Buying Advice Looking at first time tractor

[Beyondfubar]

Sounds like exactly what I want to do. I may rock wall off the small stands of trees too, and minimize the tricky to mow areas. Trying to plan this for low or at least easy maintenance. There are several spots where I have four foot boulder ledges too, but the goats like them so much I'm not sure what will be there. All I know for sure is I'll need a mountain of dirt. I may rent a chipper too so I can add water absorbent wood chunks in below the surface, had thick clay at my last house and hated it. Moved out here and have to water constantly and miss it. Not to mention my water storage just can't handle running 4 high pressure outlets for more then 15 minutes.

 

[GirlWhoWantsTractor]

Sounds like exactly what I want to do. I may rock wall off the small stands of trees too, and minimize the tricky to mow areas. Trying to plan this for low or at least easy maintenance. There are several spots where I have four foot boulder ledges too, but the goats like them so much I'm not sure what will be there. All I know for sure is I'll need a mountain of dirt. I may rent a chipper too so I can add water absorbent wood chunks in below the surface, had thick clay at my last house and hated it. Moved out here and have to water constantly and miss it. Not to mention my water storage just can't handle running 4 high pressure outlets for more then 15 minutes.

You're in Texas, might want to consider sticking with native varieties that will not need watering.

 

[Gary Fowler]

For your work, I would go for a 40 HP LS tractor. Within reason, larger tractor will be your friend. I actually bought too large a tractor strictly because it was within my budget. I made use of my 70 HP for a few months to do the heavy lifting jobs, but then I needed a smaller tractor, hence the B26 addition. I use the B26 now for about 95% of my work. I use the LS for hauling dirt when I need lots of it (one LS FEL load = about 3 of the B26), bush hogging and tiller work. Everything else is done with the B26 TLB. I really could not part with my backhoe even though it no longer gets full time work like when I first got it, it gets enough. I bought both tractors in 2010 and the LS has less than 200 hours while the Kubota B26 has over 600.

NOTE: A compact tractor with backhoe still wont do much for digging out bedrock so I am not recommending it for that. I have used mine a bunch digging out and loading loose rocks into my RTV to haul out of my garden spots. From your photo, it looks like a FEL rock bucket might be worth the cost to pick up those loose rocks although its use will be short lived. When finished with rock pickup, what will you need it for? A box blade might work for you just as well and can be used to move and spread dirt that you mentioned might be needed to be hauled in.

 

[prof fate]

ye olde do the math.
My last mower was a snapper, paid $3200, welded the frame once, think I did belts once, one battery, oil changes of course, and the PTO clutch was going when I sold it. Only asked $300, so say $2900 over 13 years - $223/year is what it cost to own plus the minor maintenance and fuel.
It mowed 55 acres a year, more or less, for 13 years, 715 acres, I'd estimate 600 hours, maybe 650.

Bought a toro timesaver zero turn for $3100 3 years ago. So far only a battery, oil/filter and fuel. Punctured a tire and broke a deck pulley (welded it). Figure this time I'm aiming for 15 years. It's got fewer hours per year as it mows faster.

Not sure a mower costing double to purchase will, per year, be cheaper to own/run. If you have info please share.

Now one could look at dollars per hour or acre mowed as another way to measure the best bang for the buck.

I picked up a low end 2004 14hp toro zero turn for $550 this year..no hour meter on it. Looks near mint. Was missing the fuel pump..no clue why, but that made it cheap I guess. $75 to have it diagnosed, repaired and tuned up for the year - $625 total in it.

It's not something i'd wanna mow 5 acres a week on, but 2 acres? not a problem. And it's a LOT mroe economical on gas than the bigger toro - uses half the fuel and only takes 20% longer to mow the same yard. (the bigger toro went to the farm to replace an old old mtd 'tractor' mower. Now this thing needed work most eveyr year starting in year 3, same as my old sears low-end mower/tractor).

