Compact utility tractor question

[julesp313]

We are under contract on a small hobby farm, and would like to start researching tractors for as many chores as we can cover! A colleague at work who is a large scale farmer suggested a utility tractor with a front loader and a three point hitch, which seems to be a good move. I’d like to be able to move round bales, clean up muck, drag the arenas, and snow plow the long drive in the winter. Also have the option to mow the grass if our current mower is too small.

So, I’ve found a used tractor that has the hitch and the loader. Here’s my ignorance - with a three point hitch, are attachments “one size fits all” or do I have to find specific size/brand items? Also, are the forks for stabbing round bales another attachment, or do those come into play when you remove the front bucket?

Man, do I ever feel like a city girl right now!

[Simkie]

Three point stuff is universal.

Hay forks are an additional attachment.

You’re going to need a pretty beefy tractor for round bales. What have you found used? You’ll want to understand what it’s rated to handle.

[SugarCubes]

I’m absolutely no help, but will be following with interest as I OWN a little tractor and don’t know the answers to these questions - and have wondered the same thing :lol:!

[Mango20]

The 3-point hitch implements are “one size fits all”, per category. Most small/medium sized tractors have a Category 1 hitch. You do need to make sure the implements are the proper size for your tractor. For instance, my fairly small Kubota 25 horsepower tractor can have a 5-foot bush hog. The 6 footer would have the exact same attachment, but is not rated for my tractor’s size/HP. This should be in the owner’s manual, or you can probably find it online if you are buying used and get no manual.

Mine has a bucket, but I have never removed it or added bale forks, so can’t answer the question about the front of the tractor’s attachments.

[Jim_in_PA]

Three point hitches are “universal”, albeit have “category” numbers that refer to size/capacity. Most Compact Tractors have a Category one 3pt hitch setup. Same for most sub-compacts, but some of those have Category 0 setups which are more limiting.

The basics for what you say your use will be is a FEL (front end loader), a Cat 1 3pt and 4WD. My advice is to avoid 2WD tractors…that extra traction really helps with using the FEL and for other ground engagement operations. Stick with major brands, especially those where you have local service available from an authorized dealer. Don’t not consider new, too…Kubota, Deere, etc, all have 8% financing on new machines and that also means an actual warranty. These dealers will also usually have very nice used machines that were traded in to consider.

[Leather]

Good thread on tractor size for round bales: https://www.chronofhorse.com/forum/forum/discussion-forums/around-the-farm/59424-what-is-the-smallest-tractor-that-can-lift-a-round-bale

With a smaller tractor you’d likely need to use a 3 point hitch bale spear rather than a FEL bale spear. That would allow you to move the bale but not lift it very high.

For a FEL bale spear it depends on the tractor configuration–sometimes you can leave the bucket on and sometimes you can’t. Our tractor is old and the hydraulics are in a weird spot so we have to swap out the bucket for the spear.

[vineyridge]

Everyone needs to remember that utility tractors and compact utility tractors are not all the same. A utility tractor will be much heavier duty than a compact utility tractor, will weight twice or more as much with the weight to handle large round bales, and will have the power to handle more tasks and larger attachments. I had a Ford 3930 that was a utility tractor and it weighed 5000 pounds. It could do everything that I needed. My current JD 870 Compact Utility Tractor weighs 2500 pounds, and really isn’t much different from a big lawnmower. You can’t do nearly as much with it. It absolutely will not handle round bales.

[DiamondJubilee]

I’m no pro with tractors, but we just sold one of our tractors (john deere 4600 series, 43 hp and 34hp PTO) and now have a kubota L6060 (60hp and around 50hp pto). The front end equiptment (bucket, fork, snow pusher etc) will not work from one brand of tractor to the other (this goes with pretty much all brands of tractors). The hook ups are different, so we have to sell all of our JD stuff and buy Kubota forks, snow pushers etc. All of our PTO driven eqipment will work (6ft finishing mower, bush hog, ring conditioner, snow blower etc) but this is because we are buying a tractor with more power, and since the equipment worked on our older less powerful tractor, it will work on our new tractor. If we were getting a smaller tractor, we would need to find out the HP on the PTO to see if the equipment would run.

