100 acres ,,need advice

[Pfm1011]

Good Evening. Im a complete newbie so any advice would be really appreciated

I just picked up 100 acres , 10 acres bush. This land has been untouched for 18 years so it needs complete bush cut ( all under 1 inch thick , hawthorn etc ) Fairly flat but some wet lands near the creek

Need a tractor for the following

7 to 8 foot mower , 7 ft BB, 60 to 70 inch Power tiller, Small backhoe , FEL, Snowblower and wood chipper, Plow set and some wheel harrows

I plan to clear the whole place, Probably turn it over (plow) once then level, grass it , Plant 10 acres pine and then just farm 10 to 20 acres with various stuff for fun. I expect it will take alot of weekends to clean up the place initially

After initial major work, it will be cutting the fields and landscaping..Ponds etc
I know I need 4 wheel drive

Will a 50 Horse tractor handle all the impliments as above . I have looked at a JD 5105 with 500 hours and a NH tc45 with 1200 hours and the HST

If these tractors are big enough. Is the HST something that can start to cost money after 1200 hours or are they good for X hours ( presuming reasonable care) or should I stick to conventional drive for less hassles

B: If 50 wont do it , what size should I look for ?

Also when is a tractor getting tired..I see machines with 3 or 4000 hours, If they are in good shape , can I expect years of use or am I looking at a money pit?? What is a "too high of hours"


Sorry for all the questions.. any help will be appreciated

 

[JiminGa]

first, welcome to TBN.
we will need to know a little more about your situation to help...
How much time will you devote to this?
you say you are going to clear 100 acres, then grass all but 10 to 20 which will be for farming...that is a lot of grass, will you mow weekly or a couple times per year?
a 5105 should be able to do all the work you want to do, it's not going to be as fast as say a 5525, but it'll be a lot cheaper.
I have an uncle with a JD 2020 from the 1960's that probably has 15000 hours on it, it's been rebuilt a couple of times and still gets used almost daily.

What's your budget, for the tractor only, maybe someone can steer you in the right direction.

 

[WTA]

We're in a similar boat here. I have 25 acres on this farm that is a working farm and a little over a hundred acres on our old family farm that I am just starting to take over. That one hasn't been used in over 30 years. I had been farming this place with an old MM 4 star tractor. It required a lot of cussing though and several threats to put a bullet in it's crank case to keep it running. I have a way with engines! That tractor was good in it's day but parts are almost non existant now. When the clutch started going durring my fall wheat planting this year I told th ewife it was time to put it out of it's misery and go buy a new one.
We came home with a new New Holland TD95D.

What used to take me several days in an open cab with no traction really, I now do in about 8 hours and I hadn't even used a whole tank of fuel either. I plowed and planted both my wheat pastures on about a half tank. SInce I had some left over I went and did the same on my neighbors little wheat pasture too. And with the slightly tinted windows and AC, I didn't really want to come out of it then. It's more comfortable than my house is.

Our other place is so overgrown it looks like a jungle. This spring was the first time I visited it in a few years, since my grandparents died and I was shocked at how bad it is. I have pictures right next to my desk here of what it was when my great grandparents were farming it and there actually used to be open pastures, a yard, manicured orchards and you could see the house from the driveway. Now you almost trip over the front porch before you can see it.
There is a tree growing up through the porch even.

Me and my tractor will be spending a lot of time there in the near future while we prepare to move there and resettle it.
I know my tractor is big enough. I'd recommend getting a lot bigger mower. Especially with the price of fuel these days. Do the most work you can in one pass and save some gas. I am looking at some 10 footers and bat wing mowers myself. Just 120 acres worth of fence line is going to take a while with a 6 or 8 foot mower.

I got 4 wheel drive on my tractor too which will really come in handy. This farm here is flat as a pancake but I still have to use it sometimes. I know I'll need it a lot more on the other farm since it's on top of a mountain and has several creek bottoms I'll have to get into.

For plowing, there is nothing worse than being limited to a 2 bottom plow. Trust me. I row cropped this place with the minni and my old super C the first year we were here. It took days just to get it plowed and ready to plant. Now I can pull 6 big middle busters, which is the most I have and the tractor doesn't even begin to work.

