implement suggestions

recently…. a year ago purchased my forever home on 35 acres near Lonsdale. am looking at a 25hp compact tractor for food plots, land improvements, and basically making my land deer and wildlife friendly. I have the tractor pretty much picked out, but after pricing there brand name implements I’ve decided to go another route. what brand implements do you suggest. I also plan on getting the quick connect for front and rear. looking at 4 foot grapple, forks, 60 or 72inch finishing mower, and 72 inch box blade. extras which i will probably rent for a few years are brush hog, tiller, etc more food plotting. any suggestions guys.
side note im also wanting to push or blow snow, and mow my grass. what do you guys use. for info I have an acre around the house to mow with numerous large oaks to go around. the brand tractor im going with does not have a drive over mower deck. so my option are 3 point finishing mower or a brush hog that doesn’t cut as evenly. snow i would rather go with a blade front or rear, cheaper then a blower. any thought?

A front blade works better on a normal tractor as the tires don’t get good traction in reverse. I am not sure if a 25 HP tractor will even handle some of those attachments especially the 72 inch box blade. Might want to stick to implements about as wide as the tractor

sorry I should have addressed this. I’m going with a Kioti ck2610hst. I was told to get a box blade just outside my tires. tires are at 65 inches. I assumed a 72 would be my best bet?

Also I’m a newby to tractors, so any wisdom is valuable. I just don’t want to go backwards. As in I should have bought this over that.
As of a fishing report for IDO. I’m at French lake near Faribault with a vexlar filled with what I assume crappies, suspended over 35 feet. with not a single one biting.

If you keep that box blade shallow it might work. I have an 80 hp tractor with tires about that wide

Good luck on the tractor. I haven’t been on French this year but in the past I’ve had huge schools of shiners out there suspended. So might not be crappies.

thanks for the heads up EW6. I moved too hunts lakes. luckily I haven’t marked anything here, but the the fireball is biting alittle finally.

You are looking at compact tractors, they are good but small. I would also check out midsize tractors. 40-50HP can do a lot more. I was in your same shoes a few years back. I’m so glad I got a 50hp front assist tractor. It was 25k so not much more for a lot more power, but whatever works best for you.

Bobcats work great for plowing and moving dirt, gravel, logs etc.
The numerous attachments available can do pretty much everything you specified above.

Matthew Sandys wrote:

You are looking at compact tractors, they are good but small. I would also check out midsize tractors. 40-50HP can do a lot more. I was in your same shoes a few years back. I’m so glad I got a 50hp front assist tractor. It was 25k so not much more for a lot more power, but whatever works best for you.

I’d have to agree with this.
When you get into the larger implements, more power makes a huge difference. Front wheel assist is really nice too.

Through my business, I talk to hundreds of food plotters and wildlife property owners every year. Naturally, the subject of tractors and implements comes up often.

The far-and-away #1 mistake told to me by tractor buyers is owners regret buying a tractor that is too small. By “small” I mean both in terms of HP, frame size, and overall weight. What happens is the buyers simply over-work the tractor and pretty soon things start breaking. Warranty does not cover abuse and dealers will consider over-loading and over-working to be abuse.

A 25 HP is way too small for a 72-inch brush mower or box blade. You might get away with it for a while, but eventually, you will break the tractor running those implements. I run a 72-inch mower with a 50 HP and even that is the bare minimum when mowing heavy clover plots or brush.

Probably the biggest failure point with sub-compact tractors is the loader. Buyers try to treat these little tractors like a skid steer and in reality their capacity is nothing close to a skid steer. If you look at the loader capacities of most sub-compact tractors, many are maxed in the hundreds of pounds range and that is the MAXIMUM. It doesn’t take much of a bucket load of something to be heavier than 500 pounds and if you max your loader out consistently, things start to bust.

Bottom line is sub-compacts are very marginal for property management use and 25 HP is a very light duty tractor in terms of running tools beyond just a finish mower.

Also, like most new buyers, when I bought a tractor I did not fully understand or appreciate the benefits of weight. Size may matter, but mass matters as much or more! A heavy tractor works more effectively and makes better use of the available HP because it has more traction and momentum.

I have a 50 HP, 2WD Deere with fluid loaded tires and weights. The tractor with loader weighs over 8000 pounds, and every ounce of that is beneficial once you appreciate what the weight does for you in many situations.

I have only bought Howse implements. Get the heaviest-duty possible, especially in the mower.

Grouse

I have a deere 2032r which is similar in physical size to the ck2510 but with 32hp.
I would not want to mow my lawn with it. How many acres of food plots do you plan on having?

thanks for the advise. I would like to go bigger Hp, I agree the weight of the machine is very beneficial. I don’t think the budget/wife will allow it. I’m up for suggestions. I’m looking to mow my yard, maybe do 5 acres of food plots, timber removal, snow removal, gravel driveway maintaince, planting thousands of trees, switchgrass plantings, etc. I settled on the 2610 from kioti because it is the heaviest and most lifting power, but like I said I’m up suggestions. is it dumb to think I can mow my yard with a tractor?

