question New Zetor Forterra M 2017 (CL / HSX) experiences?

[Joachim]

How many hours your Forterra have now?

But good to hear from your personal experiences.

 

[diyfarmer]

How many hours your Forterra have now?

I have 2000 hours up now. I'm not a contractor, just a regular beef farmer so the tractor is not going everyday. and I had 2 other tractors too.

 

[Joachim]

OK, so not many hours a year.
A friend of mine is also a cattle farmer (+ pigs, chickens, geese and some arable farming) and he did around 1000 hours a year with his Zetor 9540. He also had a Zetor 5011 and recently unfortunately a John Deere 6120 and a Weidemann farm loader.

He said he also had a Forterra to test - but it was supposed to cost almost the same as the 6120 but was less clear and less well equipped than the Hirsch. Above all, the nearest Zetor workshop was too far away (60km) and the John Deere dealer was only 5km away.
But he still has the 9540 with TracLift front loader and also the 5011.

 

[diyfarmer]

That farmer is bigger than me. I only have beef cattle and do no tillage. I do my own silage making and do some extra baling for hire. I don't do much with the HSX over winter apart from working a tub feeder

 

[Joachim]

He has around 30 ha field and gras land - in Germany its more a small farm. Small farm but many and hard work...
Midrange farms in Germany work on 200 up to 600 ha and the bigger ones from 700 up to around 3.000 ha.

And thats one of the reasons why Zetor sells less and less tractors in Germany. Every year less farmers but gigger farms - they need tractors from 150 up to 300 and more PS. The smaller farms need cost efficient tractors and a cheap good service. So its realy hard for Zetor in this market this times.

 

[diyfarmer]

30 to 100 ha would be from average to large farms in Ireland. For many years Zetors were the number one best selling tractors for several years in a row and Ireland had the highest number of tractors per capita of any country in Europe. I myself have had 17 Zetor tractors in my life and I currently have 3.

 

[Joachim]

I have only 4 (now at same time) but only for 4 ha gras land and hay making. So call it hobby.
Its trending in all EU countrys that farms goes bigger and bigger. Same I see every holydays in Denmark eg. Its nothing I found nice, but thats the actual time and a trend since decades.

 

[diyfarmer]

Not in Ireland as there are so many family farms. 100 ha is massive, we talk in acres so 100 acres would be the average size.

 

[Joachim]

100 acres are around 40 ha or otherwise 100 ha are around 247 acres.
So what I mean was
- I work on around 10 acres as my hobby and for our two pony horses
- 200 to 600 ha = 500 to 1.500 acres
- 700 to 3.000 ha = 1.700 to 7.400 acres
Sorry for that - I forget to convert them for you. My mistake.

 

[diyfarmer]

You don't need to convert them for me, I'm able to do that myself. Yes that's what I'm saying 100ha is massive in Ireland and yet we had the highest ownership of zetor tractor per capita of any country in Europe for several years in the 90's.