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Most articulated tractors you'll find are going to be very large machines built primarily for heavy tillage and large scale planting. If you're going to be making hay with the tractor in the 1985 and newer range, you should be able to find a row-crop tractor with MFWD in your power and price range very easily. Finding one with a loader or adding a loader to it shouldn't be a problem at all. For service and parts availability, find out the closest, best dealer and at least consider whatever brand that dealer sells and services unless you're dead-set against that particular brand. Articulated tractors handle quite differently than tractors with steer wheels, so you'll have to adapt to that. My dad had a Steiger Panther II for tillage, and traded it for a John Deere 4850 with MFWD in the mid-80's. One of our fields is notorious for having a huge wet spot during the Spring that is all dried up by Fall. The Steiger always would get swamped in that wet spot, so that big portion of the field would usually not get worked up and planted. The first year he used the 4850, he pulled the same 24' disk through the wet spot with no trouble. We found the big MFWD tractors could tread through a lot of places the Steigers (grandpa also had a Steiger, a Turbo Tiger) would often get stuck in. The farm currently has that same 4850, which has been joined by a 4755 and two 4955's. I realize you don't need anything that large, but a MFWD tractor with a loader should handle your job. If your heart is set on one of those bi-directional Versatile/Ford/New Holland tractors, you can use a search engine like HotBot or Google to track down equipment locator sites that will let you search for one. The major tractor manufacturers have used tractor search engines on their websites too.
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