Buying Advice Total newbie, seeks wisdom!

[soulsam]

Hi folks!
Total newbie here to the tractor world!

A bit of background: After working in the global world for high end sport and fashion companies and then losing my job in 2008 in the big crash, I now find myself living and working in Thailand as a rice farmer! Big change I know but glad it happened! :thumbsup:
So no experience at all but I am learning quickly!

So after working the fields for this first year I am now seriously considering buying a tractor!
I've looked around and been to the Kubota dealer and had an agent round from New Holland who also supplies John Deere and looked at a Yanmar dealer too. After seeing these and looking at my needs I'm leaning towards the Kubota.

We have approx 19 acres across 2 farms, 8 acres next to the house, and a further 11 acres approx 8km away. If I bought a tractor it would not pay for itself for maybe 30 or so years as I would purchase purely for our needs, if I could get outside work, all for the better! Many people here have small hand tractors and others pay for fields to be ploughed.

It's luxury but would make things easier in terms of not having to wait on people and taking a lot of the physical activities out of the equation, which whilst I'm 44 now isn't too bad and keeps me fit, but in 10 yrs or so I think would be a lifesaver! : )

When ploughing, the fields are dry, but after we cut the rice I would want to use the tractor to collect the bags that the harvester drops on the field borders, and at this time there is still some water in the fields with muddy conditions.

So after looking at all the tractors and reviewing prices and taking into consideration the size of our farms I'm leaning more towards the smaller Kubotas L21 & L24. These are keenly priced but the dealer tried to put me off the L21 as too weak. However looking at the brochure, they are virtually identical in all specs except one is 3HP more and has power steering. But the difference in price is nearly 1600 GBP! (Sorry I'm originally from the UK)

Then local Thai people are telling me to buy the L47, but that is nearly double the price of the L24 and wouldn't pay for itself for 70yrs!! (I don't think I'll live that long) :laughing:

So my questions are, would an L21 work OK for me? Would it be able to carry/pull loads in muddy conditions? Am I better getting the L24? Does 3HP really make that much difference? Is power steering a luxury rather than a necessity? Or am I barking up the wrong tree alltogether? Are neither the L21 & L24 sufficient enough? Do I need an L36 minimum?

Any constructive help or advice would be greatly appreciated!

Also, the New Holland, John Deere & Yanmar dealers don稚 do smaller units here, only 38 and 39HP which are obviously a lot more expensive, hence my leaning towards Kubota, plus most of the all the locals have Kubotas with the exception of a few Yanmars.

Thanks in advance,
Sam

 

[dragoneggs]

Rice paddies are way out of my sphere of knowledge so I can't personally offer you any advice here other than I would say to definitely take a look at what others are using for similar jobs around you... ones that seem to know what they are doing. Talk to the locals and find out why they recommend and why the hp they say. An honest dealer ought to have some decent thoughts too.

 

[wolftree]

soulsam,

Are the L21 or L24 tractors 4 wheel drive? Power steering, even on a small tractor is very nice have and especially on a 4 wheel
drive.

Do you feel that you can get enough work from other farms consistently to help pay for your tractor?

Most of us here are not familar with the tractor needs of a rice farm so you will have to ask yourself many of the questionss we might put to you. What is the biggest load or task that you would ask of your tractor and how often? It is the tasks that define what tractor to purchase.

 

[soulsam]

soulsam,

Are the L21 or L24 tractors 4 wheel drive? Power steering, even on a small tractor is very nice have and especially on a 4 wheel
drive.

Do you feel that you can get enough work from other farms consistently to help pay for your tractor?

Most of us here are not familar with the tractor needs of a rice farm so you will have to ask yourself many of the questionss we might put to you. What is the biggest load or task that you would ask of your tractor and how often? It is the tasks that define what tractor to purchase.

Yes both units are 4WD, you can actually switch between 2 & 4WD on both units.

No I don't feel I could get enough work fom other farms, that is why I'm thinking of buying purely for my own needs, if I got extra work that would be a bonus but I don't see many people asking a foreigner to do what the locals do already.

The bulk of the work would be ploughing and then returning after 2 weeks to loosen the soil with a rotary attachment. This would have been a once a year thing, but as I've quickly learnt, in the other farm the geography of the land doesn't support rice growing in the top and bottom. To the naked eye you wouldn't think but from a side on view it's a slight valley and the top and bottom fields don't retain water, so will grow a different crop starting in January, so the tractor will be used more often than first predicted.

Locals all use L47's but these are used as work horses to service the farms where people don't want to use hand tractors, so nobody has a 21 or 24 that I can ask for guidance.
Was hoping someone out there has a 24 or 21 that they've used in muddy conditions that could tell me if it's got enough grunt to pull loads?

Sam