New 60-acre Hobby Farm Owner, Looking for Impliment & Equipment Advise

[N80]

I have no idea what a spread like that costs but bet it wasn't cheap. I would think if you could buy that property you could budget more than 5k for a tractor?

Not necessarily, some of us spend all of our money on the land!

 

[boggen]

Tractor Attachments And Skid Steer Attachments For Any Tractor Or Skid Steer = for newbies, has most general attachments for tractors. watch the videos of how to setup and use the equipment. easier to use than attempting to search google or youtube.

TractorHouse.com | Used Tractors For Sale: John Deere, Case IH, New Holland, Kubota. = used and new tractor and like items. primary farming, and not maintaining property. but still a lot of stuff there.
craigslist: chicago jobs, apartments, personals, for sale, services, community, and events = if you know what you are looking for might be able to find it
make sure you enter zip code and miles, for both websites above. and search by distance. much easier to find stuff locally.

look through some of the other TBN sponsors / ad folks. some of them have a small nitch market products.

tractorsupply.com = i rarely shop there but non the less, if you need something to physcially look at in person, they might have something locally in one of there outdoor areas for attachments for tractors.

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on many tractors, not all but many, you can swap tires side to side (to keep lugs going same direction) and gain a wider stance of the rear tires. its all in the "rim" the connection point is not "dead center" but off set just a little bit.

fluid fill rear tires, can be a nice extra weight for tractor, and help stablize tractor some on hills. (lowers the center of gravity).

 

[BenjiMac]

"Currently, I have an old (late 40's, early 50's) Case VAH which is a high-crop model that I bought from a neighbor down the road. It has a FEL, but the brakes don't work for nothing and it leaks a large amount of hydraulic fluid when in use. I bought it, along with an attached newer 4' rotary cutter for $500 and figured it'd be worth getting for the price. But I'd like something that would be more stable..."

Take your tractor immediately to a good repair shop. I thought I could drive the old Massey Ferguson that I bought safely, even with known weak brakes, but when I backed up to the fence mowing grass thinking it wasn't much of a slope at that point, it didn't stop until turned over in the river 50 feet below! Just getting it towed out cost as much as I paid for the tractor, not counting medical bills and tractor repairs. Both I and the tractor are running fine now, including the rebuilt tractor brakes, but I should have gotten the brakes fixed first!

I don't know anything about your tractor's stability; if you don't trust that then driving on a hill (you didn't say how steep) is definitely a bad idea. Buying a better tractor for the job might be the only reasonable option, however it might also be possible to adjust the wheels so they are wider apart.

If you want to buy a new tractor, try several from different manufacturers and with different transmission arrangements (hydrostatic or synchro-shuttle geared) and pick one that is easy for you to operate. New tractors have better brakes, even with repairs, and also may allow forward/reverse shifting without stopping first.

 

[BenjiMac]

Hey there folks,

A little background; we bought a 60 acre little farm in NE Washington. Roughly half of the land is timber, the other half is field, not including the ~3 acres around the house/garden/shop. The property is all sloped, with the exception of some random little flat-ish spots here and there.

My soil is roughly half sand, half silt with about 5% clay (estimated results of the old mason-jar-half-full-of-dirt test). The ground is VERY hard, and has a large amount of rocks in it from golf ball to shoe box size.

My knowledge of tractors and equipment is fairly basic, and I'm looking for some general advice to get me pointed in the right direction.

I have 2 main areas of concern; the approximately 3 acres around the house and garden (all raised beds in sort of a terrace-fashion). And then the big pasture itself (I estimate it at roughly 22-24 acres). I'm not planning on doing much with the forested part, aside from some tractor-trail maintenance and occasional brush mowing along a couple paths.

For around the house and garden, I could really use something for plowing/blowing snow, leveling gravel, moving dirt/gravel, mowing some rougher areas, post-hole auger for fencing, tiller for garden beds, and some back blade work. Of course, a FEL would be a huge benefit.

The way my garden is, and around my house/shop, I need something small but stout and a Kubota B7100/7000/6100/6000 or similar has really caught my eye, and have seen them in my price range around my area. Any opinions on them from anyone on here? I think the 4wd would be really nice considering my sloped property, and from what I seen, I think something along those lines would work well cutting some small brush (knee-high, 1/2" stocks) in the woods, maybe with a flail mower. Thoughts?

For the big pasture, my main concern is getting it smoothed out. It is full of big ruts, bumps and ground squirrel holes. It's bad enough, I'm concerned about an accidental tip over with my current tractor, if a tire should find a big hole and throw the weight sideways or something. I'd like to get it smoothed out for sake of safety and aesthetics. Then later maybe get a couple head of cattle on it for beef or put in a small orchard/vineyard on a part of it or something, maybe make some hay.

Currently, I have an old (late 40's, early 50's) Case VAH which is a high-crop model that I bought from a neighbor down the road. It has a FEL, but the brakes don't work for nothing and it leaks a large amount of hydraulic fluid when in use. I bought it, along with an attached newer 4' rotary cutter for $500 and figured it'd be worth getting for the price.

But I'd like something that would be more stable, and that has enough power to break up the hard, rocky ground I have and for general work afterwards. I could really use some advice on this in terms of tractors/equipment. Would an old 8n or something that sits lower be much better? I've been here for 3 years and haven't got up in the field with the tractor once due to concern of rolling it lol. The weeds are really out of hand and I need to get on it.

I appreciate any advice y'all could give me on what sort of tractor(s) I should look into and any implements that I should have around the place. Thanks, and sorry for the long post :confused2:

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I have some very strong advice. Immediately take the tractor to a good mechanic and get the brakes fixed. Do not drive it until the brakes are fixed. I didn't do that, and am lucky to be alive after my tractor went backwards down a 50 ft river bank into the water. It is easy to misjudge a small hill and find yourself somewhere you did not expect to be. My tractor survived, and now has good brakes.

 

[BMan2005]

With the soil varying from mud to concrete after a rain get in the pasture while it's moist and workable with a spring tooth cultivator and pointed tip tines. You can usually find them used for a couple hundred bucks. The size tractor you get will decide how many tines you can pull. They will help rip the soil & level it, pull rocks to the surface to remove, and if they get alot of resistance they will give with the springs and jump it for the most part.

Picture is the implement I'm talking about. I'm about to clear 7.5 acres for pasture next year and all my farm friends tell me this is the trick for it. I'm on the prowl for one right now myself.

 

[CincyFlyer]

With the soil varying from mud to concrete after a rain get in the pasture while it's moist and workable with a spring tooth cultivator and pointed tip tines. You can usually find them used for a couple hundred bucks. The size tractor you get will decide how many tines you can pull. They will help rip the soil & level it, pull rocks to the surface to remove, and if they get alot of resistance they will give with the springs and jump it for the most part.

Picture is the implement I'm talking about. I'm about to clear 7.5 acres for pasture next year and all my farm friends tell me this is the trick for it. I'm on the prowl for one right now myself.

If the land is hard as a rock, a single point (such as an inexpensive sub-soiler, CountyLine Subsoiler at Tractor Supply Co.) will break things up.