I'd like to try my hand at planting a small peanut field (6-7 acres) to produce peanuts for hay, fertilizer and for personal oil pressing (not for resale, I don't intend to sell for a profit). However, it looks like just about all the equipment for peanut planting and harvesting I've seen is either large vastly expensive purpose built self-driven combine machinery or PTO driven but intended for 140HP+ large tractors. Obviously such equipment isn't worth it for such small acreage.
Are there any implements out there in the US market for planting and harvesting peanuts with a compact category I tractor (~34HP)? I see various implements for small tractors in the Indian and Chinese market where there are still a lot of small producers with smaller tractors, but here is the US all I can see are huge machines for large commercial outfits. The red tape and expense of importing this equipment to the US seems nowhere near worth it though. How did small time farmers plant and harvest peanuts 60-70 years ago when most tractors were small? Were there implements for this or did they still do most of the harvesting by hand with pickers?
I should note that I'm in no way interested in hiring someone else to plant/harvest for me or borrowing equipment. I'm only interested in doing this if I can purchase and keep the equipment myself affordably.
Are there any implements out there in the US market for planting and harvesting peanuts with a compact category I tractor (~34HP)? I see various implements for small tractors in the Indian and Chinese market where there are still a lot of small producers with smaller tractors, but here is the US all I can see are huge machines for large commercial outfits. The red tape and expense of importing this equipment to the US seems nowhere near worth it though. How did small time farmers plant and harvest peanuts 60-70 years ago when most tractors were small? Were there implements for this or did they still do most of the harvesting by hand with pickers?
I should note that I'm in no way interested in hiring someone else to plant/harvest for me or borrowing equipment. I'm only interested in doing this if I can purchase and keep the equipment myself affordably.