B7001 owner dreaming of wheat and hay

[walnutfarmer]

I'm in the process of acquiring a small homestead with about four acres of fields and about twenty acres of wood. The place comes with an old Kubota B7001 that I would really like to keep.

The current owners have been using the tractor to get logs for firewood and other minor tasks. The fields have been used for hay by the neighbors.

Im dreaming of getting some small animals and getting hay from those fields myself, maybe even harvesting some cereal!

Only problem is I'm no farmer and dont know my equipment! Is there any chance of doing this with my B7001? As far as I can read the B7001 doesn't have a front PTO and I think would need that to be able to do more than mowing a lawn?

Any tips are welcome!

 

[BigG]

Not trying to discourage you but 4 acres is not very much land to raise animals and grow hay. The B7001 is getting up there in age (produced 1976- 1979) with only 16 hp. Putting up hay loosely may be an option but it is a lot of work. Raise your animals and buy the hay you will need.

 

[GreensvilleJay]

OK, animals....any and ALL animals, require you to be there SEVEN days a week....
If you've never had any, please start with chickens (hens.. NOT roosters ! ), say a dozen. They'll produce 8-10 eggs a day. Now providing you've got a good sized veggie garden it won't cost MORE than what you sell the eggs for and at the end of the season they go into your freezer for free IF you kill and pluck them otherwise 1/2 go to the butcher for 'services rendered'
With 4 acres you'll also be able to have one pig and one cow, for the season, then they go into your freezer...
Since the hay ,barter the right for neighbours to grow their hay on your land. I'll assume they're paying 'something' now.
20 acres of wood, if mixed and semi mature should yield 5-10 bushcord of firewood, use or sell as needed
You WILL be working long hours everyday, hope you KNOW that !!
If you're young and plan ahead, you can live off the land for sure....

 

[walnutfarmer]

Thank you for the tips, and I do know animals require work and supervision. I was thinking chicken and maybe a few goats. It would just be a recreational thing to make the kids feel like they actually live on a farm. Both me and the wife make a decent living doing our 9-5.

The neighbors are actually not paing anything for the rights to use the land. The current owners viewed it as them "working for free" so the land wouldn't grow over. They get the hay from three of the acres and put up a fence around the last one and a small hill to keep some sheep in...

Enough about the land tho. Ill let them continue to make hay for another season, but are there any chance of me making hay with a B7001 or do I need to get another tractor?

I would rather spend money on the B7001 than using the same amount on a larger one.

 

[BigG]

Here is some info that may help you on your journey. I understand the desire to be a farmer but there is a lot of work to doing hay. If you and your other half are working full time will you be able to use a week of vacation for putting up the hay? With the problems of the weather the problems of hay expand.

The mini hay equipment that you will need is also very expensive.

Buyer's Guide to Hay Equipment

If you've decided to invest in hay equipment for your acreage needs, learn more about the types of mowers, rakes and balers available, as well as the advantages and disadvantages to each type.

www.extension.iastate.edu

Hay Balers | Tractor Tools Direct | Small-Farm Haying Independence

TTD makes baling hay with a compact tractor easy! Mini round hay balers and compact square hay balers for small-farm haying. Call 260-BALE-HAY today!

tractortoolsdirect.com

 

[Biker1mike]

Welcome to Orange Tractor.
Your tractor is just a little larger than mine. You are going to find out that you will run out of horsepower much sooner than expected. A small plow and tiller and it will do a nice large garden. It will skid logs but it takes many trips with smaller logs.
I'd use it and watch what the neighbors are using on the hay side. While they most likely will not give you the keys to their rigs they may offer a ton of free advice on what works for them.
Run the place for a year or so and then you will know just how big a tractor you may need.

 

[walnutfarmer]

Here is some info that may help you on your journey. I understand the desire to be a farmer but there is a lot of work to doing hay. If you and your other half are working full time will you be able to use a week of vacation for putting up the hay? With the problems of the weather the problems of hay expand.

The mini hay equipment that you will need is also very expensive.

Thank you for the useful links!

In my country we have mandatory ny law five weeks vacation and both me and the wife have an extra week at our current employers. And we have really flexible occupations, spending a week of vacation on making hay is perfect. That being said, the neighbor and his son cuts the fields and makes the tractor eggs (silo) in less than a normal work day, so with the right equipment I should be able to cut it down to a long weekend?

 

[walnutfarmer]

Ok, now I feel stupid. After googling american units I now understand that I have one acre of fields. Ive always thought an acre is 1000 square meters which is our smallest unit of measurement for fields.

Sorry for the mixup. I have 4000sqm of fields and want to be able to cut 1-3000 sqm for something useful.

Sorry for the european mixup.

 

[walnutfarmer]

Welcome to Orange Tractor.
Your tractor is just a little larger than mine. You are going to find out that you will run out of horsepower much sooner than expected. A small plow and tiller and it will do a nice large garden. It will skid logs but it takes many trips with smaller logs.
I'd use it and watch what the neighbors are using on the hay side. While they most likely will not give you the keys to their rigs they may offer a ton of free advice on what works for them.
Run the place for a year or so and then you will know just how big a tractor you may need.

