Go with Kubota or JD and you will be happy.

I have owned Kubota, JD, Branson, and Kioti.

Smaller Deere tractors are not the same as their large farm tractors and I do t even think they make them themselves. They certainly are not built as well.

Kubota 20 years ago was pretty much without equal. Now many other brands have caught up. I have nothing against Kubota I own one of their diesel zero turn mowers and six of their RTVs and they have all been great. You just pay a premium for the Name me it really isn’t that much better. For example my Kioti was 10k cheaper than the comparable Kubota. I drove both and thoroughly studied both and I would have picked the Kioti if they were the same price. The Kioti is heavier built and weight is huge with a tractor.

We ran a 1200 acre ranch for 25 years with a 70 something HP Case 895 2wd and a front end loader.

Just sold another ranch that was 2300 acres and the owner ran it with 100 hp New Holland 2wd with a front end loader.


All depends on the operation. My buddy owns a place down south and they have a full blown hunting operation as well as a cow/calf operation and farm all their own hay. Ranch is entirely self contained. They have a few different tractors in the 75-100 Hp category but their shining star is a 325 Hp Steiger. That thing can pull a plow now.

I drove a Kubota, JD, Mahindra and Bad Boy and bought the Bad Boy 4035. Few reasons but price was a big part of that but not all. The Bad Boy was built by Kukje and has basically a non electronic ignition A-Series Cummins engine. The FEL has more lift capacity than the others for the same horse power tractors. So far it has impressed me and getting a lot of work done with it. When it gets a bit dryer in my swamp I will be doing a lot more work on the place.

Price difference will allow me to buy more implements I do not have available to me to use. Grapple and pallet forks are at the top of that list.

The Kukje diesel engines offered in both Bad Boy and Branson tractors are simply an A-series Cummins. TYM a South Korean company bought Kukje an from what I understand will keep their brands of tractors and keep the Bad Boy line but Branson will be gone or that is what I have read anyway. Good chance more of their tractors will use the Kukje engines

I wouldnt even buy JD’s big tractors.. but thats a whole other thread about “intellectual property rights” and expensive parts

Hey everybody, thanks for the advice. Ended up with a Mahindra 1626 and feel it will serve us well. Decided on this one because it will fit on the trailer, in the garage, in our shipping container, through the trails, and do what we feel we need it to do at the ranch.

We looked hard at the Kubota 2501 but it was $5k more compared to a comparable Mahindra that also had 5 years longer warranty.


Looking forward to picking it up Thursday.

Congrats on picking a tractor. Sometimes smaller is better and a man with time can get a lot done with one. My Sister loves their Mahindra.

Congratulations. Sounds like you selected the tool needed for the job instead of going overboard. You ought to be fine.

That reminds me of some that I started last fall with the Bad Boy 4035 and will do more this year. Had a Skid steer with a mulcher do some work 3 years ago and he made a pass through this area in and out so I used that as a starting point and just using the bucket with a piranha bar on it opened that up for about 80 yards long and 15 to 20 yards wide through that and made a right turn down the creek and built a natural blind at the turn. Could watch two creek crossings from it. Next thing on the list is a third function and grapple. No problem taking down and uprooting the stuff but need a better way to pile it.

If you're going with a smaller tractor, 40 - 50 horse, stick with Kubota. We run JD for all our farming but Kubota has a quality product for small tractors

The piranha bar is great. Love mine. The lane shark makes easy work of trails and roads. But it is a bit fragile. I bent mine already and barely hit anything.