First - I think what makes "old tractors" a hobby in the first place is that a generation grew up seeing them in use, and that generation now has the means and the time to restore them.
Just like old cars - you can buy a model T for next to nothing nowadays, but you can't even think about a hemi cuda.
That's because the crowd that grew up gawking at model T's as children has, for the most part, moved on beyond the age where they'd be interested in spending time and money restoring one or collecting them.
Same is happening now with 50's era cars - getting harder to give them away.
The current batch of collectors/restorers with the real time and money grew up gawking at late 60's muscle cars, and that's what's hot now.
There are of course people of age now that grew up with 70's and 80's tractors, but are less inclined to restore them because they're just too complicated. They're no where near the simplicity of the 30's/40's era tractors. So you need much more dedication and devotion to restore one. On top of that, tractors of that later era are not the works of art the earlier models were. You start getting a whole lot more plastic and cheaper materials.
Just like cars. I'm not sure there will be a huge market for 80's dodge aries K cars or volkswagon rabbits.
So that tends to bunch up the collectors to the last era of the "good ones" because there's nowhere else to go. And as the population ages and people become less and less romantically attached to them, there's less and less reason for anybody to care about them.
Combine all that with high scrap prices - and ultimately it'll get harder and harder to find parts, making the hobby less and less easy - and therefore less fun. It'll always be around, but it's probably peaked.
Having said all that - I've got six kids in my 4H group who sure love the 43 B we're restoring! I like to think these kids will keep the interest alive into the future.
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Today's Featured Article - Grain Threshing in the Early 40's - by Jerry D. Coleman. How many of you can sit there and say that you have plowed with a mule? Well I would say not many, but maybe a few. This story is about the day my Grandfather Brown (true name) decided along with my parents to purchase a new Ford tractor. It wasn't really new except to us. The year was about 1967 and my father found a good used Ford 601 tractor to use on the farm instead of "Bob", our old mule. Now my grandfather had had this mule since the mid 40's and he was getting some age on him. S
... [Read Article]
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