BEST COMPACT/UTILITY FOR 3-5 ACRES OF VEGETABLES

   / BEST COMPACT/UTILITY FOR 3-5 ACRES OF VEGETABLES #1  

tmilanese

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Oct 24, 2012
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4
Location
Villa Rica, Georgia
Tractor
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Want something to use ag attachments to help plant 3-5 acres of vegetables. Spend $10-$15k. Looking at all models but I can't figure out what I need and don't need. Seems that most ag attachments want something with less than 50hp .... so I'm thinkg 30-40hp??? Any suggestions? I don't want to pay for features that either I don't need or that will interfere with planting. Thanks...:)
 
   / BEST COMPACT/UTILITY FOR 3-5 ACRES OF VEGETABLES #2  
AT $10K to $15K, you're probably looking at a used tractor 8 or more years old. Nothing wrong with that.
If you're planning on using a PTO driven tiller, anything with adequate PTO HP will work. If ground engaging implements, you may want a bigger tractor...even, perhaps, an older Utility tractor rather then a compact.
Brand? Lots of choices!
Try Used Farm & Agricultural Equipment - John Deere MachineFinder and www.tractorhouse.com
 
   / BEST COMPACT/UTILITY FOR 3-5 ACRES OF VEGETABLES #3  
Want something to use ag attachments to help plant 3-5 acres of vegetables. Spend $10-$15k. Looking at all models but I can't figure out what I need and don't need. Seems that most ag attachments want something with less than 50hp .... so I'm thinkg 30-40hp??? Any suggestions? I don't want to pay for features that either I don't need or that will interfere with planting. Thanks...:)

L Series Kubota's. You may only need 2wd if you don't need a loader and your ground is flat. I'm pretty sure you could get a nice machine for $15K that's geared.

Kubota L2800, L3400, Grand L3240. Check them out at your Kubota dealer. :thumbsup:

Kubota has good 0% financing deals right now... which makes buying one even better. Better than buying used in my opinion... especially if you need a dependable machine and only have one tractor. Good luck!
 
   / BEST COMPACT/UTILITY FOR 3-5 ACRES OF VEGETABLES #4  
if you are looking to row crop veggies your going to be using small implements and don't need a huge tractor. Take a look at a Kubota B2320 NARROW. With a tractor this slim, you can set your rows so you can drive between them year round rather than only being able to straddle for a few weeks. It will fall right in your price range.
 
   / BEST COMPACT/UTILITY FOR 3-5 ACRES OF VEGETABLES #5  
Look at some of the threads by bp fick, he uses a small tractor to commercially grow vegetables and really likes it.
 
   / BEST COMPACT/UTILITY FOR 3-5 ACRES OF VEGETABLES #6  
I agree with Messick, something to fit between the rows would reduce the manual labor. Triple R is correct about a poster here bp fick, he has alot of experience doing the same thing you are planning and would be a great source of advice. Wish you the best with your pursuit of growing vegetables.
 
   / BEST COMPACT/UTILITY FOR 3-5 ACRES OF VEGETABLES #7  
Yup. Horse power doesn't have a whole lot of meaning in market gardening/truck farming. A 40 hp tractor would be as useless as boobs on a boar, as they used to say.

Ground clearance is number one, in my book. If you can swing a machine with depth control on the 3 pt? Great. If you can swing a 3 pt with nifty, re-tractable lower arms? Awesome, because in this biz, we are changing implements all the time.

Messick's suggestion of the B2320N is a darn good one. Mine is the standard B2320 and yes, you can meet your budget. Save some money for the implements, cause a tractor without them is just an engine on wheels, as they say. LOL
 
   / BEST COMPACT/UTILITY FOR 3-5 ACRES OF VEGETABLES
  • Thread Starter
#8  
How is the overall width measured as listed below?

GENERAL INFORMATION
Manufacturer Kubota
Model Year 2012
Model B2320DTN-1 Narrow
MEASUREMENTS
Length 92.9 in. (2,360 mm) without 3-point hitch
Width 35.4 in. (900 mm) (min. tread)
Weight 1,334 lbs. (605 kg)
Wheelbase 61.5 in. (1,563 mm)
Turning Radius 6.9 ft. (2.1 m) with brake
Ground Clearance 11.8 in. (300 mm)
 
   / BEST COMPACT/UTILITY FOR 3-5 ACRES OF VEGETABLES #9  
Don't know on the N model. Not to complicate things, but on the standard model, the tire chosen effects over all width to a degree. Over all width must apply to the outside edge of rear tire to outside edge of other rear tire. That is the width distance on the tractor.

The N (narrow) is great for vines and orchards, but doesn't or wouldn't work for us in the vegetable field. We straddle rows. Your methods maybe different. I know a lot of folks who use bedders and double wide plant and run their tractors down between these double wide rows. An N would work for them. We single row plant @ 40 inches.

I might also say that while 75% of the purpose of the tractor is in the garden fields, there is that 25% of general stuff too. Hauling wood, shagging logs, moving manure, gravel, sand and other product. We also have to plow snow, so the tractor had to have more versatility or utility then I would have preferred. Hope that makes sense. So, I ordered a front end loader, which is a must for us now. I also ordered R4 industrial tires, which are too wide, really. Ag tires would have been superior, if this tractor was a dedicated garden tractor. But, it is not, so compromises had to be made for puncture resistance in the woods.

I'm guessing here, but overall width is effected by 3 or 4 inches by tire choice.
 
   / BEST COMPACT/UTILITY FOR 3-5 ACRES OF VEGETABLES #10  
Given the other tasks we use a tractor for, the standard B worked better for us. We pull a brush hog, use a PTO post hole digger, and lots of other chores. Just want to mention the Loader again. Growing up on a commercial truck farm, we had Massey Harris Pony's and Farmall Cubs and A's and other great, great truck farming tractors of that day. Awesome machines, as you looked down at you feet when you cultivated which is far superior to cultivating off the 3 pt hitch. But, those days are mostly over, as is the small tobacco plots that also made those small tractors famous.

The modern tractor tilts much farther to the utility side, as that's the market. The old iron was pretty specific in orientation to the vegetable/tobacco plot. The Kubota B series comes as close to what those old tractors represented as most anything available to day. I think you find, as I did, that many small tractors today simply have woeful ground clearance, as the OEM's are making them wide and stable for utility purposes, not so much as small plot farming tractors. By the time you get meaningful ground clearance, the thing is too heavy and too clumsy to be of any good. Anything I can do to help, just give a shout.
 
 
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