i want to do this as a hobby and to make the atv trail look better[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img] but I'm told I might have problem with bears[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-sad.gif[/img]
I'm not sure should i consider getting a tractor. our neighbor use to have one but sold it for a atv. he has horses witch I happen to like. they keep the field down witch is also good.

 

The little black bears her in Washington, the real one not DC, like the fallen apples but don't create any real problem. Most of the time they run as soon as they see a person but sometimes you have to yell at them or eat them.

 

For any real serious work I think you're going to find that a small utility type tractor is going to be far more useful that trying to use an ATV for farm type work. Now don't get me wrong, that ATV is going to be extremely useful and needed. You're going to want both.

Trying to press the ATV into pulling 3 point implements or making them into tractors isn't too terribly successful. Brush hogging and mowing for instance can be done with an ATV mower (in limited instance can be done better with an ATV and ATV mower such as in heavy timber or extremely rough terrain that is too soft or unsafe for a tractor) but a brush hog behind a tractor does it far more efficiently and cheaper.

There is also the cost issue. ATV implements are extremely expensive. Old farm implements you can pull behind a small utility tractor can be bought at a very reasonable price. Look at the price of a ATV mower compared to a tractor brush hog especially a used brush hog or mower. Same with plows harrows and such. Look at the price of food plot prep stuff you drag behind an ATV. They aren't terribly effective to begin with and they are hideously expensive. With the up sizing in farm equipment the small implements are just laying around in fence rows and behind barns and you can pick up the smaller old implements cheap.

Unfortunately there is a problem when it comes to picking up used older tractors. The collectors have descended on the market and their lunatic buying has driven up the prices way beyond their actual worth for working purposes. So trying to buy an older tractor is usually futile because a collector is paying thousands of dollars for it. You could once get older tractors for a few hundred dollars and get an excellent tractor for general farm use with years of use out of it. Those days are long gone now. Now you unfortunately end up having to go with your Kubotas or newer small JDs.

Being an apple farm you could go out an find an old orchard tractor for authenticity. The collectors love those.