Hacker News Reader

All the implements which farmers use, planters cultivators, etc have gotten larger over the years as the scale of farms have grown. A 40 year old tractor likely isn’t going to have the horsepower to work with these new implements. Also, the old tractor is likely to lack a cab which could mean no climate control for you.

Both of these would be serious issues for operating a modern, large scale farming operation.

View on HN

Those older tractors can and do have enough power for modern farming. Source: I work in a shop in a farming community which usually has 10+ tractors lined up to get worked on, and the vast majority are 20-40 years old. They are much more repairable then modern tractors, so plenty of farmers actually prefer them to the newer higher tech tractors.

Oh, and most GPS steering systems don't come with the tractor, and some types of systems are retrofitted onto any tractor with a steering wheel.

That's basically what I was saying above. If you need all that a modern tractor has to offer you don't have much of a choice. If you need to farm on a smaller scale, an older (and much easier to repair) and much cheaper model is always a possibility. Although the used market is insanely expensive now I would guess.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com