Turns out that FLDave's property is about 60 miles due West of my property, off the same state highway. So, his conditions are going to be almost exactly the same as mine. Also, Dave, we're probably at about the same state of development -- I have the property selectively cleared, fenced, have the culvert and driveway in but don't have the shell rock on the driveway yet, have the pond dug and the house and barn areas raised against flooding, and have installed a well. With only 5 acres, however, I don't have the potential for income from the property that you do, and at age 64, I don't have the inclination, any more, either.
R4 (intermediate) tires are the way to go for our soil conditions. We had historically high rain levels last summer, and a big portion of my land was flooded to about 6". I was working the tractor hard and created a lot of goop about the consistency of baked beans, and never got stuck with the R4's. R1's are too aggressive unless you plan to plow. Turfs may be OK because of the greater flotation, but the narrow tread sipes will pack up with our goop. The R4's will tear up the ground a bit on tight turns after a rain, but it's livable except on a groomed lawn - of which I will have as little as possible.
Since your house area is already raised, then $1.00 a yard to dig a pond and pile the dirt is a good price. When we had our pond dug, I was paying as much for Barnhill's expertise as I was for actually moving, grading and compacting the dirt. But, now that my road, house and barn areas have been raised, I'm moving the rest of the dirt myself to fill low-lying areas. Since I have a small tractor and loader, I bought a used dump trailer so I can fill it, haul it where it needs to be with the tractor, dump it and spread it
I got lucky. Just outside my fence on the highway frontage is the highway swale. Just inside the fence is the lowest area of my property. When a state contractor cleaned out the highway ditch a few months ago, I offered to let them dump on my land so they wouldn't have to truck it so far. They jumped at the opportunity (I'm sure they continued to bill the state for the 10 mile round trip to their previous dumping area /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif). So, now I have about 40 loads of fill near where I need it. It's pretty trashy with weeds, but it's the same weeds that are already spread into that low-lying area, so I lose nothing and gain a lot. It may take me months of off-again, on-again effort to get it all spread, but I have time.
Looking at the picture of your creek, it's deeper than I imagined it. You're going to have trouble keeping the banks clean unless you slope them more gradually, and that will take an excavator. I don't have any good ideas about how to maintain it, except perhaps a side-mounted sickle bar mower than can be lowered to the same angle as the bank, and that's pretty tough -- I'm not sure they go down that much. My suggestion is to do what we're gong to do with over half of the bank around our pond -- plant it heavily with native grasses, shrubs, some cypress, etc, and turn it into a no-maintenance landscape oasis rather than grooming it.
As far as the implements go, once you find the tractor you like, see if the dealer will bundle them with the purchase. That's how I got my brush hog and box blade. He added them at cost to make the sale of the tractor. I got my landscape rake on sale at Tractor Supply for less than $300, so I guess it just "happened", as you say. Sounds like your wife and mine would have the same reaction, but I explained that it was kind of silly to spend $15K on a tractor without implements, unless she just wanted me to ride around and look pretty (she snorted). I couldn't justify the backhoe, however, as it would have added almost 50% to the cost of the tractor. I rent when I need a tool like that.
I can justify all the rest of it, though -- I've been keeping a rough log of what it would have cost to have someone else do what I've done with the tractor, and so far, I've paid for about 20% (conservatively) of it in the first year. By the time we're "done" (we'll never be finished), I'll be able to show a profit on the purchase of the tractor. Fortunately, at my age, I don't have to compare the cost to what it would cost to do something by hand. If I tried your rip-rap project, I would have had to give up at about 10 bags. If I can't do it by machine, it either isn't going to get done, or someone else will do it, at much greater expense.
Bob's recommendation of the TC33DA is a good one. It's too much for my property, but it's my favorite New Holland. You will NEED 4 wheel drive for our goop, and a hydrostatic tranny is the only way to go for our conditions. With that said, for your uses, I'd still look at the TC35 or TC40 -- you did say you'd have 8 feet between the palms, and they don't spread much, so you'll have little trouble with a bigger tractor. You might also ask the NH dealer to price a TN60 or 70 with a FEL. They're not as fancy as the TC series, they're designed for work, sort of like your truck. I don't know how the prices compare, but it would be interesting to find out.
