I own a small farm and work in tech. We are struggling with this issue right now as we look at the options for a new tractor vs an older serviceable model. While many of the larger corporate farms are content to buy new equipment every 10 years, those of us at the small end of the scale have begun a push to keep older equipment up and running.
My tractor is from 1996, my hay baler from the early 70s and my hay cutter is even older. These all work just fine even if a little slow. The challenge of not being able to work on my equipment currently outweighs the marginal speed gains I would see on a farm our size. The same goes for nearly all of my neighbors.
The last "new" tractor in the local area was bought a couple years ago by one of the older guys who was buying the last tractor he will ever own and he thought it would be nice to have a top of the line, new, tractor just once.
Yup, that said I think there's enough competition in the < 75hp space that if it really was something that consumers shop against you'd see brands trend that way.
FWIW we've got an '81 ford for similar reasons (also new tractors are effin expensive and hold their value very well).
We grow hay to feed our beef cattle on about 100 acres +/- a bit. But all around us are plenty of farms growing small farm (under 500 acres) or row crops/beans etc.
We were having this very discussion today when picking up some hay to help us get through till spring with a guy that cuts about 500 acres of hay 3 times a year. He just keeps rebuilding his equipment rather than get sucked into the new stuff he can't work on.
This is becoming another huge issue that affects smaller farms more than it affects larger corporate type farms. When a piece of equipment goes down it's needed back in service in hours to days, not the potential weeks that hauling it to a repair depot can cause.
My tractor is from 1996, my hay baler from the early 70s and my hay cutter is even older. These all work just fine even if a little slow. The challenge of not being able to work on my equipment currently outweighs the marginal speed gains I would see on a farm our size. The same goes for nearly all of my neighbors.
The last "new" tractor in the local area was bought a couple years ago by one of the older guys who was buying the last tractor he will ever own and he thought it would be nice to have a top of the line, new, tractor just once.