City boy shopping for first tractor

[geedub]

Hi all.

It's actually my girlfriend Cindy who is buying a tractor and I'm helping her. The truth is it will probably be my butt in the seat most of the time anyway.

Cindy and I moved to 82 acres in SW Georgia about a year ago and split it up evenly, she got 80 and I got 2 (even numbers).

The property has 6 acres of pecan orchard and 14 acres of cotton/peanuts, both of which are leased to neighbors. The remaining 60 acres are mostly Loblolly pine and hardwoods which haven't seen much logging in probably 100 years. There is a creek that runs across the place which is normally considered year-round but this drought dried it up. In a normal weather pattern there are several small drains that run almost constantly. As I'm typing this a logging crew is clearing 6-7 acres of the woods for a pond. The dirt drive into the property continues into the woods for a total length of a little over 1 mile.

We're looking for a tractor that can handle most of the maintenance chores for this land. The orchard is being mowed by the neighbor who leases it, but at 85 years old (still tougher than nails) there is a limit to how long he'll be able to do it.

So that's the line up; pond, road, woods, and orchard maintenance. We're thinking used tractor with a budget of $16-18K. I've already done some research and this is what I'm thinking so far:

40-50 engine HP
4WD
Hydrostatic
FEL
R-4 tires

Not included in that budget will be:

290 series Bushhog or equivalent
Box blade

How am I doing so far?

Thanks.

 

[flusher]

Hi all.

It's actually my girlfriend Cindy who is buying a tractor and I'm helping her. The truth is it will probably be my butt in the seat most of the time anyway.

Cindy and I moved to 82 acres in SW Georgia about a year ago and split it up evenly, she got 80 and I got 2 (even numbers).

The property has 6 acres of pecan orchard and 14 acres of cotton/peanuts, both of which are leased to neighbors. The remaining 60 acres are mostly Loblolly pine and hardwoods which haven't seen much logging in probably 100 years. There is a creek that runs across the place which is normally considered year-round but this drought dried it up. In a normal weather pattern there are several small drains that run almost constantly. As I'm typing this a logging crew is clearing 6-7 acres of the woods for a pond. The dirt drive into the property continues into the woods for a total length of a little over 1 mile.

We're looking for a tractor that can handle most of the maintenance chores for this land. The orchard is being mowed by the neighbor who leases it, but at 85 years old (still tougher than nails) there is a limit to how long he'll be able to do it.

So that's the line up; pond, road, woods, and orchard maintenance. We're thinking used tractor with a budget of $16-18K. I've already done some research and this is what I'm thinking so far:

40-50 engine HP
4WD
Hydrostatic
FEL
290 series Bushhog or equivalent
Box blade
R-4 tires

How am I doing so far?

Thanks.

Your budget is very tight if you want to squeeze the tractor AND the implements into $18K.

Check out used L-series Kubotas vintage 2000 or earlier.

 

[geedub]

Thanks flusher. I just realized that box blade and the mower aren't part of that budget. I'll edit my post.

 

[curly]

Hi all.

It's actually my girlfriend Cindy who is buying a tractor and I'm helping her. The truth is it will probably be my butt in the seat most of the time anyway.

Might wanna go ahead and marry Cindy before someone else scoops her up

 

[geedub]

I've tried marriage before, it can ruin a perfectly good girlfriend.

 

[RoyJackson]

It appears you'll actaully be maintaining between 6 and 20 acres (the land currently leased out).
Are you planning on logging the remaining 60 acres? If so, that might be best if you contract that out.

as far as your requirements:
40-50 engine HP
4WD
Hydrostatic
FEL
290 series Bushhog or equivalent
Box blade
R-4 tires

Everything should be easy to obtain, except for the hydro transmission. At $16K to $18K, you'll be looking at a used machine. The only ones that may be available in that price range (with hydro) would be the 4610, 4710 Deeres and New Holland equivalents...and I'm not so sure about New Holland. These are larger Compacts. You might want to consider a full sized Utility tractor instead.

You might want to consider what your current leasors are using. I'm pretty sure they'll be using typical farm tractors.

To get you started, check out Used Farm Equipment & Agricultural Equipment - John Deere MachineFinder.com. Those are all dealer machines listed, but should narrow your search.

 

[geedub]

Thanks RoyJackson. We are definitely looking at used tractors.

It's not likely that we'll be doing anything with the 14 acre field for the foreseeable future. As for the orchard, it's getting pretty old (85 - 90 years) and we don't expect it to provide much of a yield. We might just let it go into "retirement" and only mow it.

At first I was thinking about a tractor that could do everything, but I got the idea that I was trying to cover too many bases. I talked to Cindy about it and if she ever wants to play lady farmer she would be willing to get a small basic used 2WD tractor suited for row crops.

We've contracted loggers for clearing the pond site as well as a small amount of thinning. The rest of the woods is going to be my garden. I'm a city boy, but I'm not afraid to get dirty. I've worked with power tools all of my life and I'll learn whatever I need to so that I can maintain these woods. That represents a large part of what a tractor will be doing for us. I expect to use the FEL a lot, and I want to pull a mower that can handle saplings for keeping some of wooded areas cleared of undergrowth. I would like to be able to drag some good sized logs out of the woods.

 

[RoyJackson]

Oh yeah...one thing I forgot to put in my first post...
You'll probably be better off if you go with R-1 ag tires rather then the R-4's...especially if you're going to working in the woods. Those Ag tires do provide better traction.

Anyway, check out that link I posted...that should give you some ides about what to look for.

 

[Greyfields]

You are limiting yourself to used tractors in that price range. If you decide to go new, the JD 4x20 series is pretty strong. Having HST makes it easier to learn to tractor so you can focus on your FEL and 3-pt movement.

 

[geedub]

We've looked at new JDs and Kubotas but the budget just isn't there. I've been going under the assumption that something with fairly low hours would be alright for our needs since the tractor won't see daily work.