Things you just have to have to start farming...

[Spiveyman]

I'm 34 years old and decided to buy a farm last year and take up farming. Besides telling me that I'm nuts, my papaw pulled me aside and gave me a list of things you just have to have if you're gonna be a farmer. He walked me out to the shed by the barn and started pointing out equipment.

I thought is might be kind of fun to start such a list here for new farmers like myself. There are plenty of you folks who've been doing this for a lifetime that might help a newbie like me in getting started. Or perhaps there's a better way to do something than the way my papaw has always done it. So here we go:

(I realize the size of your farm and what you intend to raise make a difference. For me, it's a 170 acre farm, and I'm raising cattle for beef.)

He said you need at least two tractors, a big one to pull a batwing or roll bailer, and a smaller one for daily tasks and to help with raking and such during hay season.

As far as implements:
- Rottary cutter for smaller areas you need to mow
- Maybe a Batwing type mower if you have to mow big fields
- A carry-all: rarely saw my papaw's tractor that it didn't have a carry all with a wooden platform on it.
- A boom pole for picking up whatever you have a hankering to pick up
- A grater blade
- A bale spear for moving and feeding hay

He suggested I hire the hay done until I really got going rather than buying a bunch of equipment for that. There were other things like fencing pliers, but this is the attachments thread, so we can keep it to 3ph stuff, or I guess FEL stuff. That is the other thing he said he always wanted but never had, a FEL.

So what other implements make your "must have" list on your farms, and if you don't mind, say a little about what you use them for since other newbies like me may not know right off.

 

[Farmwithjunk]

List all the things you need to start farming?

(How much band width do we have access to here?)

Farming what? Cattle? Grain? Vegatables? Horses? Hay?

 

[Bird]

The carry all can certainly be handy, but a front end loader is so much better and may eliminate the need for the carry all. But do you just have to have those things? Maybe, maybe not. Lots of farming was done before tractors came on the scene.

 

[BobG_in_VA]

Hey, if you're gonna raise beef cattle, what do you need a batwing mower for???thats what the cattle are for!!! You need barb wire, posts and like material and a bunch of hands with gloves on them more than a rotary mower! Oh yeah, don't forget the banding pliers (lets see who knows what they're for.....)BobG in VA

 

[Oleozz]

Not sure what your finances are but if you can afford a 170 acre farm then maybe equipment expenses won't be so bothersome for you. If money was no object then I would have, as your Pawpaw suggested, 2 tractors, a good mower, a plow, a disc, a harrow, planter, grain drill, elevator, haying equipment, a bale spear, pallet forks, combine, man, the list could go on forever. Some of the things you can surely do without (combine) because there are always custom operators who can do some of the expensive chores for you.
Good luck and hope you are successful.

 

[Robert_in_NY]

What you have to have to start farming all depends on what type of farm you want. A small brush chopper can usually find a use on most farms. I have never used a carry all on my tractors as I use the loader tractors. I don't need a boom pole either as I use the loaders. The blade is iffy, it all depends on what you want to do and what you need to use one for. For the most part I can do what a grader blade can with my loader.

Now that I think of it, what all farms need to start is a tractor with loader and a brush chopper. The loader can move hay also

Now if you tell us what type of farming you want to do then we can give you an idea of some things you should have and what is easier to hire out.

 

[Bird]

Hey, if you're gonna raise beef cattle, what do you need a batwing mower for???thats what the cattle are for!!! You need barb wire, posts and like material and a bunch of hands with gloves on them more than a rotary mower! Oh yeah, don't forget the banding pliers (lets see who knows what they're for.....)BobG in VA

A neighbor found his Kawasaki Mule to be very valuable when it was time to use those banding pliers. You sure want something between you and that momma cow.

 

[DonWorrell]

Hey, if you're gonna raise beef cattle, what do you need a batwing mower for???thats what the cattle are for!!! You need barb wire, posts and like material and a bunch of hands with gloves on them more than a rotary mower! Oh yeah, don't forget the banding pliers (lets see who knows what they're for.....)BobG in VA

Lets see.....banding pliers castration of bull calves. I did this once didn't like it. Reverted back to cutting young bulls when they finally dropped. Wrap a rope arroud the bull right behind the front legs run the rope down the back and around the bull right in front of he back legs. Pull hard keep tension the bull will stay on the ground. A few well placed slits and ointment and a shot and it is all over. With banding you run the risk of maggets.

Don

 

[jdbower]

Since you're new to farming, remember to plant your cows about 8' apart to give them room to grow - but not too deep or they may start to rot.

I think in some states it's not legal to own a tractor without a FEL, definitely high on my list. With 160 acres of fencing (unless you use the deep cow planting technique) I'd imagine a post hole digger is useful. You'll probably want a pond or two, do you need to build them or are you buying a working farm? Would a PTO pump be useful to you for maintaining the ponds? Or a PTO generator if you need power for a welder or something out there? A backhoe comes in handy a surprising number of times. A chipper is good if you've got woods. The list can go on forever, it depends on whether you want to be an honest-to-gosh self-sufficient farmer or if you're like me and enjoy pretending to farm while playing with tractor toys. If you're just playing you can grow slowly and hire out the jobs you're not sure of. Another good question is whether you'll be growing your own feed grain, that adds a whole new dimension to your needs.

My farming family in PA told me about one of their neighbors who won the lottery. He won millions of dollars and when he was interviewed on TV they asked what he was going to do now that he doesn't need to work anymore. His response: "Whelp, I guess I'll keep on farming 'till it's gone"

 

[dsgsr]

I see that you have told us in your post that you are going to be raising Beef Cattle. I've been doing lite Farming (so far w/o live stalk) but turning old grown up fields and woods into good fields Logging and such on the side but mostly hiring me and my tractor out for other farming jobs and backhoe work for 9-yrs now and grew up on an old farm. My best advice would be too Listen to your Paw, he's probably got more information in his head than he has time to teach you. Then I would show him all the New farming equipment on the market and ask his opinion.

With all that said, with a farm of your size ( if you plan on using all that in the scope of Farming) you will need at least two large tractors 80-100hp for running large implements to save on time and at least one small 50hp or a little less range tractor for working in and around the barn/'s. Not knowing what the land is like around your farm you my need a small excavator in the 17,000lb range for ditching, rock removal and the such. As far as implements it all depends on what you will be doing. In a large farm of your size I would have a FEL on the small tractor and one of the larger tractors. You will need a dump truck medium size and of course some type of mower. And I'm sure many other things.