Sizing tractor for new property

[Tractornewb]

Greetings all,

I'm sure you've heard this story before, but I need some serious advice here.

Just bought a place out in the country on 4.1 acres in Missouri. It has a serious lawn, to the tune where my current lawn guy wants $125 per cutting (2.8 acres). At that price, the wife said that's just not gonna happen, which I agree with.

It also has some bush that I want to cut, saplings that need to be removed, a small pond (about 40'x20') which has a bunch of trees around it that need removed for pond health.

Basically, property is about 60% lawn, 40% trees and unkept bush, with a pond.

So, wife wants a backyard fence, for containing dog, children, and maybe chickens + we garden every year, and to exclude the pond. House can be partially wood heated, and I have trees. I might need a log splitter...

So, this will require tiller, auger, mower, maybe bushhog, etc..I have no clue really if I need a loader or a backhoe. Lots of branches to be cut, house has some mulch areas around it. Do I need a chipper so I can make my own mulch? There are lots of branches to be cut, as the trees are pretty wild.

This is where I need help. I'm a pretty handy guy with tools in my 40's, I do my own car maintenance and small projects/home improvement stuff. But, I've never had a sizeable property before and don't know anything about tractors, other than what I read on this forum and various websites.

So, what do I really need? My immediate needs this spring will be a mower, and a 3-pt hitch for chores. I'm thinking of going used, $5-7k-ish (about). The other implements will come out of a separate implement fund, TBD. Wife has vetoed another loan, as we just bought this place. I tend to agree with her on that one. I have vetoed a cheap lawn tractor which will, in my view, be mostly useless.

Ideas on tractor hp required? Loader or no loader? Backhoe for later?

Thank you in advance (This post was wife approved

 

[AroniaFarmer]

For something in that price range... Your going to be looking at a higher hour tractor. Just a quick search on my local craigslist shows a used kubota about the size you want going for 6 grand. With 3 thousand hours. Or you can go older like an old n series ford tractor. The ford 8n is a work horse of a little tractor, the prices are usually 2500 to 3500. If I were you I'd find a nice clean older ford tractor maybe an 861 or a jubilee for its live hydraulics. Just search the classifieds in your area, and see what comes up. Best of luck to you. The only concerns about using a big old heavy tractor to mow your lawn would be how heavy they are. Could sink in and hurt your grass.

 

[Paystar]

Tractornewb.......everyone hates spending money, but just consider this.....I've been debating a tractor for a few years but my trucking businesses always kept spending my money. But I finally got one and it was one of the best investments I have made. Trust me, if you buy a good one it will more than pay for itself for many years to come.

I wouldn't spend the money on a backhoe if your trying to keep the cost low. A mini ex is more productive and fairly cheap to rent for a weekend.
A small compact (23 h.p. up) would do everything you need.

 

[murphy1244]

I'd say your looking for a scut size machine Buy new with the 0% for 5 years.

 

[flusher]

Get a 20-25 hp (engine) SCUT. My first tractor was a 2005 Kubota B7510HST (21 hp engine, 17 hp pto, 4WD, power steering, hydrostatic tranny) with the LA302 FEL (4-ft bucket). Used it for 3 years on my 10 acre place and then traded it in for a much larger 2008 Mahindra 5525. Cost of that Kubota new: $12.6K. That tractor now would sell for $7-8K. It did all the jobs you mentioned except the backhoe work. When I need that type of work done, I hire it out (there are dozens of guys around here with TLBs who charge reasonable rates for one off jobs).

Good luck.

 

[Gary Fowler]

Greetings all,

I'm sure you've heard this story before, but I need some serious advice here.

Just bought a place out in the country on 4.1 acres in Missouri. It has a serious lawn, to the tune where my current lawn guy wants $125 per cutting (2.8 acres). At that price, the wife said that's just not gonna happen, which I agree with.

It also has some bush that I want to cut, saplings that need to be removed, a small pond (about 40'x20') which has a bunch of trees around it that need removed for pond health.

Basically, property is about 60% lawn, 40% trees and unkept bush, with a pond.

So, wife wants a backyard fence, for containing dog, children, and maybe chickens + we garden every year, and to exclude the pond. House can be partially wood heated, and I have trees. I might need a log splitter...

So, this will require tiller, auger, mower, maybe bushhog, etc..I have no clue really if I need a loader or a backhoe. Lots of branches to be cut, house has some mulch areas around it. Do I need a chipper so I can make my own mulch? There are lots of branches to be cut, as the trees are pretty wild.

