I've read through most of this thread and lots of good advice here. I'll just throw in my opinion and experience from 50+ years of farming and rural living.
Get/keep a dedicated lawn mower, the SCUT will damage your lawn and is harder to maneuver. I use a 46" deck old MTD-built thing to cut close to the house and the flower beds and use a bigger 54" Husqvarna for the open areas. I have a 60" rear mount finish mower on a Mahindra eMax 22 to mow pasture areas, it's MUCH better than any mid mount and was cheaper too. I had two dealers talk me out of the MMM. I also use a bush hog type rotary mower if the pastures get out of hand. If you are doing any sort of FEL work, the HST is worth whatever the extra cost, if any, might be. Heck, in my opinion it is vastly superior to anything else out there. I've had and used gear tractors for something like 45 years, back on the farm and on my place. I'm as good as anybody using it (anyone that's had a Ford 9N or 8N has to get good to use them effectively with mounted mowers)... But, you'll pry my cold, dead hands off the steering wheel of my HST before I'd give it up. Got a little spoiled back in the day on the Ford Commander 6000 with Selecto-O-Speed, not HST but hydraulic gear selection, no clutching needed. If you are doing real farming on larger acreage gear is the way to go.
For what little, relatively, you'll be doing a grapple is too much and too expensive. Spend your money on something you really need. I've found bucket forks (they are cheap in the small sizes) with the logs cut to size are more than enough, and handy for all kinds of other things, from unloading pallets on a truck to carrying brush.
My set up is the eMax 22 with FEL and HST, loaded rear R4 tires, new to me JD GT275 48" mower, Husqvarna LGT 2554, Huskee (MTD) 46" mower, Ford 9N, Ford 8N for doing bigger stuff like pulling a manure spreader. I maintain all of them but they really don't cost much in the way of dollars or time. Since getting the Mahindra last year one of the Ns sit most of the time.
The wife actually wanted to get the new Mahindra due to the attractive financing and the 5 year warranty. We have a good and growing dealer about 10 miles away. We got in, with a rear blade (my old one was shot) and quick hitch for just above $13,000. It's also small enough to get into the barn if needed, have had to retrieve some dead animals so that is worth it too. We looked at lots of used Kubotas, all nice but about the cost of a new one if the hours were low and would have had to go to the bank to finance one, and then there is the issue of past use and maintenance done. JDs were just too pricey for what they were and the Mahindra blew them away on the strength of the materials that were used in the tractor. BTW, the tractor, the eMax 22, and 25, are made by TYM with a Daedong engine ( branded Kioti in the US) that is Tier IV compliant... no smoke, except a puff on start up. Some of the larger ones are Mitsubishi built.
Good luck in your search. You really can't go wrong with any of the modern SCUTs or CUTS, no matter the brand.
