Need help deciding

[RWolf]

Very true about opinions and I'll tell you right up front I'm biased toward green. However that doesn't mean when I purchased I didn't look at the others. What's been said is very true all brands if maintained will perform very well. And that's the key "well maintained". Your needs are very similiar to mine and as my byline states I went with the 5103. IMO the first thing for you to decide is what you intend on doing with your 50 acres. If for now you are just going to use a rotary cutter for maintaining your property you might consider the JD5103 w/FEL and a 6 or 7 ft. rotary cutter and you can keep that all under your budget of $20K. Even at 40PTO HP you will have enough power for most of anything you will want to do. I've even found large round balers (4x4,4x5 and one 5x6) that can be run on that HP.

Good luck.

[greggh]

I would agree with buttercup on the search. In fact you are in the most interesting phase of tractor ownership. You have not comitted to anyone and you have the opportunity to sit on as many tractors as you can find.

I bought the JD 5203 MFWD and it is a fine tractor, but JD is redoing the 5000 line of tractors so I would think that you could get a better deal on the 2WD version than the quote that you stated.

The main thing is to enjoy the search. Test as many as possible. The most important part of the search, find a dealer that you feel will treat you like a valued customer.

[loglove]

Kubota is the brand I own and am very happy. Do some research on the Kubota brand and I'm sure you'll find what you're looking for or need quickly.