Yard Prep?

[Tornado]

Tornado......really appreciate your advice here and with regard to my "which tractor to buy thread". You may think I'm crazy but with only about 4 acres of pasture and 3/4 or acre of so of yard I'm leaning towards buying the 2601 over the LX or the L2501. Fella up the road maintains his place VERY WELL and his property is very similar to mine and he does it all with a little BX23s....and he LOVES the BX. I may regret getting the B2601 down the road but I'm running into all sorts of cost overruns on my house / barn, etc and while $3k isn't much of difference when you take into account the tractor and the implements I need right out of the gate the cost is a factor combined with seeing all that GP Outdoors does with his B2601. Haven't made the FINAL tractor decision yet, probably in the next 30 days though.

I like the idea of running a crosshatch pattern with a subsoiler then hit it with the disc. Tell me something though is there anything specific to look for in one companies disc over another. CAN"T BELIEVE how much Landpride charges for their disc compared to EA and others. Are some companies discs easier to add additional weight too (section of a log, barbell weights, etc) or a different design of a disc that make one disc more efficient than others? My only other concern is if the B2601 can pull a subsoiler. I see Magicman's comment that a 25hp might struggle with a subsoiler but I've also seen some tiny JD's pulling subsoilers?? Subsoiler seems like a good implement to deal with water drainage issues down the road and the cost of a subsoiler and disc is about a wash with a good tiller.

Thanks again, the input is really helpful.

No one knows your needs and your property better than yourself. GP outdoors is a great resource if youre considering the B2601, as he has hours and hours of videos of that tractor doing all manner of projects. I think the B2601 would pull a sub soiler fine, if the ground isnt just so hard that you struggle to get it to dig in or something. It will ALL depend on what youre pulling the subsoiler through though. Here in florida, I could honestly pull a subsoiler with my zeroturn lawnmower fine, but im in sandy soil. The worst resistance I hit here is a big root or something. As I said in your tractor purchase thread it will come down to weight ofthe tractor not power. The B2601 will have plenty of power to pull the implement, its just a matter of will the tires start to spin down? when my L2501 fails to pull something, its never because of lack of power, its because my tires start to spin and I cant get traction as the resistence is too great - this is a problem of not enough weight. This is one of the majory differences between the L2501 and the B2601 - Weight. I think you will be surprised what the B2601 will do once you get it. 4WD is also a big help in pulling. When my tires start spinning on pulling something going to 4wd fixes the issue every time.

Regarding the disc harrows - I edited my post above to show pictures of the one Im using. It is a frontier (John Deere brand) 76" disc. This disc brand new is $2,000 - $2,500 somewhere in that ballpark. I am using this one just because A work collegue offered it to me for next to nothing as it was of no use to him. He runs 100+ HP tractors on an over 1,000 acre hay operation. It came with one of his tractor purchases but he never used it and it was just taking up space. I gave him $500 for it which was a steal. Anyways, the real difference on many of the disc harrows in in the construction. You can get a disc harrow at trator supply for just over $1,000 but its all angle iron and such. The more expensive ones you will find are build out of much thicker steel, and are much more sturdy. This Frontier one I have you see in the pics is incredibly well made - I may even like it more than the Land Prides I looked at it when I was looking for one.

 

[Magicman]

In one way or the other I had to modify almost all of my impliments to be QH friendly. Probably the Pat's is better but it also is not a 3 point hitch. It seems like nothing is simple.

 

[Palmettokat]

I have small farm and so worked my yard with larger tractor and implements they you will. Glad you have done soil sample, follow it. First thing on implements, might be hard to do but give careful thought to your long term need on them before you ever buy then unless budget is no issue. If you will have no or very little use for say subsoiler after you get your yard graded consider hiring someone to do this work. I have never used a tiller on a tractor but did use a rear tire tiller in garden years ago and to me a tiller with the hp you will have think it the better option. Again may hire it or rent one if no long term need. As to the tiller compacting the soil, really don't understand how it would do this any more than a disk if the dirt is really disk well. In my experience compacted soil is mainly a result or working dirt when too wet. I want mine on the dry side so it will "flow".

Look up the ag school or County Agents in Ky and their recommendation there for lawn grasses and such.

 

[greg86z28]

I would contact a local company or two that plants grass, like a landscaping company, to get advice.

They will know your area and how to successfully plant grass better than anyone else.

depending on what implements you need, if it’s one time use stuff I would highly recommend buying used if possible so you can resell at minimal to no loss