More compact tractor questions!

Gary Fowler · Nov 14, 2014

The OP is speaking of only 5 acres of land. Most TBN advise is for BIG HIGH HP tractors even if the user only has an acre of land which might not hurt a thing if money is of no object. If so, buy 2 or 3 tractors of various sizes so you will have one for each task.
However if like most folks and money IS the most important object, then a 25 HP tractor and some time would till that acreage up easily, handle a small spray rig and 4 foot shredder /disk/ tiller easily to task all the acreage he has. My Dad farmed 40 acres of flatland with an 8N Ford (19HP) so I know high HP is not needed even though it may be wanted by many but it isn't practical to get large tractors for small acreage.

I don't think he is going to be pulling a gondola loaded with 30K pound of grapes either with only 5 acres of vines so he doesn't need a 6000+ pound tractor. Get a smaller trailer and make more trips at harvest time. Also get a smaller plow that fits his smaller tractor. From the photo, he isn't going to be going up and down a hill either, horizontal across the hill just like the mowing was done so very little hill climbing during normal work.
Since he needs small track for the tractor for his grapes, I think one with fully adjustable wheels is what is needed more so than bigger engines and heavy weight although a little weight is a good thing for a tractor. Some of the CUTs don't have any ability to move the tires in and out, so make sure what you buy has that capability.
From the photo, the hills don't look that steep either so stability shouldn't be an issue. Once planted, the grapevine rows should end up making a natural contour so between the vines will end up being almost level during most of the tractor activities.

Remember, the larger the tractor, the more expensive the implements are that fit it.

PS. I don't farm grapes so my thoughts are in general terms of what is required for normal row crop farming practices.

rgr33 · Nov 14, 2014

quite correct Gary, the totes are located in the green belt on each end of the rows, and are brought up to a graveled staging area for loading,again, a 70 hp tractor not necessary for transporting or loading.
also, I would think the bigger the tractor, the harder to maneuver into the next row, so you might end up doing a lot of jockeying around, or maybe have to do every second or third row and then double back. kind of a PITA.

robes · Nov 15, 2014

Thanks everyone for your thoughts,

The photo of my block may be a little misleading, as the slope is fairly gentle at the top then drops away steeply from half way down (around 16 degrees for the bottom 1/2) The mowing was done by a very large Deere which was large enough to go across all slopes. I could go across the slope for the top half on a compact, but for the bottom half I think I would need to be up and down. I've planned doing the vines up and down so I can safely use the steeper slopes. Unfortunately that puts them more East/ West, but I think the bottom half of the slope would not be suitable to operate across safely. Not really keen on terracing, as spring rainfall here is pretty high and might make drainage an issue.

I still have the hope that I can get one tractor that will achieve most things - albeit slowly. This would include site preparation and then the ongoing jobs of spraying/ mowing/ tidying. However, if that's not going to be practical, the one-off site preparation could be contracted out to the big boys. Leaves me the question of whether to go down in size for something like the B3300 (1800 lbs) which will minimise damage and compaction up and down the rows. Or go something a bit more solid (CK35 at 3000lbs). Not a huge difference in price (3500$) with FEL and the CK is packaged up with a 4 in 1 bucket which I may find useful. Its going to make a little more mess going up and down the rows, but I might be a bit more effective with (discing in?) inter row cover crops and the like. The turn radius did seem very good on the kubota, but I'm going to look at the CK in the next day or so. I've read a bit about the jerky hitch on the L3800. Had a play on that with a flail mower behind. Not being a tractor guy until now, it didn't really jump out at me as being too bad. I could use the extra hP on the 3800 and it's 400-500 lbs heavier than the B3300. More expensive than the CK, though.

If anyone has any more thoughts, please keep them coming! Regards Rob