6 Tools You Need to Manage Colorado Acreage After Closing

Managing Colorado acreage takes six pieces of equipment: a compact tractor, cutting and brush tools, a UTV, a hydraulic machine for grading and digging, fencing tools, and water-management gear. Buy the tractor and the fencing tools first; rent the excavator, the skid steer and the post-hole auger until the property proves it needs them every month.

This guide is written for the Denver metro and Front Range buyer who just closed on 2 to 40 acres in Elbert, Douglas, Weld, Adams, Arapahoe or Jefferson County. Every recommendation accounts for what Colorado land does to equipment: 5,280 feet of elevation, 300 days of sun, hail from May to September, freeze-thaw winters and expansive bentonite clay soil.

What does a Colorado acreage buyer need on day one?

Before the first tool, get four documents from the closing file and keep them in the shop: the well permit from the Colorado Division of Water Resources, the county septic permit, the survey or Improvement Location Certificate, and the recorded easements. Those four papers decide where you dig, where you fence and how much water you are allowed to use.

The Colorado ILC vs. land survey guide explains why an ILC is not a boundary survey. Never set a fence on an ILC line.

1. Compact utility tractor: the machine that does 70% of the work

A 25 to 40 horsepower compact utility tractor with a front-end loader handles mowing, driveway grading, snow removal, hauling and tilling on parcels up to 40 acres. New, a 25 to 35 hp tractor with a loader costs $22,000 to $40,000 on the Front Range. Used units 8 to 15 years old with under 1,500 hours sell for $12,000 to $22,000.

Two Colorado adjustments decide the right size:

• Elevation: A naturally aspirated diesel loses about 3% of its rated power for every 1,000 feet of elevation. At 5,300 to 7,000 feet, a 30 hp tractor works like a 24 to 25 hp tractor at sea level. Buy 20% more horsepower than a sea-level chart says you need.
• Bentonite clay: Expansive clay soils across Douglas, Arapahoe and Elbert Counties turn to grease when wet and to concrete when dry. Add rear ballast (a loaded implement or wheel weights) and choose R4 industrial tires for a gravel driveway or R1 ag tires for pasture.

Attachments in order of use: a 5 or 6 foot rotary cutter for mowing, a box blade for the driveway, a rear blade for snow, and pallet forks for hay and fence posts.

2. Chainsaw and brush tools for cottonwoods, junipers and Russian olive

Front Range acreage grows three things that need cutting every season: cottonwood limbs along creeks and ditches, juniper and ponderosa in the foothills of Jefferson and Douglas Counties, and Russian olive, which the Colorado Department of Agriculture lists as a noxious weed you are required to control.

The kit for a 5 to 35 acre parcel:

• A 50 to 60 cc gas chainsaw with an 18 or 20 inch bar for limbs, firewood and dead trees. Budget $450 to $900.
• A battery chainsaw with a 12 to 16 inch bar for fence-line work and pruning. Battery tools lose less at elevation than small gas engines do.
• A brush cutter with a metal blade for kochia, thistle and cheatgrass on uneven ground. String trimmers stall on Colorado weeds taller than 24 inches.
• Protective gear: chaps, a helmet with face screen, gloves and steel-toed boots. Chaps cost $80 to $120 and stop the chain before it reaches the leg.

Colorado's Noxious Weed Act puts the control duty on the landowner, and county weed programs in Elbert, Douglas, Weld and Boulder Counties inspect and issue notices on List A and List B weeds. Cut before the seed heads form in June and again in August.

3. UTV with a blade, a sprayer and a dump bed

A side-by-side UTV covers a 35 acre parcel in 10 minutes and carries 800 to 1,500 pounds in the bed. On the Front Range the UTV earns its cost in three jobs: snow removal on the driveway before the county plow reaches the road (rural county roads are plowed last), spraying noxious weeds with a 25 gallon boom sprayer, and hauling fence posts and wire to lines a truck cannot reach.

New UTVs run $12,000 to $28,000; a 60 inch plow blade adds $600 to $1,200. Colorado is a "fence-out" state under Colorado Revised Statutes Title 35, Article 46: if a neighbor's cattle wander onto your unfenced pasture, the fencing burden is yours. The UTV is how you check 2 miles of fence after every storm.

4. Hydraulic equipment for grading, trenching and driveway work

Grading a 600 foot gravel driveway, trenching a frost-proof water line 4 to 5 feet deep, or digging footings for a shop calls for a mini excavator, a skid steer or a backhoe. Rent, do not buy, until the machine works 10 or more days a year. Front Range rental rates: a 3 to 4 ton mini excavator runs $350 to $500 a day, a skid steer $300 to $450 a day.

These machines run on hydraulic systems, and Colorado works those systems hard. Freeze-thaw cycles thicken fluid overnight, bentonite clay loads the arm, and UV at 5,280 feet cracks hoses in 3 to 5 years instead of 8. Owners who buy rather than rent keep OEM-compatible components on hand, such as Rexroth pump parts, so a pump failure in February does not idle the machine until spring.