For our tractors, you can remove the bucket and then put on the different attachments. We have a seperate hay spear that has two “tines” so we can pick up large square bales of hay (we have picked up 2 x 800lb bales with our JD and our new Kubota can pick up 3800lb) and it is also used to move skids around. Very handy attachment for us.

You will need to know the hp of the tractor and the hp of the PTO as that will tell you what you can run on the PTO (for grass cutters, bush hogs etc) or lift up (for bucket or hay fork etc). This is very important when you are shopping. You will need an idea on what you will be lifting or cutting, then you can go tractor shopping. You can find the specs (HP and FEL weight lifting capabilities) if you google the year and model of the tractor that you are looking at. This way at least you will have a starting point. Or you can call a dealership of the brand that you are looking at as they should also be able to tell you the info on it.

Its no fun either over or under buying equipment, it can get very expensive!

Someone mentioned weights for the back of the tractor, this is also important, but you can also load the tires. We have had one tractor with a weight sticking out on the back, but it was more cumbersome as you had to be very mindful in tight spaces - you needed really wide turns when it was added on. We now just load the tires and its much easier as you dont have the weight stuck out behind you, plus when the weights were on, you couldn’t use the PTO so it was constant switching back and forth.

[Fairview_Horse_Cente]

My JD Compact tractor can pick up 650 lbs. A round bale is 800-1500, so not going to happen.

[btswass]

Agree that you aren’t going to be able to lift a round bale with a compact tractor.

Also compact tractor mower decks go under the tractor, not behind so you won’t have to worry about balancing weight. If you are carrying heavy weight in the FEL you will need to balance the back. We bought a kubota BX25 and it comes with FEL and backhoe. Can’t remember if the 3 point hitch was included or extra. We got a 60 in mower deck.
If you get this tractor (or something similar that has a backhoe) I suggest getting a backhoe cart thing to store the backhoe on when you don’t need it, which is most of the time for us. You can’t leave the backhoe standing on its own because the hydraulics will eventually go down and it will fall over…then you have a real fun time trying to get it back standing…and get grease on one of your favorite pairs of pants because you didn’t change when you got home from work…:no:

Also adding and removing attachments seems really hard and time consuming the first time you do it but it does get easier

[Jim_in_PA]

btswass, the solution for the BH is to almost never remove it. Mine is rarely off my BX-22, an ancestor of your BX-25. I did have a mower deck originally, but “back then” there was no quick attachment, etc., and it was a hassle dealing with a 300+ lb mower deck when the machine was going to be used for ground work. Sold the deck and bought a ZTR to mow and haven’t looked back. Great machine and the only maintenance I’ve had to do is occasionally replace a hydraulic hose or three as they degrade over time.

That said, the weight lifting capability of a sub-compact isn’t going to touch round bales for sure as we all know; however, some of the larger compacts have the lift capacity on the 3 pt to use a rear mounted spear successfully. A FEL with a bucket of stone isn’t a horrible idea for balancing things out, however.

[julesp313]

Wow, thank you everyone, so much! I haven’t had chance to get back until now and to see all this info is really great.

The used tractor we are going to see this weekend is a Kubota 33hp/27PTO - now, I don’t know so much what that means but our friend the farmer said we will need that size or a bit larger to move round bales. I’m trying to find that sweet spot between large enough to be safely balanced moving round bales, but not so large that it’s cumbersome or a pain to use. We have a riding mower that we will use on the lawn (aka the grass exempt from the horses, as my husband says) and we will probably get a used ATV for smaller jobs, like transporting wood and dragging the small pens, so the tractor would be mostly for the round bales plus the heavy work like clearing manure piles.

Edited to add - this one is 4WD. Given the ridiculous rain we’re having right now, I know without a doubt we will need 4WD pretty much every spring. And probably in the winter for plowing. And…yeah, all the other times of the year too!

Curious - if you don’t have hay forks, how do you use a front end loader to move a round bale? Do you roll it and just push it with the bucket?

[vineyridge]

My F250 diesel got stuck in the pasture a few weeks ago. I tried to pull it out with my JD 879 2500 lb tractor with 300 pounds of front weights and the mower deck attached, which also adds weight. We finally managed to do it, with someone in the truck, the truck in gear and the wheels moving, but my tractor front end lifted several times and we hopped forward. It was quite scary. These little tractors just don’t weigh enough to lift a round bale.

