Buying Advice What size Tractor for a 60 acre tree farm??

[Codeman317]

All good points so far and a lot to think about.

The term "Tree Farm" should be taken loosely as there is no orchard or rows of trees. When we bought this place, it hadn't been cut/taken care of in around 20 years, so you can imagine the scattered trees and brush that has even overtaken some of the trees. We have had it thinned out since and have cleaned out some brush, but it all grows back pretty quickly, which brings us to where we are now. The current tractor we have cuts decent and we push it to its limits, but there's also a lot of area maintenance that it does with ease as well. Our plan is to keep the current Massey Ferguson with the 6', 1" cutter and use them together.

As far as the agility, the New Holland with the bucket and grappler, and a 7' brush hog would definitely be a bit larger and I'm assuming a little harder to squeeze, but I think there would be times when I could take off either the loader or the brush hog to get a little better agility depending on project needs at the time (i.e. moving brush piles with just the grappler, cutting smaller brush with the cutter, etc...) Do y'all find that you take off the bucket/cutter for certain projects? Or do you keep the attachments on at all times?

Our budget requirements might put us in a tougher spot to find a tractor that we need, but we've gone a couple of years with the tractor we have now, and while we would like a new one soon, we're ok with waiting until we find the right one. We have also contracted some brush clearing for areas that are too much for the Massey, and are also going to get the tree service we previously used to do another cut on the property this year to hopefully widen things up a bit more. With all the rain we've had in Northeast Texas, we've had quite a few trees fall, and if they're going to do that, we might as well have some cut and make a dollar or two on them...

The skid steer is a great idea to rent, I believe, but once we get the brush cleared I think it would be a job for a tractor after that to maintain what we already cut.

Today my father is going to see in person:

The New Holland TD80
Comes with a grappler, bucket, and 7' brush hog for around $21K

Kubota L4701
Comes with a bucket and a 6', 2" cut brush hog for around $20-21K

 

[searcyfarms]

thats a tough call since you are saying you are struggling at times with a 65hp massey and want to have something a little more powerful at times,wider and then you want to find something more maneuverable - i think its a great idea on the SS rental for opening up the areas you want to get something a little larger through and taking some of the larger logging trees out with the clearing to help offset some costs. I would have the other guys do as much of the work as possible with your $$$ while they are there of course.

I would definitely hang onto the old massey for the stuff you might beat around on and possibly skin up/break/bend going in/around stuff so you keep whatever you get nice.

Im hard pressed to think you would have good luck wtih a brush hog that cuts 2 inch things on the 47HP kubota it might be a little rough on the PTO/drive on it. That is a lot of pressure/stress.

We mow with a 15 foot batwing ( rhino ) that has slip clutches and 150hp gearboxes on a White 105 and it has cracked the PTO clutch housing due to the shock of cutting trees, We encounter mostly soft maple, cottonwood, wild plum, a few small scrub oak that gets up to 2 to 3" diameter so over time you will be breaking things just a heads up, the shock of hitting things like that will stress the tractor and implement - I dont like the fact that it leaves stobs for tires either.

We have been mowing around 10 inches high so it doesnt leave SHORT stobs, the 10 inch stuff will push over and drive over easier and not poke tires like the lil 3 to 4 inches ones will and it also takes much less power to mow at 10" than at 3 to 4.

there is an art to maintaining things and trying to limit damage that is why we have gone to the SS vs tractor in many cases to get things like you have where we can use a tractor and not beat it to death and cause more expense and frustration over time.

 

[jeff9366]

Codeman

All good points so far and a lot to think about. We have gone a couple of years with the tractor we have now, and while we would like a new one soon, we're ok with waiting until we find the right one.

As far as the agility, the New Holland with the bucket and grappler, and a 7' brush hog would definitely be a bit larger and I'm assuming a little harder to squeeze, but I think there would be times when I could take off either the loader or the brush hog to get a little better agility depending on project needs at the time (i.e. moving brush piles with just the grappler, cutting smaller brush with the cutter, etc...)

You need heavy counterbalance mounted on the Three Point Hitch for max FEL Loads, either in the FEL bucket or a grapple. Without enough counterbalance the rear wheels will lift off the ground creating rollover potential.


Do y'all find that you take off the bucket/cutter for certain projects? Or do you keep the attachments on at all times?

I remove SSQA (quick attach) bucket regularly to replace bucket with pallet forks.

I have never remove the Loader itself from any of the three compact tractors I have owned.

Our $20,000 budget might put us in a tough spot finding a suitable tractor. We have contracted some brush clearing for areas that are too much for the Massey. We are also going to get a tree service to do another cut on the property to open things. With all the rain we've had in Northeast Texas, we've had quite a few trees fall, and if they're going to do that, we might as well have some cut and make a dollar or two on them...

Today my father is going to see:

Kubota L4701
Comes with a bucket and a 6', 2" cut brush hog for around $20-21K[/QUOTE]

VIDEO: Kubota Standard L-Series. L251 L331 L391 L471 features and operation. - YouTube