We are moving to 6 acres with goats, chickens, a couple of pigs, and calf, 3 acres of pasture, 1 acre garden, fruit trees, pond, stream and 2 acres yard. We really can't afford a tractor, but we do plan to buy a used riding mower/garden tractor and used rear end tiller. We aren't growing feed for the animals. If we have enough left from the sale of our house we are also considering one of those dr powerwagons, if not we will settle for one of those carts with the big wheels. Has anyone else done it without a "real" tractor?? Everyone keeps telling me you MUST have a tractor!

-- Dan (pascolawyer2@hotmail.com), May 17, 2001

Answers

de[emds pm the animals you are going to have, and what your going to do with the land. How about a wagon for goats,, horses, ev3en cattle. If you keep it in pasture,, you should be fine, just rotate the areaas for the animals

-- stan (sopal@net-port.com), May 17, 2001.

The questions is how good is your back. If your back can take all the work then you should be able to do it. You will need a good "TWO" wheel wheel barrel and yes a tractor would be better. You may find you have to hire in some folks to bush hog for you from time to time. I dont think a single calf will keep a 3 acre pasture mowed down enough.

I dont know if you have looked at "tractors" yet, but there are a number of compact tractor designed for small farms. New name brand compacts are pretty expensive, but there are a number of grey market and chinees market tractors that are quite reasonable. Heck if your willing to live with a slave labor built chineese tractor you can get a new one under $7000. A used small japaneese 4wd-3cyl-16hp compact tractor can be had for under $4000. Get rid of the 4wd and move to a 2 cylinder diesel and your price is down under $3000. With that you get a standard cat 1 3pt hitch and will accept standard implements. I dont know if you have priced a used garden tractor but they are not cheap either. Also on the topic of riding mower/garden tractor. These are very different mowers. Riding Lawn mower, lawn tractor and garden tractor are all designed for different purpose. Make sure you know what your getting. The lawn and garden tractors for many brands looks the same but are built differently. Also if your buying used and you want attachments make sure you get everything you need at once. garden attachements on older garden tractors were brand specific and finding attachments for and old garden tractor may not be easy or cheap.

Good luck. If you want more info on the japaneese tractors let me know. I dont sell them but have purchased one and been following them for a number of years.

Gary

-- Gary (gws@redbird.net), May 17, 2001.

We did a market garden from 6 acres in mixed orchard, pasture and fenced veg/fruit plots. We had chickens and sheep. We did not have a tractor, but would have done better with one. Keeping the grass down was more than the riding mower was really capable of.

My advice would be to look for a good used tractor, which may cost less than a good riding mower, and certainly less than a DR. You'll probably still need a tiller and push mower, but a chisel plow will make gardening easier. Pasture maintainence without a tractor is near impossible (re-seeding etc). If looking for a tractor, my vote is for a diesel. Good luck, hope this helps.

-- David C (fleece@eritter.net), May 17, 2001.

I vote for a DR Powerwagon, I have had one for 4 years. It won't do the work of a tractor but it will haul as much as you can get into it. We have used it for picking stone, out of pastures, hauling firewood, mixing concrete, compost, it is i service every day for some chore. The model I have has a wood box, the sides come off & then you have a flatbed, I have carried 16' lumber, sack od ready mix, rolls od barbed wire, T-posts. On my first homestead I worked without a tractor for 7 years, a tractor is a luxary that we all can not afford. A DR. & a tiller will do the job, a tractor can come later.

-- Hendo (OR) (redgate@echoweb.net), May 17, 2001.

I haven't done it yet, but we don't intend to buy a tractor. Besides the expense of the machine, I can't seem to justify the cost of fuel for it (maybe with Eric's distilling instructions....)

I have friends down in Missouri who do just fine on 40 acres without one, so I don't see where the big problem is. They've done it for over 25 years, he is now in his very tall 70's and she's in her mid-60's. (Up till about 15 years ago, they didn't have power, indoor plumbing or even a phone!)

-- Sue Diederich (willow666@rocketmail.com), May 17, 2001.

Going back to the country next month we asked ourselves almost the same question. We have 14 acres.

Looked at the lawn tractors and compared the attatchments we would need to the ones we could get on used tractor.

Here we can get a used 50+ HP with 3pt hitch, front end loader and rototiller for about $5,000. The garden tractors with those attachments varried in price from $7,000-15,000.

