Buying Advice Best tractor for 300 acres in Kentucky

[BAP]

Is there any way to rent out the crop land to be hayed? That would be a great way to keep it open and used without having to do it yourself. Buy a tractor to keep the other areas kept up.

 

[NoTrespassing]

OP, what was the field used for before you purchased it? I would assume it was in hay or pasture or some sort of crop. If not it would be grown up with scrub trees in no time at all.

Kevin

 

[kthompson]

I will further this, and I always like to be the guy to point this part out. It has been mentioned in terms of what you need. But think of the items that might be a one time use only or something done once a year. Will it be easier, cheaper, or just plain cost effective to rent for that one task or hire someone to do that one task. I know there's a lot of pride in here on doing things yourself and owning your own equipment. Sometimes that pride is misguided and often times cost more money and or time. So once you get that nailed down, maybe you can pinpoint a implements better and the machine you need to do it.

I agree here very much. I am in hay partnership. Biggest reason by far is none of us has enough hay to pay for equipment needed but our combined operation makes the cost affordable by each one. We all work together with equipment we each own.

I have reread your thoughts and needs,you want to buy new and that is well and good. There is benefit to buying used as you are not sure of the true long term need and used should allow you to be able to sell if you find out you under or over bought. The issues in buying used are financing may not be as good if needed and you often have no warranty. So learn the tractor and seller. Use implements are same but many used implements are straight forward such as any blade. Cutters or other pto equipment you do not buy without it being run for you and if need be a friend who knows equipment.

One other suggestion that not aware has been made, watch videos on tractors and their implements. Look up what you want to accomplish with the tractor and you will gain some very good ideas size of equipment, type of equipment (often there is more than one implement that "will" do the job but one that is best) and will see some of the right way and WRONG way to. I don't have thousands of hours on tractors but do have many hundred and I view videos rather often before I buy anything in equipment or take on task not too familiar with. My wife often ask, what are you looking at and it is almost always...tractors.

You really need to begin with the size tractor you will be able to use long term. You can down or up size of course but it may not be just tractor you need to but also implements. Way different from buying too large or small of a car. As has been pointed out if you are some small it just takes longer, if some large you have extra capacity and size and normally investment than needed.

 

[radios1]

I'd be dead if I had to walk the length of 300 football fields!. that's how big 300 acres is!. HUGE!.. nothing less than a full size tractor for that much acreage!..

 

[Turbys_1700]

I bought a 2012 T4.75 last year. It is a cabbed unit with 1k hours. I pull a 10 foot brush hog and use the FEL and grapple for tasks here on the farm. With my Rhino 8 foot rear blade and 7 foot box blade I can do almost anything I need to do.

Our farms are very steep in places. With the rear radials loaded and widened to the max it is a very stable platform. The previous owner used it to pull a round baler. It is a very good utility tractor for it's uses.

 

[jeff9366]

I'd be dead if I had to walk the length of 300 football fields!. that's how big 300 acres is!. HUGE!.. nothing less than a full size tractor for that much acreage!..

60 acres of field. 240 acres of woodland.

 

[Richard]

I do not live on sloped ground but you will need additional hp to climb any real slope, ask dealer for recommendation. Dealer of mower of tractor.

Though I agree with everything in his post, I wanted to quote this part to draw a different angle to it.

I got (as has been mentioned) an International 1066. I don't know engine numbers but I think it's around 125 PTO hp.

I would have been ok buying a smaller one but this thing only has 3,700 hours on it and it was built in 1973! (my understanding is the original owner parked it and either fell to ill health or....fell.... and the wife sold to the second owner which is where I got it)

None the less.... one reason I'm glad I got something this large even though something smaller would work...

Recall my comment that my understanding is we have the tallest hill in the county here on the farm??

My concern was less pulling the mower UP the hill than being able to stop/control it while going DOWN the hill!!

I didn't want the mower to man-handle the tractor, I wanted the tractor and therefore me in control.


I would LOVE it if it had 4WD but, it doesn't.

I also have a JCB loader/backhoe so I do loader work.... the benefits of 4WD and a loader are nice! I can do things "fine" with my 2-WD JCB but it would certainly have more bite if it had 4WD.

Another side note (not remembering your budget).... I think I paid about $13,000 for my JCB (15 years ago??)

It's "Fugly" BUT functional. I don't care how it looks (looks like it worked in a rock quarry as there are ding marks all over it)

None the less.... I'll put BOTH of those machines up against a new tractor/loader/mower and probably come out cost ahead AND when I'm doing loader work, might out-loader you..... can certainly out-dig you (backhoe will dig a flat two foot bottom at 15 1/2 feet deep) My tractor/mower will probably get beat by a new version of both....

But, I'll have more cash in my pocket (to pay sooner repairs than you might have to pay)

Like many things in life, things can be about a trade-off.

Heck, I've bought and just received an entire wiring harness for the tractor. I'm going to replace entire thing because my dash lights don't work, I've got some buggered wires and I have ZERO headlights. I could probably find/fix the issues but I much prefer to just do it right and replace entire harness. I can hardly wait to dig into it!!

So it helps that I enjoy that kind of task. If you don't enjoy it, then spending more to get newer condition might be a good idea.

 

[searcyfarms]

short n sweet, two used tractors a big one 60 to 100 hp for the large mowing areas and big work and a 40 to 60 hp tractor for the rest - no question

 

[rScotty]

short n sweet, two used tractors a big one 60 to 100 hp for the large mowing areas and big work and a 40 to 60 hp tractor for the rest - no question

Well.....after we've all kicked it around for awhile, what do you think about either the NH or the Kubota that the OP was asking about back in his first post that initiated all this discussion?

He wrote, "I've priced a few different tractors:
new holland work master 70 4wd w/loader: $27,000
Kubota m5660 4wd w/loader: $36,500
Mahindra 2555 4wd w/loader: $26,600
Should any of these be ok for my needs? I guess overall I'm looking at the new holland, it looks the best to me so far."

It sounds to me like he was already looking at some pretty reasonable machines..... Large enough to do serious work even on his size land, and small enough for chores. ...and although he will probably end up with two tractors, either that New Holland or Kubota should get him started with a decent size machine.
rScotty