Machinery for managing 4 acres ?
Discussion
So looks like we will be buying a new house ( well wreck of an old house with 4.5 acres)
Being a total petrol head the first question is obviously what machinery should I buy !!!
It will be 4.2 acres of paddock ( 3 paddocks all non flooded !!) and .3 of an acre of garden which will have a small lawn probably cut by a hayter 56 ( already have)
So whats the best way of managing the paddocks hedges ditches ?
Thinking quad bike and a compact kubota tractor ? is that overkill or underkill ?
Have all the relevant chainsaws hedge trimmers etc etc as already have .75 acre garden now
Will probably have sheep in paddocks year one and they horses.
Advice very welcome
Phib
Being a total petrol head the first question is obviously what machinery should I buy !!!
It will be 4.2 acres of paddock ( 3 paddocks all non flooded !!) and .3 of an acre of garden which will have a small lawn probably cut by a hayter 56 ( already have)
So whats the best way of managing the paddocks hedges ditches ?
Thinking quad bike and a compact kubota tractor ? is that overkill or underkill ?
Have all the relevant chainsaws hedge trimmers etc etc as already have .75 acre garden now
Will probably have sheep in paddocks year one and they horses.
Advice very welcome
Phib
Was thinking something like
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Kubota-L1501-4WD-Compact...
with a topper, chipper and hedge trimmer
Ideally didn't want to spend £10k
Phib
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Kubota-L1501-4WD-Compact...
with a topper, chipper and hedge trimmer
Ideally didn't want to spend £10k
Phib
phib said:
Was thinking something like
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Kubota-L1501-4WD-Compact...
with a topper, chipper and hedge trimmer
Ideally didn't want to spend £10k
Phib
just like that but get an older cheaper one.. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Kubota-L1501-4WD-Compact...
with a topper, chipper and hedge trimmer
Ideally didn't want to spend £10k
Phib
This is the kind of thing you want
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/TORO-WHEELHORSE-520-Hydr...
only £1195. Ideally spend a bit more and get one with a wider mulching deck. You can change the decks, when I was running one I had three decks which I would swap as needed.
These are serious lawn tractors
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/TORO-WHEELHORSE-520-Hydr...
only £1195. Ideally spend a bit more and get one with a wider mulching deck. You can change the decks, when I was running one I had three decks which I would swap as needed.
These are serious lawn tractors
phib said:
Don't really want a ride on mower, don't really intend cutting the grass much.
Sheep are harder work than tractors. But even if you are planning to keep horses you will need to top the paddocks occasionally.But you will need a tractor to pull the trailer anyway. How else are you going to move your kit into position, and remove the debris?
Have toyed with getting something like that myself but not really justified it yet. Am just about on top of the mowing of 5 acres with a couple of ride-on mowers, but something larger with a PTO would probably be handy. For towing a trailer to move stuff around I use my Joyner 650, which has the added benefit of being a bit of fun to play around with when I am not doing work! Electric winch on the front has been handy for moving a few things about too.
For hedge trimming I just get the local farmer to do it. They are out doing the hedges alongside the road often enough so I just pay £80 once a year to get about 1500 ft of hedge cut. It's not really worth me investing in a trimmer and spending my time doing it each year for that.
For hedge trimming I just get the local farmer to do it. They are out doing the hedges alongside the road often enough so I just pay £80 once a year to get about 1500 ft of hedge cut. It's not really worth me investing in a trimmer and spending my time doing it each year for that.
Here you go
ISEKI!!
Probably a bit big for 4.5 acres tbh.
I used to do a lot of things on a 30 acre visitor farm with one of these.
You can drop the deck off it when not mowing and you can get a petrol engine driven topper if you really need one. These will quite happily tow trailers all day long with fence posts, hegde and tree cuttings, hardcore in etc.
A lot will depend on how wet your 4.5 acres gets. fnar fnar!!
ISEKI!!
Probably a bit big for 4.5 acres tbh.
I used to do a lot of things on a 30 acre visitor farm with one of these.
You can drop the deck off it when not mowing and you can get a petrol engine driven topper if you really need one. These will quite happily tow trailers all day long with fence posts, hegde and tree cuttings, hardcore in etc.
A lot will depend on how wet your 4.5 acres gets. fnar fnar!!
phib said:
Have to agree it really does barely warrant a compact tractor, however a digger / front loader would be incredibly useful as I am rebuilding the house.
Has anyone used a quad and a gang mower ?
I am just really trying to avoid ride ons and they have little flexibility
Phib
I used to have 3.5 acres and already owned a quad, we had sheep but not enough to keep the grass down all year round so I looked at gang mowers suitable for paddocks. The sports pitch ones are generally no good for anything but relatively flat surfaces, so with no PTO on the quad we were limited to something self-powered. For the prices, I just couldn't justify it.Has anyone used a quad and a gang mower ?
