FROM UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI EXTENSION
SOUTHWEST REGIONAL NEWS SERVICE
Contact: Charles (Ed) Browning, natural resource engineering specialist
Headquartered in Jasper County
Tel: (417) 358-2158
E-mail: browningc@missouri.edu

First person column …
Does Your Tractor Use Too Much Fuel?

The “Nebraska Tractor Test” is something you don’t hear mentioned much anymore.

In the 1960’s and 1970’s, if you wanted to know anything about a tractor before buying it, the “Nebraska Tractor Test” was the place to look.

It provided the lowdown on horsepower with or without ballasts, fuel consumption at various loads, slippage, and lots more. You could compare tractors that were tested under identical conditions and situations.

Having managed a farm for 10 years, I used these tests on a few occasions primarily for fuel consumption. I was always amazed that the tractors we were using used about 8 gallons of diesel per hour, while a comparable tractor of a different color used 12. Why would anyone not buy a tractor that used less fuel?

After purchasing a few pieces of equipment from this latter company, I learned why. It was the parts inventory and service.

With fuel at $3 a gallon or higher, we’d better be looking again at the efficiency of our power supplies.

The “Nebraska Tractor Tests” are still being published. Since 1999, they’ve been put on the Internet.

Fuel consumption has changed significantly. One of the biggest changes I see with today’s tractors is that now there is only a 1.5 gallons per hour difference between the high and low of this comparison (a 15 percent difference).

Is that significant enough to use as a basis for selecting a tractor?

If you consider a 500 hour maximum power use from this tractor, the answer is probably yes. (See the comparison chart available at http://outreach.missouri.edu/jasper/agriculture/ag_news/06_09.pdf).

For example, 500 hours with tractor 4, which is the biggest fuel consumer, would use 5,830 gallons per year versus tractor 2, which would use 5,055 gallons. At $3 per gallon that converts to a savings of $2325.

You might argue that once we get through the crisis in the Middle East and get our refineries back up and running at full capacity, fuel prices will go back down. Additionally, if you add in ethanol, biodiesel, gasified coal, wind energy, methane, hydrogen, solar, electric and all those other alternatives, fuel prices will be less expensive.

But remember, after the shortages in the early ‘70s, did the price fall? In the ‘80s when we were testing the waters with energy alternatives, did fuel prices fall? Aside from periodic short term “gas wars” at the pump, have you ever seen the price fall and stay there?

I’ve forgotten it if it did.

Yes, service, parts inventory and availability, machine quality and ease of use are important, but they don’t pay for the fuel.

For the Nebraska Tractor Test, go to http://tractortestlab.unl.edu/testreports.htm. For models before 1999 you’ll have to send for copies.
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Charles (Ed) Browning can be reached in the Jasper County Extension Center at (417) 358-2158. He has worked in grain handling, drying and storage facility sales, as a farm manager, and with MU Extension for 23 years. He received a master's in agricultural mechanization. In his position as a natural resource engineering specialist he provides educational programs dealing with structures, housing, water quality, environmental quality, handling animal and domestic waste, soil and water conservation, secondary containment, machinery management, farm safety, disaster recovery and computer information technology and the Master Naturalist program.