With that much land bigger will definitly be better for a tractor. CNH is offering some great deals right now and really nice financing so I'd highly recommend checking them out. Tell the salesman what you plan to do with it. I doubt he'll recommend a tractor smaller than mine.
These days it's all about time in the field. More time equals more wasted fuel. Get the biggest you can afford.

 

[EddieWalker]

Congratulations on your land purchase and welcome to our small world of tractoring!!!

50hp is a good sized compact tractor, but it's way too small for what you have planned. Clearing land and working dirt takes an massive amount of effort on a tractor, not to mention how destructive it is. The smaller tractors just don't stand up to that abuse for very long, and honestly, neither do the operators. It will wear you out long before you ever finish.

You didn't say what your budget was, or your timeline, so that needs to be decided first.

Depending on how serious you are and how quickly you want this to happen, you have several options. You can try it the way you mentioned, but it will never get done. It's too much land for too small of a tractor.

You can hire it out. This is actually a very good way to save allot of money and get it done quickly. Either hire a guy with a bigger tractor who can come in with a 15 to 20 foot batwing mower and cut it all down, or depending on the degree of the growth, a big dozer or some other heavy equipment. There are all sorts of land clearing operations out there that can do it faster, better and yes, cheaper then you can.

If you hire it out, then maintaining it and doing some of the improvements that you want to do will be good with a 50hp tractor. Of course, bigger is always better with large acreage because you can work bigger impliments, which mean you can get more done in less time.

The other option is to buy a big tractor in the 80 to 100 hp range and get the impliments to match. A big ten foot rotary cutter will mow down just about anything you can drive over and do it quickly without hurting the tractor or mower. It will be very expensive, but you will be able to do it yourself. Then when it's all done, you can sell it for close to what you paid for it. Buying and selling equipment is a very good way to save money on labor. If the tractor is taken care of, they don't drop in value very much at all. Same thing with implements. Used ones almost always sell for just a little less then new ones if taken care of and in good condition.

Then you can buy a smaller tractor and use it to maintain the land.

You will never build much of a pond with a 50hp tractor. digging dirt takes a very long time. A thousand yards isn't very much dirt in the world of ponds, but with a 1/3 yard bucket on a compact tractor, or even a half yard bucket on the bigger ones, that's still 2,000 to 3,000 loads to just move a small amount of dirt. Figure out how much dirt you need to move to build your pond and you'll find it's cheaper to hire it done. Of course, you can go my rought and spend two years digging with a dozer that loves to break down. hahaha In the end, I got mine dug for allot less then it would have cost to hire it out,but when factoring in time and aggrivation, the smart thing would have been to hire it out if I could have afforded to do so.

Good luck and have fun,
Eddie

 

[Egon]

Go for a contractor for the initial working of the land, as per Eddie. Somebody with a Rome disk and the machine to pull it!

Then the smaller tractor will be suitable for maintaining the farm.

For a pond again go for the contractor with the right equipment.

 

[flusher]

Good Evening. Im a complete newbie so any advice would be really appreciated

I just picked up 100 acres , 10 acres bush. This land has been untouched for 18 years so it needs complete bush cut ( all under 1 inch thick , hawthorn etc ) Fairly flat but some wet lands near the creek

Need a tractor for the following

7 to 8 foot mower , 7 ft BB, 60 to 70 inch Power tiller, Small backhoe , FEL, Snowblower and wood chipper, Plow set and some wheel harrows

I plan to clear the whole place, Probably turn it over (plow) once then level, grass it , Plant 10 acres pine and then just farm 10 to 20 acres with various stuff for fun. I expect it will take alot of weekends to clean up the place initially

After initial major work, it will be cutting the fields and landscaping..Ponds etc
I know I need 4 wheel drive

Will a 50 Horse tractor handle all the impliments as above . I have looked at a JD 5105 with 500 hours and a NH tc45 with 1200 hours and the HST

If these tractors are big enough. Is the HST something that can start to cost money after 1200 hours or are they good for X hours ( presuming reasonable care) or should I stick to conventional drive for less hassles

B: If 50 wont do it , what size should I look for ?

