Complete beginner garden tractor/tractor???

It pains me to tell you that Sears is no longer honoring the replacement warrenty and these new tractors are designed to work only for a year before breaking down in various ways.

I drive a 7 horsepower J.C.Penny tractor purchased in 1960 and still running strong after all these years. It was manufactured by the Hoffman manufacturing company and it is a dream to drive,with 4 on the floor and low gas consumption. My 7 year old grandson can drive it wihtout any effort.Needless to say I am very proud of it and plan to keep it til death us do part.

Lynn, welcome aboard. I lived in Kilgore when I was very young.

My advice is based on my experience which was/is painfully acquired. Please, please, if you can, go real really slow to start. Spend a great deal of time reading old posts here, as well as books. Contrary Farmer and All Flesh is Grass, by Gene Logsdon, are a good place to start. Read Countryside and Small Stock Magazine, and as many archives here as you can. Storey Books can often be found in feed stores and gardening centers. They have excellent booklets about small animal raising. Gives you the basics from which to get started.

Step one: build a strong, permanent perimeter fence. This is imperative. Then cross fence your woods out, as well as around your home. Fence in an area for some chickens. Fence in an area for a small garden (see Square Foot Gardening, and Lasagna Gardening for starters. Then get and memorize The New Organic Grower, by Eliot Coleman and Weedless Gardening by Lee Reich.) Animals can mow the rest. Sheep and goats can help here. Start this coming spring with a tiny garden and a small flock of chickens. You'll be amazed at how much you will learn just doing this.

Step two: Hang out at the feed store a lot. Strike up conversations with the help and any customer that looks friendly. Read all the materials on the bulletin board. Ask about some helpful farmer that could help you find a good used small tractor that has a front end loader. I would do this maybe next year or the year after. Use custom work for the time being.

Step three: Learn where you can get organic material. It varies with each area. Accumulate piles of cow manure, chipped leaves, spoiled hay, etc. In one area I lived in, there was a place where I could get a mix of sifted soil, compost, and sand. It worked beautifully in raised beds over the rocky clay of my soil. Start a compost pile, even if it is just weeds piled up. A bin made up of straw (not hay) bales is enough to start.

After you have hung around on that land for a year, you will be much more informed about what is possible. You can visit with your Cooperative Extension, make friends with a Master Gardener. Learn, learn, learn, but don't be afraid to start, either. Every mistake is a learning experience, even if it costs you $. Just call it tuition and move on.

Step four: Start record keeping immediately. I use a zipped 3 ring binder for mine. I have a couple zipped bags in there as well as pockets. I have a pocket sized notebook with pencil to make notes in outside. Start by keeping the high-low temps on a daily basis. Have a page for your goals, short-term and long-term. If you start a garden, record the types, when planted, seeds or transplants, perhaps include culture info from old catalogs. Spend a day or two each winter making up your goals for the coming year, and revising the long-term goals. Take pictures as you go along and keep them. You'll find all this info very helpful as you proceed. There will be many a day when you feel as if you haven't made any headway at all. Those pix will be encouraging.

Hope this helps some. You are in an exciting phase of your life. Be advised that you will NEVER be finished.

I just looked at the date of your posting and realize I'm (as usual) a day late and a dollar short. Oh well, what I have to say still applies.

__________________
Best wishes,

Sandi

"Anger is an acid that does more harm to the vessel in which it is stored than to the object on which it is poured." Corrie TenBoom

Go visit your local equipment rental place and see if there's something you like there. You can rent it and try it out. If it's older,ask the guy if he'll sell it. Some places sell the older stuff cheap and buy new. There's some rental equipment auctions in our area. There's probably some near you. There will be maintenance costs but those usually end up spread out.

We had a 13 acre farm. We found that most people with tractors would do a little work for you BUT!!! only after they were done with their's and it was too late for your project.

