Randy's hit the nail on the head - having a dealer that stocks parts for the brand you buy is way more important (IMHO) than looking for a specific brand. I'm not advocating buying from a dealer but when your in a bind and need parts it's nice not to have to drive a long way to get them. I do not know about other brands but I know from experience that if I go into the JD dealer here before 2PM I will usually have the parts I need by the next morning if they do not stock them.

Most any of the big names would be fine but I would suggest staying away from some of the off brands. I'm not sure how big of a tractor your looking for but would think something in the 25-35 HP would do nicely. That's big enough to do almost anything you list, large enough to have a useful FEL and small enough to not be inconvenient to use. JD, Kubota, New Holland and Case all make tractors in that range. If you have a dealer in the area for one of them your golden. Over the years I've either owned or run most of them - Green, Red, Blue (but never Orange unless you count an old D-17 Allis) - and frankly they all have good and bad points. Find one you like and has the features you want.

Tom