Also when is a tractor getting tired..I see machines with 3 or 4000 hours, If they are in good shape , can I expect years of use or am I looking at a money pit?? What is a "too high of hours"


Sorry for all the questions.. any help will be appreciated

Sounds to me like 50hp is too puny for the work you're planning.

I have a 45-hp MF-135 diesel, but only about 7 acres to plow, disc, plant. It's fine for that. It's a 1964 model with 4600 hours and the engine was rebuilt at 3100 hours. It didn't need the rebuild but the previous owner snapped the crankshaft in the front bearing by running a hydraulic pump off the front of the engine. So he decided to put in the rebuild kit while he had the engine apart. Paid $3600 for it last year. My rule of thumb is more than 5000 hours on an original engine or on a rebuild is high hours.

My neighbor planted 30 acres of alfalfa on three 10-acre fields. He started in late August with a 74-hp MF-294 and a single-shank ripper to break up the hardpan. That job took about 2 weeks. Then he made multiple passes with a 10-12 ft wide tandem disc. Another week. Then he laser-leveled the fields since he's using surface irrigation. Used a D7 Cat and a laser-controlled scraper about 10-ft wide. Took another 2 weeks to get the surface the way he wanted. Then he planted in a couple of days. This gives you an idea of the time involved in working sizeable fields.

 

[Z-Michigan]

I think you have greatly underestimated the tasks you have ahead of you.

Having said that, I generally agree with the posts above, especially Eddie Walker's views. (I don't think a 5105 is puny or that 50hp is automatically too little, see below.)

Mowing 90 acres with a 7 or 8' mower and an open platform will drive you nuts. It certainly can be done, but unless it's your full time job then it isn't, IMHO, very realistic. If regular mowing is a plan, you need a cab and a batwing. I would try to find a plan for using the land that doesn't involve mowing more than once a year, max. I would still want at least an 8' mower, and if I could get a 15' I would. The JD 5105 should be fine up to an 8'. With batwings you will want more hp and tractor weight.

I have a JD 5105 and am very happy with it. If doing this work was a full time job, or you wanted to take 5+ years to do it, the 5105 would be great. It is very solid and durable, and IMHO much more durable than any CUT, including the NH TC45 or equivalents from other makes (including JD). I think you will want a utility rather than a CUT, the issue is how big a utility. If you can possibly afford it, get a cab, even if that means going used or giving up some other feature like MFWD. Don't be too certain you need MFWD with a tractor that size, unless you're working on steep hills or pulling things through mud. Read various old threads on whether or not you need MFWD, and bear in mind that with ag tires, their weight distribution, and their gearing, tractors get far more traction in 2wd than pickup trucks do.

I would expect a JD 5105, or other quality utility tractors, to last at least 10,000 hours, maybe up to 30,000, if properly cared for (larger row crop tractors I would expect 20-30,000). I would only expect 3-4000 out of a CUT, again any quality brand. The HST is not a major risk, but simply everything on a CUT is built lighter and smaller than on a utility. However, HST is probably undesirable for mowing or dirt moving tasks on such a large area anyway.

 

[Rara Avis]

Mowing 80-90 acres is a waste of money...You need at least a JD4020 (90hp)

I assume you are going to plant something...soybeans...sugar beets...if you are just going with grass...then at least hay it...

 

[Soundguy]

I think 50hp will leave you 'wanting' ont he 7' / 8' mpwer.

I also think that tractors aren't the best thing for land clearing. Like EW said.

I'd also agree with another poster to hire the big initial(one time) work done... and then buy the tractor that meets the other 80% of your needs.

