Buying guides

Ranked by gross engine horsepower, highest first

Ranked by gross engine horsepower, biggest first. Engine horsepower is the number on the hood decal; the PTO figure on each card is the one an implement dealer will ask for, and the gap between the two is the drivetrain. If the job is a round baler, a 10-foot batwing, or a heavy disc, start here.

Ranked by PTO horsepower per $1,000 of list price, highest first

Every machine here lists at $20,000 or under, ranked by PTO horsepower per $1,000 of list price, so the tractor that puts the most usable power behind each dollar comes first. Sub-compacts dominate this band; a few base-trim compacts sneak in, and those are usually where the loader lift jumps.

Ranked by published loader lift capacity, highest first

Ranked by the maker's published loader lift capacity, highest first. A round bale is 800 to 1,200 lbs and a pallet of feed close to 2,000, so the top of this list is where those become a one-trip job. Makers quote lift at different points on the loader; the about page explains why two identical numbers can lift different pallets.

Ranked by three-point hitch lift capacity, highest first

Every model here is offered with an enclosed cab, ranked by three-point hitch lift capacity, since cab buyers are the ones spending whole days behind a heavy implement rather than in front of a loader. Some prices here are for the cab build (LS's CPS models come with the cab as standard); others are for the open-station tractor, and there the cab is not a small extra: Kubota's 2025 list for a gear-drive MX4900 is $29,454 with a ROPS and $38,854 with the cab.

Ranked by PTO horsepower, highest first

The utility class, ranked by PTO horsepower. This is the number that sizes a hay baler or a tiller, and it is where hydrostatic and gear machines separate: a hydrostatic drive gives up more of the engine's output on the way to the shaft. Engine horsepower is on each card for reference.