Buying Advice Compact Cab tractor for vineyard work.

[airbiscuit]

A 25 degree slope is pretty steep. You said you have little tractor experience - be careful!

 

[RickB]

I spent a lot of years farming some steep ground in the Hudson Valley. But I saw apples along RT 16 between Taylorsville and Wilkesboro yesterday and for the life of me I don’t know how they spray them.

 

[BAP]

Most/all of the vineyard tractors have more hydraulic capacity the compacts (12gpm vs. 8gpm or so). important for running hedgers and other implements. Was expecting to see compact with a shuttle shift have more implement flow than the comparable hydro. Doesn't seem to be the case? Anyone know why that is?

Because compact tractors are not designed for operating hydraulic powered equipment. Large capacity hydraulics requires more than just a bigger pump. They need larger hydraulic oil reservoir, increased cooling, more power to run the pump and so on. It gets expensive fast so that is why compact tractors doesn’t have it. For a new member asking for advice you might want to check the attitude at the door. You asked for advice and people are giving it. If you don’t like the answers, don’t expect people to give you different answers to satisfy your predetermined specifications.

 

[BertZegers]

Do you need a "creep" gear? I help out on a veggie farm, and the tractors we use have ''creep" gears or are hydrostat. Standard Ag tractors don't go slow enough for planting and harvesting.
The gear tractor, Kubota M105S dual speed, is my favorite.

 

[Yardbird]

Do you need a "creep" gear? I help out on a veggie farm, and the tractors we use have ''creep" gears or are hydrostat. Standard Ag tractors don't go slow enough for planting and harvesting.
The gear tractor, Kubota M105S dual speed, is my favorite.

Unsure about the creeper gear. Am guessing "no" but will ask others.

I truly appreciate your time and efforts to provide information. Don't mean to sound ungrateful in the least. That being said, there are some things (like needing a loader) that I cannot change. I am trying to find a tractor with most of the characteristics of a narrow tractor but need to meet a few other goals.

Was looking at the Kioti NX line. Hydraulic flow is 16.5 (shuttle), 65" wide (w/o loader). Probably only 10gpm to the implements- not great. It does have a cruise and PTO cruise (?) which would likely be nice for spraying, etc.

 

[KennyG]

I'm sure there are lots of regional differences, but I'm in the middle of a huge orchard and vineyard area. Seems like the most common tractors in use are 3 and 4 series cabbed John Deeres.

 

[fishheadbob]

Thousands of acres of vineyards around me. The professionals go with vineyard models which usually start around 60 hp. and go up from there. All are cabbed because of the large amount of spraying; most are 4wd even though the land is pretty flat. They also tend towards Ag tires. While there is every sort of dealer in the area most of what I see in the vineyards is Case-NH or Deere, a few Masseys. As previously mentioned narrow tractors and loaders don't go together well, I would be leery of any dealer selling that combination unless it was a smaller, lower hp model intended for the play farmers. That will rule out air blast sprayers which are a necessity for larger operations.
I do have a narrow, small, low horsepower Deere for maintaining 15 miles of Christmas tree rows. Good for a small brush hog, lousy for spraying. The R4s aren't my first choice as this land gets very greasy. If you opt for a small tractor that doesn't weigh much Ag tires might be the better choice. I think it will be hard to find everything you want in one machine.

 

[ChrisRyan]

IF you are offended, that's on you!

Most guys here are "play farmers", I have no way to know if you fit that mold or not, without bringing it up...

I stand by my post, IF you want to be serous about making money, then buy the RIGHT equipment the first time!

There's always buying used, to fit a tighter budget!

There is over a thousand acres of orchard/vineyard/veggie farms starting 1/2 mile east of me, you won't find even one compact tractor working them...

Kubota isn't the only one making narrow tractors!

SR

Why does it have to be classified as "play farmers"? I have a small 35 acre "farm", but I'm basing it on an old time "family farm" operation with its sole intent on being self sufficient as much as possible. I understand the term "Hobby Farm" and it seems to fit my place even though I can't say I'm fond of the term.

