I have a Kubota Grand L3240D which has a wonderful adjustable 3 point hitch that makes life really easy. (32hp)
Pic of the hitch;
https://manualzz.com/doc/o/14bj4q/kubota-l3240--l3540--l3940--l4240--l4740--l5240--l5740-op…-three-point-hitch-and-drawbar
The hitch is usually the piece that drives you crazy. Do not be afraid to buy used from a dealer.
I disagree. We have a 24 HP tractor for our 15 acre farm and it does everything we need. It’s small size also makes it very agile.
Re: the dispute about appropriate sizes: The dealbreaker is handling round bales. If you’re never going to handle round bales and/or pull haying equipment, 32 HP or less will probably be fine.
If you want to handle even small round bales, you’ll want more tractor.
For me, being able to feed round bales is what makes it possible for me to keep horses cheaply, and being able to help our neighbor with haying with our tractor makes the round bales very reasonable.
So I wouldn’t want anything smaller than 45 HP. But your needs may be different.
OP, if you are not sure what you want, you can lease one with a contract to buy after so long.
You will be out only the lease fee if you decide on something else.
Dealers are not getting all they want, your choices may be smaller than normal.
You may want to think of getting whatever they have, not have to wait months for exactly what you want, with you really don’t know what that may be.
Going to have to see if I can get this in New England!
What type of terrain? I bought a new to me 25HP Massey Ferguson this summer. I love it. 60inch belly mower makes mowing fairly painless and quick. But, my 5 acres to mow is nice pasture. Has a wee 48 inch FEL which is just big enough for what I need. Downside to 25HP is really isn’t enough to run a 5’ brushog and running 4’ is tiresome. Certainly if you need to move round bales you will need to go to 30-35HP for heft and reach. Also agree buy what is best supported locally by service. Thankfully I have a pretty brand agnostic “tractor guy”. Though he prefers “green” 
Buy, you won’t regret it. I got by with a lawn tractor for a year, doable but not fun. Tractors are fun!
There are lots of people here that love their small tractors but personally, I wouldn’t go less than 55 hp.
We started with a 55 hp tractor but quickly outgrew it. It was pretty great for getting into small spaces and having a good turning radius but we just found that we needed a bigger arena drag, bigger rotary cutter, and more FEL capacity. We ended up trading it in for a 70 hp 2 years later.
You also need to decide if you want a hydrostatic or shuttle shift tractor. I think the hydrostatic option ends around the 50 to 60 hp range. I’ve had both types but prefer shuttle shift. If you haven’t used a tractor much, hydrostatic is very simple to drive.
And, cab or no cab? I vote cab. Air conditioning, heat and a stereo make my tractor one of my favorite places to be!
I love these 2 quotes:
I thought about starting a thread to ask, at what hp is hydrostatic no longer an option?
Anyone know for sure? I was asking my club why they don’t buy a hydrostatic tractor and they told me a hydro wouldn’t pull the arena drag. So I was thinking much lower, ?40 hp? for the limit.
For the OP, my 27 hp tractor with FEL (4 ft? 5 ft? wide) has done most everything I need, but with 8 acres to mow I think you’ll want a bigger mower. I have a 60" belly mower.
Can you clarify this?
Do you mean a 3 pt hitch + PTO? PTO isn’t a “hitch” really. I’ve managed without PTO but have used the 3 pt hitch for a rear blade and rake.
We have found the hydrostatic transmission to have “less oomph” than the same hp in a stick shift machine. Other folks we talk too say the same, not the power they expect from a machine of that size. One hydrostatic tractor we rented to brush hog new acres overgrown with heavy weeds, 40 hp?, barely got the job done with a 6ft brush hog running fast or slow. We didn’t know the ground, what was under the weeds and did not want to hurt my small tractor which was all we owned at the time.
Tractor stick is not like cars, you start in the gear you want, ease out the clutch pedal to go. Seldom any up or down shifting while moving. Easier to stop, reduce throttle, change gears and THEN go. I prefer the stick because it is so easy to finesse things when needed, ease forward or back with the clutch.
A funny thing when we were tractor shopping for the small one, was that everyone (horse folks) driving the green machines (all sizes and features) were ready to sell it to you in a heartbeat! The Kubota folks were only willing to sell if they wanted to change to a bigger or smaller machine. Otherwise they would give us the side eye, tell us “You can only get it if you pry it out of my cold dead hands!” And that was a number of Kubota owners saying that! It was funny at the time, but I feel the same myself now! Ha ha Life is much easier with it to use.
