tractor size/pig pasture size
 

Hi, my wife and I just bought 10 ac in Weston mMaine. It mostly overgrown pasture, and an apple orchard. I used to own skid steers and full size backhoes but I need help on what size tractor I'mgoing to need for this. This is my requirements: need to pull a 4 ft brush hog , a 4 ft tiller , a snow blower, and run a post auger, 5 ft box blade. I was thinking like a Kubota b 7500/ b7800 size machine. Also thought on tires ? Next question I want to raise about 4 hogs a year. I read what I could find in the pig pasture section . I'm thinking about 5 one acre lots so I can rotate them. How do you feel about that size in Maine? Tks Benny.

We have a JD4700 and JD4720 and are pleased with both. They're the top of the power line for their size (compact tractor) with a rear tire spread of 8' which makes them stable on our mountain terrain - or as stable as can be. At 48hp and 65hp the have enough horse power to do most of what we do. About every two to three years I hire in a track hoe and bull dozer for a week of really big work.

We raise pigs for a living and have about 400 out on pasture. I figure I can sustainably raise ten pigs per acre on good pasture using managed rotational grazing and little to no external inputs other than winter hay. Growth is slow that way but cheap. Add supplements and the growth speeds up. We feed about 80% to 90% (varies seasonally) pasture and about 7% whey which provides lysine (amino acid for protein building).

See: http://SugarMtnFarm.com/pigs for details about what we feed and follow the feed & grazing links.

I would not turn out four pigs into a five acre field. They'll favor some spots and ignore other spots. You'll get compacted soil and weed growth. they'll cherry pick the best and leave the rest - worst of most worlds. Instead perimeter fence it and then start dividing it up into paddocks as you need it. That's enough space to do 50 pigs with the right management. A single acre would be enough for four pigs.

We're in the mountains of northern Vermont so probably similar climate to you. USdA Zone 3 here. Please fill in your location information which makes it easier to answer questions. At the very least your zone. See this thread:

http://www.homesteadingtoday.com/liv...tion-info.html

A friend of mine has one of the B series Kubotas and uses it similar to what you have in mine except he doesn't run a snow blower and uses it as a lawn mower with a belly deck. He says it is a fine lawn mower but a sorry tractor, complains about its stability and its ability to do tractor work due to lack of weight/stability. He says he wishes he had bought a lawn mower and a real tractor which he could have done for what they cost if he bought a used tractor. He has had zero mechanical problems out of it but it is basically a yard tractor not a farm tractor.

Thanks for the replies. What I ment about the pigs was I want to take about 5 ac and devide it into 5, 1 acre paddocks. For 4 pigs and mabie two milk goats. Your saying I can raise 4 on one acre. Do u think I should just use 2 acres and divide it into 4 half acre paddocks? I've been to your web site many times, very nice farm. Tks benny

I agree with K-9 that you may want to shy away from the Kubota B series for real tractor type work (great mowing/light utility machines just not great for heavier chores). I have a Kubota 3130L and a Kubota M7040 and they have served very well on the farm. The L series has a few more features/creature comforts, but the M has all the necessary "stuff" for getting work done. I think a tractor in the 30-40 HP range should work fine for your expressed needs, but know that I have never heard of anyone lamenting that they wished their tractor had less power. As for tires, I have ag lugs on mine, but I often wish I had R4 Industrials. They are kinder to the ground, which is important if you want to do yard/hay work. A front end loader (FEL) and 4x4 are great features.

Good luck with your farm and finding a tractor that meets your needs.

The B7800 (30hp) would be comparable to your L2900 with a bit more horsepower...same frame size. I do nearly everything with that tractor except move large round bales. It pulls a 6' brush hog, a 2 bottom 16" moldboard plow, 8' disc, etc. I have a new M7040 Kubota (70hp) and I use the B7800 about 90% of the time.

I run turf tires with chains year round. It gets better "floatation" as I brush hog some very wet areas, yet it gives adequate traction for snow plowing/snow blowing in the winter.

I think those who are claiming the B series is an overgrown lawnmower are referring to the BX series which is the subcompact line...although the B series does have tractors down to around 20hp.

IF your idea is to raise your hogs on pasture only,. Plan for some slow growing hogs, but they should never get out if the fencing is decently done hog tight.

