Tractor Sizing Kubota use from conservationand clearing then to farming

[ih364]

Since we've moved to the old home place my wife and I have spent most of our time doing clearing and conservation work. I own a set of root grappels and a stump puller from Grace Mfg. What a time and work saver the grapples have been in cutting, piling, moving and burning. The stump puller has worked great for removing the eastern red cedars. To power this equipment we rent the Bob Cat T-190. My Ram 2500 handles the load easily to and from the rental center. We use a tired IH364 with blade, box blade and brush hog. With 200 acres total. 40 within is hay meadow which is cut on shares. I believe Kubota is the way I would like to go. I have read articles on the vesatility of JD 310 loader back hoe on clearing land. Yet the price of used loader backhoes in this area seem very high considering the hours and model year on them. I think I could be walking in to loader backhoe repair nightmare. Given this could I expect the similar results with a Kubota as I do with Bob Cat T190 and have the value of also replacing my IH364for future farm work in the area of truck farming and livestock operaton? And could I expect the Kubota back hoe attachment to work well on stump removal? In the past when it came to the big stuff I have hired the dozer work including fenceline clearing and grading.

 

[LD1]

What is up with your other post???

Anyway, on to business. First, we need more detail.

What size tractors are you considering? Have you looked at any? Are you going new or used? What is your budget?

Answers to these questions can narrow the field rather quickly.

And for what you are wanting to do, digging stumps, grading, clearing, etc, a small TLB tractor is NO comparison if you are used to using a Bobcat 190 and/or a dozer. A tractor just cannot compete. But they WILL do the job, just a little slower.

And since you are no stranger to renting equipment, I would look around at your rental places and see if they rent TLB tractors like you are considering buying. If you can rent one for a day, you will learn a lot of things, Weather you want bigger or smaller, wether it is actually what you want, etc.

 

[ih364]

Sorry about first attempt to post. Couldn't figure out how to delete it so I started over. Thanks for your questions and thoughts. Loader backhoes run 20-26K for 2000 models with high hours. JD, Cat or Case. Yes, I have my name on the list for the rental. But due to storms, fires and work in my area they are hard to get. Plus they have to be delivered. I haven't been schooled as an operator on TLB but I wasn't schooled on the Skid steer either. Though I wasn't a farmer by trade I fall back on my short military experience as a diesel gen set operator and pm mainteance to get along with equipment. I do know this that the IH364 is due to crater soon and being a gear guy all these years a HST sounds great. Great article here on TLB clearing land. How to Clear Your Land with A Backhoe
I'm going to hang in there and hope theTLB rental comes through. As far my Kubota research takes me has been on the Kubota website and a trip to a dealer yesterday. When I left the dealer we were at the horsepower phase of do you need 50 or 70. Which lead me to the question could the Kubota work as well with my existing equipment as well as the T-190.

 

[Verticaltrx]

I think for around the farm use you are looking at too high-end model backhoes. If you step back to the smaller class, go with 2wd, and open station you can get nice low hour units for really reasonable prices. I don't know about the other makes, but JD used to make a 210 backhoe. I've seen several of these for sale with low hours for under $15K, mid-90's models. Not quite the machine of a JD 310, 580 case, etc, but WAY more backhoe than anything Kubota offers. The good thing about a backhoe, regardless of size, is that it will allow you to do more precise work removing trees, stumps etc, and you won't have to rely on brute force as much. With a loader, whether it be Skid steer, compact track loader, or a tractor loader you basically are limited to what you can push or lift, digging makes quite a mess when you are working with a 6-7' wide bucket.

With that said, if you want to go new and are looking at Kubota I'd steer you towards the Industrial TLB line. B26, L45, M59. (Used look for B21, L35/39, L48) They are built quite a bit heavier than the standard models and have much improved loaders and 'hoes vs the standard models. If those are out of your budget, I'd go straight for the M-series, (not MX) weight is your friend when doing this kind of work. Horsepower isn't that important, but a lot of tractor weight, high breakout force on the loader, and and easy to use transmission are key.

Also don't rule out the Deere tractors. The 5000e series are real heavy weight tractors for their power and for a decent price(they outweigh comparable Kubota's by a lot). I've been using our 5045e JD for some land clearing and it has really impressed me. I easily pushed over some wild cherry trees that were about 15" diameter and 30' tall. With a root grapple it would be a real worker.

 

[MarkV]

First welcome to the forum. I'll tell you with 200 acres you need to let us know a bit more about your long term plans before anyone can say buy this or that,IMO. You seem to talk stumps and unless I was planning on doing that for many years I would rent or hire an excavator to remove stumps. A tractor/loader/backhoe is great to have on the farm but is not the best tractor for all the task that 200 acres will need over the years. Truck farming and livestock are better suited for other types of tractors.

