New Property - Equipment Advice?

[Belo]

This might be a bit of a long post but I'm hoping the more details I provide the better.

I have been leasing 40 acres in upstate NY for about 4 years. The property is about 1/2 apple/peach orchard and fields and half hardwoods. When I first started leasing (from family) I wasn't looking to invest a lot as I wasn't sure if ownership would ever happen. Well it did and we now own and are building a house on the land.

I am a deer and turkey hunter and we as a family also have goals to hobby farm the orchard. I have a 1.5 acre annual plot and another acre of clover and chicory. Over the years I've started planting oaks, chestnut, pears and persimmons. I have an order this spring to plant some more oaks and chestnuts and generally will be done with trees where I want them.

When I started out I needed to be able to do a few things and again, didn't want to invest too much in equipment as it wasn't a certainty that I would once own it.
I wanted to be able to plant small food plots, mow the orchard, spray the fruit trees (hobby spray), be able to get dead deer out of the woods easier than a cart or sled and cut and transport firewood. Had I started out owning the land I'd have bought an ATV and a tractor for sure. But that wasn't the case.

This lead me to purchasing a canam hd9 utv. I bought a whole bunch of kolpin and big boar equipment to food plot, a fimco 65gallon sprayer and kunz engineering mower. I recently added a stump grinder last year and also a nice husqvarna trimmer. I have a whole series chronicling my journey. I'm not promoting my channel, it's not professional and it's just a journal: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLxdaChG8lUrwgrpRDvor9Xw8LsfYpmeKR

Which leads me to my current situation. I have and own everything outright, none of it is worth much on the marketplace, however none of it is great at what I need it to do. A 3 point on the back of a UTV has its limitations for sure, but it works. The sprayer will be fine, the pull behind mower takes me damn near a day to mow the orchard and the food plotting is fine, just not as ideal as a tractor.

I have future plans to keep working the property and would love to maybe dig a couple small farm/frog ponds. I enjoy owning equipment so that I can work at my pace. I can be convinced that renting is the way to go, but just to note that again I like to have it to do projects a needed. I enjoy learning how to do things and prefer not to pay someone else, not because I can't afford it, but I enjoy doing the work myself.

So FINALLY LOL. What would you recommend I start to budget for? I initially was sold on a compact or subcompact tractor. There are a ton of projects I could use the bucket and 3 point for, but mostly I'd likely buy a larger 6 or 7 foot 3 point mower vs the 48" I have now. I am intrigued by the Chinese min-excavators and skid steers that seem to go for under $6k. This is something I'd never have considered, but the youtube reviews are "generally" positive.

What would you buy? Skip the tractor? Buy just a skid steer? Buy a tractor and skid? Buy a tractor and mini excavator? Some other path lol?

Budget wise I am poor as shit right now building our house, so this is a 2026 deal and all in I'd like to be less than $50k, but ideally sub 40 or even 30 is better. I have no issues buying a good used tractor. Less sold on a used skid steer or mini ex.

 

[SwampCat]

It sounds to me like a tractor would be used more in your situation than anything else. I run a 7’ bush hog off a 65 hp jd and wouldnt want much less hp. I think you will want a compact tractor. Maybe 40 hp. You could run a 72” rotary cutter and have much better mobility around your fruit trees than a full sized tractor. I do not put my 65 hp tractor in my fruit trees. I use either a 28 or 32 hp with a 5’ bush hog. The turning radius on the small tractors is much tighter.

Tractors with front end loaders are not the best at digging. If I wanted a small pond, I would rent an excavator, dig the pond and do any other digging you might need - and have the tractor for everyday use.

 

[DRG3]

i have a ~50HP tractor with quick detach loader. It's jack of all trades and master of none- but works for me. That's probably where I'd start. Like swamp cat said- not the best tool for digging- no way i'd put in a pond with it. I would use it to create "wildlife water holes" but I would not trust it(me on it) to dig somthing i needed to be structurally right.

I'd love to have a skid steer. Due to how much ground engagement work I do, i couldn't have just that though. And skid steer attachments- which I would want a forestry mulcher- are very expensive and why I will probably never own one.

 

[TreeDaddy]

I vote tractor

Forestry mulchers do great work, but I worry about the maintenance( sharpening, replacing teeth, etc)

bill

 

[Belo]

Thank you all and you are confirming generally what I was leaning towards. Just didn't want to get it wrong. The UTV is amazing and a tractor doesn't replace a lot of what it can do, so I'm happy to have it and a tractor would be an awesome addition as well as maybe just renting an excavator at some point.

 

[Wind Gypsy]

Depending on which Kunz mower HP you have, it might take a fair bit of tractor to get meaningfully faster when it comes to mowing. I know they make those kunz mowers beefy. I dont know that my L3560 kubota (38 HP) with a 6' flail mower is much faster than a 4' kunz would be especially in thick stuff just because the kunz could go faster.

 

[Belo]

Depending on which Kunz mower HP you have, it might take a fair bit of tractor to get meaningfully faster when it comes to mowing. I know they make those kunz mowers beefy. I dont know that my L3560 kubota (38 HP) with a 6' flail mower is much faster than a 4' kunz would be especially in thick stuff just because the kunz could go faster.

I have the 44bc I think? it's not the lowest tier, but the beefier kohler iirc. My issue is not that it's not capable, that thing has cut everything I've thrown at it. It's that how you mow with it being towed behind and only being 44" that it just takes a while and can be difficult to maneuver (no reverse basically). A 6' PTO would really cut a lot of my mowing time down. And i'd still have the kunz for the trail work and brush work.