Thanks for replying. I had a l2900 but never used it for farming. Mostly just for moving stuff around , loading gravel in to the dump trucks for the job sites. It had a subfrome and backhoe but was to to plight for any real how work. It had an auger but the auger on bobcat was much faster so I just used it. But you guys are saying the l series are built stronger than the b series? Not just bigger but built better? About the pigs I was going to supliment feed as well. But wanted to get as much from the pasture as I can.another question Wil my leftover apples from the orchard be good to let the pigs feed on?

Benny b, I looked it up and Gravytrain is correct the tractor that my buddy fusses about is in fact a BX series so disregard what I said, sorry for the mistake.

No problem k9.

They'll love the apples, and if theres any nut trees, they'll find them to.

Hi;
We have 150 acres down here in Southern Maine [20 miles North of Bangor].

I have a 24Hp Massey-Ferguson.

My M/F can 'pull' a 4 ft brush hog. I have been advised that it is not big enough to pto power a bush-hog. There are independent powered bush-hogs in this size that work well.

A 4 ft tiller is not a problem. The same with a disc-harrow.

I have a front-mounted pto-powered snow blower, that works great.

I have a 8-ft backhoe on my M/F. I did not like their options for post augers.

A 5 ft box blade is about right also, though honestly I use the loader-bucket a lot more than I do the box blade.

I also have pallet forks that fit onto my loader bucket. Forks are great for lifting a pallet of feed or firewood off my truck and setting in the barn. :)

My tires are just regular Ag tires.



I have a Large Black boar, and 3 Berkshire sows. They just farrowed 4 weeks ago. 30 piglets is a lot of squealing. :)

I have 5 acres of woodlot fenced-in for them.

When I was clearing the fence line, I used a dozer. I pushed down a bunch of trees and made a big pile of them. The sows like to hang out in there, and they have their litters in there.

All of our fence is electric, 2 wires. One at about 6", the other at knee-height. In winter, the snow blanket goes up. I walk the fence-line every week to remove blow-downs and to raise the upper wire to keep it above the snow.

Last winter the snow blanket exceeded to height of our fence. So this year I am putting up a smaller paddock with 8' tall electric fence posts. So long as the snow is below 4', the herd can stay in the 5 acre woodlot. But if snow piles up again, then they will be confined in the smaller paddock.

Thanks et1 as for the info. I rember chatting with you on here last year about the other property we were going to move on to. Hope when we move up everyone is as friendly as you. With my health problems this new property will be a lot easier to get settled on. I think your size tractor is about what I'm looking for. I don't want something to big that it tears everything up every time I take it out. We are going to wait until spring to move up so I have more time to get things ready for winter. March 2015. What month did all that snow melt enough to start working on outside projects? Also wanted to know your thoughts on your massy compared to a Kubota or Deere? Tks benny

This year I had scheduled a fruit tree pruning workshop for 23 March. We had 20 people that came out, but we still had 3 foot of snow. We pruned my orchard on snow shoes. This was not normal though. :)

Usually by mid-March we are clear of snow.

After the snow leaves, we then have mud-season.

This year I began hauling manure on 14 May. My neighbor has horses and he is always trying to get me to remove his manure as early as possible. His ground was so wet, I got stuck bad. We had to use his dozer to drag my 8-ton dump truck out from his riding arena. Should have waited until mid-June.

Much of my land, I can not work before June.



Tractor manufacturers; I am not convinced there is much difference in any of them. Everything is made over-seas. Nothing of today, lasts like stuff from the 1930s.

Focus on local dealerships that service their own stuff; then attachments, pricing and financing.

I went with M/F because:
#1 - they are local.
#2 - They offered a unit that had a backhoe, loader-bucket and snow-blower.
#3 - the price was within our budget,
#4 - they offered zero-percent financing.

We also have; Cat, J.D., Kubota and others who are all local. But the others could not come through on the rest of the list.

The problem with making a paddock too large is the pigs will favor some areas packing that soil and cherry picking the best forages leaving weeds. By dividing the paddocks up smaller they'll do a better job of grazing and you can take longer to get back to the first paddock which in the long run will result in improved soil and forages which in turn increases the carrying capacity of the land. While you're at it, plant it up with improved forages such as soft grasses, legumes, brassicas, millets, small grains, chicory, amaranth and other things.

Any supplement you give to them will further boost their growth rate. Pasture tends to be limited in lysine (amino acid) and lower in calories which means no fat pigs (that's good). Not all genetics do well on pasture and it does take more attention to management.

