Forestry use of a tractor:

[ToadHill]

I maintain 87 acres, 60 of which are wooded. For years I did all the work with a Ford 8N, you'd be supprised how much work that little tractor can do. 3 years ago I bought a Kioti Dk35, I run a 75" snow blower to keep my 400 ft drive clear. Mow about 22 acres of old hay field, use the FEL

 

[gryphon]

I live south of Valparaiso,and with the amount of snow we get a backblade should be sufficient. If you live farther east,LaPorte Co. then the snowblower would be worth the extra cost.

A Woods bushog will do the trick for mowing and your trails if you have the room to move in the woods to swing it.You can cut grass and weeds real short with a Woods. Run from King Kutter and the lower priced hogs. I own both and there is no comparison between the two.

Good Luck

 

[EddieWalker]

Maintaining trails is one thing, adding to them and making new ones is something else altogether. First, you have to know how wide you want your trail.

I like to go for walks with my wife on our trails. We walk side by side and look for things to take pictures of. With trees and plants growing out sideways onto your trails, pruning gets to be allot of work. My trails are about ten feet wide and I mow them in two passes with my 6 ft rotary cutter. I have a Landpride and it's been very good to me. Six feet is just too narrow for both of us to walk on it and not walk into branches of some kind.

For making trails, I've had good luck with just running over the small saplings and cutting them up with the rotary cutter. Sometimes I'm lucky and I can get where I want with this method. It's tough going and things have a way of breaking, but once through, it's easy to maintain it and make it wider. Over time, the stubble on the ground just disapears. Doing this type of clearing requires a really good cutter. If you get to an area that you just cannot get through, then it's either time for the chainsaw or in my case, the backhoe. Getting those bigger trees out works with a chain, and dragging them out.

Eddie

 

[AKfish]

Just plowed my ~400' of driveway and side areas today in 18F breezy weather! Like to freeze my cajones off...! (The local Kubota dealer has a Beautiful, L5740 cab-model that would be so FINE on a day like today!)

I've got a 7' rearblade and 72" FEL bucket that I use for snow, etc. (If I had a cab - maybe a snow blower would be the way to go, but most of front mount skid-steer types are ~$7K, too.)

Nonetheless, I'm on board with all the previous poster's that opined: 1.) FEL 2.) FEL grapple 3.) rear blade 4.) brush hog.

In addition, talk with your dealer and/or look for skid plate protection for the underside of your tractor. Crawlin' around in the woods is a great opportunity to snag hydraulic lines and electrical wires as well as knockin' off a low hanging filter or two!

Also, get the best grill guard you can order (and prepare yourself to reinforce it with heavy welded screen) for your tractor. Limbs, branches and small trees have a knack for finding their way into your new, fancy grill and punching holes in it... and your $400 radiator, too!

Best of luck.

AKfish

 

[Northland]

Crawlin' around in the woods is a great opportunity to snag hydraulic lines and electrical wires as well as knockin' off a low hanging filter or two!
Also, get the best grill guard you can order
Best of luck.
AKfish

Good advice AKfish ground clearance and a skid plate make for safe and secure forest work.

Another TBN member used heavy wire mesh screening from Home Depot for the space between his ROPS. I had more then one occasion where wood on my rear carry-all came down through the ROPS opening towards me so I copied his design using industrial zip ties to hold the mesh in place. I use the leftover mesh to screen in the front brush guard.

For $20 it was good insurance and gave peace of mind

 

[john_bud]

Your requirements are pretty broad and open to interpretation. That's why you will be seeing a lot of differing opinions based on the experience of the poster. Here's my experience. Not quite 300 acres of woods with 15 or so miles of trails. 8 or so acres of food plots. Log skidding on occasion and firewood gathering in the fall. Lot's of cleaning of tops, branches and blow downs.

I use an L3410 hst 4x4 with R4's. It's a little small for some things, and a little big for others. It can pull a 66" industrial box blade at 950 pounds. Power a BrushBull 600 medium duty cutter at 1100 pounds. Pull a 2 bottom plow or a 6' disc. It could also pull a 7' back blade. Those attachments are about all that are size dependent. Post hole digger, sprayer and others can be used on about any size tractor. One that size 34 engine hp and 28 pto, is all that is needed to maintain your property. I wouldn't want to be much smaller at all. A little bigger would be good on occassion, but would be a PITA in the woods at other times. (Ever had to walk 3 miles for a chain saw so you could get your tractor out?)

Now, if you want to run new trails, you need a MUCH larger tractor. I can push over 4" soft wood and 3" hard wood, but it's a chore. It takes a lot of time and beats the snot out of the machine and operator. But, it does leave a nice person size path. If you want a new road, paying a dozer for a day will get literally miles of road produced. And at a lower cost than doing it yourself -- even if you only pay your self a dollar an hour! Your machine costs will exceed the dozer costs.

Or you can get a 80+ hp tractor and have that extra cost to purchase, maintain etc. But the implements are 3-8X as much as those for a 30 pto hp machine. It's all a trade off between your time and your money. Just remember that maintaining is much easier than creating when talking about paths, trails and roads.

 

[AKfish]

A tractor with 35hp at the pto will handle the size of attachments that nearly everyone has recommended as the ones to buy.

6' rotary mower. 6' box blade or 7' rear blade. FEL with grapple.

If you have no future plans to expand into hay production, etc. -- a 50hp pto tractor is overkill for the kinds of work you've outlined.

There's a good number of cab models out there just waitin' for a demo!

Best of luck with whatever you decide.

AKfish

 

[forester2]

I have a Ford 2120 and a Kubota B3030 but the Ford does virtually all my real work on 230 acres of 90% forestered land. Ag tires are a MUST if you experience any snow or wetness. A front end loader is indispensible. I have constructed miles of trails and a back hoe attachment to trench and get hard fill up has made that possible. That being said, the larger tracter you have the bigger the backhoe you can use hence productivity. Brush hog, grader box are also indespensible for my trail maintance. There was an outfit in Canada who were modifying Kioti tractors for forestery use including protective caging and well shielded tire valve stems (carry a spare; spraying calcium is no fun).

 

[Northland]

I have a Ford 2120 and a Kubota B3030 but the Ford does virtually all my real work on 230 acres of 90% forestered land. Ag tires are a MUST if you experience any snow or wetness. A front end loader is indispensible. I have constructed miles of trails and a back hoe attachment to trench and get hard fill up has made that possible. That being said, the larger tracter you have the bigger the backhoe you can use hence productivity. Brush hog, grader box are also indespensible for my trail maintance. There was an outfit in Canada who were modifying Kioti tractors for forestery use including protective caging and well shielded tire valve stems (carry a spare; spraying calcium is no fun).

Here it is-http://www.payeur.com/En/products/LeForestier.htm

Very nice

 

[AKfish]

Great link - Northland, thanks. Sure would like one of those trailers; any of them for that matter!

AKfish