This is where I need help. I'm a pretty handy guy with tools in my 40's, I do my own car maintenance and small projects/home improvement stuff. But, I've never had a sizeable property before and don't know anything about tractors, other than what I read on this forum and various websites.

So, what do I really need? My immediate needs this spring will be a mower, and a 3-pt hitch for chores. I'm thinking of going used, $5-7k-ish (about). The other implements will come out of a separate implement fund, TBD. Wife has vetoed another loan, as we just bought this place. I tend to agree with her on that one. I have vetoed a cheap lawn tractor which will, in my view, be mostly useless.

Ideas on tractor hp required? Loader or no loader? Backhoe for later?

Thank you in advance (This post was wife approved

Loaders are nice to have and so is a backhoe, but for your budget, you are not going to find a TLB that runs for $6K. Even a small SCUT or CUT with mower and FEL is going to be many years old for that money.
I have a large tractor and small TLB but find myself using mostly the small Kubota TLB for digging, loading etc an my Ferris IS700Z zero turn mower. I mow about 6 acres in 2.5-3 hours with my Ferris. For mowing you cant beat a good quality zero turn mower. I do use my back hoe a lot, but for your case, I couldn't recommend one as you don't seem to have that much needing to do with one so if I were you, I would rent a tracked excavator ( or hire someone to do it might be just as cheap)to remove the pond trees and any others that you may want to take out of your woody area.

I would not waste money on a chipper as you could just limb up the trees and burn them for firewood and then pile up the smaller stuff to either compost in the woods or burn if allowed.
Use the money saved on not buying a chipper to buy a tiller for your garden and it will get more use, rent a chipper IF YOU NEED ONE for spring or fall clean up. You should expect to buy any mulch that you may need, its cheaper than buying or renting a chipper.

Check Craigslist or better Tractorhouse.com for equipment for sale in your area but don't assume that the listed prices is what you can buy for, always negotiate a lower price.

If you don't have any thing to mow your yard with, I think I would be looking at a NEW zero turn mower (I saw a Troybuilt at Lowes for $2799) and then perhaps an 8N($2000-2500 many sold with a shredder) or later model Ford tractor like the 861 with live PTO and hydraulics which are much easier to use that the 8N for your bushhog work and tiller work, however the 861 is going to be much more costly. All of these together should run in less than your $6K budget. Used 5 foot bushhogs in fair shape run $500 or less. A new tiller is around $1300.

This should put you in good shape other than the FEL which you may be able to trade up for later as the budget increases.

 

[wolftree]

Tractornewb,

I am inclined to suggest your finding a used 25-30 HP CUT. If it has a front loader, even better. A rear or belly mower should work well. My choice would be the rear mower so as to be easier to remove.

There are many used tractors in this price range if you search now, before true spring. You add rear 3pt Implements as time goes by.

 

[RalphVa]

What I did was to go with a 2 wheel tractor first. You can do what you want to do with one of them if you give up mowing so much. Just let it grow up and make trails through the natural woods/fields. You could probably get a new BCS with quite a few implements within your budget.

Then I went with an 18.5 hp 4wd later on. It's been replaced 9 years later with a 24 hp one simply because I cannot get another 18.5 hp JD.

Consider going no till in the garden. Just buy a used rotary plow and make some raised rows and no till them with just cover crops and/or mulch. You'll only need a used plow because you'll use it once to make the raised rows and then park or sell it.

Ralph

 

[nickc]

my opinion would be a compact in the 20-24 pto hp range. I am currently running a john deere 2305 that I mow with, 54" deck & bagger. fel, 48" tiller. (wish I had more implements). it does everything I need & more. the only draw back to my machine is the low clearance of the 3 point. I think a 2520 is the perfect size. I can also say that j.d. financing made everything easy. no matter what you decide on you'll find many uses, & when the mrs. sees what you can get done she'll probally not mind that new machine. good luck

 

[Maxify55]

My first tractor was a gray market Zen-Noh (YM2210D).
I spent $7900 for it and learned far more with a smaller tractor.
That I then applied to the larger unit when the land/farm could pay for it.
Start small. Buy what you can afford. Then, as you learn, buy larger.
Rather than have the funds come out of the family budget and perhaps financially cripple the family.

My 2 cents

Above all else, forgive yourself for the mistakes you're about to make.
You'll do fine.