My point is, you don't have to be a like the "big boys" to get exactly what you want out of farming. Every situation is unique and we all have a need for certain equipment. The op, like myself, has a limited budget and looking for advice on ones he mentioned. He's not on here looking for life advice and your definition of what real farming is.

To the OP: Have you looked at the Bransons? I'm in the middle of my research and looking to purchase within the month. We have a lot of Branson dealers around and I'm becoming more impressed with the Branson tractor and the features you get for the money.

 

[Sawyer Rob]

Why does it have to be classified as "play farmers"?

Because IF you aren't "trying" to make money at it, you are just play farming.

I never said there was anything wrong with it, I just was suggesting to him how to avoid it!

He said he doesn't have the money for a proper tractor, wait until he see's how much money he has left after play farming!

SR

 

[RickB]

Because IF you aren't "trying" to make money at it, you are just play farming.

I never said there was anything wrong with it, I just was suggesting to him how to avoid it!

He said he doesn't have the money for a proper tractor, wait until he see's how much money he has left after play farming!

SR

That reads as a pretty coarse statement but there’s a boatload of truth there.
My ex neighbor up in NY was a wealthy bond broker that had a nice little place in the country then bought the adjoining farm and got into the purebred Angus business. After about 8 years he sold the cattle and machinery. He told me he figured out it would be more fun to take that $200,000 the farm was costing him and buy a Porsche. Drive it for 12 months, wreck it and do it again every year.

 

[airbiscuit]

A farmer won a huge lottery prize and and they asked him what he was going to do with the money. He said "I guess I'll just keep farming until it is all gone".

 

[woolyAcres]

Because IF you aren't "trying" to make money at it, you are just play farming.

SR

Lots of the big farms aren't making any money either. Perhaps they aren't 'playing' around. They are serious about not making money.

 

[Haoleguy]

To OP - My spouse and I farm a 5 acre vineyard with the idea to expand to 10 acres out of a 42 acre site. We are spaced 7' by 4'(double Guyot) and 7' by 3'(single Guyot). We have a ~50hp Landini Mistral 16spd(of which 4 creeper), MFWD, open station, 3SCVs, and it's non-hydro which we purchased for $12.5K with 375hrs on it. It's been a great little tractor with a bigger capability compared to many others in this class. That said it rides a bit high to deal with side hills comfortably. If you're thinking wide rows there are many stable choices in tractors out there. One you might consider is a used Landini Rex in the lower ride height, Ithink they call it a GS configuration. It's heavier than my Mistral and can lift more in the rear. Downside of low tractors is they don't lift as high from the ground up. Such as if you need to use a post hole auger it might not clear it from the ground. As far as sprayers go the CIMA is a fine sprayer and many near me have that one. I'm working my way up to a tilting recovery panel sprayer that will work one row at a time from both sides. With slight side hills on narrow rows the sprayer nozzles/tips on conventional one side two row sprayers without tilt do not get parallel to the spray surface. With the CIMA I think you have good control of spray to canopy distance and height. My preference on sprayers would be to tow it and not carry it. For our 5 acre vineyard in early season I probably use 40-75gallons of spray mixture. Late in the season like now I use 140-150gal which is a reload for me with our 100gal PakTank. One thing with respect to spraying if you can plant similar(harvest timing wise) varieties near each other then you can spray similar chemicals in blocks. For instance right now I am close to harvest for auxerrois and chardonnay and have to use chemicals with short PHI whereas for my chenin blanc, cabernet sauvignon, cabernet franc, and barbera are much later so I may use different fungicides with longer PHIs. One other point with using only one vineyard tractor, like I do, one needs to be prepared to get it fixed and back up and running in short order. I have a smaller Deere 455 garden tractor that mows the alleys, spools out bird side netting, carries tools and supplies anywhere in the vineyard. I also have a Deere 5325 with loader and backhoe that I use to unload deliveries and take care of heavier property maintenance tasks. We plan to get a second vineyard tractor next year and most like a used electric golf cart to quickly run tasks in the vineyard. Good luck with your endeavor. If you have questions fire away but be forewarned that the season is getting super busy right now and my response might be delayed. Cheers

 

[California]

You need creeper gear (or similar creep capability in hydrostatic) if you will ever run a rototiller.