Resurrecting this to avoid repeating too much.
We have purchased our property in Wanaka, and it's our first week down here. We haven't yet sold the old property, so I have no tractor here, but I do have the Takeuchi mini-ex (and quite a bit of irrigation to install the next few days).
The country here is reasonably dry, and we have 17 acres. We have maybe 300 metres (900 feet) of gravel driveway to maintain. The house section is about 2 or more acres, the remainder is pasture. A neighbour is running some sheep through, but it looks like I'll need to mow those in peak season.
Some of the pasture has an old (disused) irrigation ditch running through it, the roadside has a ditch down the edge, and there are a lot of young trees along our driveway and through the house section.
My tasks will be driveway maintenance, mowing (mostly rough mowing), lift and carry/loader work/forks work, running some implements (chipper, sprayer, fertiliser spreader, log splitter)
I've narrowed down my options I think to two basic potentials for the tractor:
1. Keep the B2601, and get a Massey-Ferguson, perhaps a 135 or 148, as a mower tractor. The Massey is hard to add remotes to, so I'd be limited to a bush hog or finishing mower.
2. Sell the B2601 and buy a larger Kubota. Probably L, Grand-L or MX.
I'm inclined to the second option for a few reasons:
a. One fewer machine to maintain. Although an old Massey would be cool
b. Gives me a more capable loader than I have on the B
c. Lets me run a hydraulic offset flail/verge mower (enough weight, and enough remotes)
d. Lets me run some other implements I may want in future
I think a standard L is a bit too economy for me to be happy. The Grand-L is attractive, but in NZ we still get the Lxx40 model. We get L4240 and L5740. They are missing some of the features of the US spec models, but on the upside I think no-DPF.
https://kubota.co.nz/product/tractor-premium-l40-series#productFeatures The L5740 is a bit bigger frame.
My local tractor guy says they sell very few L4240s, they sell quite a few L5740 into golf clubs and the like, but most lifestyle farmers are getting an MX. The MX5200 is what we get here, turbo by the looks, and again no DPF.
https://kubota.co.nz/product/tractor-mx5200 It's cheaper than the Grand-L, weirdly some of the capacities are a bit less than the Grand-L (for example, 3ph lift is listed at 1,300kg v's 1,750kg on the Grand-L. But sometimes these stats are just wrong on the website, so taking that with a grain of salt. The PDF brochure lists 1,050kg on the MX (24 inch behind pins), 1,250kg on the L4240 (again at 24 inch).
He can give me actual pricing, but sounds like the MX will be around NZ$55K, the Grand-L perhaps north of NZ$60K.
Then, I have options for the mower. In broad terms I have three options (although I could mix and match - buying two of them):
- Something like this - a hydraulic offset flail/verge mower: https://landmax.co.nz/product/landmax-agl165-reach-verge-mulcher-flail-mower/ This would be great for the verge, around trees, and pushing over some edges and slopes we have to trim grass. Our dogs are already getting barley seeds in their coats, which is pretty high maintenance, I'd like to knock the top out of all the grass and this could do it. The downside is that it's narrower than I'd like - 1.6m = 62inch / 5'2
- A rear finish mower, around 2.3m = 78 inch 7'6. Something like this with 5 spindles: https://landmax.co.nz/product/landmax-fm230-finishing-mower-2/ Mows wider, so reduces mowing time for the big areas (70% of the mowing time perhaps). But there are some things it just wouldn't mow at all, and arguably the house section is my highest priority - mowing between the trees with an RFM would be annoying, with a hydraulic side shift potentially would be pretty good.
- A rear flail - either a straight flail, or a side shift without tilt like this: https://landmax.co.nz/product/landmax-eco-mow-1950h-flail-mower/ 1.9m mowing width puts it between the two, but still a hydraulic side shift. Right between the other two - more width than the verge mower, doesn't do tilt, but does do side shift. It would mow most of what I want, but not quite everything.
I'm leaning towards the verge mower, which would mean two rear outlets. The MX comes with one standard, but it won't do constant flow - so I need a second to run the log splitter anyway. Two outlets would run the verge mower.
Then the next thing is a hedge trimmer. Farms around here all have pretty big hedges. I can pay a guy about $750 to come trim it once or twice a year. Or spend NZ$7,500 to get my own hedge trimmer. That requires more outlets - but the sales guy pointed out I can just use the loader remotes for that, since I wouldn't need the loader whilst running it, and it's nicer to have a remote to move it anyway rather than using 3 rear remote levers.
https://landmax.co.nz/product/landmax-brm120-hedge-trimmer/ That's a one-day-in-the-future buy, our hedges are planted, but are still quite small.
So, questions for the team:
1. Would I regret getting an MX instead of a Grand-L? The Grand-L has some nicer features - better loader joystick positioning, nicer transmission, rubber floor mats etc. I feel like the transmission I don't need - it does lots of things, but none of them are needs - they're more bells and whistles. The MX is cheaper
2. The MX says it has lower capacities than the Grand-L. Is this really true? Or are they paper specs, and in real life the MX is more tractor? I note that the sizes, weights and hydraulic flows are almost identical.
3. What do people think on mowers? What would you do? I'm thinking I can live with reduced efficiency when mowing the fields perhaps 2-3 times a year, in order to get higher efficiency mowing the house block. Our ground is very hard, so I'm unlikely to make ruts in the house block, and I'll eventually resow the lawn with fine fescue (and put in irrigation), at which point the areas with the nice lawn will get a robot mower.
Adding a few photos:
This is the north end of the property, looking along the irrigation ditch. Those piles will get pushed in to fill it in somewhat, but you can see the neighbour took hay off, and left all the difficult parts - which is what I want to mow. This is looking south west, the house would be slightly out of frame to the left.
This is the east of the property. This paddock has been mowed, and is pretty dry.
This is again from the north, similar to the first shot, but looking almost due south. You can see the house in the distance.
Looking across the front of the house - this is the house section, and you can see some of the trees along the driveway - these all have to be mowed around.
This is looking from the implement shed towards the house - same direction as the previous photo but from further away. Again showing the trees down the drive that need to be mowed around, and the driveway that will need maintenance.
