New to the forum, been more of a spectator then a poster. In any event, my wife and I just purchased 29 acres, consisting of 3-4 acres of lawn (buying a zero-turn mower), 5-6 acres of pasture/field, 10 acres of tillable land, and 10 acres of woods (on a hill). Currently the 10 acres is hay farmed, land is leased to a local farmer. As for the rest, that will be on me, at least for the rest of the year or two. I plan on maintaining and thinning out the woods, removing an additional 1-2 acres of woods to enlarge the lower field (farmed field), have to brush hog the pasture once a month or so, maintain and plow the 1,500' driveway (3/4 of driveway is crushed stone), till and maintain 1/4 acre vegetable garden (plan on enlarging it over the next few years, possibly up to a full acre). Also, they currently have two additional 1/4 acre gardens, one of grapes and one of peach and apple trees. In the future, I would eventually want to farm the lower field, whether it be hay, corn, or vegetable So my question is: will the 40Twenty series (4520 or 4720) do what I do now and in the future or should I just buy a 5M Series tractor. If 5M, what size? In addition, I am also a builder and do some landscape construction work, so I plan on using this for work occasionally.
Here are the attachments I was thinking of getting: loader, backhoe??, tiller, brush hog, rock bucket w/grapple, box blade or rear blade?, pallet forks, post hole digger, pto spreader and sprayer. Am I missing anything?
Thanks in advance!
Rob
smaller tractor with all the bells and whistles. or a larger tractor and just the basics....
for you, i would say smaller tractor with all the bells and whistles. and lease out the farm land.
if you are going to do the farming yourself. then i would be going for the larger tractor with just the basics. the farming takes larger tractors, not just in the HP but the weight department as well. if you lease the land out. then you are more likely getting a farmer. that has already invested in the bigger machinery that can get things done for farming.
80 acres here, and i lease the farmed area out. so much easier. at one time had cows, and larger tractors, but man, that was overkill. any more you need more and more acres, to help offset the larger sized tractor costs to make things worth while.
not needing such a large tractor, lets you get get a smaller tractor with all the bells and whistles. that a larger tractor with just the basics would cost.
and those bells and whistles can make life much more enjoyable and easier. granted some tasks will take longer. but the bells and whistles can help make up for things.
CAB, winter sucks, more so the cold wind!
good tranmission with quick easy changing of gears with a button, without need of every using foot clutch with exception of perhaps initially starting tractor. manual foot clutch. never again it really does take a good amount of time to push in foot clutch and change gears, vs being able to step on a different peddle or push a button to change gears or move forward or backwards. and for a multi use tractor. being able to quickly change gears and forward and backwards. it is one of them non stop things you do.
extra work lights on front and rear. really do help and extends hours you can use the tractor a good amount. more so in winter to plow drive.
TNT (top n tilt) for the 3 point hitch. if your drive has a variety of angles and curves. to help with water drainage. TNT can really help by just moving a lever in the cab. vs getting out and manually adjusting which way the implement angles/leans for next portion of the drive way.
backhoe, it is well worth it. more so if you get a tractor, that allows you to pull lever to twist seat around and begin user the backhoe. i am not a large fan of having to get off tractor, and then get on backhoe seat. to much time is lost. and after half day to a full day of work, you have walked a few miles between tractor seat and backhoe seat.
for me backhoe comes into play with, getting my rear unstuck when i went to far out into the mud, removing tree stumps, putting in culverts, putting in electrical, gas, water, internet, telephone lines, putting in a sepetic tank and drainage fields. moving stuff in and out of a pickup truck. ya FEL (front end loader) can work, but the backhoe on 555c has a better distance i can work with, without fear i may accidentally run something right into side of pickup truck. because i can not see side of truck.
if ya get the smaller tractor, the bells and whistles beside the backhoe itself, would be a hyd thumb for the backhoe. allowing you to grab a hold of rocks and small trees, to pulling posts from seat of your tractor.
