experienced opinions, bullet vs conventional

Quote:Hmh. I'm 24 so i don't really count but autosteer dose not pay????? If you would buy the John Deere steering wheel style and put in the planter the combine and the fall tillage tractor that would
be about three thousand acres of use per year I'm guessing. That sounds like alot of acres and hours of use to me but what the f**k do I know I'm only 24.

I don't consider it not farming, because it is. Its nice if you can afford all the toys. RTK is nice and makes it easier, but it is expensive. If you have it great. Maybe I'll come up with a extra $30,000 or so for it one day.......lol... .....But then I'll probably need another truck, or tractor, or something.....It never ends....

Oh deereman its not necessarily the age but the comment that was made about that its not farming....

Quote:I guess your theory and mine are completely different. There are two main machines that I would want to maintain in new operating condition on our farm, a combine and a planter. Without those two machines doing their jobs flawlessly you might as well not be out there. We farm 2500 acres and trade combines every 3 or 4 years. We ALWAYS pay for our equipment, there is no need to buy something you can't afford. I guess since our stuff is paid for we can buy a new combine if we want. I would not want to buy a used combine, you never know how it has been cared for, at least the new one has a year warranty to get the bugs out.

That's fine, our dealer has been around a long time and is one of the top deere dealers for customer service and reliability in the state...when we buy used machines we make sure its been through there combine clinic every year (pretty much 95% of the farmers in our area take the combine through manufacturer clinics to get them checked). If its been through their clinic, its good to go in a field.

While i agree with you to some point, if a combine breaks down its not goign to hurt the crops any besides knock a couple tenths of a percent off moisture. In my opinion, you have to have a good tractor and a solid planter. If you can't get the crop in within the window, a combine isn't going to help you get good yields.

We buy what we can afford, but with life nowadays, its not how much money you have, its your credit score that matters to lending companies. We used to buy machinery with straight cash, but when the times switched and credit really mattered, we just started leasing to own which allows us to have much newer machinery for less cost, and if we decide to not own it, instead of paying the payout after the 5yr lease, we can just trade it off for something new(er)

Answer to original question,in our conditions here in canada,there is a big differance.early in the season when the grain is dry and the straw is not yet cured the conventional rotor slugs alot more than the bullet had them both.you really notice it in canola at night when you really want to keep going because it is too dry during the day.so i would certainly go with the bullet.
As for auto-steer,we have it in our tractors and don't want to be without it,removed it this fall and put them in our swathers to swath canola.i've nerver combined canola swath that were that uniform and straight.there were no hardly any piles in all of our 2000 acre of canola,we even had a rookie swather driver and he did a super job.autosteer helped concentrate more on reel position resulting in less piles and uniform swaths.
I think if you grew up on a farm and have driven the same combine for even 2 years there should be no reason to have the dealer put it through his shop every year and pay him to do it.we are 1st year sts owners and i know i can inspect that combine as good or better than any mechanic out there.if it comes to taking a drive,tranny or changing injectors,yes let them do it,but the inspection i can do myself. just my $0.02CAN

I think you would be really happy with a 9560sts...it pushes our 6 row head around 5- 5.5 mph which is plenty fast on our terrain. It will about lap our 9550 any day. Our 9560sts isn't a bullet rotor, however i heard they are much better in green stemmed beans...we don't raise pioneer beans so i couldn't tell you on that . Anyway if you are interested in a nice 9560sts bullet rotor, i drove a nice one in today. its a 06 with low hours on it...these guys roll machines every year and take nice care of there machines...

Quote:Answer to original question,in our conditions here in canada,there is a big differance.early in the season when the grain is dry and the straw is not yet cured the conventional rotor slugs alot more than the bullet had them both.you really notice it in canola at night when you really want to keep going because it is too dry during the day.so i would certainly go with the bullet.
As for auto-steer,we have it in our tractors and don't want to be without it,removed it this fall and put them in our swathers to swath canola.i've nerver combined canola swath that were that uniform and straight.there were no hardly any piles in all of our 2000 acre of canola,we even had a rookie swather driver and he did a super job.autosteer helped concentrate more on reel position resulting in less piles and uniform swaths.
I think if you grew up on a farm and have driven the same combine for even 2 years there should be no reason to have the dealer put it through his shop every year and pay him to do it.we are 1st year sts owners and i know i can inspect that combine as good or better than any mechanic out there.if it comes to taking a drive,tranny or changing injectors,yes let them do it,but the inspection i can do myself. just my $0.02CAN

I agree with the rising cost of labor I can inspect my own combine. Been doing our own work for years. Even though we are a first year 8010 owner I can still inspect it as good as the dealer if not better. In some cases I 'm more particular. Our dealer in fact will sit down with you and go over the things you need to watch for and check. if it is a major repair or something in the middle of harvest that we don't have the time for then yes I will call them.

Also the combine is very important. Generally the older the more maintenance they require to keep them running efficiently. If it is not set right or poorly maintained it will cost you more than the repair costs. It cost you downtime...That is a big one.....It could cost you crop loss,added stress etc.....Not to mention that the same part and labor will probably cost more to fix in the field than in the shop in the winter.

I, too, would consider keeping the 9600 for a while longer, considering the 6 row head you want to keep ; ;but hey, that is just my opinion.
If I did not do that, I would go with a 9760 STS.
They had quite a few issues with the 50 series, that they worked out by the time the 60 series rolled around. I have been told by several to save my money and go straight to the 60 series, and leave the 50s alone. I started a thread, here, about this very issue, but it has been a while...it is late (right now), and I can not find it...

As far as auto steer goes, I use mine for a little bit more than a way to "read the newspaper". Do you do any strip tilling? Ever tried strip tilling in the fall, then going back and planting right on top of those lines? To be honest, I haven't either, yet...I have laid some strips down, already, this fall, but it will be next spring before I have to plant on top of those strips. Just about all the reading I have done mentions that auto steer, more specifically RTK, is necessary. I also use mine spraying, and the headland alert is so useful! It tells me when I reach the headland, and let me tell ya', I am saving more than 4 feet! To each his own, right? Just don't knock those of us that have auto steer...'cause I can assure you that they are used for more than plowing, where "all that is lost is 4 feet of overlap".