Look up the tractor on the internet and find out what it weighs. If it doesn’t weigh at least 4000 pounds to which you can add weights, I’d pass for round bales. You can fill the rear tires with water to add weight–at least you can with mine.

What I do with huge 5x6 round bales is pick them up from the seller with my truck and a trailer and then roll them off the trailer in the place I want them with the tractor. The 870 can do that. But it’s hard to control where the bales stop roling, and I can’t place them accurately. I certainly can’t lift them.

[julesp313]

Rear lift at ends - 2,139lbs. Rear lift at 24" - 1,676 lbs. round bales here typically weigh between 900-1,200 lbs so this sounds like it may do. I would not be using it to stack the bales but move them from a row to the pasture, so I wouldn’t anticipate needing to life them high - the gates are wide enough to move through without lifting over. I know in this bigger is likely better, but then we’re getting into large machinery that won’t be as useful elsewhere. It is a dilemma!

[Jim_in_PA]

A bale spear on the 3pt may be the better choice for moving round bales than using the loader or forks up front, purely from a balance standpoint. What model is the Kubota you’re looking at? It would be easier to provide more information with that fact.

[vineyridge]

@julesp313

Rear lift at ends - 2,139lbs. Rear lift at 24" - 1,676 lbs. round bales here typically weigh between 900-1,200 lbs so this sounds like it may do. I would not be using it to stack the bales but move them from a row to the pasture, so I wouldn’t anticipate needing to life them high - the gates are wide enough to move through without lifting over. I know in this bigger is likely better, but then we’re getting into large machinery that won’t be as useful elsewhere. It is a dilemma!

Not so sure with a real utility tractor you would necessarily be getting a “big” tractor. My Ford 3930, a true utility tractor, only had 50 engine horsepower and 45 at the PTO. It was, to my thinking, the perfect tractor for what you are looking for. I’d look for the smallest Kubota M series tractor (the 46 horse one) you can find if you are looking for Kubotas. In John Deere that would be the 5E Series. They are still 3 cylinder motors and just more capable than the compact utility tractors, which used to just be called compact tractors. They are great for mowing, for moving, for pulling trailers, for pulling vehicles, for anything that needs pulling. The FEL can be larger with more capacity and more weight lifting capability.

Don’t stint on your tractor. For the kind of work you will be doing, it will outlast you.

[julesp313]

Jim - it’s a 2013 B3350. Based on the info I’m getting, it may be too small to be safely used how we plan on using it. We’re going to pop to the dealer today and check it out. They also carry new John Deere machines so we’ll see what the next size up would run us. Last thing I want is to be struggling with an undersized machine.

Vineyridge - I think we will need to look at a bigger one, as I mentioned above to Jim. I was at the Horse Expo yesterday and they had a round bale there (showing off the slow feed nets) and those suckers are huge!

[Bluey]

We don’t have a bale spear, use the pallet forks to move big bales.
With those, you can spear them high or low, you can pick them from below, you can push them around, stand them up on end, works better for us than spear points for bales.

Those same pallet points are great to pick up and transport practically everything by themselves, or putting an empty pallet on them lift people to do overhead jobs, carry hay bales or feed sacks, concrete mix sacks, fencing supplies, you name it.

We also built but they sell pallet fork extensions, so you can carry bigger, bulkier stuff than the regular pallet forks can reach to carry, always mindful of the weight you put on them.

We built a pallet fork crane and a pallet point two story scaffold cage to work overhead when we built the covered arena, your imagination is the limit to what you can do.

A bucket and pallet forks are indispensable and will do practically all that a tractor needs to do, including moving big bales, if the tractor is big enough, of course.

[Jim_in_PA]

I agree with Bluey that pallet forks are very useful…especially if it’s a quick-attach setup that replaces the bucket and the tractor is balanced enough to handle the intended lifting loads.

[julesp313]

Leather - I appreciate that you think we may be handy enough to do something like that! The husband is mechanically inclined but unless it’s a car or airplane, it ain’t getting fixed!

Bluey and Jim - thank you for the info and ideas. I am learning a lot here!