We haven’t purchased the property yet but I’m looking at places from 5 or 6 acres up to about 25 acres. If we end up with 25 acres, it likely won’t all be usable as I really only want my own 3 or 4 horses. Any more and you have to start thinking about hiring help and I don’t want to deal with that hassle.
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A dump trailer for the tractor would not work as well as the UTV for me, because I use the UTV to haul manure to a central community manure dump for disposal. That is 8 miles round trip. If I had to pull a dump trailer there with my tractor (top tractor speed is 9 mph), that would be an hour trip. Top speed for the UTV is 25 mph, so I am done in 20 minutes.
I did start my manure disposal journey with a spreader. After first buying the farm, I did not own a pickup or a UTV, just the tractor. I was reluctant to start hauling manure to the dump in my Lexus SUV. So I bought a drop spreader (Newer brand). That was not a good move, since the Newer spreader would constantly clog with wet manure. That is when frustration with the spreader led me to buy first a pickup, and then the Mule a couple of years later.
When I bought the farm, I had the opportunity to add the adjacent 6 acres, for an 11 acre total. I thought seriously about it, since that acreage would have qualified me as a real farmer and the associated tax breaks. I had grandiose plans for the additional acreage, like building a cross-country schooling course. But common sense took over; 5 acres and a few horses is plenty to manage for me at my age.
However, if I’d bought the extra land and just let it sit for the past 10 years I could have sold it and made a tidy profit. It was $10,000 per acre then, and now it is $50,000 per acre.
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I have 32 acres but only about 15-16 acres fenced. I do hire out mowing the big pasture because it is hilly and I don’t like mowing on hills. My mower guy has a batwing mower and can do it in 2 to 3 hours. All of the property had been in hay fields but the half across the creek was not as established as this half and did not have water and power. So I let the trees grow up over there and it is now my wildlife reserve. Nobody is paying 10k per acre around here much less 50k so I don’t think it will make me rich. It is also a visual barrier to block out the neighbors and that is priceless.
Having a DH who is a JD old tractor fan, I can’t really weigh in on this thread having more tractors and attachments than are rational… except to say - watch for start-ability in the cold weather. We have gas for easy starts in the winter. And the skid steer is the WORST - it does NOT like to start in the cold (yes, we live in the cold north where oil pan or block heaters are normal) - the skid steer is still really unhappy.
[as a kid - I thought all cars came with electrical plugs in the front and were plugged in for cold weather…]
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We got some parts for our older hay equipment from Shoups. You might like to check with them for parts. They included a thick catalog of various maker’s parts with our order, which I find easier to use when looking for things. Or call and ask for help at the phone number.
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Going to disagree with George on getting a hydrostatic transmission/shifter. We see a LOT of the engine power wasted, not available, when needed. This is compared to the manual shift on tractors. I would not buy anything with the hydrostatic shifting.
We learned this by renting a much bigger HP tractor with the hydrostatic shifting to clear land, mow brush on our new property. Husband thought the littler, 24HP Kubota would not manage the tasks as well as a bigger tractor. Rented tractor really surprised us with not being powerful enough to get our jobs done. Even just mowing taller brush with mower raised, it struggled to get thru. Not great at dragging brush and cut trees of modest size either. Yes it had 4WD.
We sent it back and used the little tractor for clearing jobs, it never slowed down. Didn’t need 4WD doing the same jobs either! Kubota is a manual shift with high and low range gearing.
Husband later talked to “real farmer” friends who had nothing good to say about hydrostatic machines. All said get manual transmission if you mean to actually USE the machine for hard work, so all the engine HP is available for using.
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My take on hydrostatic transmissions is this.
A row crop tractor is better with a manual transmission. You are going at steady speeds in usually straight lines. Notice that the bigger tractors used for hauling grain carts or harrowing or plowing or hay baling do not typically have front end loaders (there are exceptions of course).
If you are using a tractor for front end loader work to pick up and move dirt, manure and such, where you will be switching between forward and reverse a lot, then a hydrostatic transmission is the best option.
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You can pull the smaller manure spreaders behind your tractor and then drive out to spread.
In a pinch we have cleaned stalls into the tractor bucket and driven to the pasture and dribbled it like we were spreading it. If a big chunk fell out, use the blade or empty bucket backing up to spread it.
That’s essentially my plan. I am hoping to be able to set things up so I can rotate pastures (and have them live out 24/7 as much as possible) so the goal would be to spread on the resting field and mow, plus not have a ton of stall manure so hopefully would not overload the area(s).
Our property is about 7 acres, with about half devoted to horse stuff. We have a compact Kubota tractor and a CanAm side by side (no dump bed - don’t ask).
The CanAm gets used mostly to drag the ring. Love it for that. If it had a dump bed, I’d absolutely use it for manure. I sometimes pull the Gorilla cart with the side by side to dump manure, but I go in phases where I do that and other times I just pull the cart by hand or use a wheelbarrow. (I only have 3 horses.)
The tractor has mostly turned into a very expensive lawn mower. But I do use it to manage manure piles and to haul fallen branches and stuff around. And actually, I do have plans to use it to build out a small track on the property. For that, I bought a wood chipper that runs off the PTO and a ratchet rake that goes on the FEL. So I guess it’s one of those things that doesn’t get used a ton, but it is super useful to have when you need it.
