100% agree with this. 4wd is not negotiable.
Get the right size tractor for your farm. My JD 2320 works terrific on my small place but might not be enough for someone with 6 or more acres. We have a FEL, box blade, rake, brush hog and paddock blade. The tractor is not large enough to pick up large round bales with a spear but I can move them into place by pushing them.
Congratulations on the farm!
Terrain is a big factor in a tractor. We live on a ridge and all of our pastures have significant slope. Our driveway goes a half mile down the side of a mountain. Our old Kubota at 24 HP couldnāt plow the driveway. The NH 35 HP deals with it easily.
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Our first ranch tractors decades ago were 35 hp and we did all we needed with them, moving materials with the bucket, shredding with bushhog, grading with blade, the only useless tractor tool was the pto post hole driver and today they have hydraulic ones that work great with that little hp.
Also it has a low weight limit, wonāt lift big loads, like a concrete mix pallet, or big bales.
You have to work around itās limits, unload half too heavy pallets before lifting, push big bales around, etc.
I think for any real work 35 hp is the minimum that will, with a little imagination, do most any we may want to do with a tractor, any place, being careful of itās limits.
For small barns with smaller jobs for your tractor, the smaller tractors wonāt quite do as much, but they will fit better in small spaces and store in little corners and cost less.
Generally many people move up to bigger tractors and the smaller ones are easier to find in better shape and cheaper used.
I would not buy a place for the first time and buy a tractor before you know what all you need to do with one.
Learn first what jobs you need done, see what others doing similar jobs in your area use, see that you have a good tractor service locally and then decide what brand and size tractor you need.
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I have a 7 acre farm and I manage with a pickup truck and ATV with tow-behind mower. I chose the ATV because Iām also maintaining trails on neighbouring property. If I wasnāt doing trails, Iād go for a tractor and brush hog as the brush hog is more robust than a tow-behind mower. Around here Lymes disease is prevalent so I have to keep all the grass short to manage ticks.
Weāve got 5 acres and Iāve got an ancient Deere 650 with FEL. Itās not going to be a beast, ever, but itās easy to work on and maintain - no computer junk to fool around with. For the big jobs Iāll rent something.
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I have an antique Ford 8N. It doesnāt have a FEL but it has been very reliable and super easy to work on. Weāve done fine hiring out, renting equipment, trading with the neighbors with bigger equipment etc. The Ford has been super useful and I canāt imagine being without it!
If I wanted to feed rounds or had more horses (and thus more manure), a bigger tractor with FEL and grappler would seem worth it. As it is, Iām more likely to invest in an upgraded side by side before upgrading the tractor.
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Your utility vehicleās usage will probably depend on your landscape, terrain, and needs. We do not have a tractor, but we do have a Bobcat Skid-steer and a Polaris Ranger. Both are incredibly handy but if I had to only have one, it would be the Skid-steer.
That being said a skid-steer is not cheap. I was lucky that ours is leftover from the construction business. It is expensive to repair, difficult to fix as far as machinery goes, but it is probably my favorite machine because of its versatility. I used it to knock down trees (sorry trees! I tried to transplant as many as possible, also with the skidsteer) and make a bridle path. Itās used to plow in the winter. We use it to scrape the paddocks twice a year. Itās used to bring the roundbale out. We used it a few years ago to lift an engine out of my truck ( 
). We use it to refresh the stonedust in the congregation area two times a year. It is used for everything.
The Ranger is really just used as a glorified goat hay cart, and sometimes we load manure into its bed to dump - but for the most part, it is not as manueverable and it also can get stuck much easier than the skidsteer can.
I think a tractor could possibly address some of the things we use the skidsteer for, but itās not as maneuverable and on some level a skidsteer is better for landscaping/paddock maintenance.
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The JD 2320 weāve got is 24 hp and has been very serviceable for our 15 acres. I use the crap out of it for all sorts of heavy tasks, like moving logs and brush, moving rock (building a dry stack stone wall, have about 80 feet done!), and weāve used it to move large square bales up to 700#s. Iāve pulled a 1800# chipper through the woods with it. We had a pto post hole digger and while it wasnāt the speediest, it did get the job done.
Some of those things would probably be faster with a bigger machine, but ours is also very nimble and can get into tighter spaces than something bigger. Thereās definitely a trade off.
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I covet a track-steer personally butā¦ Whatever you decide you want, Iād try to get accepted into the old farmer man kaffeeklatsch wherever thatās held and find out who the best service department is around and shop with them. Nothingās much use if itās broken and you canāt get it fixed well.