Soundguy

 

[Farmwithjunk]

Good Evening. Im a complete newbie so any advice would be really appreciated

I just picked up 100 acres , 10 acres bush. This land has been untouched for 18 years so it needs complete bush cut ( all under 1 inch thick , hawthorn etc ) Fairly flat but some wet lands near the creek

Need a tractor for the following

7 to 8 foot mower , 7 ft BB, 60 to 70 inch Power tiller, Small backhoe , FEL, Snowblower and wood chipper, Plow set and some wheel harrows

I plan to clear the whole place, Probably turn it over (plow) once then level, grass it , Plant 10 acres pine and then just farm 10 to 20 acres with various stuff for fun. I expect it will take alot of weekends to clean up the place initially

After initial major work, it will be cutting the fields and landscaping..Ponds etc
I know I need 4 wheel drive

Will a 50 Horse tractor handle all the impliments as above . I have looked at a JD 5105 with 500 hours and a NH tc45 with 1200 hours and the HST

If these tractors are big enough. Is the HST something that can start to cost money after 1200 hours or are they good for X hours ( presuming reasonable care) or should I stick to conventional drive for less hassles

B: If 50 wont do it , what size should I look for ?

Also when is a tractor getting tired..I see machines with 3 or 4000 hours, If they are in good shape , can I expect years of use or am I looking at a money pit?? What is a "too high of hours"


Sorry for all the questions.. any help will be appreciated

Way back in 1971, I bought 188 acres of over-grown, rough, rocky ground. It needed a LOT of work. I bought a couple 40 hp tractors and a 67 hp tractor, rented a D6 Cat, and spent the next 2 years cleaning the place up to the point where I could start farming it in a semi-productive manner. I wouldn't say the tractors were useless, but they were of very little use until the dozer work was well on the way to being done. Once I reached that stage, the 3 tractors combined were a fair match for the acreage.

Once I had everything in place, I farmed that 188 acres and rented around 75 more, and did so with a 60 hp 2wd tractor as my biggest one for most of the next32 years. At one stage, I thought I needed a bigger tractor. I bought one that was 110hp, MFWD, cab, ect, It was over-kill. And with that higher HP came the need for bigger, more expensive implements to make the tractor usefull. After a short time I decided that the 110 hp tractor was simply a waste of resources and fuel on what is a relatively small farm. I sold it and kept on farming the place with 40, 47, and 60 HP as sufficient power.

What does all this mean to you? Well, I'd say first of all, whatever tractor you decide to go with initially will start the ball in motion as far as what implements you buy to match up with it. You need to make the right choice NOW and not be adjusting up OR down as you go. That'll just cause extra expense by buying multitudes of implements as you go along. I'd forget trying to clear the place with whatever you're going to finally use to maintain the property with, or you'll be wearing it out prematurely. Get a 'dozer/rent a 'dozer/hire a dozer. THEN start maintaining the place with a (pair?) tractor that's matched to your eventual needs and NOT to the needs of the first few days/weeks/months on the place.

THEN, IMHO, I'd go with something in the 65 to 75 hp range, might as well go with MFWD. This will allow you to stay with implements capable of handling acreage that size, yet not outlandishly expensive.

Just my opinion. What worked for me may or may not fit your immediate needs. Anyway, good luck in your venture.

OR... If there's a way to budget TWO tractors, go with something 50-ish hp, matched implements, and a used/older 2wd AG tractor, somewhere in the 80-90 hp range for the bigger chores. Used implements for tractors in that size class are relatively easy to find and priced reasonable relative to the cost of new.

Long and short, buy a NEW 50 hp tractor as your only one now, use it to clear the place, and then to maintain the property, and you'll find it grossly undersized for clearing that sort of acreage, and probably have it well on the way to being worn out before you ever get the place ready for routine maintenance.

 

[ToadHill]

The old gentleman who lived down the road gave me some good advice. "Determine what you will regularly be doing and get a tractor that will be able to do your work at 1/2 throttle. If you have an occasional big job it's a lot less costly to hire it done than it is to maintain and feed a larger piece of equipment than you regularly need."

 

[john_bud]

Tractor size input has been given, but your question on tractor wear at 3-4000 hours is still mostly open.

If the tractor has be abused and neglected, then 3-4000 hours is end of life. On the other hand, if it has been simply used and maintained normally, it's about 1/2 way to a rebuild. The larger tractors typically will go more hours as the engines turn over at less rpms. One 'hour' on the meter is really the number of revolutions at PTO speed one hour of operation would see. So a tractor that has a 1500 rpm pto speed will have 1/2 the hours of one that has a 3000 rpm pto speed. Make sense?


