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| Above, a new tractor on display at last summer's Gallup Inter-Tribal Indian Ceremonial. Photo by Armand Vaquer. |
When I saw a new article at Hagerty.com, my immediate thought was of my neighbor Bo across the street. He has several tractors, all of which are 1950s vintage that he regularly uses on his property and, on occasion, helped me out.
It seems that farmers in the Midwest favor older tractors over the "new-fangled" ones with all kinds of bells and whistles.
Hagerty wrote:
American farmers are seeking out older tractors, and not just as collectors’ items. The dated machinery is easier to use, less expensive to purchase, and cheaper to repair and maintain than modern tractors, so instead of early retirement the old workhorses are being put back into the field.
Greg Peterson, founder of Machinery Pete, a farm equipment data company in Rochester, Minnesota, recently told the Minnesota Star Tribune that most decades-old tractors have plenty of life left.
“There’s an affinity factor if you grew up around these tractors, but it goes way beyond that,” Peterson told the Star Tribune. “These things, they’re basically bulletproof. You can put 15,000 hours on it, and if something breaks you can just replace it.”
Hagerty’s resident tractor enthusiast Becca Hunt, whose farming family owns and uses four vintage tractors, wholeheartedly agrees.
“They’re tough and reliable, and if something breaks, it’s easy to fix,” she says. “Plus, because they’re older, a lot of the parts are interchangeable with other brands. We have an Oliver, but we can get a part from another manufacturer and it still works. You can’t do that with the newer tractors; they tend to be part-specific, which can be a bit costly.
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| Above, Bo aboard "Edith" at Barking Spider Acre. Photo by Armand Vaquer. |
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