Some people with limited spaces focus on maximizing growth rate - that is minimizing time to market. We focus on minimizing cost to market and quality. It doesn't really matter if the pig takes a month or two longer to get to market size. What matters is that we keep our costs down and quality high. Costs deduct from profits and that matters even if you're raising them for your own home consumption. Either way, home or selling, though the principles are the same - you don't want to pay out more money than necessary and you want quality food.

I find that I can sustainably raise about ten pigs on pasture with no supplemental feed by using managed rotational grazing. If I had five acres and four pigs I would use only a part of that each year. In fact, I have a similar situation. I have 70 acres of pastures and I only use 40 acres of that each year for about 400 pigs. This gives me reserve acreage to grow into in the future and keeps those areas in pasture. We plan to have sheep again someday and I plan to get Highland cattle too (thus my user name) so I'll need that extra pasture for them. You can graze a pasture once a year which will keep it in pasture. Even skipping a year can keep it good. An advantage of this sort of system is you can manage the grazing rotations to let plants flower and drop seed which saves you money on seed in the long run. I like plants that are perennials or annuals that drop seed well for this reason.

Cheers,

-Walter Jeffries
Sugar Mountain Farm
Pastured Pigs, Sheep & Kids
in the mountains of Vermont
http://SugarMtnFarm.com/

Thanks for the great info guys. I'm OK with the pigs taking a little longer to make wait, I'm not going to sell any I just want to butcher one or two in the fall/ winter for our meat. I just want to get the paddocks right the first time. I would have liked to see the apple tree pruning seminar, my property was an old homestead and the apple trees have not been pruned in a long while. I know there is a certain way to do it. Just have to learn the right way. Do most of you guys up that way use a snow plow or snowblowers for your driveways? Mine is about 300 ft to where I will build the garage. I hope I don't have to wait till June to start working , I got a lot to do.lol. I looked at a Deere yesterday I think it was a 2030 it looked to be about right size but mabie just a little big. Tks benny

Protect the apple trees from pigs & cattle but especially sheep, goats and horses. A fast rotation through apple tree areas with pigs I don't find a problem. Sheep not so good. We place fruit trees and such between fence lines which creates creep areas that small pigs and chickens can pickup the drops and mow but the big trees stay off the roots and bark. Keeps the sheep off the trees. Apple trees claim sheep are evil, not true of course. They just love apple tree bark.

We have around 1,000' (?) of driveway we plow with our bucket. Works well. Slower than a snow plow. I've never used a snow blower so I can't compare that. The tractor and a bucket will simply drive through any snow. I plow out our logging landings mid winter when the snow is 6' deep. I just drive forward in low gear and the snow is pushed ahead and to the sides. Not fast. But it works. This is the JD4700 (48hp) with a 7' wide bulk bucket. Smaller buckets work but with our tires set out to the full 8' the wide bucket is nice.

Built the driveway a bit wider than you think you need to allow for snow banks and have places to dump snow about every 100' and especially at curves.

-Walter

I spent much of my youth on a McCormick International B250 - 30HP diesel. It did just fine for ploughing, harrowing, sowing, mowing, and even harvesting with a PTO header, and baling small square bales with a PTO baler. Also grading with a rear blade. While it didn't come standard with more hydraulics than a rear 3PL, you could fit a front-end loader or a back-hoe. It did tend to get up on its tippy-toes a little if it had significant weight on the back. I'd be happy with as much these days, and if I could get it on a 4WD then even better. Mind you, I did NOT have to contend with snow, but I DID have to contend with areas of deep dry dusty soft sandy soil, which I would think was comparable.

Aye, 4WD and big chains on the rear wheels plus fluid fill are really nice if you're in snow land.

Saw this ad for Mahindra tractors in our local Craig's List today. A cab would be a nice thing in cold (or very hot) country, and you don't usually see them down here in the 30-40 HP tractor range. This tractor has R4 Industrial tires and has a mid mount PTO as an option. Most Mahindras I've seen have the skid steer type quick attach to change from bucket to forks to whatever implements you have/need. With the right auxiliary remotes you could run a grapple, albeit probably a smallish one.

http://atlanta.craigslist.org/atl/grq/4636655288.html

We've run JD tractors from 27-80 hp, was going to get another, but the local dealer was a horse's rear end and did nothing to earn our business. Went down the road and the Kubota dealer had a heckuva deal on a 5140 with a 6' bush hog and trailer. Gave him our business. Shop and look around for a good deal and a dealer you will be happy to work with.

Funny that. Local JD dealer I am pleased with not at all. They have too much of a monopoly.