Surprise! Our New Tractor
April 10th, 2014 · 1 Comment · Posted in farming
It finally happened. We bought a tractor.
This is a 28-hp Mahindra, a four-wheel-drive diesel. One of the “compact” models so popular these days, it comes with a front-end loader and a 60-inch mower deck. As you can see, it’s easy enough to operate that our 14-year-old daughter can drive it around the property. She practiced loading dirt from a pile in the back yard.
I know what you’re thinking: Ed, you could have saved so much money buying a used tractor. Believe me, we explored that option. We looked at a lot of used tractors. We even had one delivered to the farm so we could test drive it. But a farmer acquaintance took one look at it and said, “You know, tractor technology has come a long way since that tractor was built 10 years ago.”
Finding exactly the used tractor you want–the one with all the right features–also is no easy task. Since this is our first tractor, we figured we were better off buying one that had exactly what we were looking for, along with a good warranty and a nearby dealer who would take care of anything that might go wrong. I just didn’t want to be stuck with an older tractor and have to deal with mechanical problems, or finding the attachments we needed.
We delayed our tractor purchase for quite some time, and having spent nearly a year on the farm we had a pretty good idea what we needed. One thing we didn’t need was a monster machine. We figured if we had any jobs that required a really big tractor, we could hire someone local to do it. Mostly what we require is something smaller and agile enough to mow around the house as well as around our young fruit trees in the orchard and in the pastures. I mowed almost the entire property last summer using a neighbors rider mower, so I knew a smaller tractor could do the job.
We also bought a wood chipper that operates off the power take off (PTO) on the rear of the tractor. We have plenty of wood to clear around the perimeter fence and along the hedge rows. We can use that organic matter if it’s ground up small enough to feed the trees in the orchard. Our goal there is to create a really fungi-friendly environment in which fruit trees can thrive.
I’ll also be using the tractor to tow our mobile chicken coop around. The front-end loader will be useful for moving soil and hay bales. In fact, after the tractor was delivered yesterday I used it to relocate our compost operation from behind the tool shed to a new series of bins we built with wooden pallets closer to our future raised-bed garden. I also moved a garbage can full of kitchen scraps we’d collected over the winter from behind the house to the new compost pile.
That was so much easy than trucking it in a wheel barrow.
Most of the routine work I do around the farm–moving animals and temporary fencing on pasture–does not require a tractor. Still, I damaged both my elbows scything grass and weeds around our 25 acres. That was a wake-up call. We’re middle-aged now, and as much as we like to adhere to sustainable practices, we just can’t do everything by hand anymore. We have to mechanize. It pains us to be spewing diesel fumes into the atmosphere–we deeply dislike being fossil fuel consumers–but there’s just no way we can make this farm work without mechanical assistance.
I have a much better appreciation now for big farm families with lots of children. It sure would be nice to have a few of those extra hands. Truly, I believe the Amish and their draft horses will inherit the earth. But for us, a tractor was the right way to go.
Looks like a great decision. Maybe it will help with the snow next winter too.