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Price of gas affects farmersConsider fuel efficiency when buying a tractorBy David Burton With
gas prices over $3 a gallon, the fuel consumption of farm tractors
becomes much more important according to Ed Browning, natural resource
engineering specialist,
“Fuel consumption has changed significantly over the years. One of the biggest changes I see with today’s tractors is that now there is only a 1.5 gallons per hour difference between the high and low users,” said Browning.
Is that significant enough to use fuel consumption as a basis for selecting a tractor?
“If you consider a 500 hour maximum power use from this tractor, the answer is probably yes. A comparison I did between four tractors found the difference between the biggest and least fuel users to be 775 gallons,” said Browning.
At $3 per gallon that converts to a savings of $2,325.
In the 1960’s and 1970’s, if a farmer wanted to know anything about a tractor before buying it, the “Nebraska Tractor Test” was the place to look.
It provided the lowdown on horsepower with or without ballasts, fuel consumption at various loads, slippage, and lots more. It compared tractors that were tested under identical conditions and situations.
The “Nebraska Tractor Tests” are still being published but since 1999, they’ve been put on the Internet at http://tractortestlab.unl.edu/testreports.htm.
Browning says service, parts inventory and availability, machine quality and ease of use are all important in picking out a tractor. But, those factors don’t pay for the fuel.
“You
might argue that once we get through the crisis in the
For
more information on picking a tractor based on fuel consumption, contact
Browning at the
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