MarkV

 

[crazyal]

A 580k is not going to make the best tractor for farming. It'll pull stumps great but once they are gone you'll find it's too big for most of what you'll want to do. In mud it'll struggle and the boom when latch sticks up pretty high so you can almost forget about driving into a barn to name a few issues you'll have with a full sized BH.

In my opinion you would be better off either grinding the stumps or buying a BH with the idea of selling it to buy a farming tractor. Not knowing your exact farming plans it's a little hard to be more specific.

 

[ih364]

Thanks everyone for the replys and giving me a better perspective that BH, Trackhoe and dozer are for clearing and not the practical for everyday ranching or farming. The only attachment that I do own now that has possiblities for a new Kubota tractor would be the grapples. I did see a large new orange bucket grapple at the Kubota dealership. I would like to know what model they intend sell it with. We have done a lot with a Sthil pole saw by dropping tree limbs and using the grapples. I did check with my rental place and a JD 310 may come available soon. I'm looking foward in seeing how it will do on the larger eastern red cedars that suck up the ground water and are a fire hazard. At one time, pre-great depession cotton was king here and around us. Now it's livestock. Sustainability is what I'm looking for. My wife and I hear a lot of "what ya gonna do with that place. Just make it pretty?" Well there's a lot to that. But we enjoy it.

 

[rScotty]

Thanks everyone for the replys and giving me a better perspective that BH, Trackhoe and dozer are for clearing and not the practical for everyday ranching or farming.
.......... Sustainability is what I'm looking for. My wife and I hear a lot of "what ya gonna do with that place. Just make it pretty?" Well there's a lot to that. But we enjoy it.

Amen to that. We enjoy the same thing too. It's enjoyable to work on our land. One good thing about tractors in general is that they are rugged and built to last. An older one that works good will work about the same for years if not decades. I wouldn't even consider buying new or near new until I knew for sure what was wanted.

In your position I'd get two tractors - both with loaders. For construction on the land get a real construction tractor like a Case 580 or the JD equivalent. Go for a used one in good condition - probably at the dealer with a used equipment guarantee. Lots of lease equipment is coming back now to choose from. Get 4WD if you can.

For working the land and general 3pt work I'd get a big old 50 to 100 hp 2WD farm tractor. They have the power and weight and traction to get by without 4WD. Old farm tractors are cheap nowadays - but they are as good as they ever were. It is astonishing just how good of a 2WD farm tractor you can get for small dollars these days. If it doesn't have a loader then they are almost giving them away. Take a look at some of the old JD 4020s for example. A loader and a good back blade will bring more than the tractor will.

Some people eventually add a utility "farmyard" tractor - which a local term for a little 15 to 35 hp tractor - usually with a lightweight loader - that is easy to hop on/off, starts easy, probably has smooth tires so it doesn't leave such a footprint, and is handy for running around doing lifting and carrying and moving things kinds of chores around the immediate property. We started that way as our first tractor back in 1980 and eventually added larger tractors and then reduced the size of tractor to ones that fit well to the work on our property. Part of that had to do with fitting between trees and some narrow paths. In the process we found that we really could do much the same work with a little tractor as a larger one....but that it took way longer to do. Too long. Sometimes it honestly took the little tractor half the day to accomplish what the larger one could do in a single two-minute pass. Of course by hand it would have taken longer still.
Enjoy!! rScotty

 

[ih364]

That's a good idea on keeping two tractors. The IH 364 still is a good brush hog set up but no FEL. Has blow by, power steering pump needs a kit and the clutch might adjust. Get those things done an I might have marketable tractor to trade up to bigger used. I could put it in my shop while I use the new one. I'm considering the Grand L 5240. Adding the 3rd function valve for grapple and stump puller. I'll trade in my Ram 2500 for more than half of what I paid for it in 2005. And use my old FORD Ranger until next fall and shop for another RAM Hemi or Diesel. The 5240 comes with indutrial tires, but not ballasted. Which is good for now. I have a neighbor that's done some dozer and back hoe work for me and I made arrangements to trade him my hay share for machine time to get the larger eastern red cedars out of the hay pasture. I rented a JD 310 and pulled about a dozen big ones on a weekend rent. But I think the money spent and the time on the machine was not that productive. A dozer and backhoe working at the same time does better. Also I can move the cedars once pulled my self with the 5240 and dozer won't have to spend time stacking a pile for burning.