What do you use to manage small acreage

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tessah

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For those of you who manage small acreage at home or rent do you look after the land yourself?

If yes what do you use in preference and why?

Compact tractor, Atv, utv or a regular 4x4?

And what gadgets do you use to make the jobs easy?

It seems the costs can vary hugely to get small jobs done?
 
I have a 'lawn tractor' which is basically a beefed up ride on lawnmower, it has a big cutting deck that you just raise up when you dont need it, it has a ball hitch and pulls a little trailer for poo picking and moving water, a big lawn roller that you fill with water and a gate/pallet creation which does some rough harrowing

Its not going to set the world alight but does everything at a nice sedate safe speed

If I had the money I would buy one of those gater jobbies, they look fun but safe
 
I use a 4x4 on our 7 acres. We have a ballast roller, grass harrows (recently upgraded from chain harrows) and an arena leveller. I could do with a decent paddock topper, I currently use a self propelled walk behind lawn mower which does a good enough job, but can't cope with long grass.
 
ATV. Chain harrow. Lawn tractor and sheep keep on top of topping. Oh and my trusty industrial size strimmer.

we are on sandy soil and only have a measly 5 acres to maintain, for 2 under 14h.
 
I pay a local farmer to do paddock maintenance inc spraying etc. Works out cheaper than buying and maintaining equipment.
I use my 4x4 for levelling the arena.
 
Have a compact tractor and 4x4. Use 4x4 for harrowing and rolling and compact for topping. 4x4 is less hard on field than tractor tyres but cannot use that for topping. Use both when fencing 4x4 for lugging materials around and tractor auger for making holes in ground.
 
Quad with chain Harrow, roller and sprayer (seperately). Not a perfect job but you do see an improvement once it's done.
 
the choice of vehicle depends on what you want to do. A 4 x 4 and a quad don't have the advantage of PTO and 3 point linkage that a compact tractor would. So if you want to spread fertiliser or do anything that requires power take off from the tractor a quad wouldn't do it. A topper requires PTO, as does a mower. (unless of course you buy a machine with a separate engine) A roller or harrows don't. If your fields are small a tractor or quad would be more manoeuvrable that a 4 x 4. If you wanted a loader to move dung then you would need a tractor.

The gadgets we have to make life easy are a paddock cleaner, and suitable tyres on the compact tractor. They are half way between turf tyres (no traction) and tractor tyres (dig the ground up badly) You can hardly see they have been on the grass. Also harrow, roller, topper and fertiliser spreader. Do you need to spread fertiliser or lime? And for us a front loader on the big tractor and trailer to move the dung mountain.

Top of the list is also the trusty strimmer for weed control.

Paying someone to do things would be cheaper however it is nice to be independent and able to do things on the day you want which for us is usually the day the fields are dry enough. We found that whenever we wanted things done the local farmers were too busy working as their fields were dry.
 
Interesting thread. I'm hoping to have my own three acres shortly and I was thinking a yearly or twice yearly harrow and roll would be enough with me poo picking weekly. Still not sure if it wil just be one horse or if I will need a companion (but that's for my own thread)
 
Dubsie said:
Massey 65 (restored) Massey Harris Bailer (not yet restored) (we make a bit of hay), Teagel mower & topper, ancient chain harrows (no idea of make), a roller.
Click to expand...

ooh ! A massey 65 ,great tractors ,but do you now have a dent in your shin from the clutch pedal!
 
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