[kiwicanuck]

Hi everyone, my name is Evan and I live up here with my family in the beautiful interior of British Columbia, Canada.

I have been reading a lot about the JD 2305s and the Kubota BX24s style of tractors.

We have very hard clay ground that I am wanting to improve upon. It is mostly flat land with a lot of fir, spruce, aspen and beetle killed pine trees. I am wanting to remove some of these trees with the backhoe and smoothing out the future pasture with the tiller and re-seeding grass for horses/cows/goats etc. Is this type of tractor going to have enough HP for tilling and stump removal?

Tiller recommendations are welcome

Thanks
Evan
:OHCAN

 

[Bolens 1000]

Welcome to the forum Evan:MTF_wel2: :Welcome1:

 

[jeepersmitty]

Welcome to the forum Evan. Glad to have you.

 

[Rodney in VA]

kiwicanuck

Check out this thread and maybe you can get a better idea of the things you can expect to do with a CUT tractor.
http://www.mytractorforum.com/showthread.php?t=68626

:MTF_wel2: we are glad to have you. There are many friendly and knowledgeable folks here at MTF, so enjoy all the different forums. Click on ”Active Topics” near the top left of the page for all the latest activity. You can also register with other members from your country by clicking here:

 

[KHodges]

I have been reading a lot about the JD 2305s and the Kubota BX24s style of tractors.

Is this type of tractor going to have enough HP for tilling and stump removal?

Tiller recommendations are welcome

Thanks
Evan
:OHCAN

Evan, welcome to MTF. Lots of great info and you will find there are opinions galore on most anything to do with what tractor will do what.

I think that for tilling, either of the two you mention will be fine, as long as you are careful around old roots and rocks (to protect the drivetrain). I have an X748, one step down from the 2305, and I use a 50" reverse rotation tiller with no problems, either lifting the weight (around 325 lb) or having enough power (same as 2305). I have torn up compacted red clay (S.E. USA) with well established grass, and although it might take a few passes to get enough depth for a good garden, it's fine.

As for pulling stumps, I'm not sure you'd have enough weight, although if you can cut most of the deeper roots, you can probably get smaller stumps out okay. If you plan to grass over a former forested area, my suggestion would be to cut the stumps as close as possible and either grind them below grade, or use some type of chemical to hasten their decomposition. you don't really need to till the ground, but just scratch it up with something like a drag harrow, and then sow it with a good blend made for your latitude.

There are a bunch of tillers that will work well with the tractors you mention, which one is best for you will depend on your budget and the proximity to a dealer. I like my Land Pride RTR0550 very much, and it was sort of the middle of the price range for a tiller that size ($1600). It is very good quality, very well made. Mine has a "slip clutch", although it also is available with a shear pin for driveline protection. I recommend the slip clutch just because you can adjust it for your needs and you save time not having to stop and change shear pins when they break.

 

[BLIND REF]

Welcome to the forum Evan! Ditto on KHodges opinion. I will add that either machines are very capable. For small stumps the hoe shreads them. Pine trees are a different story. Their root systems goes straight down deep. You can break the roots on some of them but they are stubborn. Those type of stumps rot pretty quick though. Go test drive them all, and when you are selecting the best tractor for you, don't forget to include the dealer's reputation into the buying equation.:fing32::MTF_wel2:

 

[Team_Green]

Evan welcome to MTF

These are a great bunch of folks here. I am over in Alberta near Edmonton, my wifes mom is down in Cold Stream beside Vernon. I would say either will go the job you want done BUT you wont dig the big trees fast.

Where in B.C. are you at, there are other folks in here from B.C.

 

[JDFANATIC]

Welcome to the forum! :Welcome1: Ditto the above advice.

 

[Jim_WV]

:Welcome1: Evan !

 

[kiwicanuck]

Welcome to the forum Evan! Ditto on KHodges opinion. I will add that either machines are very capable. For small stumps the hoe shreads them. Pine trees are a different story. Their root systems goes straight down deep. You can break the roots on some of them but they are stubborn. Those type of stumps rot pretty quick though. Go test drive them all, and when you are selecting the best tractor for you, don't forget to include the dealer's reputation into the buying equation.:fing32::MTF_wel2:

:thThumbsU
Blind Ref: although the pine trees here are not very deep due to the soil conditions, I am glad to hear that the backhoe would be more than good enough. I also have some renos around the house (new sundeck and hayshed barn) planned in the very near future.

