Smallholding kit planner
The calculator needs JavaScript. The worked example, formula and figures below show exactly how it works, so you can do the sum yourself. A guide based on published specs and your figures, not a guarantee.
Short answer
Worked example
| You enter | Value |
|---|---|
| Your land | 5 acres |
| Grazing paddocks | Yes |
| Livestock to muck out and feed | No |
| Making your own hay | No |
| A veg plot | Yes |
| Field-scale growing | No |
| An orchard | No |
| Woodland or firewood | Yes |
| Brambles or scrub to clear | No |
| Lifting bales, pallets or bags | Yes |
| Lawns near the house | No |
| Your ground | Sloping |
| Narrowest gate machines have to go through | 3 m |
| How you'd rather get kit | Buy used |
A compact or sub-compact tractor with a three-point linkage and PTO, for 5 acres (2.02 ha)
| Result | Value |
|---|---|
| Your land in hectares | 2.02 ha |
Your jobs
- Topping paddocks
- Harrowing
- Rolling
- Fencing
- Hauling feed, bales and logs
- Lifting bales, pallets and bags
- Cultivating a veg plot
- Cutting and splitting logs
- Chipping brash and prunings
- Clearing brambles and scrub
Implements and towed kit
- Topper or flail mower on the three-point linkage
- Chain harrow
- Paddock roller
- Trailer
- Front loader with pallet forks or a bale spike
Smaller kit
- Post driver, fencing pliers and a wire strainer
- Pedestrian tiller or rotavator
- Chainsaw (with training) and a log splitter
- Wood chipper
- Brushcutter
Safety kit and training
- PTO guards on the tractor and every shaft, and Safe Stop before you get off (HSE)
- Read HSE's guidance on working on slopes, and ask the dealer about rollover protection and the maker's slope limits
- Chainsaw training and protective clothing before using a chainsaw (HSE); one operator only on a log splitter, guards on
- The protective kit each maker specifies for brushcutters, chippers and toppers: eye, ear and leg protection
Next steps
- Size the tractor from your implements' PTO power, linkage and weight (compact tractor size calculator)
- Check every machine and implement is narrower than your 3 m gate
- Check hours, guards, PTO and paperwork on any used machine before you buy
Source: HSE guidance (pointers) and makers' UK spec sheets; the plan follows the jobs you choose, checked 21 October 2026.
Show the working
- Land: 5 acres × 0.4047 = 2.02 ha
- Jobs: topping paddocks, harrowing, rolling, fencing, hauling feed, bales and logs, lifting bales, pallets and bags, cultivating a veg plot, cutting and splitting logs, chipping brash and prunings, clearing brambles and scrub
- Route: A compact or sub-compact tractor with a three-point linkage and PTO, because of lifting bales, pallets and bags
How it works
- Your land uses give your jobs (grazing: topping, harrowing, rolling, fencing; livestock: muck, haulage, fencing; and so on)
- Any job that needs a loader or a tractor's PTO and three-point linkage (moving muck, lifting bales, making hay, field-scale cultivating) points to a compact tractor
- Otherwise, jobs that can be towed (topping with an engine-driven topper, harrowing, rolling, hauling) point to a quad or UTV with towed kit
- Otherwise, hand-held and pedestrian kit does the jobs
- Hectares = acres × 0.4047 (1 acre = 4,046.86 m²)
We don't size by acreage alone. Five acres of grazing and five acres of woodland need different kit; the jobs and the implements decide it.
Contractors and hire are often the better route for jobs you do once or twice a year, such as hay or first-break cultivating.
Assumptions and sources
The figures this calculator starts from, and where each comes from. The maker's UK spec sheet and your own figures come first: change any figure to match.
This calculator has no built-in defaults: every figure comes from you or the maker's spec sheet.
| Rule | Body | Status |
|---|---|---|
| PTO shafts fully guarded | HSE | Not yet checked against the source: shown as a pointer only |
| Safe Stop: handbrake, controls neutral, engine off, key out | HSE | Not yet checked against the source: shown as a pointer only |
| Working on slopes | HSE | Not yet checked against the source: shown as a pointer only |
| Training for anyone riding a quad at work | HSE | Not yet checked against the source: shown as a pointer only |
| Suitable helmet when riding a quad | HSE | Not yet checked against the source: shown as a pointer only |
| No passengers on single-seat quads | HSE | Not yet checked against the source: shown as a pointer only |
| Children and adult-size quads | HSE | Not yet checked against the source: shown as a pointer only |
| Training for chainsaw use at work | HSE | Not yet checked against the source: shown as a pointer only |
FAQs
Guides
Your first year on a smallholding
The first year on a new smallholding: what kit to buy, hire or leave, jobs by season and the rules to check.
Smallholding machinery
The machinery a smallholding needs, from hand tools to a compact tractor, worked out from your land and jobs.
How big a tractor do I need for 5 acres?
Five acres can need a compact tractor, a quad with towed kit or no tractor at all. Work it out from your jobs and implements.
What size tractor do I need? A smallholder's guide
Size a tractor by your jobs and implements, not your acres alone: PTO hp, linkage category and lift, from makers' figures.