Totally Lost

[kybadcat36]

I bought a 41 acre farm (31 acres wooded-10 acres field) about 2 years ago. On the 10 acres I'm going to plant baby's breath and carnations. I will sell these to local florist. BUT I need a tractor. I will need to breakup the field and get it ready for planting. I will also need to use the tractor for spraying, light bush hogging, and general bucket work.
1) What size tractor do I need? 4wd?
2) Front in loader, bush hog, tiller for tractor are a must?
3) What about these John Deere package deals? Get the tractor, FEL, tiller, box scraper, and trailer in one package?
If anyone lives in Western Ky near Central City and would like to help spend my money I would appreciate the advice.

And I need the tractor like as in Yesterday!!!

 

[Soundguy]

with only 10ac to work, I'd reccomend no larger than a 30 hp tractor, if you plan on doing anything in the woods. If you want to till and do lots of loader work, either a good 'upgrade' style gear tranny like a power shift or an HST tranny will likely be better.

if you were going to plow/disc instead of till, then you could get away with a more economical transmission type.

is your area hilly?

soil type?

as a start.. you will need to hit all your local dealers and get your but in a BUNCH of seats..

soundguy

 

[RoyJackson]

I'd go with a bit more then 30 HP..probably closer to 40. In fact, the tractor I'd suggest would be a Deere 990. That would be a good fit for 10 acres and the tasks you described.
The 990 is a solid gear machine and you should be able to find a good used one for under 20 thousand.
Yes to MFWD (4WD) and loader

 

[Royboy]

The times I have used my FEL intensively (Snow - esp this year, manure piles, some digging) I would have hated not to have automatic transmission! If I had had to clutch and change gears every time I went from fwd backward and from backward to fwd.....? For me, if I am planning to use my FEL automatic is the way to go.
Your milage may vary....
Roy

 

[TripleR]

I agree with Soundguy on needing to know soil type. We have some buckshot clay on one of our farms that is a bear to break up with a moldboard three bottom plow. Most use large tractors and disks, but we only till small areas for wildlife plots and prefer the moldboard. We tried a 2WD and it just spun the tires, so I only recommend 4WD anymore for most types of farming unless you have a pretty big and heavy machine. Soil on another farm is sandy loam and is easy to turn over, but then there is the one with å*µumbo?

A tiller will work, but I like a plow to turn the vegetation over and this will take some power. HP may be dependent on transmission as a geared tractor will do stuff with less HP than an HST generally. How much time you want to take to work your ground up is also going to be a factor as a smaller tractor will often do the same things a larger one will, it will just take longer, i.e. single bottom plow vs three bottom. I like seat time too, but not so much as to spend all day on a relatively small plot, so I would opt for a bigger tractor and implements, something in the forty and up; not saying a 30 won稚 do it, just my preference. We use a 72 and 80 HP for essentially what you will be doing.

I don稚 know how you plant carnations, but we usually hip the ground to form mounds and direct irrigation water, so you might need something for that; maybe not. If you do, you would also need a disk and harrow.

All the equipment you mentioned would be essential and I would definitely add a good 3-point spray rig.

How are you going to apply fertilizer?

I don稚 know that I would get a John Deere, but would go with as much of a package deal as possible. Depending on how much you are going to be hauling your tractor and what type truck, you might just want to rent a trailer when needed as they are pretty high.

Like I said, I only know a little about row crops and not carnations, so I may be way the heck off and if so I am sure someone will point it out to both of us.

 

[LAWALLSTRACTOR]

You will be needing to know what your row spacing will be when planting your flowers. Get ag tires with adjustable wheel spacing, so to fit your rows. You may also be needing to find a tractor with enough ground clearance. I don't know exactly what you will need but you should study this as it is hard to change a tractor to fit your needs and better to buy the tractor that fits your needs.

