Valtra report - for Woodbeef

[[e-mail]]

Hey Woodbeef, I've been doing a bit of travelling in the last couple of days and thought the following observations might be of interest.

The tillage season has taken off here in Ireland as the weather is very dry and mild. I met a couple of shiny new Valtras on the road within 20 miles of the main dealer. Most were Claas green, one was Ford blue.

I passed by a farm which uses Ford and Deutz and bought its first new Valtra last year. There was only one Ford and one Deutz there this year. They appear to have a big (blue) 1996 reg Valtra on terratyres ready to go under the drill, and may have another 2nd hand 4 cyl model on duals under the power harrow. I saw it working on land that I think is theirs. The one they bought in 2001 was spreading fertiliser.

Another contractor who went from JD to Valtra (3 Valtra & a 7700 JD last year) has a shiny new 400 Vario Fendt in his yard. The JD is still there, so I'm guessing that the Fendt is either a demonstrator or he retired a Valtra.

Most outfits I saw were only using a powerharrow to prepare the ploughed ground. Some had powerharrow-drill combo systems, others had separate tractors under each.

Finest system I saw was a big Fendt 700 Vario with 6m press on front and a 6m powerharrow-Accord drill on the back. I passed it on the road and it was immaculate, so I guess it was on its way to do its first job.

On the Steyr front, I only saw one - A Case CVX170. It belongs to a guy who runs a fleet of JD and NH. He ran an MX135 about two years ago, so I'm not sure if the CVX replaced the MX or a JD.

Hope this is of interest

[Woodbeef]

Hey SPN,

Thanks for the report!!

I'm wondering now just how many Claas green Valtra are running around the Emerald Isle? it seems that it is the #1 color there. Even though they are co-distributed with Claas(if my memory serves me right),it would be interesting to see the color stats!

How many Steyrs do you normally see?

How popular are the shiftless Fendts?

Powerharrowing is something that has not really caught on over here. Might be the land differences,not really sure.

[leemsutton]

Land differences is about 70% of it. the other reason is that power harrowing is very expensive and you guys are into producing cheap corn and you do it well. The best in the world - i might add!

I've got family and friends in both USA and Canada and they all say the same thing - 'You got to rpoduce cheap corn to be competitive' and power harrowing is certainly not competitive.

We power harrowed everything for years and years but stopped 2 years ago and our yields have not changed at all!

Something to think about i think for us euro lads

Lee

[Si]

Amen

[[e-mail]]

It is interesting how Europe seems to be slowly moving away from powerharrowing to less intense tillage.
Also interesting I find it that powerharrowing never caught on at all here in Sweden. I think one major reason is we don't really have transportation-width limits (within reason). Thus we can use wide implements such as our 9m seedbedcultivator (Vaderstad NZ) and non folding 4m drills.

I guess when limiting roadtransport to 3m it becomes difficult to make implements very wide and instead several functions are carried out in one pass (make the implement "longer", not wider), and powerharrowing is an efficient solution.

Much as I like driving a tractor, I think I'd get bored powerharrowing a prarie with a 3m implement.

If I'm not mistaking I think I read somwhere the widest CaseIH Concord Airseeder had a transportwidth of 9 meters!

[[e-mail]]

Most of the Valtras are Claas green. The local dealer also does Claas, not sure about the other dealers.

Most of the local converts were running Claas Combines or Jaguars and Redrock trailers (same dealer). The dealer must be good judging by the loyalty he is getting across brands.

Off the top of my head, I'd say it's about 2 Claas green to one other colour. Of the other colours, I'd say blue is most popular, followed by red. I've only seen one white colour and one dark green.

Varios are thin on the ground. They cost about 30-40% more per horsepower. I don't see the value myself. I've seen a few, but most appeared to be demonstrators. The last price list I paid attention to showed that you could nearly buy two Fiat 110-90s for the price of a Vario 411. I know the 110-90 is old technology, but will the Vario do twice as much work

Proper Steyrs are very rare. I only know of one farmer in Wexford who runs two of them. The CVX was the first one of those that I've seen in the flesh.

I recall the guy with the CVX ran a Steyr about 10 years ago. He was running about 15 Fendts at the time. They've all been replaced now with NH or JD with the exception of a 926.

On the tillage front, all I'm seeing is powerharrows following ploughs. I haven't seen any min-till outfits in this part of the country so far. I guess the horsepower requirements are prohibitive. I don't see much over 150hp around, and our fields are generally under 20 acres.

[paddyland]

There was only one Steyr dealer in Ireland for many years and there has been another appointed of late. Fendts are taking off with Irish contractors wanting big hp for reverse drive mowers etc and since the MF dealers have started to sell them they are becoming more popular especially the 900 series. Minimum cultivation or getting rid of the power harrow and using a vaderstsadt drill instead.

Valtra were doing well when first launched in Ireland. But some contractors are getting no end of bother and are switching alligence to other makes especially JD. I heard one NH dealer say they cannot compete with the price of the 20 series deeres.

CVX are a cheap stepless tractors so are selling in numbers with one dealer having sold at least 9 austrian case tractors this month.

[leemsutton]

Paddyland you said and I quote

"I heard one NH dealer say they cannot compete with the price of the 20 series deeres"

This cannot be true! I have interpreted what you said as Deere 20 series are cheaper than NH, which I presume are TM's

If thats true in Ireland it justs shows you how much Deere UK is trying to screw us rotten!

Lee

[Laapa]

Hey Woodbeef, here's a Valmet report for ya!
Had our local contractor out in one of our fields with a Valmet 8400 and a big slurry tank. Had to pull him out twice (using our old 80hp JD 2660). Once from a mudspot we warned him about and one he invented all by himself.
Infortunately he was charging us by the hour at the time so I had no time to get a camera.

We did pull him out once last year as well, that time he tried a colleagues Valmet to help him before we got our 2+2 out and it saved the day by floating over the mud!

[Woodbeef]

Hey Laapa,

I've never seen anything that was unstickable!! Some tractors with better traction only get you a little bit further,before you really get stuck!!

Of course though it must have been the color of those Valmets that got them stuck............eh!!

[paddyland]

Lee as far as i know that is what the dealer told my dad this was around the time of the launch of the 20 series deeres so it could have been a 10 series needless to say deere were always considered expensive so have they come down in price or has everyone gone up.

I also know of a UK hire company importing a Deere from Belgium because there were big savings

[Laapa]

Hey Woodbeef, of course it was only the color (Valmet red btw) that got him stuck!

The 20 ton slurrytank he was towing had nothing to do with it...

[leemsutton]

Paddyland,

Who's the UK hire company then whose importing from Belgium?

Lee

[paddyland]

Lee

Mitchims in East Anglia have some sort of tie up with Blyth and Pawsey. But this is what I heard didnt have the neck to ask them about to see if it was true. Aparently they were importing JCB telehandlers as well and famrers could save a couple of grand buying it off them. But it would be hard to get the same level of service from the dealer i would imagine.

[[e-mail]]

Hey Paddyland,

wasn't Marshall tractors (in the end) selling Steyr 8080's under their name and network in late eighties??