Buying Advice New farmer need tractor advice for a smart purchase.

[mobilemike73]

I'm a brand new farmer (yep, another one!). Just bought a home on 40 acres and would like to put the land to work over the coming year.

I've spent the last 5 years studying animal husbandry, crops, hay, everything. I wanted to be ready when the time came. By far the most difficult topic for me is the tractor. Having a limited budget doesn't help. I have $10,000 cash set aside and I would like to get a tractor that's not ready to die or older than me (43). I have good credit and could finance a more expensive tractor but I'd like to avoid working for the finance company. I'd appreciate any advice you could provide.

My needs:

I will definitely need a FEL. Part of getting the farm ready to roll is going to be moving dirt and cleaning up fields. I also need to do grading work so I am able to construct a new building.

I want to make sure I have enough HP to operate any type of implement I would need for crops and hay. Since my plot is small (40 ac), I think I can get away with smaller implements and just spend more time in the fields. I am not particular to brand but there is a big Deere dealer near me that has an excellent reputation. It blows my mind how much even a 20 year old tractor still costs. I would prefer diesel to gas.

Thank you all for reading and any advice you offer.

 

[Ed of all trades]

What crops are you planning. You don't have enough land to do the corn soybeans thing and come out ahead. :2cents: I assume you are talking small specialty crops. The crops you do will matter on the tractor you choose. Ed

 

[mobilemike73]

What crops are you planning. You don't have enough land to do the corn soybeans thing and come out ahead. :2cents: I assume you are talking small specialty crops. The crops you do will matter on the tractor you choose. Ed

Well I was trying to decide grains vs hay. Is the equipment cost the reason I couldn't come out ahead? There are 80 more acres I have an option on that I'd like to get one day but that's another conversation.

My long term goal is to do a cow calf operation so the grains would be feed mainly unless cheaper to buy that make myself.

 

[2ndhalf]

Welcome Mike,

$10k doesn't go a long way for equipment as it sounds you have learned. If you are really planning to farm your own 40 acres you do need to decide what crop as Ed mentions. Your equipment dollars will need to go toward old and crusty equipment hate to say it. You can't buy new stuff on that budget.

If you want diesel get something with pretty high hours 5,000 plus that still has a couple thousand hours left in it. You should be able to get something like that for under $4k. After you decide, corn/hay etc. you can spend the rest on the right equipment. You will need to spend more time in the field but it can be done. It will help to be handy as you will have to work on some of that crusty equipment... or you will learn as you go.

Good luck and Welcome!

My advice would be to grass all of your land and just do grass fed and buy hay and grain for a while if needed. Doing cow calf though makes you have to buy hay and grain all winter. If you just start with feeders in the spring (March) and sell them in December you could get away with not having to grain all through the winter. Consider that to start and you won't have to have as much equipment.

Just do pasture the first few years.Then you just need tractor and loader and maybe a bushhog.

 

[mobilemike73]

Welcome Mike,

$10k doesn't go a long way for equipment as it sounds you have learned. If you are really planning to farm your own 40 acres you do need to decide what crop as Ed mentions. Your equipment dollars will need to go toward old and crusty equipment hate to say it. You can't buy new stuff on that budget.

If you want diesel get something with pretty high hours 5,000 plus that still has a couple thousand hours left in it. You should be able to get something like that for under $4k. After you decide, corn/hay etc. you can spend the rest on the right equipment. You will need to spend more time in the field but it can be done. It will help to be handy as you will have to work on some of that crusty equipment... or you will learn as you go.

Good luck and Welcome!

My advice would be to grass all of your land and just do grass fed and buy hay and grain for a while if needed. Doing cow calf though makes you have to buy hay and grain all winter. If you just start with feeders in the spring (March) and sell them in December you could get away with not having to grain all through the winter. Consider that to start and you won't have to have as much equipment.

Just do pasture the first few years.Then you just need tractor and loader and maybe a bushhog.

Thank you! What horsepower range should I target and how many hours until she will need a complete overhaul?

 

[atsah]

Welcome Mike,

$10k doesn't go a long way for equipment as it sounds you have learned. If you are really planning to farm your own 40 acres you do need to decide what crop as Ed mentions. Your equipment dollars will need to go toward old and crusty equipment hate to say it. You can't buy new stuff on that budget.

If you want diesel get something with pretty high hours 5,000 plus that still has a couple thousand hours left in it. You should be able to get something like that for under $4k. After you decide, corn/hay etc. you can spend the rest on the right equipment. You will need to spend more time in the field but it can be done. It will help to be handy as you will have to work on some of that crusty equipment... or you will learn as you go.

Good luck and Welcome!

My advice would be to grass all of your land and just do grass fed and buy hay and grain for a while if needed. Doing cow calf though makes you have to buy hay and grain all winter. If you just start with feeders in the spring (March) and sell them in December you could get away with not having to grain all through the winter. Consider that to start and you won't have to have as much equipment.

