TexasOaks

We havebeen using a truck to pullour disk for our food plot planting, but know wewantto get a tractor forour property. I have heard the brands to go withareJohn Deere and Kabota.

Our family needsa tractor that can dig out ponds,do road work, hall rocks, disk, plow, mowing; Iguess weneed onepretty much to do a lot of work.

Any recommendations on what tractors to buy, horse power recommendations, etc.We have neverbought a tractorbefore and need some guidance,but guessing wewill need around 50 to 60 horse power tractor?

Thanks for any help,

TexasOaks

psandhu

i have a 35hp deere. that's enough hp for me. the hardest thing it is asked to do is plow clay or packed sod with a 2 bottom plow

Texas Hog Hunter

We have a 64hp JD. It will do pretty much anything we want. Any dealer will tell you to buy as much horsepower as you can afford. As far as digging ponds, you'll need a doser. A front end loader on an agriculture tractor is not made to handle the abuse, You will be able to do all of the other items mentioned though. I don't know how much you have to plant, mow, disk etc... but you will be much happier with big equipment 10'+ as opposed to smaller 5-8' equip. We plant around 15 acres for food plots and it takes for ever with our 6' disk. We are going to buy a 10-12' soon. We just purchased a 12' grain drill and I can't wait to use it. Going up this weekend to fertilze and spray and herbicide and plant cowpeas with it the next weekend. Like I said go with bigger implements and a bigger tractor unless you plan on doing less the 4-5 acres or you have lots of time on your hands.

My .02 cents.

TexasOaks

Thanks for the reply guys, we areplanting 2 acres or less food plots; our land is mostly all hard wood trees. On the subject of pond digging, I just want to dig a little deeper the ones we already have, not start from scratch. Does that make a big difference.

Texas Hog Hunter

Agricultural tractors in general aren't designed to handle the pressure and abuse from pushing around lots of dirt. If you wanted to take a scoop at a time, I guess you could, but it would take lots of time in comparison to using a doser. You can rent a doser relatively cheaply for a couple of days to do what you want to do, and not have to worry about tearing up a perfectly good tractor.

TexasOaks

Makes sense, thanks

Oklahunter

Check out a company called Montana Tractors, they have a John Deere Motor, and they are about half of the price.

falcon

Go buy a used Kubota with low hours, save a bunch.

npaden

There are a lot of things that you need to sort out IMO. I know you live a couple hundred miles from where you will be using the tractor. Are you going to haul it back and forth or leave it on the property? Do you have a place to leave it? Up to a 40 - 50 hp tractor can be pulled by a 1/2 ton pickup but over that and you are going to have to have a bigger truck and trailer.

For 2 acres of food plots you could do fine with a 30hp tractor, but you may be suprised when you go to pick up a large rock and find out that it won't lift it. My 45hp tractor will lift about 1,700lbs with the Front end loader and I still find myself wishing it would pick up more.

You would be suprised at how much dirt you can move with a tractor with a front loader and a box blade. It might take a while but I think you could dig down a 1/2 acre pond several feet with a 40 - 50 hp tractor in a few days. I'm sure a bull dozer would be faster, but I have no idea how much it would cost.

Another consideration is how manuverable the tractor is if you are getting it in and out of a bunch of trees. At 50 hp you are at the largest "compact" tractors and at the smallest "utility" tractors. The compact tractors will manuver a little easier and are lighter than the utility tractors.

Just a few ideas to get you started.

npaden

This sounds easy, but in my experience it was pretty hard to find a used Kubota with low hours that wasn't just 10% or so less than a new one. I had finally resolved to just buy a new one and had about pulled the trigger on a brand new 50hp Kubota when I found a 10 year old 45hp Kubota with 930 hours for about $10,000 less. (I got it for $12,000).

To find one you need to check online, check your local paper, and it actually took me almost a year before I found the one I bought.

Here's a website that has a lot of used equipment - http://www.tractorhouse.com/