The Farmall 400: the best-kept secret of the Farmall line

May 04, 2017

The tractor is a fantastic value in the 40 to 50 horsepower class

IN THE SHOP with Rachel

By Rachel Gingell
Farms.com

Here’s the secret: the Farmall 400 is nothing more than a Super M-TA with fancier tin. The Farmall M is one of my all-time favorite tractors and the Super version of the Farmall M is even more powerful. The torque amplifier adds another layer of power, making the Super M-TA one of the more sought-after tractors in its class. This popularity is for good reason!

In 1954, International Harvester decided to rebrand their product line, switching from letter designations to numbers. I understand their desire for a name change – after adding “Super” and “-TA” to the model designation, they really couldn’t do much more to indicate new features. The entire product line was given new designations and the Super M-TA resurfaced as the 400.

In every important area, the Farmall 400 is the same as the Super M-TA. The tractors share the incredibly reliable and easy to maintain 4.3L 4 cylinder engine, offered in gasoline, diesel and LP gas. The Farmall 400 came with optional power steering. There’s no three-point hitch offered from the factory but many tractors come with the two-point IH Fast Hitch.

More than 40,000 of these tractors were produced over three years at the Rock Island, Illinois factory. This number may seem low until you remember that the 400 shares almost all parts with the Super M (50,000+ produced) and many parts with the M (270,000+ produced). The laws of supply and demand are on your side!

This tractor is a great buy. It’s as much as US$4,000 less expensive than the Super M-TA. As long as you don’t have a nostalgic connection to the letter designation on the hood, buy the 400. You get all the same benefits as the Super M-TA with a much lower price tag.

Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.