Need some straight advise

[USNR0404]

Hello Everyone,

Newbie here that could really use some straight advice. i have 63 acres in southeastern WV. The terrain ranges from some flat to ridges with 2 to 7 percent incline. I have several issues that need addressed. 1/2 mile long driveway, most of the land needs cleared or cleaned up to start a small cattle farm. Would like to plow some of it for garden area.Most of the trees that need removed are the old bull (yellow) pine. I am sold on the Mahindra tractor and thought I the size nailed down to fit my need until I spoke with a couple dealers in my area. I was looking at the 4530 4WD with FEL and 509 BH. They (the dealers) told me that the 4530 seemed to be underpowered for my area and needs and advised me to look at the 5530 or 6530 4WD instead. I appreciate their wanting to move in-stock units but I am equally concerned about having to much power as well as not enough. I have been away from farming for several years and much has changed with tractors. When I left the business for the navy I was operating the old 8N and 2000 gas models. any advice you could give will be greatly appreciated. i am looking to buy around spring.

Thanks in advance

 

[john_bud]

The clearing activities take a lot of power. If you are going cows, you will probably want hay. Balers take power too. I'd go big with an error on the big side being much less severe than an error on the small side.

jb

 

[Builder]

I agree. I've owned a lot of equipment. Never got rid of something b/c it was too big, but traded plenty of equipment that was too small.

 

[jinman]

I heard:

1. 63 acres
2. 1/2 mile road
3. clearing
4. tilling
5 cattle

I'm guessing that you will run a blade or boxblade for the road. For clearing, you'd need an rotary cutter and maybe a backhoe to take out trees. If you plan to do a garden, then you'll need plows an/or a tiller. For cattle, are you going to produce your hay? How about fencing, stalls, and barns?
The size of tractor depends on how much of that 63 acres you'll work and the implements you will use. I would not say you have been advised wrongly by those dealers. You may find that the tractor is just the beginning of what it will cost you to keep your farm going. You can easily exceed the cost of a tractor with the implements.

 

[flusher]

Hello Everyone,

Newbie here that could really use some straight advice. i have 63 acres in southeastern WV. The terrain ranges from some flat to ridges with 2 to 7 percent incline. I have several issues that need addressed. 1/2 mile long driveway, most of the land needs cleared or cleaned up to start a small cattle farm. Would like to plow some of it for garden area.Most of the trees that need removed are the old bull (yellow) pine. I am sold on the Mahindra tractor and thought I the size nailed down to fit my need until I spoke with a couple dealers in my area. I was looking at the 4530 4WD with FEL and 509 BH. They (the dealers) told me that the 4530 seemed to be underpowered for my area and needs and advised me to look at the 5530 or 6530 4WD instead. I appreciate their wanting to move in-stock units but I am equally concerned about having to much power as well as not enough. I have been away from farming for several years and much has changed with tractors. When I left the business for the navy I was operating the old 8N and 2000 gas models. any advice you could give will be greatly appreciated. i am looking to buy around spring.

Thanks in advance

Last March I bought a new Mahindra 5525 (54 hp engine, 45 hp pto, 2WD, 8F/2R partial constant mesh tranny) with the ML250 FEL (6 ft bucket). Extras include triple rear remotes and a skid steer compatible quick attach option on the FEL, both of which I highly recommend. The 5525 is essentially the 2WD version of the 5530 which has 4WD. My 5525 is a simple, honest, heavy red tractor. Something this size would be the minimum I'd consider with 63 acres to work (my place is 10 acres of flat pasture land, 7 of which will become hayfield with the 5525 handling the discing and baling chores).

I'm not sure that a 5530 with an FEL and backhoe would be the right tool for clearing your pine trees. I assume you are just interested in getting those trees off your property and not harvesting them for lumber. I would get estimates from specialists with the right equipment to do that type of clearing work. Cutting and dragging the trees away is relatively easy. Removing the stumps is a lot more difficult proposition.

 

[USNR0404]

First, I want say thanks to all of you for your comments and you all have hit the nails on the head. I will have to do the whole nine yards so to speak, fencing, barns, etc.. I am starting this from scratch. Although I don't intend to work the entire 63 I will be working well over 40 of it, trying to keep some woods around the house for the privacy which sits at the back of the land. As far as the hay issue right away, Although I'm not ruling out completely the year round production I was planning on trying the buy in the spring and sell in the fall to start and not winter over the livestock but we all know how tempermental the weather can be with rain at the right time so may need hay to supplement. I had one dealer tell me he can put me on a 6530 now than a 4530 will cost me next spring. Based on what I have read here, his offer seems alot moe attractive tahn it did a couple days ago. may just have to take a drive and check him out. I will keep checking and responding so anything else you may have to add will definately be helpful.
Thanks
Clint

 

[flusher]

I'm not sure that a 5530 with an FEL and backhoe would be the right tool for clearing your pine trees. I assume you are just interested in getting those trees off your property and not harvesting them for lumber. I would get estimates from specialists with the right equipment to do that type of clearing work. Cutting and dragging the trees away is relatively easy. Removing the stumps is a lot more difficult proposition.

