What do you guys think of Yanmar? Are they just a different color Deere?
Yanmar is a japanese company that for many years made most of John Deere's small tractors. I believe now that's changed and Deere builds most of the small tractors themselves but Yanmar still makes a lot of the engines for them. Deere outsources a lot of stuff, the only equipment they make that's 100% made by them is the big ag stuff, the smaller stuff has various parts outsourced. The JD homeowner stuff you see in Lowes is just the same as the lawnmower sitting next to it with a different color paint, they're just trying to cash in on the Deere name.
Yanmar makes quality stuff, their diesel engines are all over the place.
For many years you'd see small Yanmar branded tractors around. They were grey market imports that weren't made for the U.S. market but for Japan and imported here. Most were pretty small 2WD units, probably about 20 hp. They were cheap to buy and tough little tractors for their size. They didn't look anything like a Deere and if you didn't know Yanmar built stuff for Deere you wouldn't connect the two.
I just googled it and it appears you can buy new Yanmar tractors here again. I doubt they're rebadged Deeres although they might share the same engine as some of the small Deeres.
Over the last 15 years or so Kubota has pretty much taken over the market around here for tractors less than 100 HP. They probably outsell the next competitor 10 to 1. The really big Ag stuff in the delta is John Deere or Case, but smaller than that it's overwhelmingly Kubota. Even on the big 10,000 acre delta farms the field stuff will be JD or Case but their running around tractors will be Kubota. There are Kubota dealers in just about every town and service is easy to find, not that it's needed much. I think of them as the Toyota of tractors, they're great quality at a decent price. There are other makes like Kioti, Bobcat (just a rebadged Kioti), LG, Mahindra, etc. that make decent tractors but they're not priced significantly lower than Kubota so it makes sense to go with Kubota for the ease of dealer availability since you aren't going to save any significant money on the others.
