get about $7,000. I doubt that the new tractors will hold their value like the old one did.

John