[morayjohny]

Hi everyone, I live with Mischiemoo in Moray northern Scotland where we have a 100 year old farmhouse with 5 acres.

We have spent the last year extending the house but are now beginning to get to grips with the land and am planning to buy some sheep to keep the grass in order to start with later in the year.

One question I do have is does anyone know where I can buy a small compact tractor and what kind of budget I should allow. I've looked on E Bay but firstly can't find anything local and secondly most seem to know for what I feel is silly money?

Thanks

John

[lachlanandmarcus]

hi Morayjohny!


We are in Aberdeenshire with 40 acres, not all of it terribly good land but we like it.


We looked at compacts, places like Marrs of Methlick etc but in the end we bought a 1970s small John Deere as the implements for compacts can be harder to find and the lack of weight/grunt would have been a bit limiting, but they might suit you if you have lots of tight corners to deal with or just plan on topping, harrowing etc. loaders and balers would be the things small ones struggle with (they come with loaders its just when you try to put heavy stuff in em...)


We have found most of out stuff outwith the area. Limited supply and the winter de icing salt makes for a hard life up here, and we have found it no more costly to spread the net a bit wider, the machinery transport was quite a bit less expensive than I had thought, eg tractor came from northumbria! And there were few bargains locally. We did try buying stuff at the mart but after by using two different things which turned out to have no working reverse gear (they show stuff running at the mart....but only forwards)... And always getting terrible prices in sales compared with buying, we have sort of given up with that.


We have bought quite a bit on ebAy but have been prepared to go and look at it and pay in person which is the only safe way to use eBay for large purchases, there are loads of scams. Gumtree is worth looking at too, online as there are some smallish tractors on there, sometimes for more reasonable prices and they are setnprices rather than auctions.


For a basic tractor (compact or similar to ours which is 75hp) I would allow 3-4k for something in full working order with a loader and maybe one or two other toys.  Hope this helps!

[Bert]

Hi from the Isle of Mull 

[Rosemary]

Hello and welcome from Carnoustie 

[sabrina]

Hi and welcome from Gamrie near Banff. We have an old Grey Fergie that does all our work but we only have 5 acres.

[clydesdaleclopper]

Hi and welcome from Huntly way 

[morayjohny]

Thanks everyone for the welcome.

[Lesley Silvester]

HI from Shropshire. 

[ppd]

Hi from me  (lived in Moray until 2 years ago) and know nothing about tractors!
Pauline

[smudger]

Hi   from Exmoor


Personally for your acreage I'd go for a quad and accept you will pay more for attachments, but at least they are available / come up on ebay.  Old reliable tractors are still a lot of money (more like £10k plus and front loaders very rare) as they go for export and unless you are mechanically minded they could cost a lot to run/fix - husband went to see one at a dealers, arrived early and he had a heater under it to get it started....). Unless you can buy an old one from someone you trust - but on 5 acres a tractor could feel quiet big especially if you subdivide into paddocks which you will want to do for rotational grazing.


We bought a 30hp compact, great to drive especially with HST but as we have now decided we don't/can't have contractors in because their gear is too heavy (it felt like 'lilliput' at times), we want to do things ourselves (we have 17 acres pasture), but 30 hp aint enough - you want at least 40/50 hp and for some things 60hp is minimum. However if you can find a  friendly farmer with smaller gear that would be even better ( I do resent seeing thousands of pounds of metal lying around getting used every few months / once a year).  I think contractors are reasonable - £30 / hr is typical which includes fuel, labour, plant.


You do see low hp compacts on ebay for a few £k, often with a topper attached, but  I think at that power level a quad would be more fun. Also we used the pto for first time this year - bugger to attach. I certainly couldn't do it on my own [size=78%],[/size][/size] whereas with a quad its just a simple hitch attachment.  Also think about tyres. Most compacts come with turf tyres - no good in muddy conditions. We thought about changing ours but was quoted £1k which is bout 1/3rd the price of an old but unreliable tractor.[size=78%]

[SheepCrazy!]

Welcome from Dumfries and Galloway

[Factotum]

Hi from Moray  - great place to live.

Not sure about compact tractor sellers - keep an eye on the Press & Journal:
http://yourads.ajl.co.uk/Results.aspx?d2=95%2c586%2c&k=&p=&sr=&d2n=Agricultural+Machinery%2fVehicles&type=business&page=1&sp=1

You could try phoning a couple of the trade sellers & see if they know about any.

Good luck

Sue