Our Kubota is a L2600 with a LB400 FEL. Bucket is 5ft wide, easily handles 5ft wide PTO drive mowers we already had with the old Ford 8N tractor… It is older, we found it used, very low hours, though we have put a lot more on it, mostly mowing. No quick hitch in front. We do not feed big round bales, only small squares.
Wow so many responses! Thank you!
So more about what I plan on doing with it. I have 10 acres, and it’s 100% cleared. We have like 10 trees total. For the past 15+ years a farmer has been haying most of it. However, pending prices on wood, the horses are supposed to be coming home next spring. The place came with some tractor attachments, so I’ll need to head out to the barn and see what they are. Ones a pull behind mower, I know that.
I only use small square bales, no round bales. I’m not sure on what type of arena drag I will get yet because we haven’t decided on the footing yet; I have to build it still. But I will look at my top choices and see if they have drag requirements.
I spread my manure immediately after its out of the stalls, however my horses are only stalled for about 2.5 months so it works well for the pastures. So I shovel it immediately into the spreader. The spreader is a little one, I pull it with the side by side so I’m not concerned about it’s weight.
We usually get one or two days of snow, and it’s usually so little I don’t even bother clearing my driveway 
so that’s not much of a concern to me.
The idea of haying my own hay sounds intriguing but I really don’t have the land to do that.
I do have a bunch of building to do. About 4000 ft of fencing, barn, arena, etc. I’ll be doing most of it myself, and planned on renting the equipment but it might be worth it to ‘upgrade’ so I can do some of it with the tractor.
Currently I rent a place for my horses and their tractor and kubota side by side both broke at the same time. So I have no way to do anything right now, and will probably be finding a used gator/side by side to use until I decide on the tractor. So that’s what pushed me to think ‘oh yeah, I should probably get one of those now’.
I will definitely be getting new, or at least pre-owned from a dealership. I just feel more comfortable with a warranty on it.
I think the quick hitch system is a must have. I’m thinking the 4WD Is probably a good choice too, even though it’s an upgrade.
Do I really need the AC/heated cab? I was thinking about skipping it. Or is it really worth it to get the upgrade?
I think I answered all the questions, let me know if I didn’t
How many hours a day will you be on it and can you take the weather for that many hours?
My pops has a big cab tractor and it’s nice n all but $$$
It sounds like the equipment you have does what you need right now–the manure spreader is small and goes behind the ATV. You don’t need to move big bales, or snow. You don’t compost, so no need for a FEL to move the pile.
A zero turn is a better tool than a tractor to mow.
That leaves building fence & the arena. To build fence, a PTO driven auger will work, but a post pounder is better. A pounder needs a larger tractor than an auger. Arena groomers have their own specs.
Tractors get $$$$$ pretty quickly as you go up in HP. You’ll want to right size it to avoid overspend. It might be helpful to make a list of all the things you need the tractor to do, then how you plan on accomplishing those tasks. That should give you an idea of how much tractor you need.
You don’t need a heated/AC cab.
As far as the attachments that come with the farm, make sure the tractor you ultimately get is rated to use them. This info should be in your owner’s manual for the tractor. For instance it can pull a 5’ mower or 6’ blade, etc.
I have a YT359C, its great! Didn’t cost as much as my house, I don’t need to learn how to drive stickshift, does everything I need and more.
If you don’t have to shovel your driveway you don’t need a heated cab (or any cab) IMO
For us the cab is to protect us from the sun.
And for us, in the summer, it’s protection from the bloodsucking flying insects and the ground bees.
Ohhh good point. We don’t really have mosquitoes here but the gnats can be so bad.
Isn’t the cab mostly see-through? They do make canopies for tractors (I think that’s the right word) and I’m sure they’re much less $$ than a cab.
Well, not the roof. LOL.
If I lived in a southern climate I would definitely get the cab for sun protection and AC. I can’t imagine anything more likely to prevent me from mowing 8 acres than getting heatstroke and a sunburn every time I did.
Likewise, if I thought I’d routinely be on my tractor for more than an hour in the snow I would get a cab. I don’t have one, but I rarely use it for that long in the winter, as mowing is the most time consuming job on my farm. Occasionally I might have snow cleanup after a big storm but I don’t usually have to do it non-stop for more than an hour.
It’s more money, sure, but honestly, if you’re financing a $20k+ vehicle, comfort is important.
It will also protect the seat, gears, etc., which is important.
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