*NECESSARY Farm Equipment? Please help!

[DunByMistake]

We got by for about 4 years without one but finally bit the bullet last year. With 0% interest loan, it’s hard to say no. I will say it’s the only thing I’ve ever made payments on that when the money comes out every month I think, that’s money well spent. You certainly can get by without one depending on how farm is set up and how much work needs to be done. But any work that requires heavy equipment will have to be hired out.

We now have a bucket, pallet forks, post hole auger and a pine straw rake. We have used our tractor to move hay, move manure, turn manure pile, plow snow, rake pine needles, dig post holes, run wire, pull chain harrows, lift appliances out of our basement and lift the rubber mats from horse trailer onto fence to wash. Plus the 100s of trips it’s made carrying posts or dirt or whatever back and forth across property. We bought a 50HP because I feed rounds and I refused to get a tractor unless it would lift 1400 lb bales.

The advantage of a tractor over any other piece of equipment to me is the variety of attachments. If you think, there has to be an easier way to do this - someone has probably figured out how to make a tractor do it. I spent 40+ hours last year raking pine needles by hand. This year, I knew there had to be a better way. Turns out they make a tractor attachment for that exact job. Took 2 hours to rake.

[lenapesadie]

The ZT does mow faster, but the tractor can do a lot more than mow. I don’t think of 21 acres as being overly small, even if half is wooded.

Obviously you can do it w out a tractor. You won’t be the only one.

[Texarkana]

That’s a lot of mowing you’ll have to keep up with on a regular basis if you’re going to try to do it with a zero turn. I know anywhere I have ever lived, if you get behind with mowing in growing season, you basically need a bush hog to take down the growth.

ETA: I had friends who tried to get by with a zero turn mower and a gator on a similarly sized property. They ended up having to hire someone with a tractor to bush hog on a semi-regular basis. They didn’t do well with farm life and only lasted a couple years, partly because I think they made things harder on themselves in many ways (like not buying a tractor).

[StormyDay]

You can get around not having a tractor but eventually you will cave in and buy one.
If you don’t have one, you will have to pay someone to bush hog the pasture at least a few times a year. Pay someone to come take your manure away. Probably pay someone to come drag your arena 4-5 times a year, because the chain drag won’t be enough to keep the footing good.

Overall a tractor just makes life easier, and there’s a lot of little jobs that you kind of need one for that you don’t think about at the beginning, like fence posts, or moving big stuff, or getting hay into the hay loft, etc.

IMO you need four big items to effectively run a farm;
A truck
A kubota/mule
A tractor
A mower

[walkinthewalk]

Yes you need a tractor.

IMHO, unless you have plenty of money, don’t waste your money on a zero turn — it can only do One thing and that is mow.

Equipment on a farm has to multi-task.

Those of us who were raised on farms and still have some acreage could preach until my father’s dairy cows “come in for milking” regarding the bare minimum you need for equipment on 21 acres.

Instead, as someone suggested, talk to a farmer, who does or does not live nearby, and ask what minimum equipment you can get by with and be prepared to have enough money to hire for the bigger jobs.

What does it mean that not all the land is in pasture? Can it be if it’s bush hogged? Or is woods? Or is it too full of boulders to be safe pasture? Swamp? What exactly?

FWIW, we have 25 acres. It’s all rolling pasture with one or two steep hills to bush hog.

Our equipment consists of:

1969 Ford 3000 farm tractor with a bush hog.
2004 John Deere 4110 (4-wheel drive) with a finish belly mower & FEL (front end loader)
2019 John Deere lawn tractor because the 2003 Husqavarna finally said “I’m done”.
Weedwacker
Chainsaws

We eventually worked out way to buying two used four wheelers that were swinging deals.

We eventually worked our way to a pull behind sprayer as our land is steep enough the co-op won’t come out.

You need a truck - a big truck, plus your economical daily driver.

ANNND all of the necessary tools to maintenance everything. Thankfully DH fixes 95+% of what goes wrong around here. That’s something else to think about, if you can’t do any repairs on equipment and simple repairs on buildings, do you have money to pay for it.

Before I got to where I couldn’t, I was capable of turning my own wrenches; I know how much money it saves. If you can’t even do simple things —— well just get with the program and learn:)

[McGurk]

Another vote for the tractor. I have seen people with very small properties manage with a zero turn and an ATV, but it means they have to hire out all the heavier work.

I also am curious about your plan for manure management - how much does it cost to have a manure dumpster? Dumping a wheelbarrow into a dumpster is the most labor intensive method - how many horses are you planning on having? Mucking directly into an FEL or a spreader pulled by a tractor is much fast/much less work…

Here’s what I would consider essential:

A tractor between 25 - 50 hp. If your property is hilly, get a tractor with 4WD and add weight to the tires.
A front end loader
A bush hog
A blade/grader box
A harrow. Can be homemade.
Forks or pallet points that attach to the FEL.

