Your Tractor Recommendations?

Only use a seat belt IF the tractor has a ROPS or cab. Always make sure the ROPS is up (If you have a folding ROPS AND wear the seatbelt. Otherwise you can/will not have a chance to get away from the tractor when it goes over. Older tractors without ROPS do not have a seatbelt, for good reason....James

Get a Kubota, I'd look at the L-Series. I've got a 2003 L3830 with almost five thousand hours on it that I bought new and its still going strong. Its been a great tractor for everything I do. You can find some used ones for pretty cheap, go to your local dealerships website and they should have a list of all their pre-owned tractors.

The Smaller Ford tractors are great and will be very dependable. I am going to get another tractor as a backup and decided to go with a MF 35 diesel. It is the right size and can be had at a reasonable cost. I like tractors with good parts availability without having to go to a dealer, and that is one reason I decided on the MF 35. You can get a MF35 in diesel or gas and they did have optional hydraulics and live pto.

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www.jlmissouri.com Lewis Family Farm

Whatever you get, get a loader. You will end up using it for all kinds of things. Get one with a quick disconnect on the loader. You can then use it with a bucket, a bale spear, fork lift front end of several other tools/attachments. Get the biggest tractor you can afford.

I got a 35 hp Merhindra and wish I had gotten a bigger one. I can pick up hay bales but have trouble in the winter if the snow is deep the bail comes off as it is dragging on the snow. Bigger tractor it would lift it higher.

I used mine within two days of buying it when I notice that I really could not put off replacing the porch post that were rotten on the bottom. Starting thinking about how to prop up the porch roof when it occurred to me I do not need to do that just use the loader to lift the whole roof up. Cut out the old post. dig out some holes, set new post and then lower roof onto new post and attach.

If I could afford it I would get an enclosed cab with AC/heat. May not be needed but I would rather be in a cab when I find a hornets nest. For me in Missouri I have bundled up and still had problems working in a freezing rain or a blizzard. NO I do not like going out in a storm but somebody has to get the cars out of the ditches, get the fire truck unstuck, open the road by removing the down tree/snow drift, move the wrecked car to get the person out and into an ambulance.

As to brand there are now many different brands of very good small to mid size tractors. I would go with a newer ( less than 10 years old ) rather than a tractor that is older.

I would never buy a tractor without Roll Over bar, seat belt , wide front end.

I know everyone says get a loader, but if you get a Ford 2000 or 3000, be careful with a loader... I've been looking for one for mine, but I've also read where a lot of people have broken their front axles with them... If you use one with one of the fords you are looking at, be careful not to pick up too heavy of a load, and don't go bouncing down the pasture with a load in it...

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Never let your fear decide your fate!
Kein Mitleid für die Mehrheit

Having remotes for hydraulic connections on the back are useful for some impliments. I use mine for raising and lowering a sickle bar and a trencher. This summer I'll use the connection to operate a grapple. If you ever plan to run something that needs a very slow speed speed consider a hydrostatic drive. Otherwise a gear setup will work well for you. Likewise for 4wd. On Fla land unless you're dealing with slippery conditions, 2wd should work fine.

Are you going to buy a back blade or a logging winch at some point? I look at the weight capacity of the three point lift arms to determine impliment size. I generally go with the largest implement the tractor will pickup as long as the impliment is at or close to the lower range of the hp requirements for that impliment if it is pto powered. That means by running slow I can still use an impliment most folks wouldn't consider for that hp tractor and still use it with a larger tractor in the future. That takes some judgement.

For example I have a logging winch I use with a 30 hp tractor. The same winch will fit a 100+ hp tractor. I can't drag as many logs with the 30 hp but that extra weight makes a great counterweight for loader operations. Without it the tractor hydraulics and loader have raised the rear end off the ground. That's with probably 500 to 700lbs of weight in each rear tire.

The idea of the excercise is to let any work operation you might consider determine the basic tractor spec. After that you can start considering different brands. Unless you've got lots of money, it makes sense to buy the tractor that will do everything you want first, raher than buy something and find out it's not going to do what you need. So you're back in the market for another tractor.

I bought too big the first time. The second time was just right.