I would not be afraid of a tractor with 3-4000 hours. Last old Ford I rebuilt was a 4000 with 8500 hours on a broken meter. It would have been just a re-ring with standard pistons, but a prior owner used ether and broke ring lands leading to cylinder wall scoring. That's a hint -> ask if they use ether (starting fluid) to start it. If the answer is yes, it is probably best to walk away.

jb

 

[Tororider]

I tend to agree with Eddie, as my first thought was hire it out. If you are interested in doing it yourself, buy a used dozer to clear everything. You can use that to build a pond too, if you are interested in that. Like Eddie said, if you were thinking of digging anything other than a koi pond, even a 50hp tractor wouldn't be worth it, you have a chance with a dozer, although you don't want to be pushing the dirt too far.

With regards to the grass, if you are only planning on cutting grass that, imho, is crazy. Lease it out to a farmer who can plant a crop on it and maintain if for you and you can help pay for your dozer and tractor.

Can't help on the life of the tractor, but like anything else, if you are willing to put some work into it, we have the technology to keep them alive, its all a matter of how much time you want to spend on upkeep.

Good luck with everything, post pics of your projects as we all love to see others successes and failures.

 

[flusher]

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OR... If there's a way to budget TWO tractors, go with something 50-ish hp, matched implements, and a used/older 2wd AG tractor, somewhere in the 80-90 hp range for the bigger chores. Used implements for tractors in that size class are relatively easy to find and priced reasonable relative to the cost of new.

Long and short, buy a NEW 50 hp tractor as your only one now, use it to clear the place, and then to maintain the property, and you'll find it grossly undersized for clearing that sort of acreage, and probably have it well on the way to being worn out before you ever get the place ready for routine maintenance.

I agree with FWJ. Get two tractors. I only have 10 acres of flat pasture land, but I found out that two tractors come in handy.

My first tractor was a 2005 Kubota B7510HST (21 hp engine, 17 hp pto) with an LA302 FEL (4 ft bucket) that I bought new in May05 for $12,600 (10% down, 0% for 36 months). It's handled all of the mowing and toting chores plus rototilling the new lawn areas and the veg garden (used Yanmar 1200 tiller, 4 ft wide, $300).

I want to put about 7 acres into hay so in July06 I bought a used 1964 Massey Ferguson 135 diesel (45 hp engine, 38 hp pto, 33 hp on the drawbar) for $3600 without FEL. I spent about $600 on new gauges, exhaust system, rewiring, paint, new front grill, steering wheel.

You have a factor of 10 larger place to handle than I have, so your tractor needs are going to require larger machines. My neighbor just bought a nice new Kubota L4630 diesel (45 hp engine, 39 hp pto, gear tranny) with a 6-ft wide FEL and several implements (6-ft box blade, 6-ft rotary mower, PHD). I figure he's got $25K invested.

You can find good used 75-100 hp 2WD gear tractors without FEL for under $10K. Examples of 1960s vintage tractors: Case 930, 940; Farmall 706, 1066; JD 4020 (considered by some the best JD ever), 4010 (not to be confused with another more recent, smaller JD 4010). eBay is a good place to check current prices. If you decide to buy used, it helps to talk to someone who knows used tractors and how to bargain for old iron.

 

[Oleozz]

We have 100 acres, started with a Farmall H, then a Ferguson 30, after that a JD 870 and now a 45 hp Kioti. The 45 hp is to small for some of the things I wanted to do with it so bought a 140 pto hp International. That was probably overkill but I need to do some heavy duty ripping for the next several yrs and wanted a tractor that could handle those types of chores.
One word about older tractors, they are not as cheap as many people think and if they are then there is usually something wrong with them. You will be hard pressed in this area to find a JD 4020 for under 10,500 and many are more than that. It's the same with a lot of the old IH's, the ones that are in good shape are selling for $12,000 to $16,000. You can get lucky with a lot of looking and patience or pick something up at a local farm auction.

