Russian tractors work 2,000 hours per year

Adam Reid, communications manager for Buhler Versatile, is back from visiting an 80,000-acre farm near Rostov-on-Don, Russia. The farm has seven Buhler Versatile tractors, including this 2005 Model 2425 — a 425-hp 4WD — with 6,200 hours on it. The farm assigns two drivers per tractor, and when field work is required, these drivers take 12-hour shifts keeping the tractor going 24 hours a day. A tractor putting on 2,000 hours per year might seem outrageous, but it's not abnormal. The European average is around 1,200 hours and 1,600 hours per year is not uncommon.

“They do their scheduled maintenance, and there doesn’t seem to be any reason why it won’t keep running,” Adam says.

What's more, the tractors on this big Russian farm pull discers at 17 km/h and drills at eight to 10 km/h. Adam talked to a Russian technical advisor who says North American farmers are doing their fieldwork too slow.

And this advisor, by the sounds of it, would probably suggest that 10,000 acres is reasonable for a single tractor-and-drill unit.