Buying Small Farm Machinery
There are really two main approaches to buying small farm machinery. You can buy it new, or you can buy it used. Each approach has its pros and cons.
Buying Small Farm Machinery
Small farm machinery has actually revolutionized farming. For thousands of years, the majority of work on a farm was done either by hand or at the most with the use of small hand held or animal powered equipment. During this period, a large percentage of the population needed to engage in farming to produce enough food to feed everyone. In the modern era, it is machinery that has freed much of the population from labor in the fields, but the remaining farmers are increasingly dependent on good machinery. Buying small farm machinery is often the key to success.
The most important point to understand about small farm machinery is that its purpose is to do work. This might seem self evident, but consider the personal automobile. Its main purpose is to provide transportation, but status and comfort often control buying decisions. The farmer should avoid these luxuries of thought and focus on the idea of work performed. This is one of the prime reasons why used and new farming equipment can be seen as being equal as long as both are capable of performing the needed work for the least amount of investment.
This is the reason that many financial institutions seem to be even more willing to underwrite the purchase of used equipment for the small farmer than to finance new equipment. The used equipment often represents such a savings in initial investment that it gives the farmer a much better chance of success.
Another thing to consider when selecting small farm machinery is the idea that what are commonly called bells and whistles do not necessarily provide more work capacity. In many cases, the difference between the upper end of a line of, say tractors, might only differ from the bottom end of the line by the extras that are added. These extras often do not increase either the work capacity or the reliability of the machinery. In a case like this, the lower end might easily represent the best value.
Most people would recommend the use of a diesel powered piece of small farm machinery whenever such a choice can be had at near equal cost to a gasoline powered machine. The reason for this is that many alternative fuels are being made available that are easily burned in diesel powered machinery. This can result in considerable savings in fuel cost over the life of the machinery.