5. Fencing and post-setting tools

Fencing is the largest single expense on new Colorado acreage. Installed costs on the Front Range:

A 35 acre square parcel has about 4,900 feet of perimeter, so barbed wire alone runs $15,000 to $29,000 installed. The tools for doing it yourself:

• Gas or hydraulic post driver for T-posts. Manual drivers work for 50 posts; a 4,900 foot line needs 400 to 500.
• Tractor-mounted auger with a 9 or 12 inch bit for wood corner posts. Bentonite clay drills clean when dry and clogs the bit when wet; dig in September and October.
• Wire stretcher, fence pliers and a spinning jenny for barbed and high-tensile wire.
• A gate kit with a 12 to 16 foot tube gate at every driveway and cross-fence.

Set corner posts 42 inches deep or more; frost depth on the Front Range is 36 inches in Denver and deeper in the foothills. Shallow posts heave out of the ground by the second spring.

6. Water management: wells, septic, drainage and irrigation

Water is the part of Colorado acreage that new owners underestimate. Three facts govern every purchase:

• Your well permit sets the allowed uses. The Colorado Division of Water Resources issues household-use-only permits on most subdivided lots under 35 acres. Parcels of 35 acres or more qualify for a domestic well permit that covers the house, livestock watering and irrigation of up to 1 acre. Look up any permit at dwr.colorado.gov.
• Rain barrels are limited to 110 gallons per home (two barrels) under Colorado law, and the water goes on the lot it fell on.
• Septic transfers are inspected. Jefferson, Boulder and Douglas Counties require a septic inspection and use permit when the property changes hands. A new engineered septic system in Colorado costs $18,000 to $35,000.

Tools for the water side: a trencher rental ($250 to $400 a day) for a 5 foot deep frost-proof line to a hydrant, a 300 to 1,000 gallon stock tank with a submersible heater for winter, a grading rake and transit level for drainage away from the foundation, and a drip system for anything you plant. Grade 6 inches of fall over the first 10 feet from the foundation; standing water on bentonite clay heaves basement slabs within one winter.

For a written conservation plan on drainage, soil and grazing, the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service has field offices in Castle Rock, Greeley, Brighton and Kiowa that work with private landowners at no charge.

Wildfire and hail: the two Colorado hazards that dictate maintenance

Foothills acreage in Jefferson, Douglas, Boulder and Larimer Counties sits in mapped wildfire zones, and insurers now price the policy on a wildfire score. The Colorado State Forest Service defines defensible space in three zones: 0 to 5 feet from the house (nothing flammable), 5 to 30 feet (thinned and mowed), and 30 to 100 feet (tree crowns 10 feet apart). The chainsaw and the brush cutter above exist for zones 2 and 3. Read the wildfire insurance score guide before the policy renews.

Hail from May to September dents tractor hoods and cracks UTV windshields left outside. A 30 by 40 foot pole barn costs $35,000 to $70,000 on the Front Range; the post does that big shop add value to a Colorado acreage property covers what it returns at resale.

How much does a first year of Colorado acreage equipment cost?

A used tractor package ($16,000 to $28,000), cutting tools and gear ($1,200 to $2,000), a UTV with plow ($14,000 to $30,000), 3 to 5 rental days on an excavator ($1,200 to $2,500), fencing tools ($1,500 to $3,500) and water gear ($1,500 to $4,000) total $35,000 to $70,000 in year one for a 10 to 35 acre parcel, before fence materials. Plan for that number at the offer stage, not after closing.

Financing acreage and the equipment that goes with it

Financing acreage differs from financing a subdivision home. The appraiser has to find comparable acreage sales within 10 to 20 miles, and the lender reviews the well permit, the septic permit and legal road access before closing. Mike Oswald, VP of Mortgage Lending at Rate, NMLS 261003, Equal Housing Lender, reviews acreage files for the Kenna Real Estate Group's buyers and states the equipment budget alongside the loan so the cash reserve is real. You are free to use any lender. Start with the Colorado financing page and the mortgage pre-approval guide.

Where Front Range buyers find acreage

Parcels of 5 to 40 acres with a home sell for $650,000 to $1,600,000 in Elbert County (Elizabeth, Kiowa), eastern Douglas County (Franktown, Larkspur) and eastern Adams and Arapahoe Counties (Bennett, Strasburg), and $500,000 to $1,200,000 in Weld County. Search Colorado horse properties for sale, browse homes in Parker, homes in Castle Rock and homes in Bennett, or read the Colorado horse property buying guide before the first showing.

Where to go next

• Colorado horse properties for sale
• Colorado horse property buying guide
• Buying a Colorado horse property: barns, storage and land
• Colorado ILC vs. land survey
• Search every home and acreage listing in Colorado
• Meet the Kenna Real Estate Group agents

Talk to the Kenna Real Estate Group

The Kenna Real Estate Group at Keller Williams DTC sells acreage across the Front Range and walks every buyer through the well permit, the septic file, the survey and the fence lines before the offer is written. Call or text 303-955-4220. A live person answers. Not a robot, not a phone tree. You can also search every home for sale in Colorado right now.