I'm considering buying a small 4x4 tractor to trailer around for fairly light use. Mainly be bush hogging few acres here and there/mowing lots. Putting in 5-6 acres of food plots per year. Occasional fine tune grading. I have a 16ft dump trailer I'd like to use and not buy another trailer. Do yall think a 30 hp would be enough.... Never been on a tractor that small. Some thing like a JD 790

Just my opinion, but the equipment is equally or more important than the tractor. You need to decide which implements you plan to use first. Not the type of implement, but specific brands. For instance, not all disc harrows are created equal. There are many on the market made of angle iron that weigh a few hundred pounds. Honestly, those aren't good for much except discing plowed ground. If you want a disc that will pulverize untilled ground, you need a heavy implement like a disc made by Brown Equipment Company.

Decide which implements you want to pull then get a tractor big enough to handle those. I will also add that my observation has been that there are quite a few small tractors on the used market and fewer big ones. That might be because fewer big ones are made. But it may also be because guys bought tractors that were too small for what they wanted to do. Too much tractor is not a problem. Too little tractor is a problem.

IMO buy at least one size bigger than you think you need. Also make sure your trailer weight limit is enough to haul it.

We have bigger but also have a 790 and love it for plots and general use.

I have had a little JD 1023e for 3 or 4 years, now...best tractor I've ever owned! I cut down 37 pines in the yard over the last year and a half or so, averaging 60-80 feet tall and 22" in diameter...skidded and piled them with the loader bucket on that little 23hp tractor! Also bush hog and till my son's 5 acre pasture with it...There's only been one time it hasn't done what I asked it to, although sometimes you have to ask it a little differently than a bigger tractor. I couldn't move some of the stumps that Jaredhunts came and dug up for me...but I don't feel too bad about that, his big ol' backhoe could only barely move some of them! When the timber guys came to get the logs I'd cut, they couldn't believe I'd piled them and created a 20' wide, 8' tall, and 100' long brushpile with all the limbs and other brush we'd cut up there! If that little tractor was a 50hp, I'd rule the world, by now!

I have a Kubota l2350 4x4 that has handled any 5' implement that I have. I kept it over loaded for years but it is a tough little tractor.

We used a jd3032e this past weekend with a 5 1/2' kingkutter disc and planted roughly 4-5 acres. Few times when it would cut in real deep,it would bog a little bit,but for the most part it was plenty. Pushed some logs out of the way with the bucket and it had plenty of power for that

We have a Kubota B2710 that is very tough, but it takes about twice as long to do a job vs the big tractor.

He's right about JD 1023. I have a 1026 and it does same except the stumps. Smaller is nice to maneuver. I can get in my pines. Powerful little tractor.

I bought a 26 HP Yanmar from Fredrick's in Decatur last year for uses similar to yours. It's quite a contrast from running the 75 HP JD, but I've been amazed what the little tractor will do. It will pull most anything if you gear it down enough. You just have to go much slower under heavy loads.

I used it to pull a 2 bottom breaking plow on my garden and it never even got to normal temperature. But I went very slow .

A good 30 HP will probably do what you want; it just will take longer.

I have a JD 5045e and love mine. The only complaint is its big and sometimes it's hard to get in small spaces. Buts it's a beast and I have went some places I didn't think it would go. And like Yelp said the tractor is only as good as the implement. I have a Brown mfg disc and rotary cutter. It's almost unstoppable. I have a 1/2 ton pickup and it pulls it

Thanks for the responses. I'm gonna keep looking

This really says it all. Doing something in 1/3 the time can be a huge advantage, but if you've got a lot of time, go for it.

Something like a new holland boomer 35 would be great.

If you had a way to haul it I'd recommend a 5055e, but it's too big for even an 18ft flat cargo trailer. The downgrade in hp just means jobs will take longer to accomplish. 35hp will do everything you outlined and then some, but a 55hp tractor would do it considerably faster.

I've got a friend with an older model boomer 35 with 2,400 hours. Its used on a working farm. One helluva tractor.

Ive got a JD790 4x4 with loader. It has done almost everything I have tried to do with it. Perfect for food plots with a 5' rototiller and easy to maneuver in the woods. With that being said, when piling stumps I wish I had a 40HP

I was in a club with a guy years ago that had a Kubota M4900 w/loader. That thing was awesome for foodplot work. He pulled it with a half ton Z71, back when that meant 4x4.

Just my 2cents......i wouldn't buy anything under 40hp and it would have to have 4wd.

Bush hogging hunting leases and discing is harder on a tractor than you think.

Think of it like this. ...if a 25hp can get the job done, a 50hp will only have to work half as hard. This equates to longer life of your tractor. I have a JD990 4wd w/loader and now wish I would've gotten something in the 55-60hp range. My next one will probably be a New Holland Work Master 75......

No more tractors under 50hp if I'm going to use it on the lease.

I'd get a JD 950 if it would fit in the trailer and skip the 4wd requirement. Actually I'd get a Ford 2000 if it would fit in the trailer. It is heavy enough to actually do something.

The reality is compact tractor just don't have the weight to do much doesn't matter what the engine HP or if it is 4wd or not.

You can do about anything required with a Ford 200, 3000 or Massey 135 as far as small food plots are concerned. They'll do about the same as a newer compact tractor in the 50hp range. Compact tractors might have higher PTO horsepower but don't have the weight to pick up the implement. If you put 70hp in a 3k lb. tractor you still can't run big implements.

That's how that works.

I bought a JD 3038E last year.

It has a loader and I bought a 6' Disc Harrow and a 5' Bushhog. I've since bought a 7-tined new ground plow, seed hopper, and a 55 gallon sprayer.

I've got 33 acres of food plots on my place and that tractor has no problem handling all of my needs. A larger tractor will certainly do the same work in less time but I can get into smaller areas with this tractor.

You won't go wrong with a tractor this size.

A front end loader is a must in my opinion. A small tractor, bushhog, and loader will fill a 16' trailer pretty quickly. If I was purchasing a tractor, I would not let and existing trailer I had be my deciding factor... Sale the trailer and go a little bigger if needed. I have a JD 1050 (34 HP), 5' bushhog, and no loader and it completely fills my 16' trailer. Had to buy a 24' to haul the Mahindra 4530, 7' bushhog and loader...