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Why you should have a Ford 5000

The Ford 5000 is a faithful standby in my personal tractor arsenal, and it may deserve a space in your barn too.

IN THE SHOP with Rachel

By Rachel Gingell
Farms.com

Because I buy, repair, and sell tractors for a living, I've gotten used to having an ever-rotating stock of tractors to use for chores around our small family farm. Sometimes the tractors we have in stock are really useful, and sometimes...well, not so much! After being stuck in a jam with not-so-good tractors, my family decided we needed to have just one tractor that's not for sale. We considered which tractor would provide the most value for the dollar and be a faithful standby. The Ford 5000 was our top pick. Here's why.

The Ford 5000 was manufactured in Michigan (my home state!) from 1965 to 1976. These tractors are plentiful and easy to find parts for, especially here in the Midwest. Many parts are interchangeable between the Ford 5000 and its sister models, the Ford 2000, 3000 and 4000.

Ford 5000
Ford 5000
Photo: TractorData.com

While the Ford 5000 is available with both diesel and gasoline engines, I have a strong preference for the diesel model. The 3.8L 4-cylinder diesel engine is fuel efficient, simple to repair and very reliable. The fuel efficiency is so strong that we purchased a PTO-driven generator to run our house and shop in the event of a power outage. With just a few gallons of diesel fuel, the Ford 5000 can run the huge generator for hours.

The Ford 5000 came with a choice of a standard or select-o-speed transmission. While the select-o-speed transmission was a huge advancement for its time, it's not as smooth as modern power-shift transmissions and can be tricky to repair. I recommend keeping things simple with the standard manual transmission. The manual transmission Ford offered with the 5000 is an excellent design: incredibly reliable and easy to repair.

We use the Ford 5000 for everything: from chopping silage to mowing the lawn, moving loads of gravel to blading the driveway. While its high horsepower makes it a bit of overkill to use for smaller chores, it's become such a standby that I can't help but make it my first choice for everything.


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Funds Ditch Ag Commodities, Chase Stocks Amid an End to Middle East War, & Trade Deal Buzz

Video: Funds Ditch Ag Commodities, Chase Stocks Amid an End to Middle East War, & Trade Deal Buzz


The 12-day war between Iran-Israel came to an end sending crude oil futures plunging as the big fund speculators removed the war risk premium.

The weather risk premium in the Ag complex is sending corn, wheat and soybean futures lower on month-end selling ahead of the market moving USDA quarterly grain stocks and acreage reports on June 30th.

Instead, funds were chasing and sending tech stocks higher with the S&P 500/NASDAQ indexes setting new all-time record highs!

June 1 USDA Hogs and pigs report was slightly bearish while the U.S. $ Index traded to new contract lows as the de-dollarization that began in 2014 continues.

Feed in the form of soybean meal futures for livestock producers got cheaper, trading to new contract lows.

The Stats Canada seeded acreage update was bullish canola and wheat.