Buying Advice Recommendations for 40 acre vineyard

   / Recommendations for 40 acre vineyard #1  

VineO

New member
Joined
Apr 4, 2013
Messages
16
Location
Mason, TX
Tractor
Kubota L5740 HSTC-3
Hello -

Just joined the community and looks like lots of great advice here. I just purchased 44 acres that I will be using for a vineyard. I will probably start with 2-3 acres but plan to eventually plant 30 or so. My research has led me to believe I am looking for a 50-75 HP tractor. I am looking for a good, sealed, filtered cab with AC as I will be spraying and working in the Texas heat. I will be disking, plowing, digging holes/augering for the end posts, pulling a sprayer and mowing. I have been looking at the different manufacturers sites on the web but I'm having a hard time comparing and making a choice. What are some of your recommendations?

Thanks in advance -

Rich
 
   / Recommendations for 40 acre vineyard #2  
How wide do you want the tractor be?
 
   / Recommendations for 40 acre vineyard
  • Thread Starter
#3  
Rows will have 10' spacing, so I am thinking 6' or narrower.

Thanks -

Rich
 
   / Recommendations for 40 acre vineyard #4  
The "best" choice is highly subjective. ;)

Personally, I went with a Kubota M7040 CAB when I picked up a new tractor this year. I felt it had the power I needed to disc and root plow. It could also handle a larger moldboard plow than the single I have, but I used our smaller Kubota L3130 and the single to plow our 4 acres of vineyard. If I needed to do it again I'd go to a 3 or 4 blade plow and run it behind the M7040.

The "perfect" choice is also subjective, but an M7040 Narrow CAB would be a good starting point. All the power of the M7040 I have, but 4 foot wide (still not sure how they do that). That's a full 2 foot narrower than mine and that's a significant difference. However - I'm not sure it's "required" with 10 foot row spacing (give me another 4 weeks and I'll let you know). Our spacing will be 10x7 when we finish later this month, and pleminary runs though temporary posts I set up indicate I'll be fine - but that's without vines in the ground, so my opinion may change... I had originally expected to go for 11x7 rows - just to give the tractor a bit more room. But our "enclosed" area needed to be altered and I decided to reduce the spacing to 10x7 to match my requirements. The M7040 CAB is right at 72" wide with R1 tires - so it "fits" the 6 foot requirement. I would suggest that is certainly the maximum you can get away with. As I said - ask me in about 4 weeks and I'll know for sure!
 
   / Recommendations for 40 acre vineyard #5  
If you want to go with a narrow tractor around 50hp, the options you have are: deutz fahr agrokid 55, Mcormick gx50 or a jd 3720. all of them come around at 50 inches.
If you want a wider tractor, there are many options you have without going into the specialty narrow series such as the grand l40s etc..
 
   / Recommendations for 40 acre vineyard #6  
How wide do you want the tractor be?
Bingo the first and right question to ask.
What will be your row spacing and what trellising type. Will you be using cultivation between the rows or spray only?. Are you going to use hand pickers or machine??
Not much use getting a 50 to 75 hp tractor if you are using narrow row spacing most won't fit. Normally a specialized narrow vineyard tractor costs more than a standard tractor.
Is you land flat or hilly.
A 40 hp tractor will pull a reasonable size sprayer on flat ground but not in the hills etc.

There are a few members on here that grow grapes commercially if you can give more details I'm sure you will get the right answer
 
   / Recommendations for 40 acre vineyard
  • Thread Starter
#7  
Thank you for the replies. Flat land, planning on rows at 10', VSP/Smart-Dyson trellising. I will be planting buffalograss between the rows. Not set on any hp or range, I plan to keep the tractor for a long time as I plant more acres and I don't want to buy something that I will eventually outgrow.

Thanks again for the responses -

Rich
 
   / Recommendations for 40 acre vineyard #8  
you need to check an see if they still make vinard tractors.but a narrow front tractor would work if you could find 1.
 
   / Recommendations for 40 acre vineyard #9  
At 10' row spacing you can choose from just about any utility tractor on the market. Just buy it with the narrowest tires and you will be fine. I run 9' rows and am limited to a max tractor width of 64". A standard utility tractor will be cheaper then their narrow versions, roomier and better all purpose field tractors. Narrow tractors really suck for any open field tasks but excel in narrow settings so if your starting from scratch keep your rows wide enough to fit the standard tractors.

The cabs on the market now are really good. Depending on what you will be spraying down there you may want a charcoal filter but the factory cabs are sealed up well. I like the John Deere utility tractors but a lot of the guys here are buying Kubota M series standard tractors and either going with the narrowest wheels or having custom rims made for even narrower wheels. I have an M8540 Narrow and it has 160 hours on it currently and it has taken me that long to get it to where I can tolerate it. It isn't a great tractor but it is decent and hopefully I will get it fine tuned over this summer to where I actually enjoy using it.

Also, something to consider is buying a open station tractor to help out with. It is nice to leave the cab tractor hooked to the sprayer but the open station tractors are great when your replacing posts or doing other tasks where you need to get on and off the tractor often while in the row. A second tractor is almost going to be required for 30 acres and even then you will still feel like you don't have enough tractors :D

As for the horsepower requirement, have you decided on a sprayer yet? Find what the sprayer needs and go from there. Some areas like the sprayers with the built in engines (much longer units though) but for 30 acres you will want a 300-400 gallon sprayer and will want something in the 60-70 hp range. Also, how do you plan to harvest? Hire out? Buy a harvester? Hand harvest? If you plan to buy a pull behind harvester make sure your tractor can handle it.
 
   / Recommendations for 40 acre vineyard #10  
you need to check an see if they still make vinard tractors.but a narrow front tractor would work if you could find 1.

There are a lot of narrow vineyard tractors still made. John Deere, Case-IH/New Holland, Kubota, Deutz-Fahr, Fendt, Claas, Antonio Carrera.... it is a huge market in Europe and in quite a few areas of North and South America. The narrow tractors are also used in fruit farms like apples, peach, blueberry and so on. There are extreme narrow vineyard tractors for certain vineyards as well. It is actually nice to have so many options available in this industry. It keeps prices competitive and you can also shop for a tractor perfect for each situation.
 
 
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