[Gog]

Hi there,

We have just bought a place in Devon with about 4 1/2 acres of land. The land is divided up into garden, an area of woodland and two paddocks. The previous owner allowed a local farmer to keep cows on the larger paddock (about 2 acres) and so the ground is pretty churned up, and is also overrun with rushes. A lot of the land is quite damp and one of my first jobs will be to dig in some drainage. We don't intend to be self sufficient, but we would like to be able to plant a small orchard and a vegetable patch, as well as keep a few pigs, geese and chickens.

We've just paid someone to come and cut the grass and clear the rushes, but we really need to be able to look after the place ourselves. What we really need is something that we can use to cut the grass, clear weeds, level the land that the cows have churned up and pull a trailer. If we could also buy an accessory to cut trenches for drainage that would be a big bonus.

I'd be really grateful if people could recommend a small tractor that would be easy to handle and would be suitable for this, and also what extra tools and accessories we would need. I don't want to make life difficult if there something out there that would help, but I don't want to buy a load of kit that we don't need.

Thanks

Mark

[Rosemary]

My chum just gave ame a copy of a page from Country Smallholding August 2009, whiich is an article about a complete grass care system from SCH Suplies www.schsupplies.co.uk or phone 01473 328272.

A 40" system, comprising chassis, harrow, aerator and roller is £636.10. The 48" system is just over £1000. It can be pulled by a ride on mower, 4x4 if you replace the hitch, or by a pony using a small towing frame.

I haven't actually looked at the website but the article is very positive.

[JulieS]

Hello and welcome Gog.  I'm in Devon too, whereabouts are you?

We moved here earlier this year, and it sounds like the land here was similar to yours.  Damp and over run with rushes.

We decided to go with an old Case 4x4 tractor with a topper and a roller.  We've had drainage put in the worst of the fields and this seems to be working well. 

If you're nearby and want to take a look just let me know.

[Gog]

Thanks a lot for your replies. I'll certainly check out both of these.

Julie - We're near Witheridge, about 7 miles from Tiverton. When you had the drainage put in, is this something you did yourself?

Thanks

[JulieS]

I'm lucky enough to have a guy near here who has a business with all the right equipment (14ton and 5 ton tracked diggers and a dumper), and knowledge...So got them in to do it for me.

We were tempted to have a go ourselves, but the field is  about 4 acres and not really knowing what we were doing thought it was best to get the experts in.

Really glad we did too.  It only took them 4 days and having watched them I think we would have ended up in a real mess and it would have taken us a lot, lot longer!  In the middle of the job there were piles of soil 10' high all over the field, and by the time they finished...a lovely level field.

Will be ready for the pigs before too long....and when I've got the fencing finished!! 

[marigold]

We were digging drains in the summer and hired a mini digger which cost £165 for 2 days. We decided in the end that it was more cost effective to ask the local digger driver @ £25 per hour to come for half a day. He works so much faster.
Interested to know how much your 4 days came in at Julie?

[JulieS]

Two guys for 30 hours each....£1400, and some GOS sausages and eggs.  They not only did the drainage work (including materials), but also dug out a pathway down the middle of my pig pens and our driveway ready for scalpings and stones.

They also left their big vibrating roller here so that we could give the scalpings and stones a good roll over as they were delivered.

So a lot of money to spend out, but I thought a very fair price for what they did.

[marigold]

That is a load of work. Its one of the quandries isn't it? we can learn new skills, but we are always going to be a jack of all trades and master of none. sometimes it is better to get  a highly skilled person in to do a job quickly and right.

[JulieS]

You are right.   I have to admit it was a big decision to spend that amount of money, when we could have hired the equipment and done it ourselves for a lot less.

We are in a very damp area....It is is even called Hole, so I'm sure you can imagine why it is called that.  Hills all around us with a river forming one of our boundaries and a stream another.  So I felt that the drainage would have to be done properly, otherwise we would be revisiting the job time and time again.  Probably in the end costing us a lot more than it did.

So getting the experts in to do this job was the best thing for us.  I even got to drive the diggers and dumper!! So didn't miss out on that experience.   

[marigold]

Great, What a great name the hole..... very hobbitty
Our drains are around the shed that we are living in at the moment which is on the boggiest part of our field. The planners just would not listen to common sense when we wanted to build it further up our field because it was too far away from the road.... Still the ducks like it!

[Norfolk Newby]

I hope this doesn't sound too techy but it's the only way I can present a sensible story.

I have 12 acres of fairly light land and it's on a slight slope so no big hills or hollows.

I wanted a small tractor but found that I could either get an old one medium sized or a newer one about 15 to 20 hp. I chose the latter on the grounds of maintainability, availability of spare parts etc.

The next question was the stability of the mini-tractors (15hp Kubota, etc). I know they look right but the small size means that bumps which wouldn't upset a full size tractor have much more effect. Anyway, I finished up buying an 'alpine tractor'. It is called a Goldoni. The reference to alpine indicates it copes well with any bumps and hollows (it is very stable). It has a 22hp air-cooled diesel engine (like an old fashioned cement mixer) and it makes a terrible noise. But there is no need for anti-freeze or worries about water leaks.

It has a category 1 three point hitch so it can take a wide range of attachments and a power take off to drive rotating bits like a flail mower. The hitch has a hydraulic cylinder to lift and adjust attachment height on the move.

When it comes to these attachments, I have a transporter box plus a brush rake which allows me to transport stuff like pieces of concrete, bags of fertilizer and heaps of dirt and sand. It can also be used as a basic earth leveller.

I have a chain harrow which is quite cheap and handy for knocking down weeds. I also have a disk harrow which was quite expensive but - if the soil isn't too wet or dry - very useful for preparing seed beds and again controlling weeds.

I have a topper which is useful for cutting down weeds to remove flower heads before they spread seeds everywhere but it is not useful for cutting grass. Therefore, I would suggest getting a flail or rotary mower as a better investment if you need this.

Last, I have a length of chain with a couple of hooks. I use this to drag tree trunks and bundles of branches when trimming my hedges (maintenance plus providing firewood). Very cheap and useful

I hope my story is helpful. I know others here have made good use of 50 year old grey fergies but I think my alternative is more practical.

If you search (Google etc.) for terms like Goldoni 'alpine tractor' you will find more information on this type of tractor.


NN