buying advice?

[jkmfarmer]

My grandfather worked a 220 acre dairy farm in western PA. He planted and harvested all the corn, oats, wheat, and hay for his herd with a Farmall H and a 300. The 'H' is about 30 hp. Not sure about the 300, but it's probably in the 30hp range somewhere. At times, he'd use my dad's Farmall C (about 22hp). The C did all the same work as the H and 300. His secret for success was having more than one tractor.
I can't speak for Tenn, but here in PA, you can still find perfectly good 30hp tractors like Farmall, Ford, and J Deere for under $5000. And a tractor that size can easily work up 13 acres. I still use Dad's 1950 C to brush hog.
And then the backhoe. I know you have a couple projects, but buy for the size of job it'll be doing the most. For example, if it will be used to scoop manure more than anything else, make sure it'll fit into the areas you need to get into to scoop manure.
They come in all sizes.
Good luck....

 

[Hay Dude]

well, and when I can afford it, and sell the partners on it, I may do the same. For right now, it's strictly one tractor, until everyone decides that it's too painful. The other couple involved has some rather special ideas some times. It's best to let them learn by peeing on the fence.

Just curious:
1. What kind of prices are you being quoted for your prospective new tractor plus the new backhoe attachment?

The backhoe I quoted you shipped to your location would have run you $19,000.
It had a cab. You can get an open station backhoe for probably $12,000.

 

[old bubblehead]

$45K

 

[outdoorsman123]

I had an mx5100 with a wallenstein backhoe attached. It was useful but very limited. It was better than a shovel. I could remove it and use the tractor as I needed. It was a smaller tractor for field work, but you can get smaller hay equivalent to try and match.
But I ended up getting a mini excavator. Worth every penny.
And a bigger tractor. Also worth every penny.

 

[Torvy]

The backhoe add-on portion is going to be $7-$11k (or more).

You have more tolerance than I have. My short experience with partners cured me of any desire to do that again. I prefer to make my own decisions (er, um, mistakes).