Implement/Equipment List

Just found this forum after searching for the QDMA forums. I followed those religiously years ago and loved to see everyone's farms, plots and posts about habitat enhancement. Years later, I'm finally at a point I may be closing on my own place. We've got our eye on 200 acres in south central OK. I love to hunt, but I've always been looking forward to working on my own place. I want to see what equipment you guys cant do with out for managing a small place, 200 acres of mostly timber with 75% being wooded. I hope to have a few smaller 1-2 acre plots and converting an open field to a destination plot of 10-15 acres. Thanks in advance

4wd tractor w FEL. 3 pt attachments are endless. Good luck, and enjoy.


Rusty

Welcome to the forum. In order of most used; 4wd tractor with FEL, ATV, notill drill, corn planter, 3pt sprayer, mower, disc, power pole saw, chainsaw, root grapple, forks, 3 pt fertilizer spreader, pull behind lime speader, 3pt grading blade,. Sold the cultipacker for lack of use after we got the notill drill. Ocaisionally I move a track skidloader in to do some field edges, shooting lanes, waterbars, grading and trailwork.

Welcome to the forum Bearcat, glad you found us. Good luck in making your land purchase. Whatever it takes it will be sooooo rewarding. Every piece of equipment ever made would get used if I had them. To pick two I would say a 4wd tractor, a chainsaw and sprayers both back pack and 4 wheeler/UTV size. Since the tractor is a huge expenditure, the first two I would buy would be the chainsaw and the sprayers and attending Game of Logging Courses goes with the chainsaw.

Thanks for the responses
I’ve got a ranger, cultipacker, atv sprayer, backpack sprayers and chainsaws. I was curious about which tractor implements, so I appreciate you guys chiming in. I figured a shredder and disc, tiller or drill would be the next most important item. How many of you guys have a grapple on your FEL?

bearcat said:

Just found this forum after searching for the QDMA forums. I followed those religiously years ago and loved to see everyone's farms, plots and posts about habitat enhancement. Years later, I'm finally at a point I may be closing on my own place. We've got our eye on 200 acres in south central OK. I love to hunt, but I've always been looking forward to working on my own place. I want to see what equipment you guys cant do with out for managing a small place, 200 acres of mostly timber with 75% being wooded. I hope to have a few smaller 1-2 acre plots and converting an open field to a destination plot of 10-15 acres. Thanks in advance

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What is your budget? How far to the nearest rental equipment dealer?

I farm for a living, so I look at things a little differently.

You didnt give a dollar amount but assuming you've got a good sized budget, personally I would get a good sized (75+ish hp) tracked skid loader with high flow hydraulics, a/c and heat, then get a late 60s or 70s vintage tractor, something maybe 60-75hp, something with wide front, power steering, and a 3pt. Color doesnt really matter on that vintage, so if you have a preferable brand that's fine, tons of parts available from the aftermarket so you dont need to be reliant on a dealer. One tractor I'm familiar with would be a 1650 or 1655 Oliver, they were a midsized tractor in their day so they werent worked as hard as the bigger ones. Lots of them had loaders too. Itd be big enough to pull a 12-15ft disk, a smaller plow, 10-12ft no till drill, 4-6 row planter, can Bush hog if you want, basically it's a good all around size. Plus they're dead simple, most things can be fixed with basic hand tools.

The reason I say go this way, is from what I've run and seen, most modern tractors dont hold a candle to their older sized equivalents. A 75hp tractor today will get spanked by one from the 70s when it comes to doing real work, plus they dont even make decent loader tractors IMO. We borrow a guys 100hp modern tractor, it needs the FWA to pull a 12ft disk where something like a 1650 will pull it fine in 2wd. Plus the older tractors are WAY more stable.

A good sized skid loader like I mentioned will do a hell of alot more work than a loader tractor. Plus the never ending plethora of attachments you can rent or buy is mind boggling. Tree mulchers, tillers, dozer blades, the list goes on, plus you can load it on a trailer and haul it wherever. If you need a tiller every year, might as well rent one for the weekend instead of buying.

Just my $.02

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I do a heck of a lot with a 39 HP modern Kubota 4x4 loader tractor including make a living. I am in Oklahoma too and most everywhere I work is a rock pile...for equipment a good Brushhog, 9 tooth chisel plow, landscape rake, 3 point spreader, disk, and box blade.

For the acreage you need to "till" or maintain (15ish acres), a 40 hp tractor with 4x4 and FEL is plenty of tractor. That allows 6' wide equipment. If you plan on moving a lot of brush and small trees, a grapple is a very useful tool. You can make do with Quick-attach on your FEL and get a set of forks. Just depends on your budget....a grapple is nice, but then your tractor will need another hydraulic remote in the front to operate it.

As far as equipment, it depends on your method of planting. A no-till drill is super nice, but they ain't cheap and require significant horsepower to pull (and rear hydraulics to raise it or lower it if it's not 3pt hitch model). You can have very nice plots with a bushhog, disc, a seed throwing method, and a drag or cultipacker. I don't know your soil, but if not rocky, you could get a tiller and eliminate the disc....makes for a perfect seedbed.

For our plots, we spray in September and bushhog a couple weeks later. On planting day in October, we spread grain seed on the ground, then disc or rototill, cultipack, spread small seed (clover/chicory), then cultipack again.

