tractor vs lawn mower

If you are lookig for a good all around deal, you can reduce the HP a bit by going 4WD. I know a guy that puts up 20 acres of hay in 3 cuttings a year w/ a 25 hp 4WD tractor, 2 wheel cutom rake and old NH round baler (Bales are very small About 40" wide). His outfit suits his small farm well and the front end loader is a back saver. He uses an old converted cotton trailer and can move from yard to field or field to field easily by himself. (Fork the rake up on the trailer, hook up the trailer, then the baler and off you go. His rig has turf tires and he has add on ag tire duals that he uses when in the garden. THey are spaced so that the rows beside go between the tires. Takes him about an hour to put on an take of the duals if he needs the extra power.

i like the 4wd, but they do seem to be pricier- at least around here. looks like i would want about 30+ hp. i'll see what is at the auction this weekend- both lawn tractors and tractors and go from there i guess. i do wish i could just get my landscape crew (sheep) to do it.

Go with a hydrostat and it will let you use a smaller tractor for the baler than you could otherwise get away with.
And its nice in the yard too!

Just went through a similiar decision. Mower deck is broken on the tractor. Big bucks to replace. Opted to go with a hand mower for a few reasons...mowing around lots of trees which isn't real efficient with a tractor, cost of maintaining the tractor which is high cause something seems to break every year, and last, but not by any means least, I don't need a 2 acre lawn. Figured out last night that it will take around the same amount of time. Yeah, I use the cuttings as feed for the rabbits and the rest as compost...but there comes a point where the supply exceeds the demand. Plan on only cutting part of what I did to save both time & money.

One last comment, I can see your point trying to have mulitple uses for a single item. IMHO, in this case, one size usually doesn't fit all.

__________________
CJ

I have researched and contemplated the same thing for a while now......

I came up with getting 2 pieces of equiptment.....here is my logic behind that decision......

The equiptment will get lots of use and wear out faster if one is used for both.
If there is a mechanical breakdown then both projects come to a halt.
Buying used I can spend about the same money on both that I would for one multi-purpose machine.
2 toys are more fun than one.........

I decided to get a lawn tractor as they call it ,basically a lawnmower that is capable of using ground engaging implements,so I can still haul wood on a trailer and other various things with the mower and spend the money on a used tractor to do the larger work with.

Not sure there is any right or wrong way to do this ,just personal preference.

I decided that riding a lawnmower would be less work than a tractor in the yard.......its about 3 1/2 acres to cut if you can even call that a yard and less destruction of the yard as someone before me had already used a tractor and left alot of horizontal ruts in the yard.......I hope they settle back down as I can only cut the yard one direction or it is like ridin a buckin horse.

The turf tires definatly sound like they way to go if you do decide on one piece of equiptment.

Taked with a friend today about this thread he reminded me we used his 40 HP kabota to bale with and he uses it to mow his yard with. With his 7 foot finish mower it dosent take long! Its a Hydrostat and I LOVE IT FOR BALEING!

hydrostat- gotta remember that. auction tomorrow...

we have all 3..hand mower, rider and brushhog..but son uses the brushhog for mowing a lot of the field areas around his house to make a lawn.

as long as you don't have tight spaces it should work for most of your mowing

the best way to plan is to put long sweeping curves into the edges of your lawn rather than tight circles or square edges..and then you can just mow most of it with that brushhog.

or hayer i guess.

the biggest problem i can see is the tire tracks if the lawn is soft at all as a tractor is so much heavier.