I saw a diesel kubot zero turn - nice machine - but $13,750 or there abouts? Can't justify that, no way no how. I can get a big(ger) rear finish mower for my kioti for a lot less new, let alone used. Not as convenient for some things, but $11,000 saved is nice too

You might get a light duty low end residential zero turn for $3000.
My first zero turn was closer to 6K and my current zero turn was just under 12K.

 

[Beyondfubar]

With a bit of dirt down maybe I can get some grass to keep up with the temps and lack of water, as I said even the nasty weeds I have out in the cleared area have died. But I'm sure that is due to the lack of real dirt. If I didn't live here I bet this whole area would be sliding down into that ravine you can see just off photo, lots of my dirt has already tried the cattle fencing is a foot or more taller on my side then the ranch next door (Fine I suppose else I'd have goats AND cattle!).

Yeah I'm seriously considering the 40 horse, I'm not sure if I'll use the extra power but I might, and I am almost positive I need the clearance. It'd be harder to make that choice if the 3032 was 2 to 4 inches taller. I imagine with a heavy bucket load and the box blade that I will surely buy it will compress those 8 inches at least some and they're already close to not enough. In fact my night pen for the goats has rocks that stick no less than 12-14 inches out of the ground. If I ever had to get in there (say this winter with hay) I'd be totally out of luck. I may need to flip those out anyways, the goats love them but as soon as I get out of school and get a real job that's gonna be a pool.

I'll probably go cheap on the mower as you say Prof. I don't really fit on those things (probably a zero turn, but I'm a little taller than most people and have a very non-flexible carbon fiber leg) so my wife generally mows. This actually started off with me considering a bottom tier SCUT for her to use as a mid mounted mower. I was still gonna do the dirt moving but was gonna have 5 or 6 dump truck or semi loads of dirt dropped all at once on a weekend, then rent a bulldozer. When I realized I could also do a few more things with the SCUT I decided to go up a size.. then again.. then again heh. So now I'm at the 4140H and my wife is asking me to get a cab for it now. I'm gonna end up with a tracked Caterpillar if I don't stop.

 

[GirlWhoWantsTractor]

Sounds like you're turning most of the 5 acres into grass lawn. A big tractor will be hard on turf grass. Of course if your soil is sandy, compaction might not be a problem but then you might tend to sink in further as well.

Not sure what kind of tractor will navigate over rocks sticking out of the ground 14".

It took a huge commercial excavator and a dozer driven by a professional to get my property to the point where my tractor could navigate all of it.

 

[GirlWhoWantsTractor]

drought......even the nasty weeds I have out in the cleared area have died.

Then turf grass has no chance there. Just sayin'.

Maybe buffalo grass; dies and turns brown during dry, then comes back during wet season.

 

[Beyondfubar]

Yeah it'll probably be a excavator in that area. I'd like to flip some out, at least one was able to be dug out by hand so I figure the rest *might* be the same type. Not holding breath on that one. That way at least I can get into the general area to dump a bit of hay. Mostly I'm worried about the odd rock that doesn't look too big from the seat on the 3032 but again gonna be burying them so I guess who cares, besides the 4140 looked tall enough and might not compress as bad, if at all.

Actually I think I found a pretty good mixture. My little girl GSD thinks she is a combat engineer (thought.. we had to break her of this) and dug a 3 foot by 4 foot fighting position in the dirt in my front yard. The local dirt peddler sold me a few yards of his "Lawn dressing" which was a mixture of sand (mostly) and some ground up wood with just a tiny amount of potting soil/compost mixed in. after filling with that I don't even have to water in that spot anymore. Of course I picture a 3 foot deep covering of that over 3 to 4 acres as costing more than my house so.. well I hope 6 to 9 inches will cover that 'good enough'. Gonna have to find something like buffalo grass, but I'm not super worried about what it looks like down there, it's mostly going to be food for future livestock I think, but that also depends on how much my wife ends up liking what I'm up to. Would be a shame to really landscape then have big animals tear up it, though as far as cows are concerned I plan on getting minis so they don't impact the soil as much. Read a little research study on it from good ole' A&M. Maybe after I do all this work and decide to sell I can get 100 acres in flat country!