Hey there folks,
A little background; we bought a 60 acre little farm in NE Washington. Roughly half of the land is timber, the other half is field, not including the ~3 acres around the house/garden/shop. The property is all sloped, with the exception of some random little flat-ish spots here and there.
My soil is roughly half sand, half silt with about 5% clay (estimated results of the old mason-jar-half-full-of-dirt test). The ground is VERY hard, and has a large amount of rocks in it from golf ball to shoe box size.
My knowledge of tractors and equipment is fairly basic, and I'm looking for some general advice to get me pointed in the right direction.
I have 2 main areas of concern; the approximately 3 acres around the house and garden (all raised beds in sort of a terrace-fashion). And then the big pasture itself (I estimate it at roughly 22-24 acres). I'm not planning on doing much with the forested part, aside from some tractor-trail maintenance and occasional brush mowing along a couple paths.
For around the house and garden, I could really use something for plowing/blowing snow, leveling gravel, moving dirt/gravel, mowing some rougher areas, post-hole auger for fencing, tiller for garden beds, and some back blade work. Of course, a FEL would be a huge benefit.
The way my garden is, and around my house/shop, I need something small but stout and a Kubota B7100/7000/6100/6000 or similar has really caught my eye, and have seen them in my price range around my area. Any opinions on them from anyone on here? I think the 4wd would be really nice considering my sloped property, and from what I seen, I think something along those lines would work well cutting some small brush (knee-high, 1/2" stocks) in the woods, maybe with a flail mower. Thoughts?
For the big pasture, my main concern is getting it smoothed out. It is full of big ruts, bumps and ground squirrel holes. It's bad enough, I'm concerned about an accidental tip over with my current tractor, if a tire should find a big hole and throw the weight sideways or something. I'd like to get it smoothed out for sake of safety and aesthetics. Then later maybe get a couple head of cattle on it for beef or put in a small orchard/vineyard on a part of it or something, maybe make some hay.
Currently, I have an old (late 40's, early 50's) Case VAH which is a high-crop model that I bought from a neighbor down the road. It has a FEL, but the brakes don't work for nothing and it leaks a large amount of hydraulic fluid when in use. I bought it, along with an attached newer 4' rotary cutter for $500 and figured it'd be worth getting for the price.
But I'd like something that would be more stable, and that has enough power to break up the hard, rocky ground I have and for general work afterwards. I could really use some advice on this in terms of tractors/equipment. Would an old 8n or something that sits lower be much better? I've been here for 3 years and haven't got up in the field with the tractor once due to concern of rolling it lol. The weeds are really out of hand and I need to get on it.
I appreciate any advice y'all could give me on what sort of tractor(s) I should look into and any implements that I should have around the place. Thanks, and sorry for the long post :confused2:
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