CHICAGO, 11. How much More hydraulic and electronic changes are likely in the next few power will you need? What kind of options. And to confuse matters years, drive will fit your operation best? even more, major changes in The Horsepower Race Fam power experts tackle these tillage, weed control, fertilizers “The next era for tractors inmv tough questions... and others. and management practices are in judgment, is going to have to be *™ es th ® se > the future is the works. something other than just raw truly a moving target - and no To help farmers get a handle on power,” says Dr. Howard Doster ones more aware of it than a things, IH Farm Forum contacted Purdue University farm farmer trying to plan his farm several leading farm power ex- management specialist In hi« power/machmery mix for the next perts to get their views on where view, the excitement will come fewyears, we’re headed; in general, from fine tuning tillage systems to There s more horsepower to guidelines for planning your farm make more efficient use nf choose from. 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Mi tlkK. 1: ■<?> That’s a view shared by Dr. Leonard Bashford, University of Nebraska ag engineer. “I’m not sure the horse-power is going to increase as fast as we may have thought several years ago,” Bashford says. “There’s just so much power you can get out of these machines, and we may be reaching some of these practical limits.” In fact, Bashford goes one step further: “even with what’s 2350 Dairy Road H Lancaster, PA a Phone s (717)898-0100 | Uncttfr Fanning, Saturday, Hovtwbtr 24,1984-Al5 Most manufacturers’ attention, in Stover’s view, likely will focus on three key areas of tractor design: 1) improved reliability and durability, 2) comfort and con venience features, and 3) making more effective use of horsepower from a dollars-and-cents stand point to the farmer. “The area of improving fuel consumption and overall cost/performance will get a lot of attention, for sure,” says Stover. Purdue’s Doster basically agrees. “The real opportunities in tractor design seem -to be in electronics, hydraulics and the overall subject of measuring performance,” he says. “Making your tractors fit with your overall management system will be a lot more important from now on. ” Farm Tractor Reliability But Dr. Tom Colvin, ag engineer with USDA’s Research Service at lowa State University, questions how much more reliable farm tractors need to be. “In terms of mechanical systems, U.S. tractors have been extremely reliable over the years,” notes Colvin, also a farmer himself. “Their reliability now is at that top-end percent which takes a lot of input cost to make even a little improvement.” Dr. John Siemens, University of Illinois ag engineer, is in a good position to observe tractor reliability, and he’s noticed an improvement in recent years. “We used to have quite a tractor maintenance program here with a lot of participation,” he says. “Not so, anymore. The way tractors are designed and built anymore, there just isn’t much that goes wrong with them on a large scale. Our maintenance program has been pretty well phased out.” Even though engineer/farmer Colvin seems happy enough with U.S. tractors’ reliability, he’s not convinced everything is being done in the way of basic design which might be. “When you look at what available now, I think there’s little doubt but what many farmers are over-powered,” he suggests. Washington, lowa, farmer Bill Vittetoe puts it even more bluntly: ‘‘The way tillage is changing, I think the days are numbered for some of these really big, expensive monsters.” There’s some agreement on this point from the manufacturing industry. “In our view, the hor sepower race has pretty well peaked,” says Bill Stover, m market planning manager for farm tractors. “We don’t forsee anything too drastic going on in this area because of several major trends in the ag sector.” (Turn to Page *26)
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