I don't own a tractor now. I am about to be out on 60 acres of pasture land and will need one soon. I am a car guy and gear head and set out over the last six months to find out what makes a good tractor and which ones are the best. It has fun exploring this question because I want to own the best. I took my car knowledge and started the search. I was looking for the best designs, the best engine, the best materials, the best assembly and reliability. It seemed to me that everyone thought what they owned was the best, and everyone defends their colors to the grave. Many will say the dealer relationship is tops and trumps brands. My brother-in-law thinks his Kubota is best and another friend thinks JD is tops. I will say that which brands are best depends on the size of tractor your considering, for this I concentrated on compact tractors between 25-60hp. Clearly price was not a major factor, I was looking for quality but all the brands are competitive in pricing. The engines lead me to think Japanese small diesels are clearly the best. Their country has a history of small properties and family agriculture and that has driven small tractor design and manufacture there and created the best small diesel engines to power them. When you put German direct injection, high-pressure diesel designs on them you have a fantastic small diesel engine. I found that two manufactures stood out Yanmar and Izeki as the best, with Izeki on top. Their engines and small tractors are just the best, in the grey market 30-year-old Izeki and Yanmars pass as new after rebuild and paint, unbelievable. Many top brands have had Yanmar and Izeki parts and engines in them for years. Fit finish design and a new modern factory have lead me to the MF 1600 tractors as the clearly the best compact tractor. I have no dog in the fight so don't get mad at me I was looking from the outside in for the best. Here is how I came down on brands in order of quality. After reading the forum I find that MF is the only brand mentioned by other brand owners as a step up. Any recommendations for the 60 acres, pasture mowing, 1 acre gardening, and small cattle operations with some hey operations are anticipated. I thought the 1652 might do the job. It's the smallest model in the line up with the 2.9L engine and has enough PTO power to operate small hay bailers. Your thoughts?
MF
NH
Kubota DJ
Kioti LS
Mahindra
Hard to place
Bobcat
Cub Yanmar
HS