We had a small farm day at our farm and were introduced (by University of Kentucky) to the BCS walk behind tractor. We were so impressed that we bought a full selection of implements. Glory be we were thrilled. Everything was done on time and when we were ready.

The tractor and haybaler were so compact that we could bale the hay in the hollow without raking it down to where the farmer could get at it with the square baler.

This unit is driven by the PTO and not belts so you have direct power. It will just dive in and till anything. There is also a sulky that you can ride behind for those long mowing jobs.

Check out www.earthtoolsbcs.com

You can call Joel and ask him for references.

This was the first question I asked when I started out a year ago. I have 4.5 acres with half cleared(well it's cleared now!) and half in trees. I settled on the smallest Kubota and have been totally pleased. Yeah, it would be nice to have all those nice digger things and some day I will but for now I have 4 basic tools. The Kubota (it's 42 inches and just fits through a 48 inch gate! - think about that if you have gates!), a walk behind string trimmer, a rear tine tiller and a push mower.

Totally by accident I discovered chickens! My free range chickens do a great job of keeping the grass down along with the ducks and next year I will try geese again, with more coyote proof structures.

I got a really cool cart for the Kubota from Farmtek. It has a handle as well as a tow hitch to you can manuver loads in and out of tight places independent of the tractor.

With these tools I cleaned up this neglected place and I am ready to put in larger gardens, fences, etc.


Yes, I still drool over those cool tractors lined up with the loaders and diggers, but for now this is working just fine for me to make headway on my place.

Just what worked for me.

Debbie

__________________
Visit my new blog: deberosahomestead.wordpress.com

Something else that hasn't been mentioned that if you are thinking about an older tractor it will most likely not have rollover protection. Something to think about especially if you are new to running a tractor.

If I were in your shoes I would wait a bit and see what you will really need it for. In the mean time go ahead and hire out a job or two that needs doing and don't rush and buy a tractor too soon.

If your kids haven't been around farm equipment before you might want to look into a farm safety course. The 4-H club offered a real nice one around here once that was quite comprehensive. The farm is a wonderful (and in my humble opinion the best) place to grow up but it can be very dangerous to the careless. Animals, equipment, chemicals and all sorts of other things need to be respected because they can and will hurt you if you treat them too casually.

Best of luck on your adventure and it looks like you will have a great environment to raise you kids.

*I lost out on a dandy Ford 8N tractor with a loader, brush hog, blade and some other implements and I'm still in mourning.

Did anyone say front end loader!!! You will never regret it.


mikell

One of my favorite people is in Garrison -- Judy Allison, you know her? And her boyfriend, Paul Jopling. I love east tx, people are great, the only downside I can see is the humidity. We may look to retire up there, if we can ever afford it.

__________________
Shelby Brown
Anala Goat Company
Beasley, Tx. (near Houston)

www.analagoatcompany.com

Hey and Hi there

Thanks for the great list of farm and garden information sources. I would like to return the favor by suggesting Mother EartH New Magazine,a very comprehensive source of How-To data;especially good for infor and know how on raising chickens and other small and large farm animals. Their series on Chicken
Geneaators is priceless How to start with one laying chicken and from the eggs produce a flock of little chicekens and groow these into selling pullets and fryers and how and where to seel these for a source of income. AND ALLL IN A SELF CONTAINED CHICKEN GENERATOR MEASING 8 BY TEN AND 6 FEET TALL.

Here is some home spun wisdom from my grandfather who farmed all of his life. When you graze different kinds of livestock you have to be aware of the fact that some livestock will eat grass from the roots up and eventually leave a pasture of bare ground The goats for example and horses also totally consume what they eat from the roots on up and where they graze nothing grows afterward.This is very important if you want to avoid a pasture with only bare earth after goats finish grazing.And then what are the cows going to eat.
Rockinghorse here

You'ld be surprised at the good, servicable equipment you can buy for the amount of money you're talking about. If you haven't already, check out:
http://www.ytmag.com/cgi-bin/clasquery.pl