The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Smallholding => Equipment => Topic started by: embo on June 03, 2012, 07:20:27 pm
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Hello All,
Just after a bit of advice re machinery. Thus far, we've had a garden the size of a postage stamp but on Friday, we move to a four acre-ish plot.
The paddock (about 2 acres) has been sprayed, ploughed, harrowed, reseeded etc for the horses to move into later in the year. However, when the house has been rebuilt, the gardens are going to be about 2 acres. We're planning a manege (eventually) and an orchard (complete with chickens) with wild flowers for about 3/4 acre and a large kitchen garden. The rest will be laid to lawn. In theory, we'll need something that'll do the occasional topping and chain-harrowing of paddock, leveling of manege and cutting the lawns. I don't need billiard-table lawn finish, but I also don't want something that's going to take forever. Should we go down the sit-on mower, compact tractor or quad bike and implements route? The grounds are all completely level.
Any advice would be much appreciated, I don't think the old Flymo is going to cut it :D
Thankies
Embo
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A compact tractor would probably be the most versitile, but you do get a whole load of attachments for quads - I think a sit-on mower would be a waste as it only does grass cutting :-\
Good luck with the move and keep us all posted :thumbsup:
Karen :wave:
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I would go for one of the little Kubota tractors if you can stretch to it. Forget sit on mower, a mower or topper on a wee tractor will take a tenth of the time, less billiard table but you will have a life and it will look nice and mown. Also the little tractors if you get the right tyres wont muck up the grass or the arena and will turn nice and tightly to get into the corners.
In theory quad bike good BUT you would then need any implements to be self powered which are many times more expensive and fewer around seocndhand, and by the time you have bought quad and one implement you could have had the far more flexible mini tractor and quads are also prime for theft and expensive to insure because of it. And the tractor can run on red diesel if you get yourself a little tank which means cheaper running and not having to keep going to the service station with a can in hand.
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Would second getting a Kubota we have a 1610 (not made anymore think its either 1410 or 1710 now but check their website) We could not manage without it, Northern Tool catalogue has a mind boggling array of attachments suitable for it (just bought an ATV sprayer which OH has adapted to go on back of Kubster)but i also have two cutters (rough & smooth), rear forks, grass collector, spreader, rotivator (Kuhn), sub soiler and a little ATV trailer. Its very girl friendly from my point of view and very good on diesel.
Ours was bought new (my present for finding farm!) and has hardly lost any value (a dealer at Yorks Show told us he would give us what we paid for it!) as they are hard to find second hand as they just go forever. We follow the handbook for servicing and filters can be picked up at your local tractor merchant or via internet.
HTh
mandy :pig:
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You're in compromise territory unless you get lots of kit because nothing will quite do all the things you're going to want to do. We have horses, sheep, chickens and a half acre orchard and have been doing it long enough to have made a few equipment errors.
I'd forget quad bikes for the reasons that lachlanandmarcus outlined. You don't anyway have lumpy ground or big distances.
A ride-on mower or lawn tractor will collect the arisings which for the size of gardens you're talking about will be substantial. Leaving the cuttings on the ground looks crap on a lawn and is messy underfoot on paths in the orchard. A mower will also fit under the branches of trees in the orchard but most will do no more than that. If you have something like an expensive John Deere (I have an X534) though you then have a heavy duty machines that will attack metre high nettles with ease. It will tow a 6' grass harrow or a small trailer if you remove the grass deck, but turf tyres limit adhesion (and damage). It is completely workable to use for topping a horse paddock but can't leave more than about 4" of uncut grass. And obviously lacks PTO and hydraulics.
Neither a topper nor a finishing mower will collect grass. My Fleming topper is no good as a mower because it stacks the cuttings into a line which need dispersing before it rots and kills the grass. But a tractor can take all the attachments like pallet forks, a loader and tipping trailer that makes general horse stuff easier.
Horses for courses, and like everything else to do with horses, expensive.
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Everybody needs a tractor :innocent:
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Everybody needs a tractor :innocent:
Yup
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It's a question along the lines of 'do I need a pair of red shoes' I think ;)
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i so sorry but i couldnt help myself.