 

[kybadcat36]

The soil is sandy loam. I will be doing some row planting and some that will be broadcasted and lightly covered. Yarrow is a flower i'm going to grow and it would be similar to planting sunflowers. The yarrow plot will be about a acre and they grow about 4 foot tall. The carnations will be planted in a row about 3 rows close together then spread the next 3 rows out about 6 feet. Then plant 3 more rows and spread the next 3 rows about 6 feet--on and on. Carnations grow about 3 feet high. Baby's breath is more like a bush and will be planted with a distance of about 7 feet apart. It grows about 3 feet high. Long stem roses will be planted and grow about 4 feet tall. I will space all the flowers out to where I can get a tractor and tiller to do most of the work. Some hand tillering may be required but I want to keep it to a minimum!

To ready the field for planting do i need to break it with a disk and plow? Or will a tiller behind a tractor work? It's currenting in clover.

 

[FxdGrMind]

Tiller behind tractor in clover, you are probably looking at a couple passes (Xpatern) for a nice planting field. You can do the same with Disk Harrow but to get the same results you are talking about a lot more passes probably over several days as it will depend on soil moisture. Also a Disk harrow or Plow attatchement may require more power as you can't just go ... slower... you realy need the UMPH to pull them through the ground.

If your gaps are going to be 6', don't get a tiller any wider than that. Same goes for a Harrow/ plow etc. you need to be able to keep the ground between rows clear of the "unwanted"....

A Reverse Rotating Tiller like Landpride has, would help and reduce the amount of vibrations applied to you and your tractor on un-tilled soil.

I'd say 30 HP min, and up to 60... depending on your intentions for the forest... Start looking arround, come back and ask questions on various models and attachements and such. I'm sure we will be happy to "advise" you on spending "Your" $$$ =)

 

[flusher]

The soil is sandy loam. I will be doing some row planting and some that will be broadcasted and lightly covered. Yarrow is a flower i'm going to grow and it would be similar to planting sunflowers. The yarrow plot will be about a acre and they grow about 4 foot tall. The carnations will be planted in a row about 3 rows close together then spread the next 3 rows out about 6 feet. Then plant 3 more rows and spread the next 3 rows about 6 feet--on and on. Carnations grow about 3 feet high. Baby's breath is more like a bush and will be planted with a distance of about 7 feet apart. It grows about 3 feet high. Long stem roses will be planted and grow about 4 feet tall. I will space all the flowers out to where I can get a tractor and tiller to do most of the work. Some hand tillering may be required but I want to keep it to a minimum!

To ready the field for planting do i need to break it with a disk and plow? Or will a tiller behind a tractor work? It's currenting in clover.

I'd look for a 30-40 hp (engine) 4WD tractor with hydrostatic transmission, power steering and an FEL with a 5-ft wide bucket.

For initial cultivating in sandy loam, I'd try a 6-ft ft wide offset disc. Load it with extra weight and pull it 5-6 mph. Make several passes in different directions.

Here's my 6-1/2 ft offset disc with about 450 lb of concrete weights tilling my 6-acre hayfield. I tow a few tires behind the disc to help break up the clods.
The tractor is a 2008 Mahindra 5525 (54 hp engine, 45 hp pto, 2WD, gear tranny, power steering) and the old disc is a gift from a neighbor.

 

[jenkinsph]

As has been mentioned a tiller allows using a lighter tractor. A good tiller that will till to 7 or 8" depth would be the simple way to go. One pass at full depth taking it slow and you are ready to plant. I would assume you will need to hoe around the plants to keep the weeds and grasses from taking over but setting aside a time in the morning and late evening each day should break this chore up. As was said at least the main rows can be tilled to keep the weeds and grasses down and this will reduce the work for you.


I would choose a 40 to 60 hp compact for this work.
A 6 ft tiller with 7 to 8" depth
A planter seeder suitable for your spacing and seed
A boom spray rig if needed
Might consider a field cultivator if you can space the feet out to fit your rows, this would save some work while the plants were short.
Two or three ladies hoes and cultivator 4 prong hoes and a good 12" file to keep them in shape.
I would buy elbow grease by the drum.