I went to a kubota/new holland dealer yesterday to chat and kick some tires they wouldn't even look at the bx's and are trying to upsell me to a B series which seems like overkill and when they started telling me approximate pricing is was up to double on what I was hoping to pay.:Stop: i nearly died.
I found it interesting that even though I brought up New Holland as an alternative they steered me away from that too.

Evan

 

[kiwicanuck]

Evan welcome to MTF

These are a great bunch of folks here. I am over in Alberta near Edmonton, my wifes mom is down in Cold Stream beside Vernon. I would say either will go the job you want done BUT you wont dig the big trees fast.

Where in B.C. are you at, there are other folks in here from B.C.

That Coldstream/Vernon area is a really nice part of the world. My wife lived most of her life in Kamloops and we have relatives in Vernon so I know the area quite well.

We live just outside of 100 Mile House near Horse Lake / Lone Butte area. A nice slice of paradise but the winters up here are a little long.

Thanks for the welcome :trink39:

 

[kiwicanuck]

Evan, welcome to MTF. Lots of great info and you will find there are opinions galore on most anything to do with what tractor will do what.

Wow, didn't think of only needing to scratch it up a bit, I have been stressing about tilling up the future pasture with all those stumps in there.

Drag harrows? any good, better, best recommendations there? or are all harrows created equal

I am curious why did you get a tiller with reverse rotation? What are the advantages.

I hear that nitrogen fertilizer with some gunpowder (fuse optional) will also help with stump removal/decomposition too :sidelaugh

Evan

 

[Water boy]

:thThumbsU
Blind Ref: although the pine trees here are not very deep due to the soil conditions, I am glad to hear that the backhoe would be more than good enough. I also have some renos around the house (new sundeck and hayshed barn) planned in the very near future.

I went to a kubota/new holland dealer yesterday to chat and kick some tires they wouldn't even look at the bx's and are trying to upsell me to a B series which seems like overkill and when they started telling me approximate pricing is was up to double on what I was hoping to pay.:Stop: i nearly died.
I found it interesting that even though I brought up New Holland as an alternative they steered me away from that too.

Evan

I looked at the BX series before I got my B, and it(the bx) just did not have enough ground clearance for my tastes. I have 40 acres, 13 or so of it woods, and I was afraid that the bx might not cut it. That being said, the complete TLB BX package was MUCH cheaper than the B Package!!


WB

 

[KHodges]

Wow, didn't think of only needing to scratch it up a bit, I have been stressing about tilling up the future pasture with all those stumps in there.

Drag harrows? any good, better, best recommendations there? or are all harrows created equal

I am curious why did you get a tiller with reverse rotation? What are the advantages.

I hear that nitrogen fertilizer with some gunpowder (fuse optional) will also help with stump removal/decomposition too :sidelaugh

Evan

Yeah, after you get your stumps treated or taken care of, or even before that, spray the area with a good vegetation killer like glyphosate to get rid of all the weeds, then drag the area good to tear up the surface. You don't really need deep tilling just to plant grass. I would recommend testing your soil, I don't know what you have up there, but pine thickets down here tend to acidify the soil over time. You may need to spread some good fertilizer and lime the area.

Brinly has a nice drag harrow, several different sizes available. It has tines that angle, and you can tow it forward, backward or flip it over, depending on how aggressive you want to be. You can find harrows through Tractor Supply or Northern Equipment.

I chose a reverse tine tiller because it works better on a smaller tractor. The tines are turning in the opposite direction from the direction of travel, so it doesn't "push" a lighter tractor, or ride up on the surface and the tines dig in better. The tiller is trying to pull itself backwards due to the tine rotation, and the tractor pulls against it. I had a standard tiller on a larger CUT and it did fine, but even then the tiller wouldn't cut hard ground as well unless you went really slow and gave it time.

ANFO has been a "stump blaster" for a long time, but down here, at least, you get all kinds of attention if you buy ammonium nitrate more than a bag at a time. ATF thinks you're a terrorist. ANFO is Ammonium Nitrate/ Fuel Oil, a mixture of the fertilizer and diesel fuel in a proper ratio. You can detonate it with most any light explosive, such as a cherry bomb, or blasting cap, and it has quite a bang. Think of the Oklahoma City Federal Building a few years ago, that was ANFO.