jlemon
Bronze Member
- Joined
- Nov 13, 2002
- Messages
- 71
- Location
- Stoughton, WI
- Tractor
- Kubota 3830 HST, 723 loader, HD QA bucket, 1 remote w/top cylinder
I've been lurking around the board for a while, soaking up everything I can, and also have Muhammed's book, but I'm still confused. /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif
Last October I bought an older house on some land that used to be a dairy farm operation; it comes complete with silo, hay barn, dairy barn, hog shed, tobacco shed, silage bunker, and LOTS of concrete. As my CFO puts it, we bought some barns and they threw a house into the deal. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
All of this is on 40 acres, which is roughly broken up into a 7 acre alfalfa/timothy(?) field, 10 acre pasture, ~12 acres of woods/forest (complete with poison ivy), and the rest is fairly hilly, neglected pasture surrounding the house and barns. The large pasture is reasonably level, while the alfalfa field has some moderate slopes. The house sits in the hilly area, surrounded by a lawn probably an acre in size.
My immediate concern is mowing; I don't think I want to try and do this with my little push lawnmower. /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif Burdock and Canadian thistle are busy taking hold all over the place, especially the hilly areas, and I want to start getting these under control.
The CFO wants to bring in horses after the burdock is gone, and she's threatening to bring in some scottish longhorns which she claims actually like to eat burdock, if I don't do anything about it. I'm not planning on doing any haying, and I figure I'm probably better off getting a real farmer (read: someone who knows what they're doing) to re-seed the alfalfa/grass if needed.
I was considering that perhaps I should get a dedicated ZTR mower to handle the mowing chores, which at this point, would be the primary purpose of buying a tractor. However, I'm not sure if a mower would handle the pastures/weeds that well, and I don't really want to buy two machines if I can avoid it. However, I don't have any other immediate chores for the tractor to do, so am slightly hestitant to buy something (TCxxD? L3x30? other?) until I know what I'll be using it for.
In theory, we have snow in the winter time, which means plowing, although I've seen very little of the white stuff lately here in Southern Wisconsin. There's also a dirt road going around the edges of the forest, which should probably be maintained at some point.
So, do I need a tractor, a mower, or should the fields just be left to their own for a year, at which point I'd presumably have a better idea of what needs to be done?
Confused /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif
Last October I bought an older house on some land that used to be a dairy farm operation; it comes complete with silo, hay barn, dairy barn, hog shed, tobacco shed, silage bunker, and LOTS of concrete. As my CFO puts it, we bought some barns and they threw a house into the deal. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
All of this is on 40 acres, which is roughly broken up into a 7 acre alfalfa/timothy(?) field, 10 acre pasture, ~12 acres of woods/forest (complete with poison ivy), and the rest is fairly hilly, neglected pasture surrounding the house and barns. The large pasture is reasonably level, while the alfalfa field has some moderate slopes. The house sits in the hilly area, surrounded by a lawn probably an acre in size.
My immediate concern is mowing; I don't think I want to try and do this with my little push lawnmower. /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif Burdock and Canadian thistle are busy taking hold all over the place, especially the hilly areas, and I want to start getting these under control.
The CFO wants to bring in horses after the burdock is gone, and she's threatening to bring in some scottish longhorns which she claims actually like to eat burdock, if I don't do anything about it. I'm not planning on doing any haying, and I figure I'm probably better off getting a real farmer (read: someone who knows what they're doing) to re-seed the alfalfa/grass if needed.
I was considering that perhaps I should get a dedicated ZTR mower to handle the mowing chores, which at this point, would be the primary purpose of buying a tractor. However, I'm not sure if a mower would handle the pastures/weeds that well, and I don't really want to buy two machines if I can avoid it. However, I don't have any other immediate chores for the tractor to do, so am slightly hestitant to buy something (TCxxD? L3x30? other?) until I know what I'll be using it for.
In theory, we have snow in the winter time, which means plowing, although I've seen very little of the white stuff lately here in Southern Wisconsin. There's also a dirt road going around the edges of the forest, which should probably be maintained at some point.
So, do I need a tractor, a mower, or should the fields just be left to their own for a year, at which point I'd presumably have a better idea of what needs to be done?
Confused /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif