I have a feeling it could kind of go both ways. From just coming out of high school, I know that there are a decent amount of kids in FFA and 4-H who work on and restore tractors for clubs or SAE projects for FFA. This leaves some potential to help keep the hobby alive into the future, especially since many students restore their antique tractors and programs like the Titan Tire program give tires to FFA and 4-H members that restore their antique farm tractor.
The downside to this, as has been pointed out, is the lack of connection to the history and the past when these tractors were actually used. The majority of the kids these days restore tractors and then use them in tractor pulls, and usually parades and small shows at the fairs. They also mainly focus on tractors such as the Farmall letter series, and other tractors from the 1940's-1950's, maybe the early 1960's. Most kids these days don't want to venture any earlier, since those are mostly hand crank, or much later since then it can get complicated with more technology. The one benefit to being in my area which I feel is a big plus, is that there is a collector of antique tractors with a private collection of over 200 antique farm and prairie tractors in Roxbury, CT. The place is DD Living History Farm at Toplands farm, and the owner holds a open house free of charge every year, and brings out a few dozen tractors from his collection that volunteers drive around. I usually volunteer there every year and this event brings in a lot of people and sparks a lot of interest in these tractors, especially the older ones.
I know that when I graduated last year, I was the only student in the school who worked on and restored pre 1940s tractors (Farmall F-12 and Regular). The only other kid with anything older was one who had gotten a small hit and miss engine to run at the fairs with his dad. On the bright side of this, if these kids who do work on tractors now keep doing so, there is hope that they might pass on the interest to their children, and even if they don't keep all the different periods of tractors alive, at least one period, such as tractors of the 1940's, will still be around.
Even if for some reason gasoline goes completely out, there is always woodgas which tractors can be made to run on. Even if it isn't practical for everyday use, I feel someone would find a way to use it, or some other combustible gas, just to keep some of these machines running to bring out every now and again. I would assume that there would be some sort of oil available to be used for lubrication, even if it would be some sort of vegetable oil.
Some antique tractors may no longer run by the year 2100, but with the amount of these old tractors that are out there, I think there will still be some running, although they might not be nearly as common as they are now. There might not be as many people who care about them at that point, but there will still be those who are intrigued by the machines of the past, just as myself and others my age are now, and those who still care will find a way to let at least some tractors live on for future generations.
I know it's kind of a roundabout answer but overall I think they will survive and people will continue to be interested in them. There might not be as many as there are now, but there will still be some.
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Today's Featured Article - Listening to Your Tractor - by Curtis Von Fange. Years ago there was a TV show about a talking car. Unless you are from another planet, physically or otherwise, I don’t think our internal combustion buddies will talk and tell us their problems. But, on the other hand, there is a secret language that our mechanical companions readily do speak. It is an interesting form of communication that involves all the senses of the listener. In this series we are going to investigate and learn the basic rudimentary skills of understanding this lingo.
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