How Does Small farm mountain tractors Work?

OK, you bought the farm, and you have moved onto the property, with excitement, and anticipating new activities in your farming ventures.  There are a tremendous number of activities that need to be done on a small farm, regardless of the size.  For the new or beginning farmer, one inevitable hurdle to overcome is how you will power your farm activities? You can farm with a number of power sources, such as walk behind small scale 2 wheel type machines, or with tractors, or you can custom hire work that needs to be done.  If you decide that having a tractor fits into your operation, read on. This article will be the first in a series of how to select, acquire, operate and maintain smaller scale farm machinery. Often people ask me “What tractor should I buy?”, and “How much does a tractor cost?”  As with all things agricultural, the answer is “it depends”. One of the first things that I ask a new farmer is “What do you want and need to do with a tractor, and, how much can you afford to spend?”  Each activity mentioned in this article will require certain machines in addition to a tractor and will be addressed in later articles.

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The following is a list of activities which might be occurring on a farm or homestead at any given time of the year and requiring specific tractors and machines:

Brushhogging meadows and pastures for grazing management and to prevent the fields from growing back into forest.  This is one of the most critical jobs on a small farm, as nature can be relentless in working to restore forests. If fields are let to grow for more than about three years, small trees and brush will begin to take over, and then can be extremely difficult and expensive to correct.

Haymaking, which might be either small square bales, or large round bales of dry hay or baleage. The process can require mowing, tedding, raking, baling, wrapping high moisture bales, and hauling and unloading hay.

Tillage activities, such as plowing, disking, harrowing, planting, and of course, picking stones.

Planting crops such as forages, row crops such as corn and cereal grains, fruits and vegetables, and possibly food plots for wildlife.

Pulling a variety of 2 and 4 wheel wagons around on the farm for diverse activities, such as hauling crops and hay, firewood, and giving hayrides to people.

Harvesting crops other than dry hay, such as chopping high moisture hay for haylage or greenchop, and vegetables.

Front end loader work for snow removal, manure handling, feeding animals, moving materials around the farm, and loading and hauling hay and other crops.

Working in the woods skidding logs, hauling firewood, and hauling maple sap to the sugar house.

I am going to make some assumptions before I begin to suggest which tractor might be a good choice for you. Assumption one: right now, you are going to try to do as many operations as possible on your farm with one tractor, while you’re getting started.  As you build equity and experience, you may someday need another tractor or two, because as you will find out, not all tractors are suited to all purposes, but for now, we will focus on getting you this first tractor to do as many things as possible.
Assumption two: you only have a given amount of money to spend, and that you might be looking for a good used tractor.  New tractors can be prohibitively expensive; if you can afford one, good for you.

Assumption three: you may be looking for a smaller to medium size tractor to get everything done; leaving the big tractors for those who truly need them.

So just what should we be looking for in a good used tractor? There are a myriad of features that we need to consider. To accomplish what we need to do, will our tractor have the features listed in Table 1?

Live hydraulics and pto (power take off) are important; older tractors made in the forties and fifties frequently did not have “live” features, which meant if you pushed in the tractor’s clutch, the pto or hydraulics stopped working.  This can be quite annoying when you are in thick crops and have to use the clutch, and have to start up again from a dead stop.

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Now that we have all of these features to think about, I will describe my version of a tractor that if I could only have one tractor, this is the type that I would look for, for my first tractor on a smaller farm.

1.  I would want a tractor made in the latter part of the twentieth century, at least from about onward. Older tractors made after World War II still abound, but lack many of the needed operational and safety features expected today. Narrow front ends from that era were very dangerous and lacked many of the safety features that we expect nowadays. These type of tractors can be very dangerous!

2.   I would prefer having a diesel engine; not many farm tractors come with gasoline engines anymore. Older tractors from the sixties and early seventies with gasoline engines can be quite aggravating to keep running smoothly on a year round basis, especially the ones made before the era of electronic ignition.

3.   It is mandatory to have a three point hitch. So much farm equipment exists which requires this feature making it an absolute requirement.  Often you can purchase aftermarket three point hitch assemblies for older tractors but they tend to be expensive, awkward to use, and not very efficient.

4.   I would prefer two sets of live hydraulic outlets (this is required to run many farm machines today).  If your tractor has only one set of hydraulic hoses, a second set can be added if and when your machinery needs dictate.

5.  A front end loader (often the front end loader ties up one set of hydraulic outlets leaving you only one other set to operate equipment).

6.   Not too many hours on the hour meter, preferably under 5,000 hours.  Repairs and overhauls can be extremely expensive!

7.  If not a fully enclosed cab, at least a Roll Over Protective Structure (ROPS) should be mandatory, with a seat belt.  A canopy is a nice addition on top of the ROPS. The ROPS is for roll over protection and can save lives, and the canopy can prevent you from baking in the sun during those hot summer days, and will keep some rain off of you.

8.  It would be nice to have four wheel drive; our long snowy winters and muddy rainy summer months, especially if the tractor has a front end loader, make you able to get into a lot of places you normally would not, and you can easily get stuck.  There are two basic types of tractor operators, those who have been stuck, and those who are going to get stuck.  Getting stuck and having to have the neighbors come pull you out frequently can strain neighborly relations.

