Most everyone I've talked to agrees with you two guys (Charby and Larry) about parts and service. Number one consideration. There's a TYM dealer about 5 miles away and a JD dealer about 20 miles away. I was pretty much leaning green, even with the extra up front cost. I would have looked at Kubota, but they are at least as pricey as JD and dealer/mechanic is farther away yet.
I'd already been thinking in the 30-40HP range, because I don't want to end up underpowered and useless just because I wanted to save $5000. I'm still leaning towards a custom farmer for cutting and bailing on the alfalfa, so no bailer needed (yet) but there's still pasture to take care of, plus around a half mile of roads and kinda sorta roads. So besides the front bucket, something that handles a box scraper and/or rear blade well.
While I would like gas, I'm kinda getting resigned to a four banger diesel (which would be fine without the EPA attachments). The previous owner is throwing in an I think 200 gal diesel tank, so fuel storage will be there. There's only two months where cold starting will be a real issue. The JD model numbers are ridiculous. They have more variations than Ford does with the F150!