what do I need

I just purchased 80 acres of reclaimed strip pit property with about half of it being used as pasture at the time. We will build a home on
it in the future but in the meantime will have to at least mow it after the guy leasing the pasture removes his cattle. The property has a
long strip pit on it with the terrain sloping down into the pit and appears to have some low spots that could be wet areas when we have
enough rain. This is in southeast Kansas which we just moved to so don't know if the dryness is common or not. I had an old MF 231 that was
38HP that I sold when we moved, and it worked great for the small amount of brush hogging I had to do there. I have much more to either mow
and or bale here so I am wondering what kind of tractor would be needed? Would 4-wheel drive be needed due to the low areas? I know I must
have a front-end loader as that was something I used a LOT on my 231. Also interested in brands as I see a lot more utility tractor brands
than back when I bought the old MF. I don't know if I can afford new so used ideas are OK as well.

Lots of opinions... first off you cant mow wet area either with or without 4wd. So only buy 4wd if your going to do serious plowing or have other needs for heavy pulling that a rotary cutter (shredder) (brush hog) does not require. 38pto hp will run a 6 foot cutter. 48 hp will run an 8 foot cutter. 58 hp will run a 10 foot 78 hp will run a 15 foot cutter. 85 hp or more will run a large round hay baler if you every plan to do that. Also a bigger tractor will obviously cut more faster, but you dont need a 130 hp tractor for 10 acres of cutting. Also 6 cyl tractors can consume $80 to 160$ of fuel a day.. So its about how much time you have vs how much money you have. Lots of money but very little time, buy bigger. No money and lots of time you could buy smaller and save a whole whole lot of money. Also,3 and 4 cyl tractors are very common and parts are cheaper in the used market. Some brands have total aftermarket support on parts so you almost never pay dealer prices. 6 cyl tractor parts cost much much more. DID I SAY MUCH MUCH MORE? Are you going to buy new or used as that will drive you a different direction. Can you service and work on the tractor or will have to rely on dealer support? (ouch!!!)

Id just plant it to prairie and mow some trails

lots depends on the type of ground here . and any tractor with a front end loader is not much good in wet ground. and if your gonna be mowing 40 acres that dont make sense to me. either make it into hay , but that depends on what kind of pasture you have. so as i say pretty hard to get an answer without seeing the place and the soil type. or post a pic of the place. any 50-60 h.p. tractor is enough to do what u need to do.and if this land was pasture i know what cows do in wet land. they make it pretty much impossible to drive in the pasture.

Why not let the guy graze his cattle? Just asking..

Man-made soil can be a mixture of just about anything and everything. Soil samples would help identify how to build up the soil to make it productive.

Be very careful building on heavily reworked soil, it might still be settling and could be settling unevenly. I don't know if extra heavy footings will be enough to keep a foundation from cracking/buckling as the ground below it settles.

Do you have any tractor storage sheds on the property? If not, it might be cost effective to continue to lease it as pasture with a requirement that the tenant mows and controls weeds.

I think the 4wd question has a lot to do with how much and what uses you have for it in the wintertime ? Small 2wd tractor struggles in deep snow and in the mud.

As for someone who lives in a heavily strip mined area any land that has been back filled and socalled reclaimed the last thing you even want to think of is BUILDING ON IT as it will take decades to settle . and for us tryen to Farm it about the only thing it will grow is Alpha for once again DECADES . But it will make good hay ground the only down side is the ROCKS they are real hard on equipment till ya get them either picked up or knocked off flush with the ground . Now if you have a nice are that has not been MOLESTED then that is where you build your home NOT on the back filled area.

what part of sek? im east in mo about 30 miles from pittsburg. lots of strip land there from coal removal.
must say welcome here too

The property is located about 3 miles from Missouri just west of Mulberry Kansas. YES, there is a lot of ole coal strip mined property here as there was in southwestern Indiana where we moved from. My wife grew up in Pittsburg and so we moved back so she could be around her family. We sold deep shaft mined property and are very familiar with strip mined property as it was all over our part of Indiana. There are a lot of small towns from that part of Indiana that were the results of the ole coal mining practice, just like there are here. This specific area has about 5 popular fried chicken restaurants that are the results of ole coal mining days that have been in families for generations. Seems here the landscape is a lot different as it is more flat cattle country rather than native timber and why I tried to get as far east as we could and still stay within decent range of Pittsburg. I would have much rather gone further east into Missouri but compromised with this piece of property. So we will build a new home here, for the last time in our lives.

I have made a vow to myself to never buy anything that all the wheels don't pull. We have a 50 hp JD with a cab that we mow that much.

After some time, I have found a guy that will mow this property and next year will bale it on shares, if I so desire. This property has fencing that will need to be maintained which goes into the wooded area just outside and along the stripper knobs that were left, not reclaimed. Having walked it there is no access via my side by side so I will have to build one along the fence. I am now wondering again about what equipment I may need to do what I want to do with only one. I could use a tractor as well as a small dozer and now am wondering if I can get more bang for my buck with a tracked skid steer of about the same HP needed with a 4-wheel drive tractor? I would only have to mow maybe the perimeter fence around all the property and the neighbor could mow/bale the rest of it. From my research a skid steer can handle ALL the attachments I would need to brush hog and build trails. Just curious as the opinions of the opinions of folks that may use skid steers on their farms and what they do with them.