new tractor advice

[sph1951]

I hope these questions arent too dumb. I just bought 25 acres in southern oregon that is mostly flat pasture with a
some gradual slope. I a planning on putting in about 15 acres in grapes and about 8 acres in orchard.
1. Is the 4610 with auger, tiller and brush hog the right
choice?
2. What is the best way to rip up the soil prior to
tilling?
3. If I wanted to dig a shallow 1 acre pond, would the
backhoe on this tractor do the job?
Thanks for any and all input.

 

[grandad]

Definite maybe on the 4610. Not because of anything about the tractor, but more based on what you will be doing with it.

Your crop plans suggest a compact type tractor instead of a larger ag machine. Presumably you will need to till and/or mow in between rows, and you will want to get something large enough to cover the acreage yet small enough to maneuver. 8 acres of trees is a lot to mow around... something smaller than a 4610 or a zero-turn radius mower might be easier.

Check out a box blade as a way to rip open your soil prior to tilling. It also has a bunch of other uses.

Also consider a loader... maybe the all-around most useful attachment you can get.

Digging a pond is a job for larger equipment... excavators and dozers. It generates a huge amount of excavated material... you'd wear out yourself and whatever tractor you buy doing it that way.

Congratulations and good luck! Sounds like a great adventure awaits!

 

[MarkV]

Sph1951,
Congratulations on the new property!! Grapes and orchard grove sounds like a fun adventure.

There is no question that the L4610 will handle the implements you have in mind. I would personally add a loader to the list as a must have. The 4610 should be able to pull a one or two bottom plow, depending on your soil, to break up the soil. Though I think for the first time it would be worth finding a local farmer with heavy equipment to plow and disk the field. The pond is dozer work unless you have the right soil conditions and lots of time. There is a tremendous amount of soil to move to make an acre of pond.

MarkV

 

[theboman]

Why would you need to rip the soil if you are going to till the soil under? If the soil is really hard pacted I can understand but I'd bush hog and till til the weeds are nice an churned into the dirt.

I agree with the others on a FEL and leaving digging a pond to an excavator or dozer. With a tractor...the hole begins getting water before you get it done, the tractor then gets stuck and you have to tow her out and you end up with a messy hole and have to get somebody with the above equipment to finish the pond.

 

[Boondox]

The L4610 is a heck of a tractor, but IMO it is too small for part of the job and too big for the rest. Hire out the pond. You'll just get in over your head (maybe literally) in muck and end up cussing at your tractor. For the other tasks you mentioned, even my L3010 might be a bit large. Maybe a B2910..? Going smaller would let you get more implements for the same price out of pocket.

Unless you're like me, and the throaty exhaust note of the Grande-L series causes sudden hormonal surges! /w3tcompact/icons/shocked.gif

Pete

 

[MarkV]

<font color=blue> Unless you're like me, and the throaty exhaust note of the Grande-L series causes sudden hormonal surges!</font color=blue>

Pete, I like that…………until I remember what made me feel that way when I was younger./w3tcompact/icons/eyes.gif

MarkV

 

[Buster57]

Pete does have a way with words!

Rent a Cat. Great fun for the pond project. Better yet, have a party and hire some one that knows how to use a CAT and has access to one. Sit back and watch the pro do it! Probably safer and cheaper!

Your questions are not dumb at all. Just don't try to make a tractor into a D-8. Never try to make a D-8 into a tractor either!

I have an orchard on a hill in Sherwood, Oregon and have the L3010. Haven't had any hormonal surges yet, but I like the bigger tractor because it's cool!

 

[grandad]

TBN is an endless source of valuable but otherwise unheard of knowledge ... being a fairly new owner, believe me I checked and hormonal surges are not covered anywhere in the owner's manual and the salesman sure didn't say anything about them either (woulda popped him one if he did)! /w3tcompact/icons/grin.gif

 

[sph1951]

Thanks for the good advice everyone. Let me ask a few more
questions of you smart fellas.
1. if it were your choice, what crops would you plant that
would add the most value? (the property is irrigated
on a south slope and has good bottom land soil)
2. Do any of you have any opinions about or experience
with raising alpacas you would like to share? thanks.

 

[Chuck52]

Do folks grow mint in that area? A friend of mine from Washington used to talk about growing mint and extracting the oil. It was apparently a high value crop. I know absolutely nothing about it, but I always imagined how good it would smell.

Chuck