Looking for help choosing machine to manage 5 acres (with additional 15 on the way)

[headgroundsman]

Wild flower meadow for the flat field and plant trees on the other. Look for grants for tree planting and payments for up to 10 years. I have 2 acres wild flower meadow and 2 acres trees planted 2016. I manage it purely for wildlife and expect nothing in return for my hard work. The wild flower meadow make enough hay to get a few days work out of my mate that has it for his horses

[GarethM]

Whilst I would agree on the wildflowers, generally speaking if your grazing it and not doing silage that shouldn't be a problem.

 

The trees in my mind are a big no, as your also knocking 75% off the land value and if you take any grant your not able to do anything in the future.

 

Start small and find a market that suits, be that sheep/horses etc. Just don't expect to be rich or full time employment.

[Andy_H_VW]

Thanks folks, some interesting responses here.

 

Mind boggles with the options here. There I was thinking get the multione and then have optiopns, but now sounds like the tractor might be the route to go.  Definitely want it to have a cab area though, so that narrows the field a bit. lol

 

 

[roys]

I have 22 acres of rough ground and woodland which has a lot of 12 foot tall rhododendron, for the most part I use a quad bike and flail mower on the rough ground. However the rhoddy I cut with a chainsaw and get some mates helping clear my feet and pile up to dry before burning.

If you go down the quad bike route I find round about a 500cc with 4wd and difflock suits me best.

As I’m getting older i was thinking that a multione, or Avant or Norcar might give me some mechanical advantage. Access is tight and awkward so this is why I was considering one of these as they appear to be manoeuvrable and versatile.  Not sure which one of them is best? But a feel a thread coming on to ask that very question.

[Macpherson]

On 03/08/2022 at 15:06, Andy_H_VW said:

Hi There

 

I recently bought a house with 5 acres (in 3 paddocks),  Theres a lot of hedge row/trees around the sides.  I am in the process of acquiring an additional 15 acres (and whilst I dont need to maintain that as much, i would be thinking about that as well)

I am trying to work out what is the most cost effective route forward, ie do I buy equipment to manage things or pay local farmers etc to help.  At the moment I am leaning towards something like a multi-one with hedge trimmer & flail mower.  Yet that seems a bit overkill.

 

Can anyone offer any advise please?

 

Thanks

 

Andy

 

 

 

Hi Andy, having read through your thread and everyone's thoughts on the matter I thought I'd throw in my tuppence worth { not a farmer ] .. but a couple of years ago I was in a similar position of needing some kind of mechanical muscle and although I have a very different situation to you I swithered endlessly between a tractor with a loader or a digger, both of which would be of help to me... in the end a digger in good nick ish presented itself to me and I bit.

 

So in any case I spent a lot of time browsing and getting a handle on prices and was really surprised just how older stuff holds it's value and the rather large cost of an old tractor to use as a base machine for whatever equipment you want to run.

 

Anyway, as I still can't stop looking [ needing a trailer ] this popped up tonight and I thought of your thread, now I know nothing about this model and I don't think it's 4wd and perhaps others would tell you to steer clear.. but in my journey of searching I just though that this was a very good price with the loader and the tipping trailer... I mean three years ago I looked at dozens of tractors around the same price many without the loader, never mind a tipping trailer.

 

Now I know it's probably nowhere near you as you don't say where you are but this popped up tonight on gumtree and I thought it looked very clean for it's age, all the best with your project, cheers.

 

Oh yeah, it's advertised elsewhere with vat..

 

Renault 68-14 Loader Tractor & Tipping trailer | in Ayr, South Ayrshire | Gumtree

WWW.GUMTREE.COM

---

Renault 68-14 Nice clean tractor & loader with dung grape 10600 hours Year 1987 Starts first turn and runs well Will go straight to work Manual shuttle Good tyres all round MX460...

 

 

 

 

 

[Andy_H_VW]

Thanks very much. I really do need to go and see a few I reckon. Can't help thinking the multione is an easier purchase as I have done so much research on that already, but my head is telling me to do the same for a tractor. 

[Macpherson]

16 minutes ago, Andy_H_VW said:

Thanks very much. I really do need to go and see a few I reckon. Can't help thinking the multione is an easier purchase as I have done so much research on that already, but my head is telling me to do the same for a tractor. 

 

That's my thought as well, I recon with 20 acres you'll need a tractor with a loader and various attachments front and back.. so as have others said I would go for an older model with no electronics in as good nick as you can afford as the backbone of your operation and an investment that really won't lose value as long as it's maintained.

 

That's why I sent that link as it would appear to be a bit of a bargain in comparison to similar buys atm where you'd only get the old tractor for that money or more.

 

I bought my machine a year back in January[ Cat 303 ] , I hoped to get one for for around 12k but had to pay 15  in fair condition just under 3000 hours with a near new quick hitch.. 1 1/2 years later you'd be lucky to get the same for 25k and in a quick search last night there was one in UK similar for near 30k.

 

I'd love a Multione or similar but it would be wasted on me [ old fart ] 😁.. so maybe a Fergie with a loader.

Good luck with your search for the right machine[s], cheers.

[GarethM]

20-25k would be a fair estimate for anything with modern creature comforts like a cab and windows, yes I've done freezing in old school tractors, but as I've said treat it as slowly slowly and work your way up.

 

I own 22 but farm around 45, slowly returning it back to livestock grazing but fencing isn't cheap either.

 

Granted if it's just topping a old mf165 and topper wouldn't be hard to find

[Commando]

13 hours ago, GarethM said:

20-25k would be a fair estimate for anything with modern creature comforts like a cab and windows, yes I've done freezing in old school tractors, but as I've said treat it as slowly slowly and work your way up.

 

I own 22 but farm around 45, slowly returning it back to livestock grazing but fencing isn't cheap either.

 

Granted if it's just topping a old mf165 and topper wouldn't be hard to find

Something like this……

[MattyF]

It would also depend on the land , I have around 50acres and I would not dream of putting my tractors on it for most of the year as they would destroy it and have whilst feeding cattle in winter …I’ve gone through drains with a 85hp John Deere and relandscaped fields to have small streams through them and mud pits!!  only that JD and my Valtra 6400 fit through most of the gates any way.

quad bikes and alpine tractor is mostly what I use.