Do I need a tractor?

newbury · Aug 22, 2013

cardiologist said:
Thanks all once again. I think I'm going to move up to the 30hp range. Get something a year or two old and still end up under $15k. Still doing research. Advice and experience still welcome!

I spent from about August of 2012 to January of 2013 "finding" my M4700. I had pretty strict parameters to meet, some difficult some easy.
My parameters
< $15 k including transport charges if any - Difficult to meet in my desired size range
Able to lift 1 ton on the 3pt - So that's like a B3030 or an L3400 or bigger - got 2 ton on the 3pt
40HP or more preferred - got 50HP
Major mfg, didn't want to be wrenching all the time and have parts supply problems - got Kubota
FEL - lot's of the lower priced GOOD tractors don't have them - L1001 - good for 2 tons
4WD - Again lot's have 2WD - got it
Decent maintenance record or low hours - good maintenance
Good tires - I slipped on that - good rears

I routinely travel from Alexandria, Va to northeast Ms so I searched Craigs List, Farm Auctions and dealers within 100 miles of my travel route.

DARN few showed up under $15K w/ FEL, 4WD, 40HP plus.

Finally about 2 January I wrote Barlow's about some tractors on their web site. I was just about to buy a NICE looking

L4630 for about $16.9K INCLUDING $400 DELIVERY when the M4700 I have came up on auction.

It was local, looked OK for $15K. And looked a lot better when I got it for $11.5K before taxes etc.

I figure I put in at least 80 hrs searching Craigs List, etc. for that tractor. But my wife and I are retired and SWMBO doesn't like me making noise before 0900 so it beat playing solitaire.

Since you Doctor are employed, and probably make more than a couple of thousand in 80 hrs your time is more valuable than mine. I'd suggest you look at your local dealers then consider calling/writing Barlow's (Inventory | Barlow Equipment ) and Messick's (Used Compact Tractors). Barlow's doesn't put the prices on the web much anymore, but they are very competitive. Messick's does put prices on and right now they have a couple of nice deals (to me) listed.

Both Barlow's and Messick's have a "presence" here and a great reputation.

Good luck Doc and keep us posted with pictures!

/edit - that Case looks pretty sweet.

OldMcDonald · Aug 22, 2013

cardiologist, OK, I accept that you had already decided you were going to buy a tractor and a few pieces of equipment before you posted, knowing that the majority of people posting here would insist that it is essential for absolutely everybody to have at least one tractor, and preferably more. Obviously I disagree and I tried my best to get you to see that your free time, which I am sure is very limited (reinforced by your post #35) would be better spent with your family plus necessary "own" time just doing nothing without anyone else around. I failed.

I still wonder why all you people over there insist on having so much lawn. Nobody has ever answered that question, and I can only assume that very few of you are actually "farming" the land you own, not even attempting to do so, but just messing about with "boys' toys" trying to make something look pretty. If that is what you want to do and can afford to do it, then that is up to you, but what a waste of land, time and money! I simply cannot think that way. Land is for producing food. First my own and then a surplus to sell.

People in the US are of a different culture to most of the rest of the world, and every now and again I am reminded of it through this forum. Elsewhere your nice flat (or almost) ground would be made to provide food for many, many people.

This is not an attack on any individual, but can be assumed to be an attack on a system where country people intentionally take food producing land out of production to create an area of grass that it seems nobody ever makes an economical use of. I ask yet again, why do you do it? I am genuinely interested in the reasoning of people who do so, because it is alien to everywhere I have lived.

newbury · Aug 22, 2013

OldMcDonald said:
cardiologist, OK, I accept that you had already decided you were going to buy a tractor and a few pieces of equipment before you posted, knowing that the majority of people posting here would insist that it is essential for absolutely everybody to have at least one tractor, and preferably more. Obviously I disagree and I tried my best to get you to see that your free time, which I am sure is very limited (reinforced by your post #35) would be better spent with your family plus necessary "own" time just doing nothing without anyone else around. I failed.

