help; new to having large land

[geish]

We just bought 40 acres of land.
The weeds/grass right now is about 3 feet high right now and it would be nice to clean the place up.

Taking into consideration the size of the land, what would be a good tractor for us to use. We only need one that can take bush hogs to mow down the vegetation. We don't need anything fancy; just the bare minimum.

I hear a lot about the dependability of Kubotas. Dependability is a plus; am willing to pay more for it. I was looking into the B models by Kubota. Which one would fit our land.

Please recommend any other brands that you find appropriate. Thank ya'll; this is a great website.

Also, include the prices please. I can't seem to find a tractor website that includes MSRPs.

 

[LeRoi]

The size tractor you get is going to depend on how much of the 40 you are planning to mow on a regular basis. If you're looking for lawn quality cut for large areas, do a search by member name and look up "Soundman". Check his posts on his big tractor and big mower and the reasons he chose it.
If you're only going to be mowing 2 or 3 acres the B series Kubota will fit you just fine.
Also do a search on "tractor size", or "right size tractor"
Those posts will keep you occupied and educate you for quite a while.
Good luck shopping
Leroy

 

[Bob_Skurka]

I don't think any of the B series Kubotas are going to be big enough to deal with 40 acres of land unless you are not planning on mowing down MOST of that 40 acres. The largest B series Kubotas are still small & light tractors and are not well suited to large scale tasks. I would suggest you upscale your sizes to something like a 40+hp tractor if you are bush hogging that much land. Now if you have woods or other areas that effectively reduce your mowing needs then a smaller tractor may suit your needs.

As for reliability, I can tell you first hand that Kubota is nearly bullet proof in terms of reliability. I use New Holland and Kubota, and am very impressed with the quality and reliablity of Kubota. The Kubota is 5 years old, it has never had a wrench on it for a repair. No loose bolts have ever needed to be tightened because no bolts have ever come loose. All the hoses and belts are original, the only things that have ever been done to it are the fluids and filters have been changed. Reading the Kubota forums it amazes me how trouble free the brand is, given that they reportedly sell 60% of all the compact tractors in the US if they were of 'average' or 'typical' reliability then you would expect that 60% of all the problems would be reported by Kubota owners, but that does not seem to be the case. While Kubota forums have the most posts, they don't seem to have the most problems.

I think you might want to give a little more detail to what you want to do, which tasks you need to accomplish and what type of budget you have before anyone can give you more specific advice. You may be well off to look at an older farm tractor and a batwing mower if your mowing chores are going to include the bulk of the 40 acres.

 

[geish]

Yes, we do plan on mowing the 40 acres.
WOW. I need a 40HP+ tractor.
What have we gotten ourselves into? LOL. Pops isn't gonna be happy about this. Those tractors are expensive.

What price would I be expecting to see on used mowers of such caliber. There's no way we can afford it right now.

Thanks for ya'lls help.

 

[rockyridgefarm]

I have 80 acres and a Deere 4310. It has 25pto Hp, so many will tell you I am way undersized. Sometimes I am, but that is rarely. I pull a 6' cutter with no trouble. But I have horses that keep on eating the grass, I don't have trouble keeping up.

John Deere lists MSRP on their site, and you can configure a tractor, and send out for bids from dealers. Usually about 15% discount is considered a good deal.

You talk about mowing, but what will you do later? Is this hunting land, a homestead, a golf course? Will you be doing landscaping? Burying toxic waste? (OK, don't answer that one...) Dis you know that you want a front ender loader? (Hint, the answer is YES)

It is best to track down a dealer or two that you would be comfortable buying and getting service from. Get their advice, and price quotes, a test drive or three, and report your findings here.

We want to help you spend your money, if you like, we'll even drop by and try out your equipment!

But we are usually content to goggle a picture or two...

Take 63% of this with a grain of salt...

All measurements taken 500mm ahead of pivot pins.

 

[Bob_Skurka]

Mike, I'm thinking if most of his chores are mowing that he might be best off finding an older Deere farm tractor? In most areas those are pretty common, the prices are very reasonable and they seem to last forever. I agree with you the loader is a wonderful tool but also suspect the budget might get in the way of that?

A JD farm tractor with a batwing mower, if purchased used, would likely cost less than a new B series Kubota and certainly would be the ticket to mowing 40 acres. Any JD dealer could service it, parts are available for those from everything I can tell, they are reasonably priced too.

 

[RoyJackson]

Boy...wish I could afford 40 acres!

If you're in a farming area, it might be worthwhile hiring a farmer to do the initial clearing of those 40 acres.

As Bob and the others have said, that acreage is a bit much for a CUT. I'd also look for a used full sized utility tractor. With some luck, you might find a retiring farmer to buy your tractor/cutter from.

As far as the cutter...the suggestion in searching for Soundguy is excellent. He recently purchased a 10 foot cutter. You can read about his exploits.
Personally, I think you're might close to a bat-wing cutter for that amount of acreage. They're pretty expensive though.

If you budget won't allow that much tractor and cutter, just plan on doing your cutting over a 4 weekend period. Even a medium sized tractor/cutter (6' cutter at least) could do 5-10 acres a day. However, since you don't know what's under that 3' high grass, the first cutting will be a bit slower.

Again, you might want to get an experienced farmer to do that first cutting.

 

[Bird]

You can certainly do the job with a B series Kubota if you have plenty of time. When I had the B2710 and a 5' Howse light duty (cheap) rotary cutter, a couple of times a year I mowed a 30 acre pasture for a local doctor. It would have some pretty tall Johnson Grass, weeds, and a few small Mesquite bushes, as well as good grass, and I would mow it in two days. Of course that was two 10 to 11 hour days. The previous owner usually took 3 to 4 days to mow it with his old Ford (I don't know if it was an 8N, 9N, or something else, but that size anyway). Naturally, a bigger tractor and mower would have done it faster, but would not have done it any better or easier.

 

[Gatorboy]

Unless you really love to mow, you would be wise to look into a 15' flexwing mower and a 60 HP PTO tractor. The minimum PTO HP is typically 50 for these mowers, but you want to have a tad more if you can afford it. The Kubota M6800 or M9000 would fit your needs if you are looking at the Kubota line of tractors.

When you buy a large piece of property, other items you must buy to maintain it are at a much higher cost than the average homeowner needs.

 

[MossRoad]

I'm with you, Bob. An older, used AG utility tractor and Dave's suggestion of a large 15' mower if you don't want to spend days mowing and mowing.