Breaking the tradition of buying second-hand

Liam Budds from Kinsalebeg in County Waterford is focused on running an efficient dairy business and having the right tractors on hand is part of the solution. The second-generation farmer milks 140 cows on a spring calving system, with his replacements being reared off-site by his cousin until they are ready to enter the milking herd. Apart from the scraper tractor, the only tractor on the farm is a Maxxum 115, bought in January 2018 which, fitted with a Quicke loader, carries out all feeding, slurry, fertilising and topping duties as well as mowing ahead of the contractors at silage time. The Maxxum was Liam’s first Case IH purchase and replaced the previous 110hp farm tractor which was 22 years old.

“We’ve always bought tractors second-hand until now - my father never bought new,” explains Liam, “but when I popped into our dealers to pick up a slurry hose before Christmas we talked through the options and I ended up buying a new tractor as well as the hose! The old tractor needed new tyres and the repairs were starting to build up but I also didn’t want to risk the unknown by buying another second-hand machine which could come with its own set of problems. When we started calculating the potential cost of repairs compared with the finance of a new tractor, the difference wasn’t that great, with the added bonus that I had a warranty to fall back on if anything did go wrong and hopefully less downtime.”