Tractor Sizing Which tractor would best suit us?

[Hiptfarms]

I picked up a L4400 HST last year and used it to pull a small square baler. It did just fine baling but the only complaint I had was pulling the baler on the road getting back home - uphill. It would not handle the baler in high gear coming back. I had to drive in medium which is not super safe on the road where I live. The old MF 3 baler is a solid, fairly stout baler though. However, the tractor was very handy doing bucket work around a barn building site. Otherwise, I prefer the manual transmission of my M6800. I'm actually getting ready to put the L4400 up for sale. I plan on buying a baby Bota from a friend's estate. (B1750) . I know it seems contrary but a smaller tractor would compliment the larger one I have more so than the L4400. Getting into tight places is appealing and it has a small tiller with it. I figured I could sell the medium tractor and maybe my BCS 850 2 wheel tractor and still be set pretty well with my equipment.

Good luck with your search. My only regret with buying the M6800 is I did not get 4x4 although the bucket can crawl you out of most sticky situations for my environment.

 

[Hiptfarms]

And one other opinion, I thought I would be able to use my tractor for removing stumps too. But unless you only have a few, you may be better served to hire someone with a dozer to do that chore. I wound up hiring a man and his father to come and run their two dozers for a few days. They cleared the large, old pine stumps from about 7 acres and put in trails throughout our 130 acre property for somewhere around $2400. It was some of the best money I have spent.
Just a thought.

 

[PaulL2]

Will you realistically buy hay making equipment for one 10 acre field a year? If not, then is it likely you can rent implements that are sized for the MX? I'm wondering whether you'd be better to assume you'll have to hire out or rent equipment for haying, which then relaxes a bunch of constraints on what you buy. The MX is still a great tractor, but if an L is all you need other than haymaking, maybe this would be more practical.

 

[mr2143]

Will you realistically buy hay making equipment for one 10 acre field a year? If not, then is it likely you can rent implements that are sized for the MX? I'm wondering whether you'd be better to assume you'll have to hire out or rent equipment for haying, which then relaxes a bunch of constraints on what you buy. The MX is still a great tractor, but if an L is all you need other than haymaking, maybe this would be more practical.

That would be the idea to start. However, there is an ongoing opportunity to rent nearby fields for roughly $100-120 per acre per year. I have not thoroughly priced out hay making equipment.

 

[PaulL2]

If you were renting nearby fields to make hay, i think you'd want a bigger tractor:
- any kind of used hay making implements are likely to be in a bigger size class - although your local market is relevant here
- a larger operation may need things done faster

The MX for your tasks feels the wrong size - bigger than you need for most tasks, but too small for serious hay making. I'd make sure you know where/what implements you're getting for it before pulling the trigger - make sure there is hay making equipment in the sizes you need at a reasonable price. There's quite a few implements for hay making - a cutter, a tedder, a bailer. Can you justify all this?

 

[tradosaurus]

My thought is you should look beyond Orange. There is plenty of Red and Blue out there more than capable of any task you can think of and at better prices.

Heresy! :laughing:

 

[tradosaurus]

Personally I would go with a zero turn for the mowing around the house and the MX tractor for your other chores.
I went with a L3301 because most of my work will be around and in trees (40 acres) and the weight of the tractor was an issue as there are parts of my property that are only dry a few months of the year. If I could have justified the MX I would have gotten it.

 

[cathy liebchen]

Personally I would go with a zero turn for the mowing around the house and the MX tractor for your other chores.
I went with a L3301 because most of my work will be around and in trees (40 acres) and the weight of the tractor was an issue as there are parts of my property that are only dry a few months of the year. If I could have justified the MX I would have gotten it.

We really like our L3901. We started with an L2501 but do a lot of fields mowing and it wouldn't pull the hills. Our properties are hilly and wooded, lots of smaller fields scattered as game plots, We looked for a long time at the MX5800 but it would have been a hassle to move around among our now 3 different farm properties, didn't want to get into the rabbit hole of bigger truck, gooseneck trailer etc.

For haying, we let people pay us to do it. We don't have animals so don't need it. If we did, there are people here who will come cut your hay and leave the round bales for you, and you pay them $15 a bale if you have min. 50 bales of area. I think its $20 a bale for fewer.

I can see that we get a bit older and retire we could end up moving from open station units to cabbed. Candidly, I can see we will end up with a tractor to leave at each property, and if we get the fourth farm in North AL we have been looking at it (beautiful 450 acres) would also need a big dedicated tractor. We have looked at a couple, probably a M7060 cabbed. I did tell hubby that 4 hobby farms in a 150 mile is enough. Land prices are high right now and if the economy drops some there will be good buys.

One of the best things we did is getting a UTV at each property- Kawasaki Mule Pro's.