Jeff mattingly wrote:

I’m looking to mow my yard, maybe do 5 acres of food plots, timber removal, snow removal, gravel driveway maintaince, planting thousands of trees, switchgrass plantings, etc. I settled on the 2610 from kioti because it is the heaviest and most lifting power, but like I said I’m up suggestions. is it dumb to think I can mow my yard with a tractor?

I don’t mean to be a Debbie downer, but with your to-do list, you would be asking a lot out of that tractor. 25 HP if marginal for food plot work in the 5 acre range.

The Kioti 2610 is listed as a Cat 1 3-point hitch with only 21 HP delivered at the PTO. So a 5-foot brush mower will probably be too much for this machine to effectively handle. The general recommendation for rough-cut mowers is 8-10 HP per foot of mower. Even at 50 HP, I’m under-powered for my 6 foot mower so I have to go very slowly in heavy mowing conditions or even double cut.

Pulling a disc is not too hard, so you could pull a 5-foot disc without too much troubl with that machine.

Again, don’t mean to be a downer, just trying to let you know what to expect based on a lot of conversations with property managers and food plotters. It’s not that you couldn’t do the things you’re listing with that tractor, it’s that there would be constant risk of over-taxing the machine and that’s when stuff starts to break.

Most owners are blissfully unaware of repair costs for a tractor. Just in general, busting stuff gets very expensive if you’re paying somebody to work on it and even parts alone are costly. I just paid a tire service $400 to come out and fix a flat on my tractor (fluid filled rear, valve stem torn out). Just one little example that a tractor isn’t a pickup truck.

The 2610 does list an optional mid-mount PTO, so can you mow with it? Yes. But a tractor that heavy is going to require a lot in terms of turn-around space and you’d have to be super careful not to mow when it’s wet and rut the lawn. Basically, bottom line is IMO it’s not a lawnmower unless you’re mowing an athletic field or something else wide open.

For your needs, IMO, you should be looking at least in 35-40 HP range. That would give you roughly 30-35 HP at the PTO. A lot better margin for getting work done without constantly maxing the tractor.

Have you thought about buying used and buying a riding mower for the mowing?

Grouse

Jeff mattingly wrote:

thanks for the advise. I would like to go bigger Hp, I agree the weight of the machine is very beneficial. I don’t think the budget/wife will allow it. I’m up for suggestions. I’m looking to mow my yard, maybe do 5 acres of food plots, timber removal, snow removal, gravel driveway maintaince, planting thousands of trees, switchgrass plantings, etc. I settled on the 2610 from kioti because it is the heaviest and most lifting power, but like I said I’m up suggestions. is it dumb to think I can mow my yard with a tractor?

I would much rather spend the money on a used zero turn. A belly mower for my tractor is around $4k. I paid 3 for my ferris zero turn used with 50 hours on it. A zero turn is going to be easier on the lawn and probably quicker to.

Before I bought a tractor I rented a bobcat tractor that was a re-branded kioti ck3510. It was a nice tractor and probably a better choice for what you want to do. At least then you would have the pto power for a 5′ tiller or light duty 5′ brush hog.

Have you priced out the bobcat-kioti made tractors? I would be curious what kind of premium they add for the white paint job. If bobcat is competitive it would be nice to have their dealer network and future resale value. If you haven’t yet I would shop deere and kubota as well just for reference if nothing else. Some of the models compare and compete in actual sale price better than you may think.

I have a Kubota B2620. 24 acres. It is the perfect size for me. It can do a lot of work and is still small enough to store and trailer relatively easily. I run a 60 brushmower and pull a 72” disc with zero issues. The only time I have wished for more power was when I borrowed a 72” box blade, I couldn’t get enough traction when the box was full.

I can also run it for a weekend on 5 gal of diesel.

Make sure you get the SSQA Quick attach on your loader.

grouse I appreciate your honesty. I hate trying to move forward with projects and finding out I have made poor decisions and have to make up work, or I should have bought something different. looks like I have a lot more thinking and research to do.

Derek the white paint is speedy compared to their kioti. I heard nothing but good things about the kioti

I have ran John Deere’s and the one we have now is by far the best one so far. We used to have a 4400 and with a cab and loader and that thing on hills was scary. Even with a loader while moving snow it would still get stuck and needed a tow. Chains would have helped but we didn’t have them. Now we have a 5055e and this thing hasn’t even been close to being stuck. If you can find a bigger frame lower HP would be better than those small tractors.

I am on 11 acres. I have 3 food plots and a 400′ gravel driveway. I bought a Nortrac 20 hp 4 wheel drive tractor from Northern 15 years ago. I don’t have anything that runs off the PTO, but haven’t had any issues with the tractor performance. I didn’t get a loader which was a colossal mistake!!! GET A LOADER!!! Now all that being said, if I could I would definitely go bigger and for sure get 4 wheel drive. Also, shuttle shift is a game changer!