at moment all i have to work with is FEL (front end loader) to remove mud holes. and move little bit of rock around. once i trade out this large 555c TLB, it will be back to a rear blade and box blade. not one or other but both. rear blade is nice to remove snow, when it is only a couple inches deep, and helps me to move rock back onto the drive way. and also helps me to move dirt back onto the dirt paths were ruts were. the box blade helps me get a better smooth grade. and helps me break up the gravel. and in some areas will help me to loosen the top layer of soil and rock. to smooth out bumps and holes.
pallet forks, it would be nice to have them. but i honestly do not need to remove pallets off of a truck. or anything of the like. if you were in landscaping buisness. and wanting to move pallets off your truck / trailer to some place you are working at. then pallet forks might be a better option. but if you are wantting to make a large platform out on the front bucket to hold tree limbs, and brush. you can create pallets forks out of some 2x4's and some ratchet straps. and a piece of plywood.
3pt post hole digger. worth it. the only down side is if you have hard ground. i do in various places around here. i have a hard time getting a PHD to go through that hard dirt. there are kits to add a cylinder for "down pressure" for a PHD. if going for smaller tractor with bells and whistles this may be one of them whistles.
PTO sprayer worth it. more so if the pasture / woods have stuff you do not want and want to spray it to get rid of it. though on demand water pump sprayer maybe more worth it.
you say tiller, but if you are working that much of a veg garden. i would say plow and disc, and harrow. do not get me wrong tillers are nice. and if used on a buisness can allow you to back right up to something and drop tiller down and get going. vs a plow / disc / chain harrow. i am bias. when dad had riding lawn mower, (garden size riding lawn mower) with tiller. it was painfully slow. there always would be some sort of large rock or brick or twin or rope even weeds that would wrap up around the tines of the tiller and you would be out there with a razor blade, various size flat head screw drivers, needle nose pliers, hammers. to remove the stuff from the tines. granted the tiller being on the tractor was a large improvement over a walk behind tiller. the 2 bottom plow, disc and harrow for the allis Chalmers tractor to me is an improvement. over the tiller for large size doings. ya i gotta hook up different implements. but i am no longer removing crud from the tines on the tiller. personally like the 2 bottom plow. it lets me pull up a bunch of dirt into a row, for say potatoes, or melons. vs getting out there with a walk behind tiller and metal rakes.
again tiller is nice, more so if you have landscaping business. were being able to back up to stuff and drop tiller down. and get that much closer to stuff does help.
with all the implements you listed. i would imagine bells and whistles would be Quick attachment. for both 3pt hitch and FEL. so it is easier to switch to different things.
bells and whistles, would be a "winch" to help pull stuff up and out of the woods. to a wood
chipper.
rock bucket with grappel. do not know why you want or need the rock bucket. or less you live some place were there are a lot of rocks in the soil. or wanting to move large size rocks / bolders. or you are wanting to rock bucket with grapple to act like teeth to grab and rip out various bushes and small trees on your property. prefer backhoe with thumb for that. granted backhoe does not have as much power compared to FEL when lifting / pulling stuff up like that. though prefer backhoe maneuverability to grab ahold of just what i want. vs trying to angle tractor in multi different directions to get the FEL to go were i want it to. and if something is stubborn i just take a quick bucket full of dirt or like and bye bye i go.
a "boom" that goes on the FEL might be nice, to help raise trusses, on a low building.
pallet forks, might be nice to raise say a pallet of shingles up to the roof, and then unload the shingles manually onto the roof of a house. or perhaps move a pallet of lumber or bricks off a trailer and/or truck. onto the construction site.
PTO generator can be nice, if you are a house builder. and do not have temporary power hook up yet. or working out in pasture / woods. and need some sort of power equipment. been there done that. or live out in middle of no were and power goes out a generator comes in handy. at moment just move the little 3000watt generator around.
bucket hooks, most tractors do not come with hooks on the buckets so you can easily attach chains.
loaded tires, for more rear weight for better traction, and help stabilize tractor some on hills.
