Tractor!

The new Kubota L3800 tractor (the LA524 is the front loader).

About three weeks ago, we made our first major farm purchase, not counting the farm itself: a tractor! Our very first tractor! I know pretty near nothing about tractors, so when I visited three local tractor dealers, I learned all I could. Here are a few things the dealers told me about tractors:

The Woods Brushbull rotory cutter

Tractors are know by their paint color. The three major colors are green (John Deere), orange (Kubota) and red (Case IH or Massey Ferguson). You can get a geared (manual transmission) tractor or a hydrostatic one (automatic transmission). There are agricultural tires and industrial tires. The horsepower of the tractor is greater than the horsepower of the PTO (power take off), which is what powers the implements you attach to the tractor to do different jobs. And implements!! There are tons of them out there that can do almost anything you want.

After sorting through the information I gathered and talking with a few other farmers, we decided on a hydrostatic Kubota L3800 with agricultural tires, that came with a front loader. We bought a few implements to go with it: a Woods Brushbull BB600X rotary cutter (mower), a Rankin R3-60 Ripper (sub soiler), and a Woods TC60KOC rotary tiller. We also bought a pair of Rankin Clamp-On Bucket Forks, after getting some deliveries that we realized would be a lot easier to move around the farm with a tractor.

The Woods rotary tiller

With the soil still wet from winter weather, we haven’t used the tractor much yet; just a little to try out the mower and the tiller. I haven’t ever been very interested in big equipment like this, but I certainly will be looking at tractors differently now. I know we will be making good use of this one.