Hello,
This could probably be multiple threads but I'll toss it all into one and see what happens.
We own about 4 acres of ag/residential land in Montana. We have two horses, want to get a dairy cow, have basic trenching, foundation digging, fence post holing, material moving, a long gravel driveway to maintain, etc. The utility tractor with a backhoe, loader, and some implements seems to make sense. I also grew up with one back in the manual everything era, and can't tell you how many times the past couple years I just wished I had a tractor!
We also have access to some acreage to do small bail haying down the road. My plan would be to do plenty for our horses and cow, as well as have a little extra to sell. So the tractor has to be able to manage small bail haying. I don't want a huge tractor though for the utility work, so I'm looking at something with a PTO horsepower around 35 which the dealers and my research think will do the haying happily (the ground is mostly flat), as well will happily dig plenty deep and powerfully for my needs.
I looked at New Holland, Kubota, LS, Case, Deere, and Massey-Ferguson. Due to dealer locations, quality, features, etc., I'm now primarily looking at Massey and Deere. Both have well respected dealers within 15 miles of our place.
So Thoughts on Massey vs. Deere?
The Deere's seem more expensive for similar specs, and holy cow the lead time on ordering is horrendous. The dealer has a 4052M, which would save me the 3 months of waiting, for only $1200 more than what we worked out for the 4044M, but I don't know if I want/need the extra power. The Massey's have fewer gizmos that I probably don't need and could break. I read the quality survey stickied in the forum and Massey gets significantly lower reviews than Deere?
On the Massey front, the dealer thinks he might be able to still get a 1643 for me. Less money, not Tier 4, I like those advantages. Thoughts 1600 vs. 1700 for Massey? Also the dealer has a 1749 that again might be had for not much more than the 1742 Decisions!?
I grew up using a non synchronized manual transmission. It was all we had, and honestly it never bothered me. Now with the manuals with synchro shifted F and R, my gut is to love that, especially when haying, and save the $1200 extra for HST. Of course the Deere's can't be ordered yet with the manual sigh Thoughts?
Thanks all for the time!
Andrew
This could probably be multiple threads but I'll toss it all into one and see what happens.
We own about 4 acres of ag/residential land in Montana. We have two horses, want to get a dairy cow, have basic trenching, foundation digging, fence post holing, material moving, a long gravel driveway to maintain, etc. The utility tractor with a backhoe, loader, and some implements seems to make sense. I also grew up with one back in the manual everything era, and can't tell you how many times the past couple years I just wished I had a tractor!
We also have access to some acreage to do small bail haying down the road. My plan would be to do plenty for our horses and cow, as well as have a little extra to sell. So the tractor has to be able to manage small bail haying. I don't want a huge tractor though for the utility work, so I'm looking at something with a PTO horsepower around 35 which the dealers and my research think will do the haying happily (the ground is mostly flat), as well will happily dig plenty deep and powerfully for my needs.
I looked at New Holland, Kubota, LS, Case, Deere, and Massey-Ferguson. Due to dealer locations, quality, features, etc., I'm now primarily looking at Massey and Deere. Both have well respected dealers within 15 miles of our place.
So Thoughts on Massey vs. Deere?
The Deere's seem more expensive for similar specs, and holy cow the lead time on ordering is horrendous. The dealer has a 4052M, which would save me the 3 months of waiting, for only $1200 more than what we worked out for the 4044M, but I don't know if I want/need the extra power. The Massey's have fewer gizmos that I probably don't need and could break. I read the quality survey stickied in the forum and Massey gets significantly lower reviews than Deere?
On the Massey front, the dealer thinks he might be able to still get a 1643 for me. Less money, not Tier 4, I like those advantages. Thoughts 1600 vs. 1700 for Massey? Also the dealer has a 1749 that again might be had for not much more than the 1742 Decisions!?
I grew up using a non synchronized manual transmission. It was all we had, and honestly it never bothered me. Now with the manuals with synchro shifted F and R, my gut is to love that, especially when haying, and save the $1200 extra for HST. Of course the Deere's can't be ordered yet with the manual sigh Thoughts?
Thanks all for the time!
Andrew