Tractor decision

[New property]

Hi, I’m new to this forum. I have 50 acres, 15 pasture, 35 wooded. We are starting construction on a new home, 1400 foot driveway. Right now I am focused on LS
MT347 cab hydro with bucket, plow, box blade, brush hog. Am I on the right track? Up until now I have only had garden tractors. Thnx, Barry

 

[CloverKnollFarms]

What dealers are nearby?

 

[paulsharvey]

Hi, I’m new to this forum. I have 50 acres, 15 pasture, 35 wooded. We are starting construction on a new home, 1400 foot driveway. Right now I am focused on LS
MT347 cab hydro with bucket, plow, box blade, brush hog. Am I on the right track? Up until now I have only had garden tractors. Thnx, Barry

Couple questions first:
1, what are you going to be doing in the 35 wooded acres? A cab may be a problem.

2, what are you doing with the 15 acres of pasture? Cattle? you plan to feed round bales?

3, is the driveway hired out, and you just maintaining once build?

4, what impliments do you think you need/want?

5, what's the budget like?

6, terrian and climate? We talking flat lands, mountains, swampy areas, creeks that need crossed, slopes?

7, what's your storage look like?

8, you said plow; you mean a 2 or 3 bottom turn plow or are you talking snow plow? If it's a real plow, your gonna want ag or Maybe R-14 tires, not R-3 or R-4s. If snow, got to talk to someone else, haven't seen the stuff in going on 30 years

 

[rgr33]

Agree with Paul, you need to state what you intend to do on your property to get the best answers here.
also what the lay of the land is

 

[sea2summit]

Couple questions first:
1, what are you going to be doing in the 35 wooded acres? A cab may be a problem.

2, what are you doing with the 15 acres of pasture? Cattle? you plan to feed round bales?

3, is the driveway hired out, and you just maintaining once build?

4, what impliments do you think you need/want?

5, what's the budget like?

6, terrian and climate? We talking flat lands, mountains, swampy areas, creeks that need crossed, slopes?

7, what's your storage look like?

8, you said plow; you mean a 2 or 3 bottom turn plow or are you talking snow plow? If it's a real plow, your gonna want ag or Maybe R-14 tires, not R-3 or R-4s. If snow, got to talk to someone else, haven't seen the stuff in going on 30 years

These are all important questions we need answers too^

But right off the bat I’m going to say this would be a good starter tractor (if you got rid of the cab) if you’ve never had a tractor before but won’t be a good long term tractor for you. Cab’s are awesome…if you’re doing field work for hours of the day. Cab’s are a PITA if you’re working in woods or getting on and off a lot. Another thing with this tractor is the wheel size, very small which means you will hate to drive faster than 4-6 mph on a dirt road so getting across your 50 acre property could take 5-10 minutes which doesn’t sound like a big deal until you consider going up a size in tractor it could take 2-5 minutes in addition to protecting the tractor from all the branches and crap in your woods.

I’m not sure about the plow…this is a very light tractor four anything ground engaging like a plow or even a box blade doing real work.

Honestly my recommendation for you would be take a look at the used market. I don’t know why but right now there’s probably 10-12 Kubota 7060’s open station and cab with less than 1,500 hrs in the 22-30k range and they would probably be an ideal size for you. If you decide you want something else later I can’t imagine you’ll loose any money unless you toast an engine or roll it over. I have the M4 which is essentially the delux 7060 and love it, wish I could talk my wife into letting me grab an open station 7060 as I have a lot of uses for it that I’m forcing my MX to do right now.

But shoot us some more details, we love to spend other peoples money!

 

[koshari]

Couple questions first:
1, what are you going to be doing in the 35 wooded acres? A cab may be a problem.

2, what are you doing with the 15 acres of pasture? Cattle? you plan to feed round bales?

3, is the driveway hired out, and you just maintaining once build?

4, what impliments do you think you need/want?

5, what's the budget like?

6, terrian and climate? We talking flat lands, mountains, swampy areas, creeks that need crossed, slopes?

7, what's your storage look like?

8, you said plow; you mean a 2 or 3 bottom turn plow or are you talking snow plow? If it's a real plow, your gonna want ag or Maybe R-14 tires, not R-3 or R-4s. If snow, got to talk to someone else, haven't seen the stuff in going on 30 years

I would have point 6 as point 1, but all good things to consider.

 

[Thomas]

Welcome to TBN Barry.

Do you live in snow country? ....tire chains possible?
What are some of your long range plans?

You may want to think of what tire thread best for the cause.

 

[paulsharvey]

Just what I would do, if I had 50 acres, 15 pasture, 35 woods, in my part of the world, North FLa, and spending Your money I would buy a Massey Ferguson 1760M power shuttle with R1 or possibly R14 tires, in an open station. It's a pretty moderate size, heavy power, for getting through the woods. I would probably want a 6 bushhog, unless your mowing 15 acres of pasture as a yard, double bottom plow, 6 ft box blade, and QA pallet forks. Maybe a grapple if you have the money for general tree clean up, but forks can be made to work. Plenty of power and agility for woods and pasture, as well as the ability to move 5x6 round bales. Power to grow, but sized where your not dealing with an unwieldy machine.

