Tractor Sizing What is the right size for 50 acres?

[mikeydchicago34]

I just moved out to a farm i purchased, which is 50 acres. I have 20 acres hay pasture, 10 acres culitivated crops and 20 acres woodlands. I plan on someday baling my own hay but currently the neighbor does it for halves. What size tractor would best fit my place and would run baling implements. Thanks all.

 

[Mowbizz]

I just moved out to a farm i purchased, which is 50 acres. I have 20 acres hay pasture, 10 acres culitivated crops and 20 acres woodlands. I plan on someday baling my own hay but currently the neighbor does it for halves. What size tractor would best fit my place and would run baling implements. Thanks all.

No expert here, but I think the biggest, baddest you can afford for a spread that size...

 

[Deerlope]

70 HP min.

 

[EddieWalker]

I have 20 acres hay pasture, 10 acres culitivated crops

The real question is what sized implements will you be using to do this work? Are you going to make square or round bales? Are you going to disk the 10 cultivated acres?

Depending on how big of your impliments will decide how much HP you need. In tractors, every HP is more money!!!

Another thing to consider is what dealers are close by and which ones are worth dealing with? If you have one dealer, then that's really where you need to go and see what they have and recomend. If there are several dealers, go to all of them and tell them what you have and want to do. They will put together a package of what they carry and can support. It does you no good to buy a brand of tractor or impliment that you cannot get parts for.

And most importantly, you need to have a budget. Is $30,000 grand going to do it for you, do you have move? less? Do you want to buy new and spend the money up front or do you want to buy used and save in buying, but spend time and money mainting and repairing what you have. If you are a good mechanic and have the time to work on equipment, buying used makes allot of sense. If not, it's extremely expensive to have it fixed for you.

There is no right tractor, perfect HP or ideal impliment. They all have advantages and disadvantages. We can help you figure those out, but first you need to narrow down the options.

Eddie

 

[Soundguy]

I personally would want a minimum of 50hp, if not more. Witht hat land you never know what you can get going.. plus some implements soak power.. like bailers. And even more so than power is weight...

I own 13.2 ac and have a 70 and 95hp tractor.. plus a few other antiques to play with. You can deffinately find jobs for a bigger tractor if you look hard!

soundguy

 

[tjkadar]

If you can swing it, the John Deere 5603 is a pretty nice deal. That should be enough tractor to get you started.

 

[RWolf]

You've determined what you want to do within the next 5+ years. What is the PTO HP requirment for the largest driven implement. What is the HP rating for the largest drawn implement. What is your comfort level (do I *need* a cab). Then like the others have said look around and you should be able to size your tractor needs.

good luck.

 

[wolc123]

From 20-100 acres, about 1 hp/acre is what you want so 50 is just about perfect.

 

[flusher]

I just moved out to a farm i purchased, which is 50 acres. I have 20 acres hay pasture, 10 acres culitivated crops and 20 acres woodlands. I plan on someday baling my own hay but currently the neighbor does it for halves. What size tractor would best fit my place and would run baling implements. Thanks all.

I have 10 acres of flat pasture land and have a new Mahindra 5525 tractor (55 hp engine, 45 hp pto, gear tranny, weighs 5400 lb without filled tires) and the ML250 FEL (6-ft bucket, 2900 lb lift capacity at the bucket pivots). I had a much smaller Kubota B7510HST (21 hp engine, 17 hp pto) with the LA302 FEL (4 ft bucket) that I used while my new house was being built for landscaping, excavating for paver block walkways and a patio, mowing my weeds with a 4-ft brush hog, and for general toting.

I bought the 5525 to go haying on about 7 of the 10 acres. I have a MF-124 two-twine square baler that the 5525 handles with ease.

The 5525 would be a nice fit to your situation. Check it out.

 

[MODiesel]

We've got 50ac as well. About 15-20 is flat field, bordered by a creek and treelines. The remainder is spread over two decent sized hills and a sandy, wooded lowland on the other side of the creek. With all the trees & slopes, I wanted hydrostat to increase the maneuverability. At the time, the biggest HP hydrostat CUT was the Kubota L5030, at 50HP, and that's what I ultimately ended up with.

IMHO, it's the perfect size. I can mow with either a 90in finish cut mower, or a 7ft rotary cutter. I've run a disc up to 10ft. And I can still move the round bales that my neighbor bales for us. But that's the real rub -- I can't really run anything but the very smallest of hay equipment. But like I said, since my neighbor has all the gear, I figured there was no sense in us investing all the $$ in a larger tractor and more equipment.

As such, 50HP is just perfect for our 50ac. YMMV.

 

[ToadHill]

My place is 87 acres and I do everything I need with a Ford 8N and a Kioti DK35. I have about 20 acres of hay but my neighbor bales it. I used to have a MF85 to run the baler but the smaller tractors could do everything else. I figured why feed a elephant when a horse can do the work.

 

[Soundguy]

What happens when your neighbors 'elephant' is busy, and your 'horse' ain't up to the 'elephant' sized taske you need it for? Then you 'feed' the elephant.

soundguy

 

[Mickey_Fx]

From the sound of it, it sounds like you have 30A that could be worked on a reg basis. Eddie has give some real good things to think about.

Several others have suggested something in the 50+ HP range. My personal thought is 50 HP could most likely get it all done for 30A spread.