I wanted a skid steer for the same reasons @beowulf mentioned, but frankly I donāt think I know anyone who owns one who doesnāt beat the absolute dog poop out of it, so I didnāt feel comfortable buying used and I certainly canāt afford a new one.
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Thatās a fair point. I have a flat property and no mud. My gas powered golf cart gets cranked more than my daily driver truck. I love that golf cart and use it for everything multiple times per day. I only want to upgrade for a dump bed and a bit more speed.
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You want the Ricky Bobby model! Haha
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They are stupidly expensiveā¦ 
I would never be able to afford one on my own, I was lucky my familyās business was in contracting / construction and this was a leftover when the family business dissolved. We also have an excavator and a bulldozer - both approaching half a century old, but useable nonetheless.
You can get them used, but like you said, a lot of them have long hours in construction and/or landscaping. Theyāre not quite like cars in terms of their depreciation, and even 20+ y/o skidsteers can go for a lot. Ours is a 2000 model IIRC. If you are somewhat mechanically inclined, you can replace parts or issues as they come up, but parts are quite expensive and sometimes its best to take it to a mechanic specializing in them. We replaced the turbo a few years ago and it was nothing like replacing a turbo in a car. I was not prepared for the level of complexity for it.
Re: the Ricky Bobby modelā¦ thanks for the laugh. The Polaris is pretty fun, you can find used ones cheap. Iāve only flipped ours onceā¦ with a load of poop in it too.
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My dad bought a skid steer. And then promptly built a mechanic shop to work on it. 
Faster for him to work on it than take it back and forth for service non stop when it tears up lol.
Itās super handy for cleaning accumulated manure though. Nothing else compares.
Iām able to clean more often so donāt get that accumulation.
ETA: Dad got his for a land clearing project. Heās building a tiny home neighborhood. He just happens to use the skid steer to clean the run in and hay area for the horses. Itās the land clearing that tears up the skid steer; not pushing poop. Just wanted to be clear
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Even my baby tractor has a leaking front driveshaft seal right now, and as a 1981 model Iām concerned if I tear it down that I wonāt be able to find parts. Soā¦ I just keep putting a little gear oil in it to keep up with the leak.
Maybe Iāll find the time and inclination to get after it, late summer.
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They are outrageously powerful for their size, and SO maneuverable. I donāt plan on too much accumulated anything, with 2 (MAX 3) horses on site, so Iām hoping my little tractor can just keep taking the licking.
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Ditto on horse numbers.
My little tractor has been very sufficient. Can do a lot with the scraper blade hooked to the PTO as far as pushing a poop pile or any manure that happens to get ahead of me. Itās happened a couple of times that Iāve been sick or my backās out or crazy at work or whatever and weāve used the scraper to push poop in the dry lot into piles. As long as done fairly regularly itās fine.
The skid steer is a cool machine no doubt. They can be rented though 
I do need a Ricky Bobby side by side. So I can race Mr LS on his mini bike
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I will chime in in favor of a compact tractor, with a loader. I would suggest getting four wheel drive, and a hydrostatic transmission.
I have owned a skid-steer, and it did some jobs better than the tractor, but given a decent selection of attachments, the tractor is far more versatile. I have a scraper blade, a mower deck, an auger, a boom-sprayer, a hay-spear, a tow/ball attachment, and a 500lb counterweight that fit the 3-point. Years ago, after my skidloader died, I got a āquicktachā adapter for the tractor loader, and so can use the old Bobcat attachments (a better bucket, and a set of pallet forks) as well.
As far as a Quad/ATV? I can see where something like a Gator might come in handy on a large property. I have a vintage Cushman Truckster, with a hydraulic dump bed that serves as my muck cart, and doesnāt do much of anything else except take up space in the barn.
My little Ford 1620 tractor is the property workhorse tho, and is the one that gets pampered. In fact, I need to run it this morning; I have two vintage snowmobiles I would like to convert to one running one so I can sell it. Easiest way to get them up into the barn so I can work on them is to pick them up with the tractor loader and carry them there. Other duties as assigned? The mighty Ford pulled one of the neighborhood kids out of a ditch a couple of weeks ago, where big brothers 4X4 pickup failed due to slimy mud. Itāsa goodāun.
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This is almost exactly what I was thinking! Follow up question - instead of a Mule, do you think you could accomplish what you need with a dump bed trailer for the tractor? My plan is to design the barn as a drive through so I wouldnāt have to back into the barn to muck into itā¦ Iām also considering a pull behind manure spreader for mucking but it will depend on the specific property we end up with if spreading makes more sense than managing a manure pile.
