dgeesaman
Silver Member
Hello everyone, my first post here.
I'm shopping for a tractor / equipment to handle a 15 acre horse property. I have attached an aerial of the plot with the areas currently pasture fenced (blue) and future pastures (light blue). I expect to do these chores with the following order of time spent:
1) Mowing perimeters and yards (weekly), 5 acres total.
2) Mowing pastures (monthly), 5 acres total.
3) Dragging indoor and outdoor riding areas.
4) Moving manure.
5) Moving hay bales and other consumables from storage building to barn.
6) Plowing driveway in winter. We get some winter weather here in PA but most years the largest snowstorm leaves less than a foot. Snow is wet and heavy as often as it is powdery.
7) Spraying the pastures, aerating, and fertilizing activities maybe.
(Fence posts will be driven professionally, excavations will be subbed, and I have no intent to harvest wood in the wooded section)
This is where you come in. I have no experience with this stuff except for a couple of times dragging a riding arena using someone else's rig. I'm a mechanical engineer so while I pick up this stuff quickly, I don't know things I've never been exposed to. If things go well I'll need a tractor by mid-May so I'm using the meantime to do my homework. My current lawn equipment boils down to a small push mower and a light duty weed-eater, ha. I foresee buying at least a 20hp 4WD compact tractor with quick attach loader.
Major questions:
1) Would you try and mow this property using a tractor implement, or a commercial (zero-turn style) mower? Two clarifications here: the existing turf is not very bumpy and I'm willing to aerate and roll it annually to maintain that, and I believe in keeping pasture grass no higher than 6-7" and mowing down to 4-5". So the question is whether I should consider a separate mower.
2) What kind of tires make the most sense if the ground is generally smooth, no rocks, and areas of the turf can be wet at times?
3) If we wanted to buy and handle large square hay bales, how would I decide if a tractor that is safe to move and stack them? Large squares run 800lb on average, and for horse feeding I really don't expect to buy oversized and heavy bales.
4) Following question 3, if I get a bale spear for the FEL, is the 500mm/full height lift capacity (say, 1100# for a Boomer 30) something that won't tip over the tractor?
Looking forward to your thoughts.
Dave
I'm shopping for a tractor / equipment to handle a 15 acre horse property. I have attached an aerial of the plot with the areas currently pasture fenced (blue) and future pastures (light blue). I expect to do these chores with the following order of time spent:
1) Mowing perimeters and yards (weekly), 5 acres total.
2) Mowing pastures (monthly), 5 acres total.
3) Dragging indoor and outdoor riding areas.
4) Moving manure.
5) Moving hay bales and other consumables from storage building to barn.
6) Plowing driveway in winter. We get some winter weather here in PA but most years the largest snowstorm leaves less than a foot. Snow is wet and heavy as often as it is powdery.
7) Spraying the pastures, aerating, and fertilizing activities maybe.
(Fence posts will be driven professionally, excavations will be subbed, and I have no intent to harvest wood in the wooded section)
This is where you come in. I have no experience with this stuff except for a couple of times dragging a riding arena using someone else's rig. I'm a mechanical engineer so while I pick up this stuff quickly, I don't know things I've never been exposed to. If things go well I'll need a tractor by mid-May so I'm using the meantime to do my homework. My current lawn equipment boils down to a small push mower and a light duty weed-eater, ha. I foresee buying at least a 20hp 4WD compact tractor with quick attach loader.
Major questions:
1) Would you try and mow this property using a tractor implement, or a commercial (zero-turn style) mower? Two clarifications here: the existing turf is not very bumpy and I'm willing to aerate and roll it annually to maintain that, and I believe in keeping pasture grass no higher than 6-7" and mowing down to 4-5". So the question is whether I should consider a separate mower.
2) What kind of tires make the most sense if the ground is generally smooth, no rocks, and areas of the turf can be wet at times?
3) If we wanted to buy and handle large square hay bales, how would I decide if a tractor that is safe to move and stack them? Large squares run 800lb on average, and for horse feeding I really don't expect to buy oversized and heavy bales.
4) Following question 3, if I get a bale spear for the FEL, is the 500mm/full height lift capacity (say, 1100# for a Boomer 30) something that won't tip over the tractor?
Looking forward to your thoughts.
Dave
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