Why I Bought a Compact Tractor (and not any other farm vehicles)

Ideally, I would have an ATV, a UTV, a farm truck, a back-hoe, and a compact tractor (heck, throw in a super-sized tractor since it’s all hypothetical), but I (like most of you) don’t have a couple hundred thousand dollars laying around (yet – still hoping God wills me a stray winning lottery ticket). However, I am fortunate enough to have a good enough job to afford some subset of these farm vehicles in my lifetime. For the first nine months on our new homestead, I didn’t have anything besides a mini-van, a trailer, and a very mediocre garden cart. For awhile I thought upgrading to a Gorilla cart, or something similar, might be all I needed for awhile, and that is probably true. I could continue hauling compost, wood, and other materials in that garden cart all over our six acres, but I also might die doing that for hours in the Georgia summer heat. So, here’s why I bought a compact tractor instead of any other farm vehicle.

Tools for Moving Big Things

The main functionality I needed ASAP was to efficiently move raw materials around our six acres. When all I had prior to the compact tractor was a lightweight garden cart, moving soil from the pile only ~60′ away takes a lot of time and sweat. Moving wood from the back three acres to our wood pile near the house took even longer, and I’d find myself spending most of my time just walking back and forth. Anything heavy that needed moving would have to be taken piecemeal or loaded into our mini-van. When the mini-van is typically full of car-seats, this is far from ideal and wastes a lot of time. A truck would be great to move things around as well, though having a loader on a compact tractor makes many jobs much easier (e.g. moving soil, compost). Do I need a truck in the long run? Absolutely. Going to pick up materials and large items with a mini-van and a trailer is a royal pain. However, I can still get most of what I need that way until it makes financial sense for us to get a truck. Right now, trucks (and everything else) aren’t cheap. Even if I got a good deal on a used truck, I’m wary of the money I’d be virtually throwing away to insurance. For moving items around the homestead, ATVs and UTVs are another option, albeit a much more lightweight option. These are good for moving lighter loads and going longer distances than a tractor. However, given I’m only on six acres, moving things at tractor-speed is just fine.

In addition to simply moving things around the homestead, I also needed something that could perform some light landscaping, such as leveling earth and resurfacing a gravel driveway. While I do see attachments for ATVs/UTVs to do light gravel work and such, I don’t think they are a long term solution. I also plan to expand our garden significantly, meaning I’ll be tilling larger areas, beyond what my rototiller can efficiently do. Honestly, I have not found our rototiller up to the task of our Georgia clay, though it worked well enough to start our garden. Lastly, we plan to do a lot of fencing in the next few years that can be greatly expedited with a compact tractor. With an augur and wire fence stretcher, putting up a goat-proof fence will be much easier than with hand-tools. In all of these miscellaneous tasks, a tractor is very useful, whereas a truck or ATV/UTV are only partially helpful. Having 20+ HP on a PTO to drive an augur is a lot easier on my back than a shovel.

Finances

Cost-wise, a good ATV/UTV is about half that of a 25 HP tractor with a loader; however, I personally believe I can get more than twice the functionality out of the latter. Current used truck prices don’t translate to much savings over a tractor, either. Even an old beat up farm truck will require insurance at a rate likely higher than that of a tractor, too. Also, tractors and similar heavy equipment hold their value much better than any road-worthy vehicle. I will say, however, that a truck is needed eventually for moving equipment and purchased materials more efficiently.

Further, my cost to finance the Bobcat tractor was low: 0% APR is something I can get on board with. Of course, the cost to finance is not really zero, it’s just built-in to the sticker price. However, I estimate that the savings for me waiting to have the cash on-hand is not significant, perhaps worse overall when factoring in future price increases. Inflation over the next few years will erase much of the savings of paying cash now. Effectively, by financing it, you have locked in a predicted inflation rate. Of course, the loaner aims to make a profit, so they probably come out on top if they do their math right. Either way, the savings in paying cash is limited, and I’d rather have my tractor to do work now than wait seven more years.

My Bobcat CT2025 Tractor

So far, owning a tractor (Bobcat CT2025 hydrostatic) has been a great experience. Although I only have about 16 hours on the tractor to date, it has accelerated my homestead chores enormously. I have already put it to work in moving topsoil with the loader bucket, filling in sunken parts of our trails with the box blade, tilling a now planted part of the corn patch, and moving hundreds of pounds of rock and firewood from the back few acres, all while hardly breaking a sweat. Along with the tractor and loader with bucket, I also purchased a tiller, an augur, a box blade, and pallet forks, which have been indispensable in moving unwieldy brush. Overall, it has been quite an upgrade from my garden cart. I plan to use it extensively during the upcoming fencing projects.

Is owning a compact tractor right for your homestead or small farm? I don’t know. It depends on what you want to do, and how you want to do it. If you’re aiming for something akin to a market garden, you may be just fine without one if you follow the advice of the likes of J.M Fortier, Eliot Coleman, or Curtis Stone. However, my goals are a little different. I have less time to work a no-till or low-till organic vegetable farm. While I do follow many of their practices, I aim to strike a middle ground between mechanization and space/time efficiency. Overall, my ethos is to use the tractor whenever possible, while keeping my overall processes very simple.

Aside from all the reasons for buying a tractor I’ve given, I also just enjoy tractors.

Never stop growing,

Christian