Use to have a Ford and a Massey-Fergueson. If you decide to get a tractor, make sure you can get parts for it close by.

When we sold our place in WI we sold our Troy Built tiller. The new 6HP ones, are about $2000, we found a used one for $650. Be patient and look around and you will probably find what you want and need at a price you can afford.

Have you thought about batering for part of the purchase price of the eqipment? Maybe some fresh milk and eggs or some ham and bacon.

-- Cordy (ckaylegian@aol.com), May 17, 2001.

Last year we bought almost 13 acres. We have rabbits, chickens in a self-designed chicken tractor, geese, and turkey. We have put in an orchard, grapes, strawberries and a good size garden. The back 10 acres are pasture. Last year a friend came and hayed the pasture. He did all the work of mowing and baling. I even received three bales of straw for the garden out of the deal. (Large round bales) I do not have a tractor, nor do I have plans to pruchase one.

I do recommend a few things. I have a push mower, a riding mower (no attachments), a garden cart, and a rear tine tiller. These have served me very well and in my situation I can't see any reason to purchase anything else.

Look at your situation. What do you plan to do with the land and what works for you. Then don't worry about what others think or say.

-- Tom S. (trdsshepard@yahoo.com), May 17, 2001.

Dan my husband hates it when I say this but: For the money you would be able to come up with for a crappy old rusted tractor, which will break down all the time, you could hire out whatever work you need. I would bet that if you sat down and really put it on paper, the amount of money spent on the tractor, gas or disel, parts and down time, counting the time you spend working on it, that in the end it would have been cheaper to have the pasture brush hogged, the driveway graded, the logs hauled in from the woods, the garden tilled, by somebody else!! You really can use a tractor or bull dozer in the beginning, but it doesn't sound like you are buying virgin land like we did, but once on the place, your tractor needs decrease. Unless you are planting crops....Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh TX (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), May 17, 2001.

We farm 15 acres without a tractor. We have a 4 acre market garden, 7 acres for Christmas trees (only some planted) and the rest is pasture. We have 3 cows, two draft horses (they do all the work), sheep, and hogs that we let out in the pasture (the sheep are separated because of their wool) We use our horses and a rototiller to do all the work. When picking small things, we harness up our Great Pyrenees male dog to a small wagon and he pulls the produce up the rows for us. We have done this for a few years now and have no plans to get a tractor. Good luck and enjoy! Joanie

-- Joanie (ber-gust@prodigy.net), May 17, 2001.

We have 3 acres in pasture, our small herd can't eat it all down. We don't have a bull, so I let neighbors bring their bull for free to visit with my cow for the summer. He eats and I get a new calf next year. Sometimes they bring a few other cows. The last three years we have been letting our herd run with the neighbors herd and he rents the pasture from two other neighbors, so we can rotate the fields. He takes our cow to another place to visit with the bull. We had a tractor, but the taxes were high, in our state there is an equipment tax each year. It is cheaper to rent. We use our trucks when we drag the fields. Tractors are nice but when you don't have something sometimes we come up with other ways of doing things. If you have the money get one,but you can live without one. I wish you the best on your new place.

-- Joanne (ronandjo@sisna.com), May 17, 2001.

We have a little more than 5 acres and absolutely no plans for a tractor. We do almost everything with hand tools. We are so un- mechanical we seem to only have one vehicle running at a time and feel very fortunate when the chainsaw or push mower will start.

I plan our work very carefully, using the tools that we have. For the jobs that are too big for me, I have a choice of hiring the kid next door with a toy John Deere with all the accessories, the neighbor behind me with a small hobby tractor or hiring the big boy with the big Tonka.

Any amount of work that I may hire out will still be far cheaper than buying and maintaining my own piece of equipment. Personally, if I wanted to spend my life sitting on my butt on a piece of equipment listening to the noise and breathing exhaust I woulda stayed on with the road department where the pay was decent, the insurance good and I had a nice dry truck barn to park in and a mechanic that I could tell "fix it."

-- Laura (LadybugWrangler@hotmail.com), May 17, 2001.

Hello Dan,

I have 15 acres and no tractor, just a riding lawnmower with a heavy duty cart. We get tons of use out of our mower, mostly for hauling things around the place and getting into some of the rugged area's on our land.