[Simkie]

@StormyDay

IMO you need four big items to effectively run a farm;
A truck
A kubota/mule
A tractor
A mower

What do you do with your mule that can’t be done effectively with a tractor? We’ve never felt the need, although it’s certainly on the “nice toy to have” list.

[Bluey]

Four wheel drive in the tractor is a necessity, don’t skip it.

We only have a tractor and zero turn mower for yard and smaller pens.
Tractor has hydraulic auger for fencing, post pounder, both bolt to the side of the bucket and a blade.
Pallet points and 7’ bushog for mowing pastures, barditches and fence lines.
We pull an arena drag with it very regularly.

Later we added an UTV, not a four wheeler, with an electric dump, but is mostly only used to pull the roping dummies for practice.
We do have a 500 gallon fire fighting wagon we water the arena with but our neighbor has been using it to fight fires, so he has been keeping it there and just driving it over to water, then back where it is handy to rush to a fire with.

Most any bigger jobs that take big machinery is better to contract them than owning that big machinery that won’t be used all day long to pay for it.

[Goforward]

We have 20 acres. We started with a 55 hp tractor and traded it in last year for a 70 hp. For us, a tractor is an absolute must have.
We also have an ATV, a zero turn and a gas powered golf cart. The only thing that doesn’t get used every day is the zero turn.
Once you’ve had your farm a while you’ll figure out what makes your day run most efficiently.
Our fuel budget for our on road vehicles went way down when we stopped driving to the boarding stable but the cost of fueling our farm vehicle fleet made up for it .

[NancyM]

Well I’m another one who can’t live without a tractor, so I’ll climb onto that bandwagon here. I just wanted to add… don’t be afraid of purchasing an older, used tractor. You do not need “new”. Older tractors were built to last, and, if they have had adequate care, will last well for you. The nice thing about older tractors is that they have little computerization in them, which means that they can often be successfully repaired and worked on by a local mechanic, rather than having to take them to a dealer EVERY time they need something done. Older tractors are “tougher” than new ones, like most vehicles (IMO).

We have three tractors, now on a160 acre farm, but previously on a 32 acre farm, and before that on a 20 acre farm, just the one on the previous two farms. We got away with just a smaller tractor on the smaller farms. We still have that small tractor, a 32 horse Kubota. It’s “my” tractor, and my husband calls it a “toy tractor”. But it runs cheap, very economical on diesel, has a very tight turning radius, runs hay rake, small square baler, snow blade in winter, mower deck in summer, harrow for the arena, and I can pick up our small round bales (600 lbs) with the FEL. It would also run things like a manure spreader etc, if you want one of those. If you can manage your own manure without using a bin and pick up service, this will save you a TON of money. We bought this little tractor new in 1996.
Our other favourate tractor is a JD 90 horse. She’s big, a 1976 model, and had 13,000 hours on her when we bought her. Her name is “The Green Bastard from Points Unknown” (from Trailer Park Boys). We bought her 15 years ago now, for $17,000 with a nose spike (bale spear) and jaws. She is still worth nearly that amount. That’s the thing about purchasing quality older farm equipment… they tend to keep their value, so it’s not actually “money spent”, it’s just a bank account that looks like a tractor. Keep telling yourself that!

[QHEventer]

@StormyDay

IMO you need four big items to effectively run a farm;
A truck
A kubota/mule
A tractor
A mower

Totally agree with this! Down the road, yes, you’ll likely want a tractor, but you can absolutely get by without one with a Mule/Gator plus a mower. I’ve had tractors in the past, but am currently without one and don’t miss it one bit. I have a newer spreader, a polaris ranger, and a lawn tractor/riding mower. The ranger has a winch in case we need to move fallen trees, and I pay someone to brush hog twice a year for far less than the yearly maintenance alone would cost on the tractor.

The Ranger can drag the ring, spray and fertilize, pull the spreader, move logs and branches, move hay, etc.

Do I plan to buy another tractor down the road? Possibly. But so far, I’ve been totally fine since selling the Kubota.

My advice would to make a list of all necessary chores around the farm and decide which piece of equipment checks the most boxes. Start with that and see how things go. You can add equipment as necessary. We went overboard and bought everything when we bought the farm, and have since sold off lots of unneeded equipment.

[StormyDay]

@Simkie

@StormyDay

IMO you need four big items to effectively run a farm;
A truck
A kubota/mule
A tractor
A mower

What do you do with your mule that can’t be done effectively with a tractor? We’ve never felt the need, although it’s certainly on the “nice toy to have” list.