Many yrs ago I had a small haying business and had a 50HP MF165D, used a mower conditioner and sq bailer. Typ field yieded 4T/A and never felt I was underpowered. At that time had a friend and he and his brothers farmed about 100A, hay, grain, sweet corn and all the tractor work was done with a pair of 50HP tractors. They did all their own work and had harvesting equip to handle those chores. Don't think they ever felt their tractors weren't up to the tasks.

I would ask around your locale and see what the experienced farmer has to say about tractor size really needed to get the job done in your area.

Oh, I'd not be too worried about starting out with used equip IF it is in good condition. Bought my MF used and only thing ever needed or done to it was to replace the PTO oil seal. Same kind of experience with my current Yanmar. 20 yrs old, never had a problem and never give thought whether it isn't going to get the next job done.

 

[ToadHill]

If the neighbors elephant is busy it's probably busy cutting my hay, he has 15 acres and boards horses. My hay is what he feeds them.

 

[Farmwithjunk]

Currently I have 45 acres. I take care of it with a 47hp 2wd tractor. More'n enough.... For 35+ years, I farmed from 190 to 225 acres with 60hp 2wd as the biggest tractor on the place most of those years. More'n enough.... No reason to get caught up in a testosterone driven MORE POWER frenzy. That can be a waste of resources AND still not get the job done right.

Remember, with higher HP, your implement cost goes up accordingly.

My suggestion for 50 acres? 50 to 60 HP, 2wd OR 4wd. Anything beyond that is over-kill.

You can find jobs for more HP than you really need, but bigger has it's liabilities also. (ie Less manueverability, higher fuel usage, higher initial cost, higher impliment cost/lack of availability of impliments for "small jobs", ect)

Too small is too small. Too big is too big. Either are OK if you have 2nd or 3rd tractors to fill in the gaps. Wanting ONE tractor? Get something "middle of the road" in regards to physical size and HP.

 

[greggh]

With most utility tractors that have category II. You can utilize category I or II implements. If you buy a CUT you only have the option of category I. This makes the utility tractor a little more versatile in the use of implements.

Good luck and keep us posted.

 

[MODiesel]

...but bigger has it's liabilities also. (ie Less manueverability, higher fuel usage...

That's a good point. I've bumped up three times as the amount of property we own has expanded. I've gone from 29HP, to 40HP, and now to 50HP. Puttering around, there's not a huge amount of difference in fuel usage. But running at PTO RPM, the 50HP sucks noticeably more fuel than the 40HP tractor and about twice as much as the lil' 29HP unit. Granted, I can now run a larger mower, or mow a bit quicker, so there are some efficiency gains. But with $4+ fuel, every little bit starts to add up.

 

[Soundguy]

That's a good point. I've bumped up three times as the amount of property we own has expanded. I've gone from 29HP, to 40HP, and now to 50HP. Puttering around, there's not a huge amount of difference in fuel usage. But running at PTO RPM, the 50HP sucks noticeably more fuel than the 40HP tractor and about twice as much as the lil' 29HP unit. Granted, I can now run a larger mower, or mow a bit quicker, so there are some efficiency gains. But with $4+ fuel, every little bit starts to add up.

I'd wager it is a tad easier all around to run a bigger mower on a bigger tractor, vs running a smaller mower and smaller tractor when you look at fuel and time resources.

Sure.. a 25hp tractor may use half the fuel of a 50, run a half or smaller mower, and take 2x or more time to mow.

That's when you need to find out what your time resource is worth, as fuel will be essential equal for most well maintained units when you look at gallon per hp-hour. ( there are exceptions to this.. some units are known to be fuel misers.. and some are gasguzzlers.. )

soundguy

 

[Farmwithjunk]

I'd wager it is a tad easier all around to run a bigger mower on a bigger tractor, vs running a smaller mower and smaller tractor when you look at fuel and time resources.

Sure.. a 25hp tractor may use half the fuel of a 50, run a half or smaller mower, and take 2x or more time to mow.

That's when you need to find out what your time resource is worth, as fuel will be essential equal for most well maintained units when you look at gallon per hp-hour. ( there are exceptions to this.. some units are known to be fuel misers.. and some are gasguzzlers.. )

soundguy

I've NEVER found bigger tractors to be as efficient with fuel as a smaller one when put to the test. (per acre, per hp/hr, ect) BTDT. Am there now and still DOING that. You will save some time (in some situations) with a bigger tractor/mower. In some situations, having a bigger tractor and mower will COST you time. (ie wooded ground, need to move equipment from place to place, small fields, ect) The trick is to get one that's the RIGHT size for the majority of one's needs.

"Big" tractors don't lend themselves to general "around the barnyard" utility work quite like a medium sized utility tractor will. It sure isn't very practical to have a 100 hp tractor (and the matching implement) to till the garden, or to build a fence.

I've got tractors now of 47 hp, 60 hp, two of 80 hp, and one 95 hp. In ALMOST every "chore" job I have, I grab the 47 hp tractor first. Mid-sized is just handier. If a person is to own ONE tractor, I'd make certain it's the "handiest" I could get.

 

[putt_putt_green]

2 tractors

A used cheap 50+ HP 2 wheel drive tractor for haying.
A 30HP CUT for doing everything else (it'll be better in the woods).