I have two locations separated by about 30 minutes driving time distance where I do tractor tasks.
My home has a ~ 1 acre lot. If you subtract the area of the house, driveway, and Morton Building type barn storage/shop building, it's maybe 2/3 of an acre. You don't really need much in the way of a tractor for mowing lawn and tractor tasks at the house. Anything larger than a BX is wasteful at the house.
My second property is ~ 69 acres. Of the 69 acres in total, 61 acres is forest, and all of the 61 forested acres are enrolled in the New York State 480a Forestry Tax Law program. The 480a program has strict regulations clearly specifying what you can do on the enrolled acreage, and what you cannot do. The goal of the 480a program is to encourage responsible/sustainable timber growth. Some examples of things not allowed, building/cutting new roads in the enrolled forest, erecting buildings on the enrolled acreage, building ponds on the enrolled acreage, unscheduled timber harvests on the enrolled acreage.
The previous owner of my piece of property enrolled the place in the 480a program long before I purchased it. Once a piece of property is enrolled in the 480a program, it stays in the program even after the property sells to another owner. I knew the property was enrolled in the 480a program when I purchased it. The "only" way to remove a property previously enrolled in the 480a program, is to pay back ALL tax breaks received since the beginning of time when the property was initially enrolled in the 480a program, and some penalties.
So next is the why. The enrolled timber acreage has a significant reduction in property taxes.
94% reduction to be exact. At some point in the future, my contract Forester, and my state Forester
will tell me, it's time for a timber harvest, your maple & cherry trees in the hardwood sections in the forest are mature. At that pre-scheduled harvest moment in time, 6% of the total value of the pre-scheduled timber harvest will be distributed to the local town &county municipalities in leu of the massive tax breaks that I have received over more than 20 years. The large mature hemlock trees on the 61 enrolled acres have been ready for harvest for a long time, but no loggers will come in and harvest the mature hemlock trees without maple/cherry being harvested at the same time. So the hemlock trees just continue growing.
Now back to tractors. If you subtract the forested enrolled acreage from the total, about 8 acres remain.
At the non house recreational property, I have a 1.5 to 2.0 acre field that I mow with a finish mower.
The field surrounds the cabin which we use as base camp during hunting season, and weekend getaways where we hunt/hike/play/ATV/SxS or even do some light bush hog/food plot activities.
Down in the center of the property there is a "field" surrounded by the enrolled forest where we have a mobile heated hunting shack set up and multiple ladder stands surrounding the food plot area.
That interior field is about 2 acres. Subtract the cabin field from the total, and the interior field,
and now you are down to around 4 acres. I have a 4 acre brush lot near the public road, below the cabin
and we don't do anything with it. It has many old farm apple trees, heavy brush, and holds deer.
Having the recreational property enrolled in the 480a program, consider it like owning your own personal "State Park" that you do not have to pay for out of your own personal wallet.
So I actually only use tractors on about 4 acres of the 69 total.
Owning the property is practically free, as the property tax is so low.
If the recreational property was not in the 480a program, I likely could not afford keeping it during retirement.
My primary concern with owning the property was the ability to get tractors to the location and doing projects. It's quite hilly/mountainous as far as the roads between the house and recreational property even though they are both within about 100' in actual elevation. I would love a Kubota L2502 or perhaps slightly larger, but the reality is, a pair of Kubota BX tractors will do everything that I need done at both of my properties. And the BX machines are ever so much easier to haul to the recreational property and back. If I got a L2502, I would be in the same situation as Forum Member
McMXi and spending vast sums of money on larger trailers and tow vehicles.