I have two large compost piles at the end of the pasture away from civilization. After sitting for a year or so I test it and put it in my garden. Right now I am not using my spreader. I can clean 3 stalls into 2 muck tubs and the bucket, cram the tubs into the bucket, and get all of the stall cleanings out to the back of the pasture along the fence line. But I have about 15 acres to play with.
I have one borrowed horse that came in with bot eggs which I haven’t gotten all off of him yet. He is a pig and I take his stall cleanings up the road to my upper property to dump so as to not pollute my pasture. His little pasture is probably a parasite farm and I don’t let the other horses out there. I am not spreading his manure on my pastures so it would not be going in a spreader. This is a pain and I don’t recommend. Prior to this I could dispose of a days worth of cleaning not using my spreader - just one trip with the bucket and tubs.
Yes, this.
That forward/reverse/forward shift gets old after the Nth iteration when using the loader on a manual-transmission tractor. With me at the controls, a given loader job is done in half the time with my HST Ford vs my friends manual “GlideShift” Kuboda. Less tiring, too.
I’m not a farmer, I’m a horse-keeper on about 6 acres, and I use the loader a lot.
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If you want to keep horses into your later years then you want a tractor with a FEL. Consider this…My set up is I pull up to my stalls under the lean and pitchfork the urine and balls directly into the FEL and go dump in my compost pile. So easy on your body And switch from side to side whicle mucking. Keep both sides of your body even in strength and muscling.
While you’re at it if you put in Nelson waterers you take water off the table. Each gallon of water you lift is 8lbs. That adds up and is strain on your neck etc.
All less wear and tear on your body considering that for 25-30 years day in an day out you’re doing this work. I’ve seen barn work break people down that don’t have the tools to do the heavy lifting and do it ergonomically.
We have a JD 3320 Hydrostatic w FEL, forks, a blade and pull behind 7 ft mower and it’s all priceless in doing work. I also have muck buckets and from time to time muck and dump into the FEL but that’s only if the horses aren’t out in the pasture away from me motoring around the dry lot with the tractor. The FEL and back end implements have sharp corners and I don’t risk someone coming flying up and hitting any sharp corners.
The PTO on the tractor also comes in handy to hook up the spreader device that slings everything from grass seed and soil amendments in the fields, to mag chloride in the arena.
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I have six acres in Colorado with three horses, a barn, arena, and lots of landscaping. It can snow heavy here. I have a Polaris Ranger UTV with a dump bed and a lawn tractor. The implements I have are a snow plow and winch, a dump trailer, a tow behind sprayer (with pump that easily attaches to the battery on my lawn tractor), a seed spreader, a chain harrow (teeth for the gravel driveway and flipped over to drag manure in pastures), and a nice arena drag. Annually, I have a contract with the local landscaping company for snow removal deeper than 5 inches, and with an arena/dirt guy to do maintenance on my arena, driveway and horse runs (often involving adding rock, etc.). I think those annual costs more than offset the cost and maintenance of a tractor for me on my small property, BUT I don’t have to mow my whole property, only my irregated areas. There is usually only a couple of times a year when I wish I had a tractor, but I hire it out.
Depending on how much bush mowing you have to do, a person could get away with just a skid steer (wheeled is/can be cheaper) and sxs. We operate 40 acres w/ that set up (Ive got a 25 year old Case 1840 that is imo the best skid steer for the money). I rent a tractor and use my own bush hog 2-3 times a year for a weekend. I get all my cutting done, grade my drive, try to set posts that i need or will need. The attachments for tractors are much cheaper than skid steers. But the muscle and durability of say a Case 1840 or 1845c put them way ahead of a tractor if the scenario is tractor or skid steer. Eventually i hope to get a small 2 series tractor, but for now renting and using my own attachments works great.
As for sxs vs 4wheeler. We have both, but primarily use the sxs (honda pioneer 700-don’t like to much “sport”, not enough work, not strong enough for me either), for comfortability and efficiency. I use my 4w (Honda Forman 450-Love it) in the woods a lot of the time and its more fun to ride around. But work wise the sxs is far too valuable. Fill the bed with tools and material, and your set for the day. Plug in your 20 gallon weed sprayer and get all your fence lines. Attach your arena drag (ABI Arena Rascal) , haul around a small trailer, even get a round bale trailer and you could make an argument for not needing skid steer/tractor for a brief period of time.
Trailers! So many trailers are needed. Dump trailer, flat bed, utility, equipment. All these things need to go to the shop to be maintained/repair and its so much cheaper to diy rather than pay them to come pick it up. I hated putting my zero turn on 20foot flat bed, but my sxs was too long and my skid steer was to heavy for my utility.
I think you are doing right by reaching out here. If i were doing it again, i would read through forums and watch youtube about what multitasking skills everything has before buying anything. I would rent for as long as possible to see 1- how much muscle you need out of your equipment 2-what I/we say you need vs. what you find out you really do or don’t need. Maybe you find out you need a backhoe attachment, which would really push away from the skid steer and into the tractor. Im at a point that i could justify buying a miniex in the next 2 years. LLC your farm and all these are tax deductions, which isnt free but certainly helpful.
Best of luck.
A well running compact tractor with 4 wheel drive and a FEL, and a zero turn mower. Subcompacts with belly mowers are really just big lawn mowers and you won’t be able to life a lot with them. We have a old tractor without 4x4 so we occasionally need to rent a skidsteer. I added a 4 wheeler because I have utterly failed to learn the 75 different gear shifts on the tractor and I drag and pull a small spreader with that.
If we had the money originally I would have bought a new tractor and been done.
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