How heavy should a tractor be?

[milkman636]

Fair questions. I’m happy to have so many options to think through.

If we had a larger machine, we’d likely expand our tiny implements into moderate sized implements given enough time. But that’s not my primary concern. Just maintaining control is the trickiest part. My soil may well be to blame. Very heavy clay.

I do not have front weights, but I do carry a 4’6 section of my great grandpa’s old house footing in the front bucket. Seems to help some, but not enough.

Have you checked the alignment of your front tires? If toe-in is out of adjustment it could cause tracking trouble. Running in FWD will exaggerate it also because the front pulls slightly faster than the rears.

I also think ag tires are a benefit in your situation.

 

[Indian Territory]

Have you checked the alignment of your front tires? If toe-in is out of adjustment it could cause tracking trouble. Running in FWD will exaggerate it also because the front pulls slightly faster than the rears.

I also think ag tires are a benefit in your situation.

I’m going to give this a look. Can’t hurt; might help.

 

[Iowa Hillbilly]

I think the vast majority of smaller scale vegetable farming tasks are easily accomplished with a 3000-6500lb tractor. A large fraction of that can be done with smaller tractors. I worked on a vegetable farm as a young man and one year we used a Honda Foreman ATV as a tractor for pulling trailers loaded with tomatoes as part of the fleet. It got the job done, but the ATV was pretty well destroyed by the end of the season. The engine and transmission were both shot and I wouldn't recommend the practice. That said the low pressure tires helped it work. I think lower pressure radial tires may help you out a lot more than more tractor weight will. I also think tire spacing appropriate to bed width and really tight turning radius is a very important factors for vegetable work. If you want to do towed behind transplanting, you'll really want a creeper gear or HST.

 

[priberc]

I’m a hobby farmer. Flatland. Old school organic kinda deal. Possibly haying in the future. But mostly vegetable crops. Deep plowing. Tilling. Bed shaping. Seeding. No high hp commodity crops like corn or soybeans. I’m preparing to trade my NH Boomer 24, which is far too light to be useful. I’ve had a 75hp NH in the past at about 5,000 pounds, which felt pretty planted to the ground. The NH Powerstar 75 I’m currently considering weighs in at about 6,000 pounds. But the Massey Ferguson 4700’s are closing in on 9,000 pounds. Is 9,000 pounds going to translate to better performance in a mostly light-duty application like mine? Thanks for the advice!

Row spacing is from what to what? I would be looking at the width of the inside of the tires/how much ,if any adjustment is there on the front and rear axles. What working width are your planters seeders and inter row cultivation/weeding tools. IMO Deep plowing/tilling in a well worked garden will not require over 50hp. I read in another post you have 1ac in market garden now 10ac is a goal and a max of 20ac. If it was me.....I would be looking in the 40hp range for up to 10ac. If weight is a concern .....well from wheel weights to fluid in the tires there is many ways to add ballast to tractors.
Considering 75 hp for 10 ac of garden is big time over kill....IMO even if the full 20ac was put to market garden with portions fallow/in green manure for plow down 75 hp is way too much. And any attachments you get for it for vegetables will likely be for much bigger fields
"Possibly haying in the future" buying a tractor for something you may "possibly" do in the future......mmmmm I don't know if that is wise. You have 20ac total and in another post you seem to think that up to 10 of that may be used for market garden. For 10ac of hay you will need a mower conditioner a rake and a baler on top of what ever vegetable equipment you will need for for your 60 - 70K NH tractor. All of a sudden your hobby farm has 100- 125K worth of tractor and attachments for how much revenue?
Much better returns out of vegetables per ac than hay.....if it was me I would give up on the "possibly hay in the future" idea keep equipment costs as low as possible
Maybe fence and rent pasture for any unused potions of your land. Is that an option? If you cant rent pasture? Is there some one to custom harvest/share crop your land that is not used for vegetables?

 

[Bobrown14]

For longevity and down the road parts availability, I'd stick with NH.

Many of the NH tractors in the 50hp category are made by LS - something to think about. My LS is 52hp and tbh pretty heavy 4400#s.

I have to wait for the ground to harden to drive in the fields unless I wanna tear it up. I'm just now comfortable going out in the fields as its finally drying up.

I'm basically the same as the OP - 30 acres organic farm. A rear tiller and a bedder are tools I cant grow without.

I'll do and small sweet corn crop but thats gonna be hand planted already tilled the patch for that.

We grow our own green manures that we use for compost. So several large patches for that. Tiller here is a must but you could do the same with a moldboard plow and bedder/discs (2 passes).

My 2021 LS MT352 cost me $28K without a tiller. Get a tiller that is the width of your tractor and get your wheels filled = 5K#s. It's heavy in soft ground but I'm getting used to it.