Just do pasture the first few years.Then you just need tractor and loader and maybe a bushhog.

Very good advise.. Making hay takes money and good mechanical ability, my brother has a herd of Angus and 200 acres of field that he hays, I see what he does and what it takes to make it work out in the positive for him, he loves doing it but getting three solid days of dry weather up here isn't easy. This past summer we had very little rain and hay yield was very low so a few more cows went to the butcher because he didn't have enough hay to feed them.. They eat grass as well but ten cows will make a green 15 acre field look like dust in two weeks so hay is the best bang for the buck in this neck of the woods..

 

[Fossil Farm]

Our family moved to the farm many, many years ago. Had about 40 tillable acres to farm. Started out with a 35 HP gas tractor and many horse drawn pieces of equipment converted over to use with the tractor. Neighbors had a baler and we hired them to bale until we could afford our own. Of course you have to wait on the list and can't get baling done at prime time you want to bale. Many nights working the ground until midnight after the regular job.

Depends on how good a mechanic you are and if you have any nearby friends or neighbors that you can share equipment with until you can afford all the equipment. And how much time you have if you have an off farm job. Cow - calf operation could be started with pastures and work into grain or hay crops later. Fencing would be your big cost if there are none on the farm now. Start looking at equipment purchase costs, barn building costs, fence costs, etc. in your area and decide on priorities. Your Extension office or Ag Credit should have some information on costs and economics of cow - calf and small acreage farming to help "steer" you in the right direction. Good luck.

 

[roadhunter]

Every time I've looked at doing any farming on a small piece of ground it never worked out financially on paper. I suspect there are lots of us who like to think about farming or ranching but the reality of how much land, work, and equipment it takes makes doing so on a small scale not practical. From my perspective it would take a whole lot more than 40 acres to think about farming or ranching being worthwhile. As was mentioned before possibly a specialty crop or organic producer might be more realistic with that piece of ground.

If it was me I'd probably make friends with some neighbors with livestock and let them graze it once a year in exchange for some beef. Then all you have to do is keep the fences maintained and put in a water tank. Minimal investment and the land is kept in it's natural state with only a few weeks of livestock grazing each year.

My recommendation if you want crops on your land is to let someone else buy that equipment and take that risk by farming the land for you. Might be able to find someone nearby who will just farm it as they farm thier other ground. You won't make a bunch doing this but you won't lose $ which is likely to happen trying to buy equipment to stat farming/ranching 40 acres. Between buying the tractor, farm equipment, cows, and installing facilities for the cows I don't see how that would ever work out as anything but a money pit and time consuming hassle, especially with someone who has no experience.

 

[jeff9366]

How many hours until she will need a complete overhaul?

Even as a person new to tractors, you can guesstimate that more accurately than us as you look at each prospective purchase. Consistently well maintained diesel tractor engines can go 12,000 hours without a major overhaul. With tax depreciation as it is, most tractors are replaced, rather than rebuilt, at 12,000 hours or so.

The difficulty lies in the fact that tractors you will be considering may have had multiple owners, with some perhaps less than meticulous about maintenance. Slack maintenance tends to show up as repairs in tractors later in service life.

You should ask the hourly rate for mechanics time at your Deere dealer. My local Kubota dealer charges $70 per hour and from what is reported here, $70 per hour is at the LOW end of charges for mechanics time. And dealers charge for transportation to/from the shop, if they pick up your tractors with a truck and trailer.

If you plan to move hay in large bales, you need a tractor that can lift at least 2,000 pounds on bale forks. Bale forks can be utilized on either the Three Point Hitch or the FEL. If Bale Forks on the Three Point Hitch are satisfactory, you do not need too large a tractors to pick up 1,200 to 1,800 pound bales, but you cannot stack bales and you can only load trailers in one layer, with a ramp approach.
If you want to stack large bales, load large bales in a trailer two high, or load bales onto a trailer from grade, you need FEL Bale Forks and a minimum of one ton lift capacity. Lift capacity decrease rapidly with height of lift, so you will have to estimate how high you will need to lift large bales before we can give you a more accurate idea of FEL lift capacity required. For FEL bale spear probably minimal 50-horsepower to 60-horsepower tractor for FEL lift capacity and enough tractor weight for stability. Every year the FEL lift capacity on NEW tractors increases.

 

[jeff9366]

Every time I've looked at doing any farming on a small piece of ground it never worked out financially on paper. I suspect there are lots of us who like to think about farming or ranching but the reality of how much land, work, and equipment it takes makes doing so on a small scale not practical. From my perspective it would take a whole lot more than 40 acres to think about farming or ranching being worthwhile. As was mentioned before possibly a specialty crop or organic producer might be more realistic with that piece of ground.

Wise words.

Around me in Florida, farmers working 40 acres always have wives who work in town, and frequently the farmers do too for a regular income, employer health care insurance and retirement contributions, then they "hobby" farm at break even on the weekends, because THEY LOVE TO FARM.