Thank you!

I guess I'll have to spend a year or two to get the feel of it as you say.

Do know where I can find pdf manuals on old Orange tractors so I can read and dream of what I should try to find once I know my needs better? All I can find is those in-browser manuals in french surrounded by ads...

 

[sheepfarmer]

Thank you for the useful links!

In my country we have mandatory ny law five weeks vacation and both me and the wife have an extra week at our current employers. And we have really flexible occupations, spending a week of vacation on making hay is perfect. That being said, the neighbor and his son cuts the fields and makes the tractor eggs (silo) in less than a normal work day, so with the right equipment I should be able to cut it down to a long weekend?

The trouble with hay is that it needs to be cut and baled when it is ready, which is weather dependent. Not necessarily when you have time in your schedule.

Besides waiting and seeing how it goes, and especially what winter is like, my thought would be chickens, and a few sheep. Goats need more in the way of shelter. Buy feed. Sheep will keep your pastures tidied up, with an occasional mowing with your B tractor.


Enjoy your property! What you want to do will evolve with time. Animals pass on, tractors can be bought and sold if not right for the tasks.

 

[sheepfarmer]

Thank you!

I guess I'll have to spend a year or two to get the feel of it as you say.

Do know where I can find pdf manuals on old Orange tractors so I can read and dream of what I should try to find once I know my needs better? All I can find is those in-browser manuals in french surrounded by ads...

Try the official Kubota site. Being in Europe you will see different things than I do, but shop manuals can be downloaded for a fee, and operators manuals for free.

 

[jimh406]

You need a few pieces of equipment to hay. I think you'd be better off to use the current person to hay it. You can split it with them. You can figure out what the split is. Do agree on when to hay. Our one guy hayed really late on year. Basically, we had a dust bowl the rest of the year.

Another option is plant something that provides good graze year round for at least part of it. That's possible depending on where you live.

Do build the chicken coop before you get the chickens or chicks. Roosters are mostly worthless unless you plan to eat them. Do not get straight run. However, the sexers can still be wrong. Our crazy rooster (RIP) was supposed to be hen. Don't underestimate predators. We used 1/2 inch hardware cloth buried one foot deep. We built the coops inside the fenced in yard and have 3 dogs.

The other 3 roosters are ok. 2 are living with the ducks since 3 roosters for our number of hens was a bit much. The only 1 that has a good temperament around the hens and us was the one we actually ordered. Go figure.

 

[walnutfarmer]

I guess there is no way to mow for hay using my tractor, as I feared.

Ill try to use a scythe for now and buy a new one later :/

 

[GreensvilleJay]

re: chickens
The best setup I've seen was having the coop in the middle of a long run, split into two. 1st year chickens use the 'west' run, while some cover crop in the 'east' 2nd year ,they access the 'east' run', with cover crop in the 'west'. This helps keep the soil in good condition.

 

[walnutfarmer]

Thanks for all the advice guys, but I really just came to talk tractor!

From what I gather, none of my dreams are economical sound, but I'm ok with this being my money pit.

It looks like the current tractor wont be able to run any if the compact bailers (for instance abbriata m60 mini) I've been able to find, so I guess I'll look into getting a new one. Does any of the old compact ones come with a 20+hp engine and a PTO in front?

If I want to do cereal I guess I will have to get something like a Boaz Mini Combine. And I need to build a new garage for all these machines!

I think this project will take some years to get going and I'll have to continue to relly on the neighbors for a while. As you guys have pointed out, this will require a lot of work, and with a 9month old baby and plans to expand the flock time does not grow on trees (or in fields).

From what I have been able to gather though, It looks like about 20k usd and patience I should be able to get the equipment I need to run this homestead independently.

PS: I found this great resource for manuals in another thread on the forum, it really deserves to be mentioned again: https://www.kubotabooks.com/

 

[D2Cat]

I guess there is no way to mow for hay using my tractor, as I feared.

Ill try to use a scythe for now and buy a new one later :/

With a one acre patch you could mow it with a weed eater and use your tractor to pull a side delivery rake. Have your neighbor bale it for you or manually stack and cover it. You are trying to get by with what you have, aren't you?

 

[walnutfarmer]

With a one acre patch you could mow it with a weed eater and use your tractor to pull a side delivery rake. Have your neighbor bale it for you or manually stack and cover it. You are trying to get by with what you have, aren't you?

Using a weed eater would take ages tho! I have used it to fix up a smaller field earlier, and I think I would use days doing a full acre (4000 square meters).

Ive thought about getting one of those two wheele comb mowers, remove the wheels and welding it up to act as an attachment I could hang in front... There are a bunch listed for about 100-500 usd secondhand, but I',m not sure how well it would work..