Best tractor for acreage

[kingofallconos]

Hello,

How do you judge what kind of tractor one needs? I'm coming into possession of 30 acres of workable land, and I want to get utility tractor so that I can have multiple attachments. Is an entry level tractor too big/small for 30 acres?

Thank you!
Cono

 

[beenthere]

Welcome to the forum.
It will mainly depend on the equipment that you have, or expect to get, to work the land.

What more can you tell us about the land, your equipment plans, etc.

Might renting the land be an option?

 

[mjncad]

Beenthere is right in that we need more information; but just guessing you will need 35HP as a minimum. However I'm guessing 40 - 50HP is more in order. Other members are more knowledgeable on that, and I hope someone chimes in. Less HP can do the job, it just takes longer.

 

[bp fick]

It depends entirely on the upcoming tasks.

If all one does is mow a few hundred square feet around the house, a good lawn mower will do. If one is going to raise and bale hay off 25 acres, that is an entirely different equation. Row cropping yet another.

Cannot make recommendations basely purely on number of acres. Tasks determine tractor choice almost completely. Buying for long term maintenance is also important, imho. If there are just one or two giant projects, better to consider hiring or renting equipment for those.

I knew I faced ONE excavation project on my acquired property. I hired a local guy with backhoe. Cheap. Cheap. His pittance wouldn't have made even one payment on my having my own backhoe. Think smart. There is going to be a ton of other financial needs/desire associated with the property as well. Unless you have deep, deep pockets, remember the well, the fencing, the barns, sheds, drives, and so on, and on, and on.

 

[Cidertom]

For my 30 acres... my choice was a 4520.
But the question is too wide for a good answer. I needed to recover 20 of those acres from brush, do some light logging, roads, and some hay. I have enough use I went for the attachable BH. I wanted a tractor for 80% 3pt, 20% BH. If the ratio was 50-50 or less I would have gone with a 110 TLB. I need the higher HP for my use.

I did wind up buying a smaller unit for the around the house chores, the 4520 was too big. The 2305 wouldn't have done the big chores I needed though. I used to have a 4300 and it was too small as well for the big uses.

One issue I have is limited time. So I need the tractor available when I need it, so renting was not a viable option for me. The hour each way to the rental yard would have killed much of my time.

 

[kingofallconos]

Hello,

Thanks for the responses. I'm pretty new to the farming. I'm just in the process of putting together a budget for a hobby farm. I'm purchasing 114 acres of vacant land, with 50 acres workable. The rest is heavily wooded and filled with wild game. There are some sporadic trees I need to clear but the land is flat and does not require any draining. I do not want to rent a tractor.

35 acres for agriculture use
10 acres for pasture

I'm starting from the scratch. The lI need to till the land, clear brush. Then plant for 35 acres.

I'm planting potatoes and classic tomatoes and hay. In the winter I will plant oats.

Sorry if I'm not providing sufficient information, I'm still learning the right questions to ask! I have a lot of knowledge gaps to cover.

Cheers,
Cono

 

[bp fick]

Thanks for the additional information.

The tasks you describe will require lots study and more than a few test drives at a helpful, lower pressure dealership.

You gonna need a big one!! Seriously, you will want a stout machine for those tasks. Just saying 50-60 hp doesn't help all that much, as the variety of machines at this level is very diverse and the options that accompany them are extensive. What might prove difficult is the dialing in of the finer points of the different models at that level. Take your time. You will be a bit overwhelmed at first, but slowly and surely, the minutia begins to make sense. Again, Take your time.

 

[MarkV]

Cono welcome to the forum and congratulations on the new property. Your laying out some big projects for yourself. Potatoes and tomatoes require a lot of hand work without some specialized equipment that is expensive. The problem there is expensive equipment requires planting a lot of acreage to pay for itself. Hay falls into the same category and is seldom practical on small acreage unless you are very good at keeping older equipment running. If there is a lot of hay done in your area you can often work out a deal with farmers to do your hay for shares. If you are set on doing your own hay I would not consider a tractor under 60 hp.

Given that you are still at the research stage talk with your local county extension agent. They will know what grows, how to grow it and who else grows it in your area.

One last thing, if you are trying to do it for profit it is awful hard to break even on 35 acres.

MarkV

 

[Egon]

You may want to investigate the equipment you will need for your different jobs and how serious you are about them. Will they be required to be money makers or will the hobby farm be supported by other means.

Haying equipment is expensive unless you can buy older and be able to fix them yourself. It may require larger HP.

Will you harvest the oat grain or oats or use the entire plant for feed.

The original cultivation has been done in the past with 25 HP tractors, ploughs, disk's cultivator etc. Just takes time.

The potaoes take special equipment as will the tomatoes.

You'll have to determine what equipment you need and then choose the tractor to handle it.

Sorry to be of no positive help but there is a lot more involved than just a tractor.

 

[jenkinsph]

kingofallconos,
Aquiring new property can be very exciting and it is rewarding to be able to look over improvements you have made with satisfaction. How you change the landscape, how you use it and what your expectations or goals are need to be well thought out. The experience you are looking for is developed over time, what type and size equipment is a minor part of the big picture.

