Our Kubota L4701HST Tractor, Trailer & Implements

Because we’re new in Tennessee, we knew we needed to make some initial improvements. But we’ve learned that hiring workers with the proper equipment over the past five months was more costly than we anticipated. Moreover, now that we are looking ahead, we realize that future annual land management costs will be higher than we thought (for labor).

It can be difficult to know where to shop and whom to trust, so I’ve often had to rely on referrals from strangers in Facebook groups. I asked one Facebook group where to buy our tractor and received five different recommendations. I tried them all, and none of them treated us as we hoped. It’s clearly a seller’s market today, and productivity all over the USA is below average. Nonetheless, by chance, we found a dealership while driving from one tractor dealership to another.

Henceforth, we purchased a package deal. A Kubota L4701HST with a LA765 loader, L2235A bucket, RCR1272 72” Bush hog, BB1272 72” grading box & 20’ auto trailer combo.

The first thing I did was 5.0 hours of bushhogging two pastures and 1.3 hours of grading in preparation for our future shop. The hydrostat transmission, 4-wheel drive (with lockers), and diesel engine rocks. Had we hired that labor, it would have cost us two to three of our tractor payments. Nonetheless, we’ve learned that a tractor is a necessity on our Homestead.

With continued progress, our next plans include installing an underground shelter, followed by a 26kW whole-house generator. Six months in, we are seeing our plans steadily come together.