Now, your actually situation is probably Way different than what I just described?

 

[newbury]

A lot depends on your terrain and soil.
Big difference in acreage in the Rockies and Florida.
We need to know more of your location.

 

[New property]

What dealers are nearby?

LS, deer, Kubota, tym

 

[New property]

A lot depends on your terrain and soil.
Big difference in acreage in the Rockies and Florida.
We need to know more of your location.

Slight rolling hills. North western Pa.

 

[New property]

Just what I would do, if I had 50 acres, 15 pasture, 35 woods, in my part of the world, North FLa, and spending Your money I would buy a Massey Ferguson 1760M power shuttle with R1 or possibly R14 tires, in an open station. It's a pretty moderate size, heavy power, for getting through the woods. I would probably want a 6 bushhog, unless your mowing 15 acres of pasture as a yard, double bottom plow, 6 ft box blade, and QA pallet forks. Maybe a grapple if you have the money for general tree clean up, but forks can be made to work. Plenty of power and agility for woods and pasture, as well as the ability to move 5x6 round bales. Power to grow, but sized where your not dealing with an unwieldy machine.

Now, your actually situation is probably Way different than what I just described?

There is also a Massie dealer near by. I forgot to include I will be getting pallet forks and a grapple as well.

 

[New property]

Welcome to TBN Barry.

Do you live in snow country? ....tire chains possible?
What are some of your long range plans?

You may want to think of what tire thread best for the cause.

Moderate snow in north west Pa. Retiring there .

 

[wolc123]

One horsepower per acre is a good general rule of thumb for tractor size on ground like yours and uses you describe. I’d go with an open-station, lightly used pre-tier 4 tractor with R1 tires.

Most of the engineering effort on new tractors these days is going into things like electric drive, and emissions nonsense, so the older diesel machine will give you considerably more “bang for the buck”.

 

[paulsharvey]

So, if you can swing the budget, a Massey Ferguson 17xxM series machine is worth looking at for sure. You dont have to go for the 1760 machine, they have 35, 40, 45, 50, 55 and 60 hp machines, all the same chassis, although some of the lower HP machines have different options.

Massey has the 17E series of base model machines and the 17M is a premium line. There is also an 18E line, and a 28M line. The E series are probably close to the same price as the LS/Kioti/TYM (within 10%), but lack some of the nicer features. The 17M series offer about anything the Deere/Kubota higher dollar machines do, but approach the same price range.

I personally like a Power Shuttle, but they only offer that in the 1750/1755/1760M size, not down in the 35/40/45hp models.

 

[paulsharvey]

If you like the LS, you Might want to look at the price difference to move upto the MT357. Cabs add a lot of weight, the HVAC system sucks power, and depending on size of the impliments, you might be better off with the higher HP model of the same series. Let's you grow tmwith the property, if the budget allows the higher HP machine now.

 

[New property]

So, if you can swing the budget, a Massey Ferguson 17xxM series machine is worth looking at for sure. You dont have to go for the 1760 machine, they have 35, 40, 45, 50, 55 and 60 hp machines, all the same chassis, although some of the lower HP machines have different options.

Massey has the 17E series of base model machines and the 17M is a premium line. There is also an 18E line, and a 28M line. The E series are probably close to the same price as the LS/Kioti/TYM (within 10%), but lack some of the nicer features. The 17M series offer about anything the Deere/Kubota higher dollar machines do, but approach the same price range.

I personally like a Power Shuttle, but they only offer that in the 1750/1755/1760M size, not down in the 35/40/45hp models.

I really don’t like the treadle pedal on the Massy

 

[paulsharvey]

I really don’t like the treadle pedal on the Massy

I could be wrong, but I believe that is on the E series; the M, I think, has dual peddles.

 

[paulsharvey]

So, a big part of the sizing question is:
what are you doing with/in the wooded section

and what are you doing wuth/in the pasture

If you want to routinely mow all 15 acres of pasture; your probably mowing 2.5 acres/hour with a 6 ft bushhog (about the right size for the 347); or 3.0 acres/hour with a 7 ft (about right for the 357); or 5.1 acres per hour using a 12 ft mower (probably want maybe 60-75hp).

Woods, if your cutting fire wood, a smaller bodied machine is a plus; but if your clearing food plots, or underbrushing with something like a Brown Tree Cutter, you'll want high lift capacity, paired with high HP.

Ground engaging equipment (the plow) is a lot about machine weight, and you'll want to be able to maintain a constant Speed (to get a proper 'roll' on the soil), with varying hp required (as soil conditions change), which is kinda the opposite of a hydrostatic transmission. You also Really don't want R4s or Turfs with the plow.

The woods work, rolling hills, both imply R4s, R14s, or R1s.

 

[Williy]

Get the cab as you can always cut out a path if you want to work in the woods

willy