Here's a follow up to my comments about clearing trees. Around here there are thousands of acres of orchard, including a lot of olive orchards. When the trees need to be removed for whatever reason, the specialists do the work.

The trees are pulled from the ground, roots and all, with a giant grapple

and then fed into a humongous wood chipper

The tall trees in the background are eucalyptus and were preserved.
This olive orchard covered about 60 acres and was removed in a few days.

 

[EddieWalker]

I don't know about the Mihandra tractors, but agree with what Builder said about power. The more you can afford, the more you can do faster and easier. I have a 35hp tractor and I can do quite a bit with it, but my 80hp backhoe can do ALLOT more.

There are all sorts of levels that are involved in what you want to do. Clearing land requires a certain tool if you are going to do it yourself. Creating pastures out of that land requires a different tool. Trying to do it all with one tractor will either take decades, or destroy the tractor.

You have a couple options. First, is any of the timber worth anything to a logger? If so, see if you can get them to log it, remove the stumps and leave the land flat. In most cases around here, they will do this for the lumber and you end up with nothing except a flat open dirt field. They will be done in a few weeks to a month without any expense to you. Then it's just a matter of prepairing the soil for grass, which you can easily do with a Mihandra or other wheeled tractor. The only question now would be how much HP do you need for plowing, mowing and farming in general?

The other option, and the one I'm doing, is to clear the land yourself. This will take quite a few years, depending on what you buy. The best land clearing tool is an excavator. Figurue something in the 120 to 140 hp class or around a 160 sized machine with a thumb. This will take out anything that you have. It will stack it clean and burn easy. You can even partially fill the stump holes with it, but it's lousy for grading. With a limited budget, you could run this until you are done with your tree removal and then sell it. It's too expensive to rent something like this, and you will be using it for a few years, so that's not really an option. You'll have to buy and the more you can spend, the newer it will be, and the less time you'll spend repairing it.

A full sized loader backhoe is another option for tree removal, and what I'm using. The backhoe will take out any tree, but getting it to the burn pile is a challenge. I've recently added a grapple to mine and that's made a HUGE difference. Take out the tree with one end, or a bunch of them, then carry them to the burn pile. Quick, easy and efficient. Same thing with backhoes, the more you can afford, the less time you'll spend repairing them.

The dozer is about the worse tool for land clearing compared to the others. It causes as much destruction as it does clearing. It will take out some timber, but the mess it makes is very difficult to burn and clean up. I've found that I can clear an area faster with my backhoe to smooth ground with nothing there but dirt, then I can with my 169hp, 40,000 pound dozer and then get the trees and brush to a burn pile and burn it.

After you have everything you want removed, sell the excavator and buy a dozer. You are just smoothing and leveling the ground with it, so you can get away with a medium sized dozer. Something in the 90HP range and up will do a nice job for you. Again, the more you spend, the less problems you will have with repairs.

Then sell the dozer and start farming with whatever wheeled tractor that you decide on. The most important factor in what brand you buy is the dealer. If you cannot get parts or support when you have a problem, the tractor is useless. Same thing with impliments, if one breaks, and they will, it's more important to be able to fix it and keep on working, then to save a few bucks when buying a bargain that you will have to toss when it breaks and no parts are available.

Good luck,
Eddie

 

[Gittyup]

If you are not harvesting the trees, consider a mulching machine like a Gyrotrac. Or harvest the timber, then bring in the mulcher. You can buy these as a skid-steer attachment. But, the smallest requires a good bit of hydraulics to operate. You can also hire guys to mulch everything with one of these brutes. Check out videos of them on utube. Pretty awesome. Not sure if they leave truly tillable land behind, though, as they mulch the stumps down below grade like a stump grinder.

 

[Soundguy]

For that size land.. I'd got 50-70+hp.. and lean more toward the 70hp side.

You will be feeding rounds.. and perhaps making your own hay.. etc... the extra hp and weight of the larger tractor will help.

Don't worry about having too much hp... I own 13ac and have a 95 hp machine plus a 70hp.. plus others in the 10-50 hp range for fun..

soundguy

Hello Everyone,

Newbie here that could really use some straight advice. i have 63 acres in southeastern WV. The terrain ranges from some flat to ridges with 2 to 7 percent incline. I have several issues that need addressed. 1/2 mile long driveway, most of the land needs cleared or cleaned up to start a small cattle farm. Would like to plow some of it for garden area.Most of the trees that need removed are the old bull (yellow) pine. I am sold on the Mahindra tractor and thought I the size nailed down to fit my need until I spoke with a couple dealers in my area. I was looking at the 4530 4WD with FEL and 509 BH. They (the dealers) told me that the 4530 seemed to be underpowered for my area and needs and advised me to look at the 5530 or 6530 4WD instead. I appreciate their wanting to move in-stock units but I am equally concerned about having to much power as well as not enough. I have been away from farming for several years and much has changed with tractors. When I left the business for the navy I was operating the old 8N and 2000 gas models. any advice you could give will be greatly appreciated. i am looking to buy around spring.

Thanks in advance