2011 John Deere 1026R

By Geof Fowler, Photos by John Deere

With its 2305 model a bestseller and a standout amongst a field of stellar competitors, John Deere raises the bar with the new 1026R and gets our designation as Tractor of the Year (TOTY).

Harlan and Ed couldn’t be more different. Harlan is a self-employed machinist who, along with his wife Rita, raises and boards horses. Ed is an actuary for a major insurance company who teaches at a local community college and, in his spare time, maintains an eight-acre mini-estate. Both sit on our guest judge panel and participated in this year’s Tractor of the Year selection.

Says Ed, who already owed a John Deere 2305: “The 2305 was the perfect tractor—almost. It did everything it was asked of, but there were always little things you wished Deere had included. The 1026R addresses that list and more.”

While Ed and his wife muck stables and put their sub compact tractor (SCUT) through the daily dirty task of maintaining their stables, Harlan maintains his mini-estate with a shiny orange Kubota BX23 that we’re not sure has seen a drop of rain. His views were less from the capability side, although that was important, and more to the ease of use. Says Harlan: “I just want to use the tractor when I need to and not bloody my knuckles in the process.”

But the two from their divergent viewpoints both agreed on ten reasons the all new John Deere 1026R is our 2011 TOTY.

1 of 4Next Last

Attendees of the 2011 Farm Progress Show in Decatur, Ill. witnessed the debut of the redesigned Case IH Farmall B compact tractor lineup. The new Farmall B compact lineup offers four models and a full line of attachments for compact tractors.

“Our new Farmall B Series tractors replace the current Case IH line-up of compact tractors. The 30B, 35B, 40B and 50B have been redesigned to better fit the needs of our customers, whether they’re used on a dairy farm, livestock operation, hobby farm or for municipal work,” says Greg Lucey, Case IH marketing manager for Farmall tractors. “The Farmall B Series continues to provide dependable power, fuel efficiency, comfort, and time savings, which greatly influences the performance needed.”

The Farmall B is offered in both hydrostatic and gear transmission models with a standard forward and reverse shuttle on the gear models. The Farmall 30B gear and Farmall 35B gear offer 12X12 synchronized shuttle transmissions, while the Farmall 40B gear and 50B gear boast a 16X16 synchronized shuttle.

A Walmart just outside of Toronto, Ontario was recently remodeled by a tractor. Unfortunately, nobody was driving the tractor and cars were still in the parking lot.

We really don’t have much to offer in the way of insight here, but fortunately somebody was smart enough to record the rampage on their phone. The video is about six minutes long and though the quality is poor, you do get a pretty good idea of what happened.

The damage was contained to a fairly small area as the tractor was just going around in circles. Two cars were badly damaged and you can watch it all unfold in the video below. Eventually some police cruisers show up, but they do little more than follow the tractor’s path until it eventually stops after colliding with a large light fixture.

New Holland is celebrating 50 years of producing self-propelled forage harvesters.

According to New Holland, the history of self-propelled forage harvesters began in 1961 when New Holland decided to transform its famous pull-type forage harvester into a unit with its own engine and controls.

“From that moment on, the pioneering and innovative spirit that has always marked New Holland has been expressed uninterruptedly,” New Holland says in a release. “Giving rise to a series of real inventions that have revolutionised the sector, New Holland’s self-propelled forage harvesters enable farmers and contractors to increase productivity, quality, efficiency, safety and driving comfort.”

To help celebrate this golden anniversary New Holland is launching a FR9000 50th Anniversary Limited Edition model.

A list of New Holland innovations including in the equipment of the FR9000 can be found below the jump.