135 acres

[icey]

Hi all,

I am new to TractorByNet. My family and I just purchased 135 acres in Tennessee. We are from the city and are looking to embrace a rural lifestyle, including homesteading, raising cattle, chickens, goats, and more. Our ultimate goal is to build two houses on the property. The land consists mostly of cleared rolling hills, with some flat areas suitable for homesites.

I have a question regarding farm equipment: What do you recommend for our needs, especially considering that we won't be moving for another 2-3 years? I would like to start treating the property in the meantime. It used to have cattle, but it has been neglected for the past year and a half, resulting in overgrown weeds, grass, and blackberry bushes.

Additionally, we are interested in connecting with local farmers to explore the possibility of having someone treat, grow, and harvest alfalfa on our land. We are hopeful to be compensated until we move there.

In terms of the size of the tractor required for 130 acres, what horsepower (HP) would you recommend? Also, what equipment do you have for your large property?

I'm happy to be here Thanks for all help.

 

[Hay Dude]

Is all the property open land that is pasture or fields? Or is part of it wooded? Is it steep where it’s open?
Need more details.

 

[Jchonline]

Usually pictures make slopes appear less severe....so I am going to assume you have a pretty steep grade in places. Tractors are not great on slopes, but as I am sure Hay Dude can attest you can make it work with the right equipment and operating discipline.

There is a bunch to unpack here. You said "raising" livestock. You did not mention how you were going to feed them, or how many. In the Winter, the grass usually goes dormant in most areas, so the livestock will need a supplemental food source. For example cattle will need hay in the Winter. You are either going to source that hay from your own fields (need someone to process the grass into hay) or you are going to buy it.

If your initial goal is alfalfa then I suggest you just focus on that for now and dont worry about livestock. Are you going to seed/grow it with your own equipment or pay someone to do it? Lets start there.

In general the tasks you want to accomplish dictate the type and size of tractor you need (as well as implements). It gets expensive and time consuming quickly so you really need to have a good plan. For instance, if you plan on producing hay you will need quite a bit more HP in a tractor than if you just want to mow. If you want to plow, you will need weight and HP. If you just want to move hay bales around...that will require ballast and less HP. So the best course of action is to list out the things you really want to do in say the first 5 years (critical to be realistic here) and then we can help you decide on an initial machine/implements.

You can do so much with land...it can be daunting to try and tackle it all at once. So break it down into a list of tasks and priorities to make it manageable.

 

[gstrom99]

Welcome to TBN. Do a search in the Buying/Pricing tab, since there are about a million options, depending on: budget, new/used, too big/small, usage, storage/security, loader?, local dealer(s), (well, everything)... Lots of opinions here/there.

 

[Thomas]

Welcome to TBN and congrats on your new piece of dirt.

gstorm99 pointed you in right direction.

 

[ericm979]

Do other farms in the area grow alfalfa? From the pic your land looks steeper and more rolling than I have seen used for hay in the western US but things might be different there, or there might be flatter and more level sections of the land that are not in the pic.

Out west alfalfa requires irrigation, which makes it easy to spot as the sprinkler rigs are big.

At a minimum you're going to need to mow the verges of the hayfield and mow/maintain/clear the parts that are not in hay. You'll want a decent size mower, 6' minimum, and enough tractor to handle it. If you're going to mow many acres you might want a wider mower, which means a larger tractor. A loader would be mandatory, it's so useful. If you're clearing brush, a grapple for the loader and/or a PTO chipper are both useful. Some people prefer to pile and burn brush vs chip it, but it can be a bad idea or even illegal to burn in the summer when there's a risk of fire.

A rear blade can be useful for moving dirt and making or fixing up dirt roads. The box blade is most common but there are others with more specialized uses.

You'll want a way to secure the tractor and implements, plus whatever other gear you keep there, and keep them out of the weather. Some people get used shipping containers for that. Eventually you'll want a barn or shop or both. Your zoning and permitting agency might let you build that before the house but many won't.

Most new compact utility tractors are four wheel drive. Depending on what you're doing and the land and soil, it's anywhere from not needed to vital. On slopes it's more important.