 

[MtnViewRanch]

I have 80 acres and am doing similar things as you. Being a weekend warrior, it is tuff to get stuff done. I have many tractors and sizes and it is still a slow go. Things come up so that you can't get there every weekend and that really slows things down. If you hire stuff done, it may or may not be more cost effective, but will it get done how you want it done? Myself, a lot of the time I have had to redo the things that I hired out because it didn't get done how I wanted it done. And if you stand there to be sure it gets done how you want it done, then you might as well have done it yourself, still have all the time invested.

Eddie Walker has done monumental jobs at his place, do a search and you can check them out. But what I was going to say is that he has complained about all the money that he has spent on his Case dozer. What I haven't read though is that what was done when he wanted to do it, how he wanted it done most likely actually cost him 25% or less than if he had hired it out. ( No disrespect of any kind meant towards you Eddie ) I only wish that I could do the stuff that you have done in the time frame that you have done it in.

About all that I can really recommend is to buy the biggest machines and implements that you can afford, or you will end up like me, 8 years later and still not moved to our property. If you really want to do this yourself and on the weekends, you need multiple machines and bigger machines at that. Think construction size and 100hp ag type machinery if you want it done in a couple of years.

Good luck and keep us informed on how it is going.

 

[scesnick]

I think you got some sound advice. I woul dalso add that If you are already going to have the tractor when you are doen this project, why not plant some timothy or alfalfa and bail it instead of just having a HUGE yard to mow.

Hay prices today are off the charts and you could most likely make a decent supplemental income by bailing and selling the hay.

 

[AchingBack]

Welcome Pfm1011, congratulations on the property. Remember to be careful, and watch out for Pooh, and crew:Winnie the Pooh - 100 Acre Wood (Character Guide)

 

[chh]

The advice your getting on haying is good if you have a lot of horse owners in you area and that is the type of thing that interests you. You should be able to maintain your property pretty well with something in the 50 to 60 hp range. My sister and husband have 80 acres and use a MF 231 S to keep it mowed and to hay their cattle with. Thats after the initial clearing. They have had a dozer in twice, once mine, once a pro. They need about one more 2 day shot to get everything finished and the way they want it. I will probably take care of that this spring. I run 910 acres with a 80 and a 95 hp tractor, with a 33 hp for yard work, and in the process of clearing the brush off with a dozer I purchased. I would not recommend anyone unfamiliar with heavy equipment buying their own dozer on a small place. You can drop thousands of dollars into repairs on dozer in a hurry. (Yes, I am speaking from experience! ) The 2 larger tractors are enough for the wife(yes, she operates a tractor and a dozer) and to mow 350 acres of hay and brushog ect.ect.ect.

I have had a JD 4020 that was pushing 10,000 hrs when I sold it. I bought it with 5000 on it and never had any motor, hydraulic or tranny work done on it. Spent $1200 on a 12V electrical conversion and a lot of misc. stuff once in that 5000 hrs. On the other end of that I got a JD 2460 that was a pile of junk a 3400 hrs. Well painted junk, but still junk. I made the mistake of thinking just because I knew the dealer personally that he wouldn't screw me. Oh well, lesson learned. Got most of my money back trading it in on a new MF 6 months later.

Good Luck and enjoy your farm.

 

[Soundguy]

I think region will have alot to do with resale. Around here.. MF 1100, case 1xxx, ford 5000/8000 are inthe $6k or less range. I've seen all those tractors listed sell as low as 3000$.. Some people just don't like ag tractors...

Soundguy

We have 100 acres, started with a Farmall H, then a Ferguson 30, after that a JD 870 and now a 45 hp Kioti. The 45 hp is to small for some of the things I wanted to do with it so bought a 140 pto hp International. That was probably overkill but I need to do some heavy duty ripping for the next several yrs and wanted a tractor that could handle those types of chores.
One word about older tractors, they are not as cheap as many people think and if they are then there is usually something wrong with them. You will be hard pressed in this area to find a JD 4020 for under 10,500 and many are more than that. It's the same with a lot of the old IH's, the ones that are in good shape are selling for $12,000 to $16,000. You can get lucky with a lot of looking and patience or pick something up at a local farm auction.