Kate Bush The Red Shoes (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXTRe9ttMXw#)
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Red shoes do all that and more ;)
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god,dont i know it. my one and only weakness..... :D
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;D
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Husband is looking at the Chinese made Landlegend, they do a 25hp and 40hp one which he seems to think will suit our budget and needs here on 60 acres of not very flat land. Anyone else have any experience of these? I did see a very favourable review of it on the River Cottage forum, from a guy who previously owned a Brown for 24 years.... so that's one positive one so far!
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If there were a simple answer to this question then the Chinese and Japanese tractor prices would be a great deal closer.
With the Japanese tractor - Kubota, Iseki et al - you get not only a known reliable product but an established parts network across the country. You pay a lot extra for the brand name but they hold their values secondhand. It's just as well they're reliable because spares prices are also very high. But the dealerships stock parts for models that haven't been made for a long time.
The Chinese tractor is hard to assess. There are some huge Chinese tractor factories but their products are an unknown quantity, not the least because different levels of specification and quality are easily made by such a factory. I doubt that the UK is regarded as a significant market for them - export numbers must be tiny compared with, say, most African countries. And agriculture is still substantially done by manual labour in China, so there isn't yet a strong domestic market base to validate the products.
Thus you are in the hands of the importer, his financial strength and his relationship with the manufacturer. You need to be sure that the bits you may need in five years will still be stocked.
This isn't as easy as the choice between VW and Skoda where most of the same technology and all of the financial strength can be accessed for a cheaper price. It's more like trying to get the new car warranty on a year-old Saab honoured.
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Thanks for that Small Farmer. You're right of course, it's going to be hard to assess but I feel that, knowing my dear husband, it's a done deal already and we will probably come back from the dealer today fully signed up to a Landlegend. All that remains is for me to let you all know, in good faith, just how good or otherwise it turns out to be.
Cheers.
Maggie
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Worth thinking about splitting the workload between regular and occasional. Some work can be contracted out, regular work is worth getting the equipment. Last thing you want is stuff lying around rusting and taking up space, or something too big that uses a ton of fuel.
Mind you there is the 'boy's toy' factor !
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We have an old Fergie (almost 60 years old I think ) we could'nt do without her. she is used to move round bales of hay and straw. OH made a sprayer for her so is also used to keep the farm road free of weeds. He does the paddocks as well. We have a little trailer that goes on the back and this is used when we are clearing the paddocks of droppings after the winter. Every smallholder needs one :thumbsup:
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I agree with Small Farmer, I have had a Fergie (1947) International 275 Izeke and now a chinese tractor.
The chinese tractor is a stockman 282 I have had it about 3 years with out too much problem. Probably my favourite was the fergie but it was 60 years old when I sold it. Sometimes it took a bit of starting.
The Izeke was unfortunately a grey import and the spares were harder to find.
I use the tractors all year round but at topping time and during the winter putting out hay especially after work the tractor saves alot of time and effort. The rest of the year I use it to clean out the shed after lambing shifting hurdles etc. But there are so many jobs for the tractor and transport box to mention.
The Kubota does look and from what I hear a good tractor. But like everything its what you can afford.
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4 acres? Tractor? I suppose it depends how you define 'need, really. :innocent:
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Get an STX 500 Quadtrac... it's what I want (suitable for 5 acres, right?) :D
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You would need 5 acres to park it on. You may even be able to turn it round too, And the 400hp engine would bring on global warming on its own but i find simple is best.... I had four Fergy 20s :P
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I said last year I'd report back on that Land Legend DH bought. To be honest it's been nothing but trouble, every time he goes out on it, he comes back in cursing that something else just broke off. He was picking up the base of a pig pen (light wood, so not heavy) with the teeth grab thingy - and something snapped. There is evidence of rust under this welding point. Shouldn't be rusty there if it's new right? Anyhoo. More trouble than it's worth. Just say'n.
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That's just poor penetration when welding and not really a problem. Probably welded with insufficiant current. Every farmer has a welder (dont they?) I was assembling new nets (a kit like Ikea) at the Cricket Club last week and every other weld was failing due to poor preparation/welding. I had to go home for the Mig and re weld the brackets. They don't make things like they used to