Big power for little money

Fancy some serious grunt for cultivations work, but don't want to spend vast amounts of cash on a new tractor? Then perhaps it's time to consider a used articulated tractor. Geoff Ashcroft spoke to users about their choice of mule.

Depreciation is one of the hardest hitters when it comes to tractor running costs – and the bigger the tractor, the greater the fall.

But when values level out, the focus of attention turns towards maintenance and repairs and, for those prepared to reach for the tools, there can still be plenty of mileage in a 10 to 20-year-old articulated tractor that needs to work for just a few hundred hours each season.

It's logic that has not been wasted on John Stanley, of New Farm, Harby, near Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire, who has recently bought a 10-year-old Case Steiger 9370 for front line cultivations.

"We wanted to cover our work in a much more timely fashion and work just six days per week," he says.