I still wonder why all you people over there insist on having so much lawn. Nobody has ever answered that question, and I can only assume that very few of you are actually "farming" the land you own, not even attempting to do so, but just messing about with "boys' toys" trying to make something look pretty. If that is what you want to do and can afford to do it, then that is up to you, but what a waste of land, time and money! I simply cannot think that way. Land is for producing food. First my own and then a surplus to sell.

I emphasize with you OldMac, we are a culture that many of us don't want to recognize our limits. I'm a retired scientist, my wife a retired Real Estate Attorney. Most of our relatives down in Mississippi are dentists, doctors, lawyers, engineers.

A typical relative is "Uncle Charles", a practicing dentist, 75 yrs old, who just won't quit. Although he has FINALLY cut his practice back to 3 days a week. He's got a half dozen tractors, a decent sized farm (about 300 acres of farmland I think) and probably about a square mile (260 ha) of timberland. Last time I was down to his place he had just returned from roping cattle and was preparing to go to bale hay.

He is extremely well off and still mows and bushogs his own yard. Yes, he could hire someone but he likes doing it.

Another relative, Lester, is 94 yrs old and is a retired rocket scientist from the NASA Space Center in Huntsville. He still tends his own garden and won't listen to us when we tell him to stop climbing the ladder and picking peaches. He does it because he can.

For many of us we look at something that may be difficult and decide we CAN do it and like doing it. I can't count the number of times, when as a child, I'd see my Dad tackle something difficult, like moving a large boulder, and be told by his friends it was impossible. Then he would rig something up and move it.

The OP sounds like one of my relatives. He's got a little piece of land and wants to transform it to his liking. There's very little he's going to be doing that he couldn't do with a pick, shovel, ax, wheelbarrow. But he can do it a lot quicker with tractor, FEL, chainsaw.

Thankfully our nation has lot's of open areas where we can afford to own land just for the pleasure of owning land. Having traveled Europe from Spain to Germany to Serbia I know how crowded and valuable land is in most of Europe. But that is not the case here.

/edit - and in my neck of the woods a lawn keeps the skeeters away.

OldMcDonald · Aug 23, 2013

newbury, Your relatives, all three that you mentioned, are the sort of people I would expect to find in rural America. Portugal is relatively uncrowded too, but everybody in the rural areas grows a lot of their own food, many with urban jobs and houses coming back out to their home village to tend their plots at weekends. Australia, about the same size as the US has a tiny population in comparison, but again (speaking from my time there) virtually all of us with even a few thousand acres still had food production plots - and I do not recall seeing any lawns bigger than absout 100 sq yds. It is the huge lawn sizes you all seem to have that I cannot understand. Please throw some light my way.

farmgirl19 · Aug 23, 2013

cardiologist said:
I like do it yourself things, that's why I've been contemplating this. I've done done preliminary research and am wondering if I will actually use it enough to justify cost. So I'm leaning more towards smaller ones now with mmm and front loader. I like to pay for things to be done if they can be done more efficiently and at lower overall cost, that's why the lawn mower folks will still get my business. So what all can be done with a scut? Sorry I sound retarded. I think it'd be fun to have my son sitting on there with me hauling stuff around and digging up stuff. But a lil go kart would be just as fun for him and cost a few hundred bucks. You guys are all probably laughing at me, it's ok. Just trying to learn and pick your brains. It's important to surround yourself with people that are smarter than you.

I am late coming onto this thread. When I saw the title, my first thought was "Who *doesn't* need a tractor?!"

I would always tend to go with more tractor than I think I need, at the time of purchase. It is amazing the things you can find to do with a tractor, once you have one! Given your keeping many things just mowed, I'd look at a tractor, and maybe a zero turn. With the budget, that might not be practical. So, if someone will do your lawn mowing, and do a nice job for a reasonable price, get the tractor and keep your lawn service for the smaller areas with obstacles.

I think a tractor is good for the soul and one's health. It would be something that also can make memories with the kids. Some of my best memories are from riding on a fender of an old Avery, while my dad did plowing, etc. (I know, today the safety police would be on that.) It became a real treat when I began driving the tractor! When working with a tractor, one also gets a sense of accomplishment, at the end of the job. I guess that could be said without the tractor, but the job is usually done quicker and better, if using the tractor!

