farmatwatersedge
New member
Hi, my name is Leah and I'm looking for some advice on buying an older tractor. I have a 40 acre organic veggie and livestock farm currently with about an acre in vegetables, 5 acres in pasture, and 12 alpacas, 6 goats, and a couple dozen laying hens. We are bringing about 15 acres of old pasture (currently under construction) into production for this next year as either pasture or vegetables.
Right now we don't have any equipment, and will be needing to spread about 30 tons of lime, 200 tons of compost and manure, and several hundred pounds of cover crop. We have mostly level fields ranging from heavy, wet clay to sandy loam. Not many rocks, but historically wetland. We are working on improving our drainage (regrading, ditches, subsoiling, etc.).
We are resurfacing and regrading the fields right now (an outside contractor w/heavy equipment) and then I'll be heavily amending the soil, starting with subsoiling, then lime, compost, seeding, etc. For the long term, we will be doing a lot of plowing (1-3 bottom), subsoiling (1-2 shank), chisel plowing (3-5 shank), discing, harrowing, tilling for seed bed prep, spreading lime, compost and manure, fertilizer and mineral mixes, seeding pastures and cover crops, turning compost, moving rock and sand for sacrifice areas, and mowing fields (potentially for hay later on down the road). Most of the veggies will be seeded by hand or with walk behind seeders. Transplanting is currently done by hand. We don't use round bales, just small squares.
Right now I am looking at the 40-50 hp range, something between 1950 and 1980, mostly due to our budget. We can spend about $6,000 for the tractor and somewhere around $500 to get it here. We don't have our own trailer. 4WD would be nice but I think it is beyond our price range. Even so, I shouldn't really be out in the field anyways if it is wet enough to get stuck. I am not at all attached to a brand, but there are Kubota and John Deere shops nearby. A front end loader, 3 point, and PTO are a must. Really we just want a reliable, easy to operate farm tractor that will last. I am mainly looking at classified ads rather than auctions, because I don't have enough mechanical experience on my own to be able to pick out a good machine. I'm a first time buyer, looking for advice on some older models, and any pitfalls or things to look out for when buying an older model.
Thanks in advance for any advice you can give a beginning female farmer
Leah
Right now we don't have any equipment, and will be needing to spread about 30 tons of lime, 200 tons of compost and manure, and several hundred pounds of cover crop. We have mostly level fields ranging from heavy, wet clay to sandy loam. Not many rocks, but historically wetland. We are working on improving our drainage (regrading, ditches, subsoiling, etc.).
We are resurfacing and regrading the fields right now (an outside contractor w/heavy equipment) and then I'll be heavily amending the soil, starting with subsoiling, then lime, compost, seeding, etc. For the long term, we will be doing a lot of plowing (1-3 bottom), subsoiling (1-2 shank), chisel plowing (3-5 shank), discing, harrowing, tilling for seed bed prep, spreading lime, compost and manure, fertilizer and mineral mixes, seeding pastures and cover crops, turning compost, moving rock and sand for sacrifice areas, and mowing fields (potentially for hay later on down the road). Most of the veggies will be seeded by hand or with walk behind seeders. Transplanting is currently done by hand. We don't use round bales, just small squares.
Right now I am looking at the 40-50 hp range, something between 1950 and 1980, mostly due to our budget. We can spend about $6,000 for the tractor and somewhere around $500 to get it here. We don't have our own trailer. 4WD would be nice but I think it is beyond our price range. Even so, I shouldn't really be out in the field anyways if it is wet enough to get stuck. I am not at all attached to a brand, but there are Kubota and John Deere shops nearby. A front end loader, 3 point, and PTO are a must. Really we just want a reliable, easy to operate farm tractor that will last. I am mainly looking at classified ads rather than auctions, because I don't have enough mechanical experience on my own to be able to pick out a good machine. I'm a first time buyer, looking for advice on some older models, and any pitfalls or things to look out for when buying an older model.
Thanks in advance for any advice you can give a beginning female farmer
Leah