I pulled the head and found the front push rod slightly bent and am now looking at getting the head checked out .I learned fom the former owner they thought the head gasket was bad .

This is on the tractor that has set for 30+ years.

The cylinders are dry and lots of questions on my part now .

The pistons are the concave type on top .

may have to pull block .

Never tooeasy .

If you're not feeling any pressure using your thumb, and the gauge isn't moving, then it's a pretty high likelyhood that you're not generating any compression.  IF there's pistons, moving in the cylinders, then it is most likely that either there's very large holes through the pistons, OR one of the valves isn't closed.

Since you've already noted bent pushrods, I'd bet you have a valve problem.  If the engine has been sitting for 30 years, I would find it hard NOT to have sticky valves.  It probably had sticky valves and straight pushrods until someone tried to crank it over, and the sticky valves pushed open just far enough to unseat, but not far enough for the pushrod to stay within it's abilities, and the end result is a pretzel'd pushrod.

Lift off the head, spray penetrant into the stems from the top (through the springs) and bottom (in the ports) then use a wood-block and a light mallet to carefully work them free.  Once they move fairly freely, compress the springs, remove keepers, and drop the valves out of the guides, chuck 'em in a cordless drill, and introduce them to a wire wheel, scrub off all the crud... then wire-wheel the stems, and use a valve guide cleaning tool to clean the guide bores, then scrub the ports and chambers clean, check all the valve springs for proper height and pressure, and reassemble the whole setup... install the head with some replacement pushrods, then try your compression test again.