I don't so any snow removal here. I've heard from several that I trust, that a FEL is fine for light snows, but for heavy snow regions, one wants a snow plow.

The guys on this site are giving good advice! It really comes down to what you want to do with your land. With an orchard, I'd be expanding, or at least trying to improve. If I had a tree that was producing less than desirable, I'd pull it, with the tractor, and replace it with a different variety, etc. Orchard trees are not lifetime producers. Like I said, I look for things to do with a tractor, but once you have that tractor and possibilities, sometimes those "chores" just jump out at ya, because you CAN do them.

Welcome to the forum, BTW!

And one word of warning: Tractors can be addicting!

newbury · Aug 23, 2013

OldMcDonald said:
It is the huge lawn sizes you all seem to have that I cannot understand. Please throw some light my way.

History of the American Lawn

It's easy - if you got it flaunt it and television.
Like what's the use of a 500HP 4 passenger sport car where the top speed is 70mph?
Why do people build McMansions when they can't afford the servants for proper upkeep?
They see on television that all the rich people in England had big lawns and were happy. So get a big lawn and be happy. Remember we view our home as our castle. I'm surprised we don't see more moats.

I like a nice lawn. Ideally I'd have sheep maintain it, but I'm not there yet. I think a lawn for a 4 bedroom, 3,000 sq ft house in a temperate area should surround the house and be about a tree length wide. So for instance with trees 60' tall I'd like a lawn, or pavement, or gravel, so about a half acre of lawn or so. This gives room for children to play, dogs to roam without ticks, keeps the mosquitoes down, keeps trees from falling on the house.

OldMcDonald · Aug 23, 2013

Ah, I see. A status symbol - "I can afford to buy my food I do not have to grow it". Thanks. I will stick to being a peasant though, it has saved me needing to make money in the past and I will continue that way. And when the lights go out..............

k0ua · Aug 23, 2013

I still wonder why all you people over there insist on having so much lawn. Nobody has ever answered that question, and I can only assume that very few of you are actually "farming" the land you own, not even attempting to do so, but just messing about with "boys' toys" trying to make something look pretty. If that is what you want to do and can afford to do it, then that is up to you, but what a waste of land, time and money! I simply cannot think that way. Land is for producing food. First my own and then a surplus to sell.

I don't have a heck of a lot of lawn now, but I have land, to keep people back, out of my face. I don't want to look at a house outside of my front door. I look at the trees, the deer, the birds. I don't want to hear the kids bouncing the basketball, or the sirens. If I wanted those things, I would still live in town. Been there, done that. The last house I had, we had a 7 acre "lawn", I actually enjoyed mowing it. It looked like a park. There is nothing "wrong" with the way you all live in Europe, but there is nothing "wrong" with the way we live and think over here either.

James K0UA

RobertBrown · Aug 23, 2013

cardiologist said:
What about if I just was going to mow the lawn, aerate, move dirt and mulch around, maybe till. No tree moving or grappling. I don't think I'm willing to move up to the L3200 series/size and spend over 20k.

This is the only possible way to regret buying a tractor: Buying one that's too small (or smaller than you really wind up wanting), or buying one that is ill equipped and cannot be revised without replacing.
If you are looking at the L3200 or even considering it or something comparable, that's what you should get.
the question of weather to buy no longer exists, it's been answered. Get the big machine. The price of the machine will recovered, trust me.
It's impossible to calculate the recovered equity just by having the machine at hand, so the upfront cost are negligible. I would like to make the selection process easy but without looking at your property and really knowing your long term goals, I would not be doing you any favors.
Kubota is proud of their machines, they make good stuff but they have made their share of mistakes too. Kubota need large margins to maintain there large overhead.

The manufacturer is important, but how the machine is equipped is more important, so get educated and make a wise choice, know exactly what you want, then go and look for it. Try to get it all package nicely and a good warranty with good dealer support.
The upfront costs are costs likely going to be the last thing on the list of regrets. The smarter you get the shorter the list will be.