For me the reasoning is time saving. Hauling water buckets, one bale of hay, tack to and from the horse trailer, picking up branches and stuff and being able to put them in the back, hauling tools around, etc. it’s a lot easier and faster to get in and out of what is essentially a souped up golf cart than the tractor.
I also use it for hauling the manure spreader, as it’s a lot easier to maneuver it than with the tractor, and for dragging in between my jumps when the full arena doesn’t need a drag. It’s a lot more nimble than the tractor and if I have to take all the jumps out of the arena and reset just to drag once a week, that’s 2 hours of work.
I would say for pure hours a week, the mule gets more work than the tractor. But I can concede that if someone said YOU MUST CHOOSE I will go with the tractor.

[lenapesadie]

I have a gas powered golf cart with a utility bed. Alas the bed doesn’t dump, but it’s the handiest piece of equipment. So easy to run materials here and there. It was cheap as dirt too!

It’s not tough enough to pull any kind of drag or anything but we love it anyways!

[S1969]

I’d say the #1 thing I use the tractor for that can’t be done any other way is manure management.

I have a smaller (but still powerful) garden tractor and it could be used to mow pastures, but just takes longer.

A mule/gator would be a nice piece of equipment to have in addition to a tractor, but without the tractor I would be in major trouble to manage manure.

Manure is HEAVY. So unless you are using a dumpster that you can dump into directly and someone else will remove it, I would not skip the tractor. I muck into a “bunker” that then needs to be emptied: scooped out, moved to piles in an ‘ugly’ area not too close to the barn, and then flipped/composted to break it down. That would be absolutely impossible without the tractor/FEL.

Of course once you have a tractor, then you can mow, plow, drag, haul, carry, scoop, clear, etc.

[clanter]

@S1969

and then flipped/composted to break it down

bury trimmings of hoofs from the farrier visit then the coyotes will turn the compost for you at least local the herd of coyotes do for me

[Ponycatraz]

I have 2 horses on 144 acres with a good ZTR (semi commercial) that I brushog and finish mow with. We will be adding a mule to the list soon. Also super important are the two brush cutters (weed whacked on steroids) we have.

Sold my tractor 5+ years ago and do not miss it. I can rent anything I need (and often better than i could afford) once or twice a year for less than replacing all the fluids in the tractor for yearly maintenance.

We always planned on getting a new tractor once when we really needed it. Never did and haven’t missed it.

My ZTR mows at 11mph and deals with everything from the front lawn to the feral scrub. My tractor mowed at 4 mph. I could never keep up with my mowing on it.

We want to add a mule to make trail maintenance easier. Mostly to haul the brush cutters, tools and gas to the back of the property and scout trails for riding.

IMHO get a good ZTR. Then see what you actually need. On our smaller place the ZTR was enough and we could get away using my husbands truck instead of a mule. See if you can rent what you need if you only have big projects a couple times a year. If you find you need a tractor or skidsteer more then look at buying.

I found when we rented a skidsteer actually worked better for our projects than a tractor. If we needed to buy I would look hard at trying to afford a skid steer.

[moonlitoaksranch]

I would hire a neighbor with the equipment necessary the first year or so until I figured out what I absolutely needed. Also, there are probably skills that need to be acquired before you’re ready to do all the management yourself. The worst thing is to buy a piece of equipment you don’t know how to maintain and have no way to take it somewhere to get it worked on when it does break (and it will). Tractors need maintenance. All farmers are amateur mechanics by necessity. Just remember, all horse and/or livestock owners are grass farmers first.

[Luseride]

A tractor with a bucket and a bushhog and or plow is vital. We used ours last night cutting a tree of the fence that had fallen. So many uses for it.

[frugalannie]

My DH refers to the equipment as my toys and winces whenever I suggest adding to the collection. We have 11 horses here, 60 dry acres, 17 acres in pasture and about 6 acres of lawn, some woods and some hayfields.

I use a commercial grade ZT to do the lawns. Takes me 4-6 hours. It’s very much a one trick pony but it’s lasted 16 years so far and I have used it on smaller paddocks at times.

We moved here with a Kubota L2850 that we bought used. It had an FEL and brush hog. We bought a rear mount snowblower for it but I sold it after a year as I couldn’t drive in the dark twisted around. This property came with a JD 955, FEL, York rake, chain drag, snow plow. We also brought an old JD 420 lawn tractor from our other place when we came. Funny thing is they all get used.

Over 16 years we’ve also acquired a front mount snowblower, finish mower, large dump cart, two small carts (one with a 300 gal water tank mounted on it), a spray tank, pallet forks, a cultipacker and a roller. Additional non PTO equipment we move around includes a log splitter and stump grinder. And we use it all, sometimes running both tractors concurrently to manage heavy snowfalls or field mowing.

Bottom line is we couldn’t manage this place with just two people and a ZT. Especially as we’ve gotten in our 70s we need the power the tractors provide. You will figure out what’s right for you after a couple of years. And you’ll also discover a market for what you want to exchange through sales!

[S1969]

@clanter

bury trimmings of hoofs from the farrier visit then the coyotes will turn the compost for you at least local the herd of coyotes do for me

Then my own dogs would be in there, too. No thanks. I have a FEL.