A question for those of you who are farmers or grew up on a farm

Kamoore65536
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A question for those of you who are farmers or grew up on a farm

Post by Kamoore65536 »

I am a retired truck driver that grew up on a farm in the 1950's & 60's. As we were a small operation we did not have fancy new equipment. The first tractor I remember having and using was a VAC Case 1945 model. The series was VA with the C designating a tricycle front end. The next tractor we had was an Allis Chalmers WD 45. The last tractor to show up was a Ford Commander 6000 that dad bought after I ended up in the Navy. The closest tractor dealer to our farm was an International dealer that had a salesman dad was friends with. We never had any International tractors that dad owned because dad HATED the Farmall F 20 he used when he was growing up in the late 30's early 40's. One neighbor I worked for while at home had John Deere, and one had International, the third had Allis Chalmers. All three of them farmed around 600 acres each. I never thought about how any farmer was brand loyal until my youngest brother told me the other day that the John Deere farmer just bought a New Holland T series(T8 435).

Do you buy your tractors and equipment because that is what you grew up on, or do you buy because they are close to you?

Old age makes you think odd things at a quarter to 5 in the morning when you are retired.
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Illinois Farmer
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Re: A question for those of you who are farmers or grew up on a farm

Post by Illinois Farmer »

Sometimes it is who is selling that piece of equipment, for example, our h&s wagons, manure spreader, and blower comes from a case dealer because they are deal h&s. We buy parts for our sprayer from a cat dealer because they sell schaben now. We get our baler and rake from a new Holland dealership. Mostly everything else is through john Deere because that is who we have a good relationship with and like John Deere tractors better than case, cat, or new Holland.
1300 acre farm, finish out just about 10,000 hogs a year, 200 cattle, and xbox one and pc user.
Kamoore65536
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Re: A question for those of you who are farmers or grew up on a farm

Post by Kamoore65536 »

My dad was an auction nut. If there was a farm auction within 100 miles of home we went. We loaded several pieces of equipment on a flatbed trailer from them.
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Mwal
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Re: A question for those of you who are farmers or grew up on a farm

Post by Mwal »

A little of everything I guess, we ran Case, Ford, and Massey Ferguson. When I started to get into the buying aspect of it we have gotten into challenger because as a heavy equipment operator I have always been impressed by cat now that agco owns them I can get parts and service from the same place our Massey does. I think a factor you sort of alluded to, dealer relationships, plays most heavily into my decisions. Basically the Cat and Agco guys are fantastic to deal with vs our local JD dealer who really doesn’t have time for the smaller guys and only seem to want to deal with the mega dairy’s around us. It’s annoyed me to the point that we have gotten rid of everything John Deere we had except our planter, which is going to be a Kinze once I find one for the right price.
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Re: A question for those of you who are farmers or grew up on a farm

Post by bossmanslim »

Kamoore65536 wrote: Mon Oct 05, 2020 1:54 pm Do you buy your tractors and equipment because that is what you grew up on, or do you buy because they are close to you?
I tend to buy some nostalgia stuff and mess around with it for a bit, but due to how the game operates and the fact that it's a game, not a job, I migrate to more modern equipment. IRL, a person wants to use the smallest equipment they can get away with because of cost and the primary limiting factor is time. If it takes 2 weeks (150+ hours) to mow and bale the acreage IRL and the person is fine with that, then that's ok. I don't want to spend 150+ hours in game only mowing and baling hay as my limit for any task is about 1 hour before I get super bored, so bigger equipment gets bought.
Kamoore65536
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Re: A question for those of you who are farmers or grew up on a farm

Post by Kamoore65536 »

Mwal I know that the John Deere guy went from a small SPF swine operation to a feeder operation where he is shipping a load of feeders a week to Hormel in the Quad cities from just north of Terre Haute, Indiana. His daughters are running the majority of the operation now so it could be the girls are not happy with the John Deere dealer. Still for somebody to change after over 50 years of John Deere says volumes.
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Illinois Farmer
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Re: A question for those of you who are farmers or grew up on a farm

Post by Illinois Farmer »

Our dealer is the opposite. They rather deal with the smaller guys vs some of the big guys. It all depends on the attitude and relationship you have built over the years.
1300 acre farm, finish out just about 10,000 hogs a year, 200 cattle, and xbox one and pc user.
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ValhallSN95
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Re: A question for those of you who are farmers or grew up on a farm

Post by ValhallSN95 »

I grew up on my granddads farm, as far as tractors went, we had a JD 4020, a 4430 a 4640 and a MM G900 with a loader. The equipment was mix and match, mostly JD and International and a lot of homemade stuff. I run that 4430 from when I was 8 till he retired and leased the farm out when I was 19. My favorite thing to do was running the 283 cotton stripper on the 4430. 490 acres on 3 farms, 2 rows at a time.

