Getting Our John Deere Tractor

Over the course of about 6 months, a lot of questions came to pass. How could we break never before farmed ground? How would we maintain the 700' gravel driveway? How could we simply mow the acreage? When the local guy mowed for us we were in the summer months. The temperature was so hot that the vegetation didn't grow much. We were able to use the Craftsman for about an acre around the house where there was lawn grass which continues to work well for us. The Craftsman riding lawn mower was not going to be sufficient for the other 8.5 acres of rough vegetation. We also needed a way to break ground for gardening.

Debates On Solutions

We threw out a lot of options for land maintenance. We researched walk-behind brush hogs for the large majority of the acreage. We researched brush hogs with motors you could tow behind an ATV. We thought of using our Jeep to pull it. We researched tillers you could tow behind ATVs. Again we thought about using our Jeep. None of these ideas were really feasible with the amount of land and our available time. Both of us work full time so taking a week to mow with a small brush hog or break ground with a pull-behind tiller simply wouldn't work for us.

Tractor Shopping

We finally went tractor shopping. We didn't want to make a hasty decision and have regrets later. We shopped at Kubota, John Deere, New Holland, and Yanmar. Price-wise wise with the implements we wanted they all came out close to the same price. Yanmar was quite a bit higher than the others and they lost any hope of a sale with their incessant calls over 9 times a day trying to get me to buy.

What We Wanted In A Tractor

We thought about our needs for quite some time. We needed something that could mow a large amount of rough acreage easily and in a reasonable time. We don't have days on end to mow sections. We needed an adjustable depth tiller to break ground for the first time. We wanted it depth adjustable so once we established grow areas we could just lightly turn the top of the soil going forward for planting. We didn't want to get into the deep disking you see on commercial mono-crops. We want to stay as close to No-Till gardening as we can. We wanted a tractor with enough HP to be able to use the majority of small farm implements as much as possible. Parts availability was a consideration as well. And we wanted a tractor that had a service center as close as possible to our property.

Tractor Service Centers

John Deere had 2 factory service centers within 40 minutes either way of us. Kubota had one service center 40 minutes from us but it wasn't a Kubota-specific outlet. It was a tractor sales and supply place that sold a variety of tractors and implements. Yanmar had an outlet 40 minutes from us but the salesman had already lost the sale by being so inconsiderate of my time. New Holland only had a service center 3 hours away from us so that was out of the question.

Tractor Size

This question became a defining factor in our purchase. Some of the sub-compact tractors were appealing but were little more than large riding lawnmowers. They might pull a small rotary cutter, tiller, and box blade but left questions with us about accommodating our needs on almost 10 acres. The John Deere salesman made a valid point. He said if you were on the fence about tractor size based on your property size and needs, then go with the larger tractor you're considering. We took that advice to heart and did not regret it.

Our John Deere Tractor

After all the questions and considerations we went with a John Deere 3025D Tractor. It has a manual transmission, loader, 5' rotary cutter, and a 5' adjustable depth tiller. We will need a box blade in the future for driveway maintenance but decided against it for now. We'll just get it when we need it so we don't have to have that implement sitting and doing nothing for months on end. The tractor has the HP to utilize every implement we will use on our land that the smaller tractors would not.

Using The Tractor For The First Time

When the tractor arrived the property had not been mowed for nearly 5 months. It had definitely grown but because of the hot summer, it didn't get as high as when we closed on the property. I hopped on the tractor and began mowing the next day. Even with the 5' rotary cutter, it took 9 hours to mow the 8 acres that we had been unable to keep up with. It should go faster next time because we can cut it before it gets so overgrown again. The tiller was incredible. It did struggle some on the hard unbroken soil. Keep in mind the land had never been farmed in any way and the soil is extremely compacted. It made breaking ground for our first garden area feasible though and I don't regret getting it. We also lightly tilled an area 1" deep for a cover crop of Crimson Clover. It has begun to sprout and will start adding a huge amount of natural nitrogen to the soil for later growing.