It's easy to roll a tractor on a side hill, and it's super dangerous.They can also flip over backwards when pulling a heavy load incorrectly. Modern tractors have big roll bars to keep them from crushing the operator when that happens but like chainsaw safety chaps it's something you don't want to use. Go easy on side hills and take any steep hills up or down only.

 

[icey]

Is all the property open land that is pasture or fields? Or is part of it wooded? Is it steep where it’s open?
Need more details.

It's wooded on the property line, but majority of it could be pasture...or once was. Some are steep, but in no way are they SUPER steep. Rolling hills is more like it.

 

[icey]

Do other farms in the area grow alfalfa? From the pic your land looks steeper and more rolling than I have seen used for hay in the western US but things might be different there, or there might be flatter and more level sections of the land that are not in the pic.

Out west alfalfa requires irrigation, which makes it easy to spot as the sprinkler rigs are big.

At a minimum you're going to need to mow the verges of the hayfield and mow/maintain/clear the parts that are not in hay. You'll want a decent size mower, 6' minimum, and enough tractor to handle it. If you're going to mow many acres you might want a wider mower, which means a larger tractor. A loader would be mandatory, it's so useful. If you're clearing brush, a grapple for the loader and/or a PTO chipper are both useful. Some people prefer to pile and burn brush vs chip it, but it can be a bad idea or even illegal to burn in the summer when there's a risk of fire.

A rear blade can be useful for moving dirt and making or fixing up dirt roads. The box blade is most common but there are others with more specialized uses.

You'll want a way to secure the tractor and implements, plus whatever other gear you keep there, and keep them out of the weather. Some people get used shipping containers for that. Eventually you'll want a barn or shop or both. Your zoning and permitting agency might let you build that before the house but many won't.

Most new compact utility tractors are four wheel drive. Depending on what you're doing and the land and soil, it's anywhere from not needed to vital. On slopes it's more important.

It's easy to roll a tractor on a side hill, and it's super dangerous. They can also flip over backwards when pulling a heavy load incorrectly. Modern tractors have big roll bars to keep them from crushing the operator when that happens but like chainsaw safety chaps it's something you don't want to use. Go easy on side hills and take any steep hills up or down only.

Hey Eric,

Yes, others in the area grow that it looks like. Tennessee gets a lot of rain so not sure if that's an issue. Like I said, we're not looking to move there for another few years. Need to get the property right. We are about 8 hours away, so during our spare time, we will go up and take care of things. First things first, I want to talk to nearby neighbors to see if they would be interested in using our property for hay. I'd have to talk logistics and see if they'd do the leg work for a few years in return for hay for their cattle.

I appreciate the insight of the tractor. I've never operated one, only a zero turn for my current property where I live now, which is plenty.

Still talking to the wife to see what and when we want to build. I'd like the barndominium since it's cheaper. Convincing the wife might be harder, though.

 

[ericm979]

When I was a teen I met a man in his 20s who was paraplegic after a tractor accident. That's stuck with me all these years and makes me think before getting into something with the tractor.

One thing to avoid is driving with the loader up so you can see under the bucket. That puts a lot of weight up high making it much easier to tip over. Keep the loader as low as possible without hitting the ground and learn to look above or around it.

Modern tractors have a pivot at the center of the front axle which means that the stability all comes from the rear axle. If you're on a side hill and there's a lump the high side that the rear tire rolls over or a hole on the low side, the tractor will tilt more.

We're thinking of building a retirement home and my wife immediately nixed the barndominium idea. I wasn't all that keen on it myself as I haven't seen many that had enough windows. I also like the idea of a separate shop and house to keep shop smells out of the house and keep the house from getting damaged if the shop catches fire. I painted a motorcycle in a shop with a door to the house and it was hard keeping the paint smell out of the house.

 

[2manyrocks]

Hard to assess what your tractor needs really are without considering what work you intend to accomplish with it. For years, there have been some bushhogging operators who cut hillsides for people for pay in my area of Middle Tennessee. They have some fairly large tractors set up with dual rear wheels, 4 wheel drive, ballast, and who knows what else to work on hillsides.