At times this can be marginal stement.

I've been in John Deere tractors all of my life. I love thelater models, it's some of the new models that are giving myself and other friends trouble.Just within the past two years I bought a new5525 cab enclosed utility, and 5425 cab enclosed narrow. I'm not happy with eitherone of them. They look beautiful......but feel and run......weak and chincey. In both tractors the differetial lock rattles so bad you can't hear the radio. In the narrow, there is a awful noise between 1200 and 1500 rpm's. You can't get away from it unless you run at low Rs or above 1500.JD's mechanichas come out twice, and simply stated there was nothing wrong, and that's just how they are. Three other friends that arefarmers have the same problem, and are having second thoughts about the new Deeres.

I think your choice to buy a Kubota is a good one. I hear alot of positve things about Kubota.

My cousins who are fairlylarge blueberry farmers have 6 John Deere narrows and Kubota narrow. Come disking and spraying time they all fight for the little orange.

Let me give a little history on myself...I'm 52, my dad was a Deere dealer and I was working on them by the time I was 13...Dad died when I was 20 and we had to sell the dealership...My first job out of college was with John Deere...Started as a Service Training Instructor, got promoted to Area Service Manager in Virginia and them promoted to Territory Manager in NC and later in GA....I stayed with them for 13 years, until the wife got tired of all the travel and her dad passed so we needed to come back to NC...

I taught the first service school on the John Deere 23 and 27 hp tractors, the 850 and 950, these are about the same size as the Kubota you are looking at...Guess who makes these tractors???

Yanmar Tractor, located in Japan.....

These are very good tractors, but frankly they are no better than a Kubota...

I would check out dealers in your area and see who carries the equipment that you want and take a peek at their Service Dept, sooner or later they will all break down....Price these units with the same equipment needed and see who gives you the better deal also, check out the finance program if you plan to finance...

Now, if you are talking a tractor for the farm, that is 120-180hp, I would take the Deere, hands down, I'm not sure what their market share is currently, but it used to be about 70%, in that size farm tractor...That's why you don't see International Harvester anymore, they got bought by Case back in the mid-80s...

Now...Deere has 3 different type dealers...Industrial, that carry bulldozers, backhoes, skidders, etc...Farm equipment that carry not only farm equipment but lawn and garden (including the smaller Yanmar tractors) and then Lawn and Garden....As a general rule, the Farm equipment dealers will have the better parts selection and mechanics that have more experience working on diesels than the Lawn and Garden dealers....

Finally, one advantage to Deere is that any parts ordered by 2:00pm today will be shipped overnight and in the dealer's hands the next morning...This is true for all 3 types of dealers...They run trucks overnight from the main parts depot in Moline to the sales branches (Atlanta for us) and then to the dealership...Since Deere sells so much equipment of all types they can afford to do this...I don't know how Kubota is set up for parts shipments....

Good Luck...

My buddies and I have had most all of them including Kubota. One that is gaining popularity around here is Mahindra, good stout tractor for the $$. I've haddecent luck with Massey's but right now I've got an International that's as stout as the devil. Most all of them would be fine for small stuff like you're talking about. We use our's for ranching and such so we need a heavier machine. One trick that will help you out is to fill the back tires with ant-freeze, it makes a ton of difference especially with 2wd models, just watch out for stobs.

I don't. Heck, the Japanese are more American than Illinois!!!

Mahindra are good, less expensive tractors also for something else to look at. I would get something in the 40-50HP range just so you don't end up wanting more than you've got. You could make do with less, but anything worth doing is worth overdoing.

