A 1982 tractor with 47 hours

I was on a kick recently, looking for tractors with high hours. I got a few good responses, including Dan Burton, from Sundre, Alta., who put 40,000 hours on a Case IH 9150 4WD, and Kevin Peters of Randolph, Man., who put 20,000 hours — or so — on a bidirectional Versatile Ford 276.

Today, former Grainews writer Larry Gompf forwarded an article from Successful Farming's website. An auction sale in Illinois in early March will feature a John Deere 4440 tractor, built in 1982, that has only 47 hours on it. The owner's name was Wayne Crooks, who died recently at 83 years.

Here's an excerpt from the article by Greg Peterson:

After the discovery of oil in 1981 on his land, negotiations ensued with oil companies. Henry Energy of Arlington, Texas, reached an agreement with Mr. Crooks in October 1982 for 75 per cent of the oil rights on his 160-acre farm. As part of the agreement, Mr. Crooks retained 25 per cent of the oil rights, plus Henry Energy purchased 800 acres of prime land for him in adjoining Adams County.

But there was one more part to the agreement. Henry Energy purchased a full line of farm equipment for Mr. Crooks, the very pieces of equipment coming up for sale on the March 6th auction.

Still the question remains, why hardly any hours on the tractors and combine?

"He never really attempted farming the land himself," says Jim Sullivan. "He rented it out to a couple different guys over the years. The hours he did put on his equipment was simply to help out his renters."

Click here to read the full article.