I am just really trying to avoid ride ons and they have little flexibility
Phib
In the end we just let the farmer next door put a few of his sheep in every now and again.
If we hadn't already had the quad, I'd have bought a small Kubota and mower on ebay tbh.
By the time you've bought a half decent gang mower suitable for towing behind a quad, you might as well have bought a second hand compact and a PTO mower.
RedLeicester said:
4 acres barely justifies a decent sized compact tractor, it's ride-on lawn mower territory. Sadly with the little things you then don't have much by way of options for implements. Countax do offer a chipper for their little mowers, other than that a decent chainsaw and brushcutter.
Countax do a chipper,but it's worse than useless.We've got 3 acres, which started out as 1 acre of over grown formal gardens, hedges, orchards. The rest being a very over grown paddock.
Not sure how overgrown your hedges are, but if they are anything like what ours were, then you'll be wanting a hand saw and chain saw, as opposed to a hedge trimmer initially. The grass needed to be attacked with a brushcutter.
To move stuff around the land, we use an old wind-up 1 tonne dumper or a variety of trailers on the back of the Defender. We've moved over 200 tonne of topsoil around + over 100 tonne of building stone (that was buried in the paddock).
Mowing wise, for the paddock we use a gang mower on the back of the Defender and it cuts it in no time. The hard to get areas we use an old Westwood ride on mower.
For the formal gardens, we use either the Atco sit on, to get nice stripey lawns or for the long orchard grass we use a normal petrol mower. This mower is also ideal for Autumn to collect the leaves!
Digger wise, we started with a 3T. Mini Digger, which was worth it's weight in gold. Whether it was to pull trees down (or stumps out), flatten gardens, lay the gravel drive etc etc. We got rid in the end, as the steel tracks would churn the newly laid grass/soil up, so we were limited to where we could go.
We've now got a JCB 3C as we are now moving pallets around the yard for our building work. The JCB is ideal for going across dry grass. It's got a 4 in 1, so we can use it for most things. It's near enough made my dumper redundant.
We now maintain the hedges with a long reach hedge trimmer.
We did toy with the idea of having a tractor (we did actually buy an International 1055 - that's another story), but we've coped fine with just the above.
One more thing - don't buy cheap brand new garden machinery. It's best to buy the used good stuff for the same price (i.e. Stihl).
Not sure how overgrown your hedges are, but if they are anything like what ours were, then you'll be wanting a hand saw and chain saw, as opposed to a hedge trimmer initially. The grass needed to be attacked with a brushcutter.
To move stuff around the land, we use an old wind-up 1 tonne dumper or a variety of trailers on the back of the Defender. We've moved over 200 tonne of topsoil around + over 100 tonne of building stone (that was buried in the paddock).
Mowing wise, for the paddock we use a gang mower on the back of the Defender and it cuts it in no time. The hard to get areas we use an old Westwood ride on mower.
For the formal gardens, we use either the Atco sit on, to get nice stripey lawns or for the long orchard grass we use a normal petrol mower. This mower is also ideal for Autumn to collect the leaves!
Digger wise, we started with a 3T. Mini Digger, which was worth it's weight in gold. Whether it was to pull trees down (or stumps out), flatten gardens, lay the gravel drive etc etc. We got rid in the end, as the steel tracks would churn the newly laid grass/soil up, so we were limited to where we could go.
We've now got a JCB 3C as we are now moving pallets around the yard for our building work. The JCB is ideal for going across dry grass. It's got a 4 in 1, so we can use it for most things. It's near enough made my dumper redundant.
We now maintain the hedges with a long reach hedge trimmer.
We did toy with the idea of having a tractor (we did actually buy an International 1055 - that's another story), but we've coped fine with just the above.
One more thing - don't buy cheap brand new garden machinery. It's best to buy the used good stuff for the same price (i.e. Stihl).
Woody, many thanks for all the info !!
We have a defender too ( a 50th) which I have thought might be good with gang mowers behind !!
The place is in a bit of a state and I think until its sorted I will need a few bits and bobs, think I am going to end up with a ride on no matter what i do !!
God knows how long its going to take to cut 4.5 acres with one, I think I will have to get to know the local farmer !!
Have all the hedge trimmers / chainsaws etc etc all stilh so all good there
Many thanks
Phib
We have a defender too ( a 50th) which I have thought might be good with gang mowers behind !!
The place is in a bit of a state and I think until its sorted I will need a few bits and bobs, think I am going to end up with a ride on no matter what i do !!
God knows how long its going to take to cut 4.5 acres with one, I think I will have to get to know the local farmer !!
Have all the hedge trimmers / chainsaws etc etc all stilh so all good there
Many thanks
Phib
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