I was wondering about the grapple, thanks for the feedback on that. I used my grandads tiller back in the day and it did a good job. The soil on the place putting the offer on isn’t too rocky where I’m looking at placing food plots. My only concern with the tiller was disturbing the soil too much and losing moisture. I wasn’t sure if I disc was a better option over a tiller


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Some people have great results with throw and mow and minimal soil disturbance. It's a fail for me every time here in Florida, so I have to disc or till. I've tried "light discing" by setting the pans straight and not too deep, but that didn't really help with seed germination. So now I just drop it and go. If moisture conservation is a "must" for you, then your best bet is the no-till drill route. I just can't justify the cost for my hunting lease or my 20 acres.

Bare minimum you can plot anything you want with a sprayer and something to mow with. If you want the disc and all that stuff by all means go for it. The guys have already given great suggestions for that stuff.
For timber and trees I love a skid steer with both tree shears and a grapple. Not much you can't do with that combination.

I use an M6040 Kubota, a Land Pride 6’ disc, a 3 point cyclone type seeder (to spreader seed, fertilizer, and lime), a 3 point 60 gallon spray rig, a Rhino 6’ shredder, an 84” 3 point cultipacker, and a home-made tire drag for all of my planting except for small seeds like clover, radish, etc. The small seeds I spread with an extra hand sitting on the tailgate of my CanAm using a Solo hand spreader. My food plots look as good as any plots using a drill. I can’t spend $10/$12K on a drill for food plots. I can’t throw and mow because the hogs will eat my seed.

Forgot my dog. Gotta have a Jack
Russell Terrier to be your copilot !

Oh, and my food plots look like this.....

I’ve got 200+ acres of mostly hardwoods and 17 acres of plots. I strongly recommend a 4wd tractor in the 50+hp range with a FEL. Remember, mass matters more than many folks appreciate. The first 4 are indispensable in my opinion: a heavy disc, cultipacker, rotary cutter and a cyclone broadcast spreader (for large and small grains, fertilizer and pellet lime). I’m still using an Atv mounted boomless sprayer. I use a hand spreader for brassicas and clover. I’d love to have a 2 or 3 row planter for corn and beans, but can’t justify the expense given the success I’m having broadcasting grains. I’ve since acquired a manure spreader for spreading ag lime, a tiller, a York rake for cleaning up corn residue, and a root grapple (primarily for moving trees cut for firewood). There’s good used equipment out there if you’re patient. If forced to buy new, it pays to focus on quality heavy duty equipment. FWIW, I’ve been pleased with Everthing Attachments implements.

Here's an excellent place to look at planters and drills. I bought 1 of each from him and absolutely love them, like brand new.
https://rdhoutdoors.com/

Elkaddict said:

I’ve got 200+ acres of mostly hardwoods and 17 acres of plots. I strongly recommend a 4wd tractor in the 50+hp range with a FEL. Remember, mass matters more than many folks appreciate. The first 4 are indispensable in my opinion: a heavy disc, cultipacker, rotary cutter and a cyclone broadcast spreader (for large and small grains, fertilizer and pellet lime). I’m still using an Atv mounted boomless sprayer. I use a hand spreader for brassicas and clover. I’d love to have a 2 or 3 row planter for corn and beans, but can’t justify the expense given the success I’m having broadcasting grains. I’ve since acquired a manure spreader for spreading ag lime, a tiller, a York rake for cleaning up corn residue, and a root grapple (primarily for moving trees cut for firewood). There’s good used equipment out there if you’re patient. If forced to buy new, it pays to focus on quality heavy duty equipment. FWIW, I’ve been pleased with Everthing Attachments implements.

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My cultipacker is an Everything Attatchments and I agree that it’s quality built. I forgot that I also have a 25 gallon boomless sprayer that I put in my side by side to do small or narrow spray jobs. I use it about a third of the time.

Elkaddict, it seems like we are on the same wavelength.

Everything attachments makes great stuff. The way I beat the hell out of my 72" box blade is almost criminal. I use it as a tiller and it does a decent job at it, but my "big" plot is 1/3 of an acre.

Drycreek said:

View attachment 17617 View attachment 17618 View attachment 17619 View attachment 17620 I use an M6040 Kubota, a Land Pride 6’ disc, a 3 point cyclone type seeder (to spreader seed, fertilizer, and lime), a 3 point 60 gallon spray rig, a Rhino 6’ shredder, an 84” 3 point cultipacker, and a home-made tire drag for all of my planting except for small seeds like clover, radish, etc. The small seeds I spread with an extra hand sitting on the tailgate of my CanAm using a Solo hand spreader. My food plots look as good as any plots using a drill. I can’t spend $10/$12K on a drill for food plots. I can’t throw and mow because the hogs will eat my seed.

Forgot my dog. Gotta have a Jack
Russell Terrier to be your copilot !

Click to expand...

Don,

Glad to hear ol Sarge is back in the game

Happy Thanksgiving

bill

Zeek said:

Everything attachments makes great stuff. The way I beat the hell out of my 72" box blade is almost criminal. I use it as a tiller and it does a decent job at it, but my "big" plot is 1/3 of an acre.

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Much like Missouri Dept conservation site, Everything Attachments is Habitat candy store ......

bill