My next most used piece of equipment is my hand pulled hay cart with a muck bucket. It can hold a bale of hay (which during the ice storm was the only way we could feed our horses) plus I use the muck bucket ALOT for gardening. Its the best $80 I ever spent for a piece of equipment. I've used the bucket to put weeds in, hauled my gardening tools around in, the cart to get feed bags from the truck to their storage bins, its just all around usefull. AND much easier to handle and more usefull than a wheel barrow. I pull it behind me vs having to push it. Look at most feed stores that carry horse equipment for it. They have 2 wheels and a lip around the bottom. Get the muck bucket that goes with it as they last whereas the cheap ones from Walmart/K-mart don't fit it right and fall apart within a year. My bucket is 3 years old and no signs of deteriation yet.

For bigger jobs we do hire outside help, mostly from a neighbor. Some is on a swap basis and some on a pay basis. I'm swapping out some Net advertising for a neighbors horse for his brush hogging my back pasture.

Oh a tip on buying a lawn tractor, ask the neighbors what they use and like. Its important to find out where and who can repair things you can't also.

-- Stacia in OK (oneclassycowgirl@aol.com), May 18, 2001.

Just out of curiosity... what is a DR Power Wagon and what can it do?

-- Max (Maxel@inwindsor.com), May 19, 2001.

Ahh... I see. Dr Powerwagon has a website and it appears to be a handy machine.

cheers,

-- Max (Maxel@inwindsor.com), May 19, 2001.

If I were you I would get a tractor.Something like an old john deere model a or b or even a g or an h, or an old farmall cub with a belly mower or a model h,cockshut 30,40,allis chalmners,case model sc,ford 8n,9n or a ford jubily or,power master,or an old massy harris 44 or an international utility 401,or an oliver 40.Well im going to stop naming these old tractors because i could go on and on and on.Anyway you can find one of these old tractors at an aution during the week for about 1,000.00 to $2500.00 and if anyone ever tells you that you are going to be working on them all the time or there going to be needing parts and labor thats also a false statement in most situations there is alot of people that go and buy old tractors from the early 19thirties and work em hard and there is no sing of them quiting anytime soon.The prices that i named are from tractors that have been overhauled painted ,and completely restored.Thank you for your time in reading my answer in this matter.

Paul

-- Paul Thomas Griffin (griffin55742@yahoo.com), July 06, 2001.

We have five acres. For the first six years we had no tractor and we did just fine. The seventh year, we bought a tractor with our neighbors. It's a year younger than I am (and I'm old enough to remember Eden!) The tractor has been having "problems" since my spouse got it bogged down in the woods this spring while getting firewood. Thus, I have been using the mindset of "when the tractor gets fixed, I'll finish ______" (fill in the blank.) I finally resigned myself to the fact that it could still be a while and got back to doing most things with (woman)power and a shovel and wheelbarrow! Not as fast and effecient for over a short period of time, but at least I'm getting the chores *done*!!

Having a tractor is great b/c it really is a time-saver. Most things can be done without one, though. I just really don't want to have to dig up the winter bedding for the sheep each year with just a fork and shovel! I hope the tractor gets well soon!

-- sheepish (the_original_sheepish@hotmail.com), July 08, 2001.

If you don't want the expense of buying a tractor, but need a lawn or garden tractor, the best advise I can give is DON'T BUY CHEEP! If you have already made up your mind that a lawn or garden tractor will suit your needs buy 1. What I mean is if you buy the correct unit it can serve your purpose and last for many years. Too many times I find people buying a lawn tractor on price. They buy an inexpensive unit that only last a few years. Buy the best for your money, you can also buy the rear tiller attachment for your garden tractor and have only spent a little more then you thought. I am very knowlegible on the green and yellow equipment. Email for more information.

they

-- Ken Swan (kenswan@ev1.net), July 17, 2001.

My grandmother's second husband was a weekend gardener. they had 5 acres and 1 acre of it was garden. he used a mower/garden tractor and never had any problems. They also raised chickens and geese. When I got a 15 acre farm I bought a used tractor with accessories. Biggest mistake I ever made. Regular tractors are made for heavy work anyway. Heavy work is 80 acres. pulling a stump from time to time as you expand. dragging whole trees worth of firewood to the house. You don't need that for one acre of already working garden space.

-- (corthew@yahoo.com), January 30, 2002.