Buying Advice Considering a new tractor for chicken house work, brush hogging, and brush removal.

[Chickengrower]

Thanks for the quick response. Glad to see you are still on tbn.

Do you know how tall it is with the ROPS folded? Is there room to lower the fold point or do lights and fenders prevent that? How tall is the tractor to the bottom of seat? My houses are shorter that yours and a real PITA to find a tractor big enough to windrow (just starting this) and decake without being to tall.

On another note. What do you think of windrowing? How hot does your litter get? Does it help the Beatle population?

Didn't get a chance to measure today. Will try to do so in the next day or two. The salesman mentioned to me about lowering the ROPS down. Said he'd seen some growers do it before. It's not too high for me tho, its just my noggin that is too high.
I looked at the 50x3 JD, the M9660 Kubota and the 40x0 NH. The Kubota had a telescoping ROPS that was pretty neat. I think it was 67" all the way down. The 4030 NH sit the lowest of them all tho but the seating area seemed a little cramped to me.
I like windowing pretty well. I like to make 2 windrows and then clean the rest out down to the pad. I have a Priefert blade for my bobcat that I use. It's a little too big for my loader but does the Job if u make several passes. I may look at a tractor mounted unit next yr. I think it would do a quicker job chopping the cake and hard pan up and incoroprating it into the pile. The temp gets into the 140-150 range the first time if there's enough moisture and then each time you turn it, it is a little less hot each time. I guess because it's drying out. I think it helps with the beetles but still doesn't eliminate them. I haven't been windowing lately as our out time is only about 7 days. I've found it takes about 10 days minimum to windrow and do it anywhere close to right.

 

[farmer2009]

Thanks for the information. Not in a big hurry. The one we are going to start using is a 3pt hitch model takes 40hp for 6' model and 60hp for 8'. I think that is correct. It is suppose to pulverize and windrow in one pass. They are telling us not to decake unless we are very wet, but I have also been told our integrator runs dryer than normal houses. If that is correct then it will be almost as fast as decaking.

Wow. Seven day layouts. Must be nice we run about 21-23 days.

I will look at a 40x0 NH. Had looked at the Boomers online. Used a buddies m9000 Kubota low pro once nice tractor but tight turning around because of length. And would hate to windrow with a computer tractor. Decaking I can stay out of 90% of the dust.

 

[Chickengrower]

Thanks for the information. Not in a big hurry. The one we are going to start using is a 3pt hitch model takes 40hp for 6' model and 60hp for 8'. I think that is correct. It is suppose to pulverize and windrow in one pass. They are telling us not to decake unless we are very wet, but I have also been told our integrator runs dryer than normal houses. If that is correct then it will be almost as fast as decaking.

Wow. Seven day layouts. Must be nice we run about 21-23 days.

I will look at a 40x0 NH. Had looked at the Boomers online. Used a buddies m9000 Kubota low pro once nice tractor but tight turning around because of length. And would hate to windrow with a computer tractor. Decaking I can stay out of 90% of the dust.

I remembered to get some #'s today. Top of seat from ground measured 52.5". With the rollbar folded down it was 76" at highest point. If you remove the top half of the rollbar it would be 72". Looks like the fenders are drilled out so that they can be lowered another 2". If you lowered the fenders down, there would be about 3" between the top of fenders and signal/hazard lights. So you could lower the height of the rollbar about 2.5-3" with modifications. Would get you right around 70" with top half of rollbar removed and 74" with it folded. I guess a person could just remove the signal lights if you weren't ever going to be on the road then you could get lower yet.

I dont really like the 7 day out time. I prefer 12-14 days to give me a little break and to give any disease/bacteria time to die out before the next batch arrives. Of course it's better than 32-34 days which is where we were in 2011.

They told us not to cake either. Was skeptical at first but that's the right way as you need the moisture to help get the piles hot. They told us not to try it for the first time during cold weather as the ammonia would be real bad for the next batch. I think I might've seen the windower machine you are talking about in The Poultry Times magazine. I think it would do alot better job creating the windrows than my blade. The things I like about the blade are 1.) that you don't get as dirty as I have a bobcat with a cab 2.) there are no moving parts to break. 3.) it does do a good job spreading the piles back out when it's time to start setting up.