Tractor or skid steer? Just bought 150 acres.

[North to Alaska]

You would be amazed at what 100 acres of farmland can rake in… but not with your typical farm crop.
Look into alternative crops.
some of those alternatives leave enough space between rows to hay as well.

 

[North to Alaska]

Not sure where you live but those prices are a bit outrageous

Yes, rent dozer and check out if someone is around that can work it. They probably do it for less than $1000 a day and be done in three days?

Are you grading down to gravel and then filling it up with gravel for your drive?
Don’t know your soil type, but I bet your neighbors have gravel on top of soil?

Forgive me, I never had to have a drive put in accept here which is bulldozed to gravel only because of soul type and as a kid I watched my parents new home and driveway made with about a foot? of gravel on soil for driveway.

 

[K5lwq]

Another thing to check is if the county will set the culvert for you. Here our county road department will do it for free if we provide the culvert.

 

[Rustyiron]

Still wondering you general location. (and soil type)
Any meaningful dirt work is abusive to a tractor and very poor with anything but grading with a pulled 3 point implement.
Could you describe what this 1/2 mile driveway needs? Is it just skimming off the topsoil and dumping in gravel or cutting and filling? (moving yards of earth).

 

[Lineman North Florida]

Probably a little late to the thread but here is another opinion , I have a 112 acre farm and currently have 2 tractors and 1 tracked skid steer that I use for my business, if I had to pick one it would be a cabbed 85-100 hp tractor and I would be saving for a 4x4 backhoe. My skid steer earns me money every week but is useless on the farm for tillage, planting, hay work, etc and while it does get some use on the farm it is minimal compared to my tractors. I did see a couple of points that I don't agree with 100%
1. That a 2010 model tractor with 1400 hours on it is not exactly low hours, where I'm from farm tractors of that age will have 3 or 4 times that many hours, 1400 hours is low.
2.This one I agree with mostly about working by yourself in a skid steer and not being able to get out of the cab unless the arms are all the way down and that's true with a lot of brands but all one needs is a skid steer with a roll up door which Kubota and Takeuchi both have, I work by myself everyday and get out of my Kubota with the arms in any position , so don't let that stop you if you go the skidsteer route, you just have to buy the right brand with the right options.

 

[North to Alaska]

1. That a 2010 model tractor with 1400 hours on it is not exactly low hours, where I'm from farm tractors of that age will have 3 or 4 times that many hours, 1400 hours is low.

Slight misunderstanding. Agree, for that model (made in the 60’s), 1,400 hours is low. I meant as a general rule, 1,400 is somewhere in the middle for farm tractors. Guess I also see so many compact tractors that don’t get too many hours on it that skew my view on that.

 

[redman135]

Re post #17, access through the neighbours yard, get the road access done asap. Alternative, open a temporary access through your road fence if possible,(is the road frontage all or partially wooded?).

When getting a loader I recommend a self leveler model as I am picking you will do a lot of forklift work on a new build.

When you say "Boarding", are you talking horses?

Paddocks: If the stock you are having is horses( or cattle) think about an electric fence system. A single hot TAPE(high visibility), not wire(low vis), is enough to keep a horse in, and is flimsy enough that a panicing horse can charge through and be at minimal risk of injury. A bonus is an electric fence system is budget friendly low to moderate cost compared to conventional post and rail or post and batten fences.


How good is your water supply?

 

[Aden2112]

Still wondering you general location. (and soil type)
Any meaningful dirt work is abusive to a tractor and very poor with anything but grading with a pulled 3 point implement.
Could you describe what this 1/2 mile driveway needs? Is it just skimming off the topsoil and dumping in gravel or cutting and filling? (moving yards of earth).

Midwest. Soil on the farm is very high quality - mostly Maury and McAfee silt.

The plan is to skim off the top 4-6'' and grade it so that the driveway will be predominately flat (side to side).

Will put down driveway fabric before the gravel goes down.

I talked with a neighbor who installed his driveway about 20 years ago. He has to put new gravel down every 4-5 years because it keeps sinking. He never put down fabric and for some reason doesn't think it would help.

 

[Aden2112]

Re post #17, access through the neighbours yard, get the road access done asap. Alternative, open a temporary access through your road fence if possible,(is the road frontage all or partially wooded?).

When getting a loader I recommend a self leveler model as I am picking you will do a lot of forklift work on a new build.

When you say "Boarding", are you talking horses?

Paddocks: If the stock you are having is horses( or cattle) think about an electric fence system. A single hot TAPE(high visibility), not wire(low vis), is enough to keep a horse in, and is flimsy enough that a panicing horse can charge through and be at minimal risk of injury. A bonus is an electric fence system is budget friendly low to moderate cost compared to conventional post and rail or post and batten fences.


How good is your water supply?

All wooded - literally only access is through the neighbor's front yard. Hard to even walk through the wooded road frontage because of the briars, etc.

Good suggestion on the self leveling loader.

Yes, horses.

Our clients hate electric fencing. We have a friend who has it - she struggles to find new clients mostly because of that fence. While I 100% agree with you, clients kind of dictate where we can and can not go that route. If it were my choice, I would have it everywhere.

8'' main water line on the road (we are 10 minutes from a major metro). We are going to tap into that. Also have a pond and a creek on the farm.

 

[Aden2112]

Probably a little late to the thread but here is another opinion , I have a 112 acre farm and currently have 2 tractors and 1 tracked skid steer that I use for my business, if I had to pick one it would be a cabbed 85-100 hp tractor and I would be saving for a 4x4 backhoe. My skid steer earns me money every week but is useless on the farm for tillage, planting, hay work, etc and while it does get some use on the farm it is minimal compared to my tractors. I did see a couple of points that I don't agree with 100%
1. That a 2010 model tractor with 1400 hours on it is not exactly low hours, where I'm from farm tractors of that age will have 3 or 4 times that many hours, 1400 hours is low.
2.This one I agree with mostly about working by yourself in a skid steer and not being able to get out of the cab unless the arms are all the way down and that's true with a lot of brands but all one needs is a skid steer with a roll up door which Kubota and Takeuchi both have, I work by myself everyday and get out of my Kubota with the arms in any position , so don't let that stop you if you go the skidsteer route, you just have to buy the right brand with the right options.

Thank you for the suggestions.

I think I have been convinced (by you and all of the others) that a tractor is the right choice. Cabbed is out of my budget, but I am shooting for 70 hp+ with a self leveling loader. Lower hours, good maintenance, newer, and no dpf if possible.