9.  Live power take off.  Some older obsolete tractors have “non-live” pto which makes controlling the actions of your equipment awkward and difficult.

10.  How much horse power? There are different ways to describe h.p. but for right now we can simply say that a tractor with between about 45 to 75 horsepower should fit our needs.

11.  How much will this tractor cost? Depending on the age, condition, and features present, you can expect to pay at least $5,000 up to $20,000 for a good used tractor such as I have described in this article. In general, the more features, the more costly the machine will be.

In future articles, I will discuss where we can find good used tractors as well as looking at some of the numerous machines we need on a farm.

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Hi - I'm purchasing a piece of property in the mountains & am thinking of a new tractor for the property. For a hilly/mountainous property, do you recommend a manual or an automatic? It would be used both at the steep mountain property (pushing snow, raking the driveway, bush-hogging trails, moving logs, etc.) & also on my farm which is mostly flat ground. Anything else I should consider? In my opinion, hydrostatic is much easier than a geared transmission when it comes to finer operating control in non-level terrain. Seeing as you are in NoVA like me, our 'mountains' are generally just big hills (as compared to Rockies and Sierras). How steep is the grade? Do you only need to maintain drive access or are we talking wooded trails?

Folks here swear by their Power-Tracs for hilly terrain, but I don't know enough about them other than they are right here in VA. Power Trac I agree hydrostatic would be a good option. I'm on my third hydrostatic John Deere and have no regrets. My latest R has an operator panel adjustment of the "sensitivity" of the HST. Essentially, it allows the operator to fine tune the acceleration and braking when pushing or letting off the HST pedal. Essentially, with braking in particular you can adjust from a gentle roll out to almost instantaneous stopping. That could be a nice advantage working on steep grades. Your heavy chassis Kubota Grand L - L should be fine on slopes.

Fill the rear tires 3/4 with liquid to lower the tractor's center of gravity. Set the adjustable wheel width to its widest adjustment. You should be ready for any reasonable slopes. With R1/ag tires the rear wheel spread can be v-e-r-y wide. (Potential rear wheel spread widths are shown in your Kubota Operator's Manual.)

(These are the two key recommendations for preparing all traditional tractors for work on slopes.)

Also desirable features for slopes are heavy tractor chassis weight relative to width and 4-WD. Your L has both.


Tractors with less than 80-horsepower sold today are about 90% equipped with HST transmissions. The HST has max torque starting a pull, which is ideal for slopes. Few would argue that HST today is more trouble free than any type of gear transmission and Kubota HSTs have a very good reputation, probably the best in the tractor industry.




A Power Trac tractor would be worth considering if you are mechanically adept, as Power Trac has no dealers. Tractors with four equal size wheels are more stable on slopes but lack the pulling power for ground contact work of traditional tractors with large rear wheels providing mechanical advantage and greater traction on level ground. Implements mostly work off the front, rather than the rear of tractors with four equal size wheels.

Fill the rear tires 3/4 with liquid to lower the tractor's center of gravity and set the adjustable wheel width a its widest adjustment and you should be ready for any reasonable slopes. (These are the two key conditions recommended for preparing all traditional tractors for work on slopes.)

:thumbsup:

Let me add fuel to the gear -vs- hydro debate :stirthepot:: On sidehills, as well as mud, I've gotten into situations where it's been necessary to use individual rear brakes to turn, otherwise you just keep sliding downhill, or continue "crab walking" regardless of how you're steering. I've heard that unless you use cruise control tricks, some hydros make are difficult to steer using the brakes. I've had both manual (Ford 4WD ) and Hydraulic Shuttle Transmission (Kubota 4WD M) here on the property. Both worked fine and you soon learn the finer points of operation with each type transmission.

I think many favor the HST type because there is less of a need for the clutch. I certainly would not make "transmission type" a go/no go situation in considering a good deal on any tractor. I live in similar territory in the mountains of western North Carolina, at ft.

Pushing snow, grading my steep gravel driveway, chipping downed limbs, and twice-a-year mowing of a pretty steep field are the main tasks for my tractor. It's a gear JD 870, which performs perfectly for my use.

The only time I've considered that a HST might be useful is when mowing, so I could more precisely set the ground speed to the maximum for the conditions. But I have to use the steering brakes on corners because of the hillside and I'm not sure how easy it is to use the steering brakes while starting from a standstill with an HST.

I agree with Jeff that setting the wheels as wide as possible and loading the tires are key for mountain use. Where in the mountains? I have a place in Highland County VA - definitely mountains up there. Have an L and M there - M is generally used for mowing but the L is used for everything from trail and driveway maintenance, food plots and whatever else is needed. I would definitely say HST in the mountains. And also have them place wheels at the widest option. Have had a couple close calls on the L - it's a little top heavy to begin with.

...HST today is more trouble free than any type of gear transmission...

What?...I realize there are a lot more HST compact tractors represented here than gear drive tractors...BUT...you almost never see a post in regard to a gear drive tractor...where on the other hand there is a steady stream of both minor and major issues with HST machines...