In today's difficult economic environment, many agricultural professionals are forced with a difficult decision when it comes to purchasing a new tractor or a used farm tractor. Farmers are notorious for making their equipment last and since it's very expensive to replace, its in their best interest to keep a tractor for a lot of years to get the most out of it. Still, there are farmers that buy new tractors and used them for a few seasons and decide to trade. They advocate buying new more often to minimize the chance of breakdowns, which can not only be expensive to repair, but will cost even more in lost productivity.

The problem of course with buying new is the outrageous costs of a new tractor. Maybe you're not a farmer or have never given it much thought, but a new tractor can easily cost over $100,000 depending on the size of course. It takes a lot of acres of corn, beans or wheat to pay that off, which is why many farmers opt for a used tractor and hope for the best. Thankfully, even in todays disposable world, many major brands of tractors are still built to last.

Opting for a tractor that's 5 or 10 years old doesn't mean that you will be stuck with repairs. If the tractor has been cared for properly, it's not uncommon to see them last 30 years. From an economic or cashflow standpoint, farmers have a lot to think about when deciding on replacing equipment. Farming is a speculative business in that the price of crops fluctuates and this in turn affects their ability to meet their obligations from their creditors. A few bad years in a row and it might become difficult or impossible to keep you the payments on a new tractor.

Buying a tractor, whether a used tractor or a new tractor is a business decision that must be thoroughly examined and a number of factors taken into account. With our current economic status and impending foot shortages, its even more important that farmers are more efficient than ever, yet at the same time make enough profit to remain in business. We cannot afford to lose more farmers or there will not be enough food to go around.