I agree with other posters to take it slow, and I would be careful not to assume that farming is going to pay the note on the land. If it were easy to make this work all of us here would be riding tractors and buying land instead of riding computers. Most of us here enjoy the time spent on our land and our tractors, for most of us we subsidize it because it is a fun lifestyle.

I suggest you spend some time walking the land with your family to get a better feel for it. Inquire and observe how others in your locale are utilizing their land. Figure out how much time you have to spend, what your long term goals are and how you can achieve these goals. Know how you are going to pay for it.

Once you can ask more specific questions, hopefully we can offer more specific suggestions.

 

[bp fick]

Specializing is key. Generic "farming" of 35 acres is just hobby farming, really . There are hugely profitable specialty farms of far less than 35 acres that net their owner/operators close to 6 figures. This is far more the result of the skill, knowledge and management of the owner than it is a matter of which tractor. Hope that makes sense. You didn't say whether this was more on the hobby side or on the profit side of the equation.

Just by way of example, I have a friend who organic gardens specialty crops, has a market in Lexington, KY, and does very, very well on less than 3 tilled acres. It is remarkable and couldn't be duplicated by many people as they do not have his 30 years of experience.

I have another friend who owns a vineyard in Napa, CA, and it cannot be more than 20 acres of vines. He too does very, very well.

In both cases, the investment of knowledge and skill took years to dial in.

 

[jenkinsph]

Specializing is key. Generic "farming" of 35 acres is just hobby farming, really . There are hugely profitable specialty farms of far less than 35 acres that net their owner/operators close to 6 figures. This is far more the result of the skill, knowledge and management of the owner than it is a matter of which tractor. Hope that makes sense. You didn't say whether this was more on the hobby side or on the profit side of the equation.

Just by way of example, I have a friend who organic gardens specialty crops, has a market in Lexington, KY, and does very, very well on less than 3 tilled acres. It is remarkable and couldn't be duplicated by many people as they do not have his 30 years of experience.

I have another friend who owns a vineyard in Napa, CA, and it cannot be more than 20 acres of vines. He too does very, very well.

In both cases, the investment of knowledge and skill took years to dial in.

I agree, a small garden plot of 1500 sf is alot to keep up with muchless 35 acres. I can grow most of the stuff I want to actually eat on a couple of table tops.

I place having tractors in the same realm as having golf carts and bass boats, I don't really need them but I like them so I have them.

 

[kingofallconos]

Thanks guys. I appreciate all of your feedback. Financially, I want the farm to cover ongoing expenses. Although, I think it would take me many years to recover the capital investment in the land. I know I need to find a crop that grows best in the soil as well as look at what crops are in the most demand. After expenses I don't plan to make more than $15-$20K per year once I ramp up sufficient skills. I will run at a loss for a while as I come to up speed. Most of the reading I've done seems to indicate that most hobby farms run at a loss and a small percentage make money. I think I can make money just need the right planning. I see this as a long term project maybe 5 years of effort to get a functional farm and house built. In the short term, only farm less than 1 acre to gain experience and observe which crops work out best before committing to sowing many acres.

I didn't think about the type of crop relative to the tractor. This was a good point. I thought I could get away with just getting an entry level utility tractor to suit my needs but it looks like I need to firm down my requirements a bit better.

Thanks for all your input once again. I'll be back once I'm ready! Until then I'll keep hitting the books!

Cheers,
Cono

 

[TripleR]

You have received some very good advice so far and I doubt I can improve on it. The last year my brother and I farmed while I was in college, we broke even so all those hours on the tractor and field labor after school and work were a loss. We have several hundred acres and cash rent it out now.

My wife worked at FSA and saw many people try farming and fail while some were successful. The only advice I could give you are already doing; research, talk to successful farmers, maybe take a couple of courses in what you finally decide to specialize in and don't go too deep in debt as that has been the killer for most of the failures we have seen.

I am like most on here as I only "farm for fun" and get my income elsewhere.

Good luck.

 

[MtnViewRanch]

You have received some very good advice so far and I doubt I can improve on it. The last year my brother and I farmed while I was in college, we broke even so all those hours on the tractor and field labor after school and work were a loss. We have several hundred acres and cash rent it out now.

My wife worked at FSA and saw many people try farming and fail while some were successful. The only advice I could give you are already doing; research, talk to successful farmers, maybe take a couple of courses in what you finally decide to specialize in and don't go too deep in debt as that has been the killer for most of the failures we have seen.

I am like most on here as I only "farm for fun" and get my income elsewhere.

Good luck.

Sounds like any other business to me, most fail. Most people in general have no idea what it takes to be successful. It is always sad to see people start a new business and then see them loose a life's savings. If you pay attention to new start-ups, most are closed in a couple of years.

I saw a figure a long time ago. Half of all businesses fail the first year. Half of the ones that make it the first year, fail the second year. Half of those fail in five years. Half of those fail within 10, and half of those fail within 20. So when it is all said and done, less than 6% of the businesses that start make it to 20 years.