TerrapinFarms
New member
Hey guys. first off let me just say how awesome of a forum this is. Ive feel like I've been a creeper on here for awhile without actually registering. so much information, its great.
so a little about me, I'm 28 and my wife and I were born and raised on the eastern shore of Maryland. we were farming a small 7 acre plot in upstate NY for a few years and recently moved back to the shore to have our first child. My father is getting older and has decided to stop leasing our land and have me take it over for him. He's got about 1,500 acres total of corn and beans. I've cleared about 50 acres to start and am in the process of putting up about 12,000 sq ft of greenhouses to grow hydroponic lettuce ( my specialty is large scale indoor hydroponics ) to supply restaurants in the area. We intend on growing lots of full sun row crops, melons, tomatoes, squash, different beans ( not soy ). we are switching from the mindset of large scale commodity corn production to smaller scale organic vegetables as we have a very strong local market.
Now, heres the kicker as all this land was leased we never really had a lot of our own equipment . so were starting from scratch and working our way up. my basic needs are heavy tilling and discing for row crops, pulling a transplanter, a 2 or 3 bottom plow etc. now were phasing out the corn so the other 1,400 or so acres will continue to be leased this year. the plot I'm working is 96 acres with 50 already bush hogged waiting for our a new tractor to do the ground prep.
so needles to say i need lots of advice on the proper sized equipment for this operation. I assume the proper thing to do would be to make another thread in the john deere section as thats our closest dealer and who I'm looking at for a tractor and attachments. I'm looking at a 5115M I'm figuring i need at least 100 pto hp for tilling. id love to step up to the 6140M but **** thats expensive. well before i get too into it here, thanks again for an awesome community and i look foreword to learning much more from y'all.
cheers.
so a little about me, I'm 28 and my wife and I were born and raised on the eastern shore of Maryland. we were farming a small 7 acre plot in upstate NY for a few years and recently moved back to the shore to have our first child. My father is getting older and has decided to stop leasing our land and have me take it over for him. He's got about 1,500 acres total of corn and beans. I've cleared about 50 acres to start and am in the process of putting up about 12,000 sq ft of greenhouses to grow hydroponic lettuce ( my specialty is large scale indoor hydroponics ) to supply restaurants in the area. We intend on growing lots of full sun row crops, melons, tomatoes, squash, different beans ( not soy ). we are switching from the mindset of large scale commodity corn production to smaller scale organic vegetables as we have a very strong local market.
Now, heres the kicker as all this land was leased we never really had a lot of our own equipment . so were starting from scratch and working our way up. my basic needs are heavy tilling and discing for row crops, pulling a transplanter, a 2 or 3 bottom plow etc. now were phasing out the corn so the other 1,400 or so acres will continue to be leased this year. the plot I'm working is 96 acres with 50 already bush hogged waiting for our a new tractor to do the ground prep.
so needles to say i need lots of advice on the proper sized equipment for this operation. I assume the proper thing to do would be to make another thread in the john deere section as thats our closest dealer and who I'm looking at for a tractor and attachments. I'm looking at a 5115M I'm figuring i need at least 100 pto hp for tilling. id love to step up to the 6140M but **** thats expensive. well before i get too into it here, thanks again for an awesome community and i look foreword to learning much more from y'all.
cheers.
This is a great forum. I would say that there's lots of ways to skin a cat in this particular situation. If I were you I'd reconsider spending so much cash on a new machine. New tractors are great, but in that size category there is just so much old iron that will do the job for a fraction of the cost. I'm not too well versed in the larger machines, but at least where I live, you can buy an old International 866 or 1066 for under $10,000. If you're stuck on a MFWD tractor, there's options there too, although they are more expensive. There are some great resources for figuring out what size machinery to pursue for veggie farming, google something like "tractor size for vegetable farms". Another great resource is Martin Diffley from Gardens of Eagan in Minnesota. Google his name. He's a old tractor buff, who buys&sells machines for veggie farmers. He is truly a wealth of knowledge, and he has a great website with tons of info.
