Anyone with 80 acres is buying used tractors. They are likely hiring someone else with a combine to harvest their fields (harvest needs a lot more labor than the 80 acre farm has so when you hire a combine you get a team of 3-4 people which also includes grain carts and semi trucks to get your grain from the field to the elevator (which might be something you own and might be something town).

I work for John Deere, though I don't speak for the company. All tractors are built to order, which means when someone buys a new tractor the dealer has several months to sell the trade-in. When the new tractor arrives from the factory the truck unloads the new one, and loads the trade in to take to someone else. A good dealer will have a list of farmers and what equipment they all have so they can put this deal together. As a result the only tractors a dealer has are service loaners (which are sometimes rented), which makes all the accountants happy.

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9rx 4 days ago | parent [-]

> Anyone with 80 acres is buying used tractors.

You'd think, but you'd be surprised. In fact, one of the families I rent land from (aging couple who was looking to work less land) is still working around 50 of their acres themselves and they got a couple of new tractors recently.

> They are likely hiring someone else with a combine to harvest their fields

They even combine the crop themselves. But, to be fair, the combine is pretty old (IH 1420).

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bluGill 4 days ago | parent [-]

The other possibility is they have had the land for a long time and it is paid for. Payments on 80 acres of land will pay for some really nice tractors. The rational economic actor will still be going for used tractors on 80 acres, but humans are not rational. Larger farms a new tractor makes sense for various reasons.

Don't forget tax deductions. There is a reason the week between Christmas and New Year is a big on for tractor sales - your accountant suggests you want to get the down payment out now and off your books. As an accountant to explain it (I don't fully understand this)

	▲	9rx 4 days ago \| parent [-]
		> The rational economic actor will still be going for used tractors on 80 acres A rational economic actor would sell the land. 80 acres would fetch around $2M around here pretty easily. You're not getting $2M of pure economic value of 80 acres. But what are you going to supplant the enjoyment of being out on the farm with? No amount of money can buy a suitable replacement.