New member

[Les7]

I live in Western, NJ with approx. 12 acres. I raise cattle and I am looking for a Kubota tractor with a bucket and finish mower. I appreciate all info so as not to make costly mistakes.
Les7

 

[TBN Support]

:welcome: Welcome to the forum!

I'm going to move your thread over to our Kubota section to see if we can find you some advice

 

[Wagtail]

G'day Mate and welcome to TBN from Downunder.

Enjoy the site.

 

[Thomas]

:welcome: to TBN Les7...enjoy.

 

[MHarryE]

More information? How many cattle? Feed large round bales or? Use for cleaning out manure, moving bales, and finish mowing? Do you have a shelter for your cattle with limited height that needs to be cleaned? Will it also be used to clear snow in the winter?

 

[rScotty]

More information? How many cattle? Feed large round bales or? Use for cleaning out manure, moving bales, and finish mowing? Do you have a shelter for your cattle with limited height that needs to be cleaned? Will it also be used to clear snow in the winter?

That's right, the more we know, the better the advice will be. It might even help to know what tractors you've used at your place and what you liked/disliked about each one.

Let me give you an example: On our place I used an old 2-cylinder JD for everything for 30+ years. Pulling ground implements, mowing hay, blading, loader work, pumping water, drilling post holes, and it even had a backhoe that mounted on the 3 pt hitch. Weather protection was a simple canvas umbrella. Max traction required heavy tire chains in snow and ice - luckily we don't have mud. That tractor did it all, it was completely reliable.... but was never what you'd call easy to operate. I would buy it again, but would never recommend that JD to anyone else today. Sure it did a lot of work, but it also asked for a lot of muscle input from the operator. Today that tractor still works fine; it's parked out behind the barn under a tarp & gets taken out once a year for the local 4th of July parade.

Today's modern tractors are much more user friendly, and I think you can find what you want at the Kubota dealer. Just in general, if you need a loader that will lift round bales or a downed heifer then you are probably looking at something in the upper end of the 35 to 55 hp range just to get enough weight for stability. That's also a good size for general farm chores on small acreage - though a bit too large to use doing finish mowing on a lawn. Still, with with turf tires it would be about right to finish mow a soccer field. For mucking out you want to be on the smaller end of that HP scale with a handy machine having a small to medium size loader bucket and a HST transmission and a tight turning radius. Most tractors are 4wd today. And a comfortable seat is very worthwhile to have.
These are just some ideas here to get us started.
rScotty