Because of that, on FS I run mostly vintage JD stuff and am hoping and praying someone will bring a 283 cotton stripper set up for blacksheeps 40 series.

I do also use the Fiat 180-90 as back up tractor since one of our neighbors had a Hesston 180-90 that I used some then as well as to this day.

The only tractor my granddad ever bought new was the 4430, and he still preferred the 4020 to it and the 4640. It wasn't even purchased from the local JD dealer (Hurst Farm Supply) cause my granddad and the owner didn't get along, so he bought it from somewhere up in Amarillo and drove it back to Smyer.
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Drmattymd
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Re: A question for those of you who are farmers or grew up on a farm

Post by Drmattymd »

One factor for brand loyalty is design/engineering familiarity. When farmers work on their own equipment it helps when you're familiar with how things are engineered and sticking with a brand is a plus
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Farmercaseih
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Re: A question for those of you who are farmers or grew up on a farm

Post by Farmercaseih »

On our farm, we run all Case/IH/CIH equipment, and it is partially because the dealer is the closest, and we are very familiar with the engineering at Case IH.
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Re: A question for those of you who are farmers or grew up on a farm

Post by Deereslayer »

For my opinion, service is as important as anything. Every color breaks at some point, the question is who can get you back running the quickest. Around me its Deere hands down. If you need a part as long as it can fit on a semi, you will have it next day guaranteed. Other colors, not so much. Heck the John Deere dealer we deal with doesn't care if you take parts off something in the lot if its after hours. They know service makes the sale. Nowadays all new tractors are pretty much the same, its who can keep it running is what matters.
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theSeb
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Re: A question for those of you who are farmers or grew up on a farm

Post by theSeb »

Most farmers stick to dealers because it's super nice to walk in and people remember your name and your company name and you buy stuff without pulling out your wallet or having to mention your account name. There is an element of trust and you get a loyalty discount as well before bargaining based on how much stuff you have bought. I know it sounds silly, but you feel like "part of the family". At the local county / agricultural shows if your dealer is putting on a display you can walk into their hospitality tent and get free booze, which is an important factor too. Service is key. Next day delivery, extra hours and on call support during harvest, demo equipment when your stuff breaks down. All of these things add up as reasons why farmers stay with a dealer and not with a brand.

I don't know how things work in other countries, but in the UK some of the brands mess dealers around and switch dealers without warning and for no good reason. For example my local NH dealer is now a Massey dealer and another dealer further away has been given the NH franchise. When this happens the majority of the dealer's customers simply stay with the dealer and buy the new brand when it comes time to replace or get new stuff. Locally within a 20 mile radius we have 2 different JD dealers, a NH dealer, a Case dealer, a Massey dealer and a Kubota dealer. Slightly further away is a Valtra dealer. The majority of the equipment is JD (not surprising since they have a majority in the UK market). You also see Valtras on the roads and some NH. I hardly ever see Case but that dealer is right on the edge of the 20 mile radius and there is the occasional fancy series 9 Fendt hiding here and there
Mrjamessmith1985
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Re: A question for those of you who are farmers or grew up on a farm

Post by Mrjamessmith1985 »

Back when I was younger and my father had a dariy farm and he seemed brand specific running mostly belarus tractors. After loosing the farm dad worked for a guy that was more into running tractors that he grew up with I don't remember him buying any new tractors or equipment mostly bought used equipment closest to him. Then 2 of my friends that ran more hobby type farms were very brand loyal to allis chalmers and oliver. Me unfortunately I don't have a farm I lean towards Case brand tractors simply because it's my last name and I really like them
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reallogger
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Re: A question for those of you who are farmers or grew up on a farm

Post by reallogger »

Have the same experience as some of the others here. Distance to dealer, access to parts and service personell plays a huge role. Not to mention personal relationships. One salesman here shifted from a dealer selling NH/Case to another dealer selling JD. So now everyone buys JD cause everyone knows that this guy is reliable and will follow up even after you've signed the contract.
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