 

[jeff9366]

Consider an Unverferth Perfecta:

 

[Surshot]

i do not grow row crops, I grow trees. So my problem is a very limited maneuvering space, between the rows, and a need for weight and power with power steering. I have a Kubota L4400, 45 hp, 4x4. I opted for the standard trans to increase the hp to the tires, filled the tires with water and increased the lift capability of the FEL to near 5,000 lbs. I useually operate with a root rake with 1” thich tines or forks, a two ram grapple and a heavy Bushog, Bushog on the 3 point hitch. The Bushog counter balances the lifting weight. Each tire weighs 800 pounds, so the total package is heavy.
I have an 18” cutter head heavy frame House disk and a landscape rake. The 3rd pass with the House disk is to the axles in this had clay.
I have planted a couple acre or so food plot, deer ate it up as soon as it came up. Deer here are pretty bad about eating everything green. They come out 20-30 at a time on my 250 meter rifle range to eat the grass.
I would go for a low, wide stance, heavy tractor with enough power to pull a heavy cutter head disk set. It should be able to make sharp turn without skidding or hopping. My upgrade will be an M series 50 hp, same width, industrial tires for mowing. That steel canopy is a life saver, literally.

 

[mo1]

I’m a hobby farmer. Flatland. Old school organic kinda deal. Possibly haying in the future. But mostly vegetable crops. Deep plowing. Tilling. Bed shaping. Seeding. No high hp commodity crops like corn or soybeans. I’m preparing to trade my NH Boomer 24, which is far too light to be useful. I’ve had a 75hp NH in the past at about 5,000 pounds, which felt pretty planted to the ground. The NH Powerstar 75 I’m currently considering weighs in at about 6,000 pounds. But the Massey Ferguson 4700’s are closing in on 9,000 pounds. Is 9,000 pounds going to translate to better performance in a mostly light-duty application like mine? Thanks for the advice!

You don't need a lot of HP to work up a vegetable garden. A 9000 pound 75 HP tractor will not even know it's pulling the size of implements you'd use for an acre of garden, which are generally in the 4-7' range and designed for a 40 HP and under unit for the most part. A 75 HP full sized utility tractor does have a lot more ground clearance than modern compact tractors and you get a lot more options with wheel spacing, both of which are important if you are cultivating with the tractor. The "middle ground" is to get an older tractor like a Farmall A without a lot of weight or horsepower but with all of the ground clearance and wheel spacing adjustments.

I will admit to using an 8000 pound 75 HP utility tractor in a fairly large garden on the scale of yours to work up the ground and to cultivate. This isn't why I got this specific machine, but since I have it, it gets used and actually works quite well for the reasons listed above. You do compact the ground some but it's in between rows so it's not as big of a deal as it could be. The big thing is to not try to run through the garden when it's too wet, but that is good advice regardless. I would consider 75 HP as a starting point for haying if you intend on doing round bales or using a disc mower. You could get away with a 40-50 HP utility tractor for a Haybine and a small square baler.

 

[Mud2Money]

I run a Mt573. Loaded rears , qh. It’s 63pto hp and pretty darn heavy. I have it and it’s reliable so it’s been my go to. I also have smaller acreage “ 14” and several small parcels 2-4 acres. But my ground is rock hard grey clay. I’ve had a few older tractors and did okay trying to work ground but still struggled. This new rig and my 7’ hd tiller do really well. I also have some compaction and drainage issues. I pull a 24” single shank subsoiler when needed. It also works great for making rows. I do have a delay hitting the fields early season due to moisture. But mid summer and fall this clay is like concrete and it gets hardly any compaction. I still have my case 630com for light chores. We are going to be getting into deep into lavender. So I think next year I will be buying a bedder.

I’d say it comes down to chores and soil types/climate. I use my tractor for maintaining a large drive and the lot around the barn. I think in the future though I wouldn’t mind a decent 30-35hp tractor for smaller vegetable crops and areas. The ls does work fine for rows. Rear tire width was only 74”

 

[fishheadbob]

I recently downsized from a 3930 weighing about 8,000 pounds with loader and tire ballast to a boomer 40 coming in about half of that. The boomer has 4wd and probably pulls as well as the 2wd 3930 did, plus the much lighter boomer doesn't rut up my clay nearly as much as the 3930 would. I used a cultivator set deep to fix ruts without any problems whereas the 3930 likely would have given me more ruts to fix.
I used to run a kicker baler with the 3930; it was beefy enough to do a good job; I wouldn't consider doing that with the boomer. Too light.
As an aside. Think twice, maybe 3 times, before jumping into hay on less than 20 acres. Lots of equipment and expense, turdly customers, weather issues, and the large expense of machinery new enough to not be a maintenance headache.