Power is the rate at which work occurs (rate of energy transfer). It is the only measure of the work a tractor or engine can do (over a given amount of time).
A 120hp 1000cc engine can do the same work as a 120hp 5000cc engine in the same amount of time.
Losses in the necessary gear reductions to reduce the speed are about 2% per mesh. A 12,000rpm motorcycle engine can be slowed down to an equivalent speed of a diesel engine with about 2 planetary meshes. This would lead to about a 4% loss that wouldn't be experienced with the larger engine.
In an ag tractor, the shape of the torque curve matters. The shape of the torque curves affects how it can lug through a tough spot without down shifting. If the motorcycle engine had the same general shape torque curve, you might not know what was powering the tractor (other than the sound!). In reality, the torque curve of the motorcycle engine probably doesn't have the rise of an ag tractor engine. I would expect more shifting to make it work.
Of a more practical note, large ag/construction/industrial engines are designed to run at full power for a high percentage of their operation. Automotive and motorcycle engines are not. The 1000cc 120hp engine would not likely last very long at full power.
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Today's Featured Article - Old Time Threshing - by Anthony West. A lovely harvest evening late September 1947, I was a school boy, like all school boys I loved harvest time. The golden corn ripens well and early, the stoking, stacking,.... the drawing in with the tractors and trailers and a few buck rakes thrown in, and possibly a heavy horse. It would be a great day for the collies and the terrier dogs, rats and mice would be at the bottom of the stacks so the dogs, would have a busy time hunting and killing, all the corn was gathered and ricked in what we c
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