MSRP, base build
Where Deere's compacts stop pretending to be lawn equipment: 42.5 hp, a 3,770 lb frame and 15.4 GPM of hydraulics. M trim drops the R's cab, premium electronics and suspension seat, which is most of the several-thousand-dollar gap.
0.92 PTO hp per $1,000 of list price
As published by the maker
On the price: The maker's own published starting figure for the base build. A dealer adds a loader, a deck and freight on top.
Lift figures are the maker's and are quoted at whichever point the maker chose; the about page explains why two loaders with the same number do not lift the same pallet.
Comes with
From owner discussion and long-term write-ups
Gathered from owner reports
Almost everyone in this evidence bought a 4044M for the dealer rather than the tractor. Owners say it plainly: one found it comparable in price to Kubota and New Holland and chose Deere because his area had a network of dealerships under one owner, so a part missing at the nearest branch would still be close by. Another traded a Kubota BX2380 up three sizes to this after his Kubota service department stayed permanently backed up. The advice they hand to the next buyer is about the dealer too — how long has it been open, how far away is the second-nearest branch of the same brand if the first one closes. The counter-example is in the same file: one buyer skipped Deere because his local dealership does mostly big agriculture and will not touch compact warranty work between May and September, and another owner with a Deere mower, Gator and 4044M is leaving the brand entirely over parts availability.
The bargain most owners point to is buying one barely used. Two report picking up 2022 machines with 120 to 128 hours for $30,000 to $32,000 against roughly $40,000 new, with factory warranty still running for years. The catch is that used means as-is: one of those buyers had the three-point start lifting only halfway a week in, found nothing at all on the hydraulic dipstick and no sign of a leak anywhere, and discovered the front axle fluid had been contaminated with water. His dealer was not obliged to help and sent him a hydraulic filter, a transmission filter and eighteen gallons of Deere hydraulic fluid free anyway. Check every fluid on a used one before you drive it.
In work it earns its keep on rough ground. The most prolific owner here runs fifteen acres and three-quarters of a mile of gravel road, has bush hogged over dense material without bogging, knocked trees down with the loader, and says his one real failure was knocking loose the suction pipe feeding hydraulic fluid to the rockshaft — which he puts down to using it beyond what it was designed for. Its size is also its main limitation: the same owner is shopping a cheap small tractor because the 4044M cannot get into his woods. The other recurring headaches are a five-foot rotary cutter that has bent three PTO shafts in three months, twice in the same place, and rodents, which are common enough that owners warn each other the wiring insulation is soy-based and attractive to mice.
Summarised from public owner discussion, not from testing. Nothing here was measured by this site, and a report that recurs is not the same as a defect rate.
Cross-shopped against
Same brand or same size, nearest in price
John Deere
A genuine farm tractor rather than an oversized compact, running Deere's own 2.9L three-cylinder through a 12F/12R PowrReverser to 3,192 lb at the hitch. The 3-cylinder 5E needs no DPF, no DEF and no regen, which is a maintenance argument by itself.
Spec sheet & owner notes
John Deere
The 5E most often bought for baling: 49 PTO hp out of the 2.9 L PowerTech, a Category 2 hitch and 6,029 lb of machine in 4WD trim, with a cab, PowrReverser or eHydro all available. It sits about $2,600 under a 5075E for 8.6 fewer horsepower.
Spec sheet & owner notes
John Deere
Where the 5E line starts offering choices: a cab, a 12F/12R PowrReverser and even an eHydro are all on the 5060E order sheet, none of which the 5050E below it can have. Same 2.9 L PowerTech, same DPF-free aftertreatment, ten more horsepower.
Spec sheet & owner notes