Jeff, i get to see alot of tractors in use, and even run some...i land scaped last summer, and always worked and hung out on farms...and my buddy had a giant yard he needed a tractor to mow.

its pretty much a wildly accepted opinion in the tractor world that them kubotas are THE kings of the small/mid sized tractors. options are endless...from front end buckets to brush hogs to plows to gills, to finish mowers, to augers etc etc etc....and they RUN.

my landscape crew bought a BRAND new new hollad/ford with a front bucket, and a hyrdostatic tranny...that SOB was terrible. couldnt bucket any real dirt because it would stall or bog down and about stall...the kubota, with the manual tranny, we could bucket tough dirt WHILE DRAGGING the gill behind the tractor and it never hiccuped...

my buddy that had the GIANT yard to mow had one with a manual tranny, but it wasnt a typical 4 speed like youd see in a car, it had like 6 or 7 or 8 gears in a line and you could shift it without the clutch i believe...(been a while since i been on that one) it had nice "turf" tires on it..it was pretty friendly to the lawn where the normal tractor tires can be rough on lawns...honestly, we used that kubota of my buddys as an ATV and did alllll kinds of stuff that would make most people cringe...young n dumb..but it never hiccuped and i will admit it probably SHOULD have died on us...we reall did beat it..from hill climbs to creek crossings and climbing banks...come time to do real work, we threw the finish mower on and mowed the grass...or threw the brush hog in to clear a camping sight for the weekend..or threw the auger on to drill fence post holes..or threw the blade on to level the gravle in the parking lot of his grandfathers bar...

cant go wrong with a kubota....but id still stay away from the hyrdrostatic trannys if you may EVER do anything other than mow grass...i watched them try to plow snow with a small deer at school. Deere makes a good full sized tractor, and never heard bad about their small tractors, but same thing as our Ford at work, hit heavy snow and it all of about stalled on the guy drivin it..and it REALLY wasnt too much snow...and we move ALOT more dirt with the kubotas than the ford could dream of so its not like we try to overwork the ford...everyone i talked to says its the hydrostatic tranny...

And nothing kills Deere like a Magnum![8D]

Case IH: For those who demand more.

Seriously, for small tractors, a Massey Ferguson is hard to beat. Massey Ferguson has led the world in tractor sales for almost 40 years now, and is still the most popular farm tractor in the world. The ones I have dealt with are of simpler design than most competitors, and very reliable. I've never been a fan of their bigger tractors, but their smaller ones are still the standard by which all others are measured. You can usually pick up something like a 1528 with MFWA, loader, trailer, and a few accessories for about the same price you can pick up a similar size Kubota or John Deere with just the loader.

If you like Kubota, Kioti makes a tractor that is very, very similar. They are out of South Korea, and they make a very fine tractor. Their spot in the market is where Kubota used to be before they became popular and the prices went up.

Your tillage options will be limited with the smaller tractors. But for mowing and a food plot, it probably won't matter. To get a tractor you can farm with, you have to jump up to the 50-60+ hp range. That's also where you jump into the more recognized engines in equipment lines that make true farm tractors.

Am not into farming and am not going to buy a big andexpensive tractor for use on game plots. At one of our places we have a recently bought Ford 8N that is in great shape. It came with an auger, brush hog and a good tandem disc.

Wealso have a Mitsubishi 1600 tractor with brush hog, disk and harrow. That tractor is light to haul around and burns less fuel than a riding lawn mower.

On our form we have always ran Fords and Internationals. I have to say that a Ford 8 or 9n with a bucket loader is a great little tractor!! For a bigger farming tractor I like the Ford 3500 or 8000 for bigger yet.

I would say that you would be happywithjust about any of the big name tractors out there right now. Kubota, John Deere, Case, New Holland, Massey, Mahindra, Kioti,Montana, etc. They all have loyal followers and just about everyone who has one will tell you the one they have is the best. One advantage to buying a new tractor is that most of them run some type of 0 percent financing deals. Many of these tractors hold their value so well that by the time you factor in the time value of your money it is about the same price to buy a brand new tractor with 0% interest as it is to buy a used tractor for a couple thousand dollars less.

If you are going to buy new, shop around and find a tractor that you like and that feels good to you. Sit in the seat and check how things feel like the loader joystick, the seatbelt, where the different controls are, some tractors will just "fit" better than others and if you are going to be spending hours in the seat, comfort is important.

I shopped around for over a year and ended up finding a good deal on a used Kubota that I am very happy with.

Good luck in your search.

Nathan