BO here has ATV, and I do believe lives on it. It is a Honda, Foreman with electric shift, and big wire baskets fore and aft. It does not have power steering, claims that it keeps upper arms in shape.
But there is also a tractor with a FEL. I’d say it’s a life saver., but it just doesn’t get around fast or quite as efficiently. They have an ATV they say is 30 + years old. A Honda.
Enabler
A girl and her tractor with FEL can do anything. He feeds out round bales. Pulls fences tight, slashes, is a stop for the irrigator, raked, bales,etc, etc
The quad I use for running things back and forth to the tractor. I check the electric fence with it as it is faster than walking around 100 acres and round up cattle with it. If it was less than 100 acres I would just walk to fix the fence.
The tractor and the quad are the most used things on my farm.
I have one of THESE for doing the non tractor jobs on my very hilly 20 acres. I have five enclosures and a lot of fencing to maintain. I have brackets attached that allow me to tote fence boards and all the nail/staple guns etc. required, go in the back. The bed also dumps, and there are nifty attachments available. It saves a lot of wear and tear on my old body! It starts reliably in really cold weather too, unlike my neighbour’s golf cart. Sold the ATV cos it was useless.
We have 20 cleared acres. I have a JD tractor, but my workhorse is a club car golf cart with a back seat that folds flat, lifts and mud tires. Golf car seats 4, also pulls cart for manure removal, drags arena, transports hay and almost anything else with the back seat folded flat, and does a thousand other odd jobs. We like the very low maintenance, quiet ride, and convenience. I use my tractor for mowing, have a FEL & a box blade. I do a lot more mowing than it sounds like you do, but in 8 years I haven’t found any routine farm tasks I can’t do. I have never considered an atv.
Lots of good information here, thanks again everyone! I made my first visit to an ATV dealership today, just to take a look around. The salesman actually managed to talk for a while without irritating me too much, which is pretty hard to do (meaning I get irritated easily).
In looking around on the web, I’d kind of started leaning away from Hondas … at the dealership he steered me to the Suzuki.
Thanks HungarianHippo for all the good links and specifics! I’d already kind of picked out the abi manure spreader, but am not sure how much I’ll be able to afford. I think these are the attachments I want, sort of in order of importance …
mower, primarily for around the fence posts where the tractor mower doesn’t get in close enough
sprayer for weed killer
hay dolly for round bales
auger … maybe, or maybe just rent one when I need it
straight snow blade or snow thrower
manure spreader
harrow … or not … picked up a rusty old 100lb+ metal gate for $20 on craigslist that worked great attached to my pickup!
A friend just went through this, as her ATV was stolen and she planned to replace it with another ATV. She had never considered a UTV…and when I mentioned looking in to it, she tried one, liked it and bought one and says it’s light years better and more useful than the ATV.
I spent the first 5 years here on my 30 acres with just a UTV, had a plow for the front. I had to pay to have pastures mowed, and doing it once or twice a year wasn’t enough…I want to keep the grass thick and the weeds down, which was 5 times a year at $400 a pop. That 2k is a little more than 5 tractor payments every year. It worked…but having the tractor has made all the difference in the world. If I had it to do over again, I’d have bought the tractor first.
Seriously, if a tractor is not in the picture, take a hard look at a UTV/side by side…way more useful and efficient than an ATV.
And unless you’re going with a UTV like a Bobcat ToolCat (extremely pricey) some of the attachments you mention aren’t available for an ATV. The mower won’t get any closer to fence posts than the tractor will…you’ll still need a weed whacker or Roundup for that. No auger. No snowthrower (but a blade and winch can work). My 1/4 mile driveway took me about 2 1/2 hours with the UTV (Polaris Ranger)…with the tractor and snowblower, it’s 20-25 minutes. A hay dolly will work best with your pickup, not an ATV.
Can you make it work with an ATV? Sure. If you’ve got lots of extra time and don’t mind hiring some things out. But seriously, sit down and add up all the costs for all the stuff you’ll need for it…I think, especially since you’re only wanting to buy everything new, you’ll find it’s going to be a lot more than you think.
An ATV with a bunch of pansy attachments is nothing more than a REALLY IRRITATING PITA. If you’re going to buy one you’d better brush up on your cussing.
I spend 15 minutes a day on chores. Tops. Maybe a half hour on the weekend. I would get bids on hiring out the snow removal. It’s the best thing we did.
I think what will work the best for you largely depends on your setup. My horses live out 24/7 with two dry lots with run-in sheds and an attached pasture. I haul a week’s worth of hay over on the weekend and set it on a couple pallets right next to the fence. Very easy. The horses get ration balancer and alfalfa once a day separate from the donkeys. It’s all very simple and efficient. My point is, pay attention to your set up and if others can do everything that needs to be done without physically needing to handle a horse. Makes it easier to leave to.
FYI, I have the Swisher rough cut mower mentioned above too. I have the 14.5 HP engine. Very happy with it.
Great minds think alike! This is sort of what I’ve been working at. They get a complete feed once a day, and water, and some hay, with a bit more work on weekends to get more hay out to feeders. But they are out 24/7 and as long as that water trough stays full, they could miss a day or two of the daily chores. I’ve also set them up with three pens with a human walkway behind them, so that they can be fed by a novice without having to walk the gauntlet into their paddock area. I have a fairly reliable sitter, but if something happened to me, I want things a simple and safe as possible for guest caretakers!
I have been there and done this.
Get the tractor. You can dump manure right into the bucket and put it in a dumpster or manure pile.
I’m in my mid 40s, full time job, kids, ride,. and when I relocated sold my JD thinking I wouldn’t need it on my farmette with the ATV… big mistake.
And woo hoo, my smaller JD can be parked in my barn aisle during brutal winter (like the last few weeks) and didn’t gel. I mucked right into the bucket and drove off.
So worth the investment.
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