Well, I'm buying a new tractor. The first tractor I've ever actually owned. Brand-shiny-new, and orange. The local Kubota dealership was kind enough to bring it out to the farm, let me hook up a borrowed plow (thanks to farmer Jack down the road), and give her a spin. I needed to judge for myself how well it would handle a pretty large (16" moldboards) 3-bottom plow. We tried it out on Jack's land, since that's where we picked up the plow-- in 4-wheel-drive, 3rd gear, with the plow lifted up halfway so the depth was shallower, it had no problem doing a sufficient job of turning the sod over. No problem except the plow was too wide for the width of the tractor. This resulted in 2 1/2 furrows instead of 3. A half-turned over row of sod does not do a great job at killing the grass-- it will just regrow. I will have to look for another plow, because I've fallen in love with this tractor.
They left the tractor with me overnight, and I couldn't resist playing with it. I did a little mowing with the Bush-hog as the sun was going down. I saw the rain in the forecast for the next week, and that urgency to Do Things was rampant. Dry weather like this is perfect for tractor adventures, but as soon as the soil gets muddy, you'll do some real damage on the land if you drive 4000 lbs over it.
I put her to sleep in my barn for the night (the tarped portable-garage). What a responsibility this will be, learning how to best use and take care of this tool.
But we still found time to celebrate! Woohoo!
They left the tractor with me overnight, and I couldn't resist playing with it. I did a little mowing with the Bush-hog as the sun was going down. I saw the rain in the forecast for the next week, and that urgency to Do Things was rampant. Dry weather like this is perfect for tractor adventures, but as soon as the soil gets muddy, you'll do some real damage on the land if you drive 4000 lbs over it.
I put her to sleep in my barn for the night (the tarped portable-garage). What a responsibility this will be, learning how to best use and take care of this tool.
But we still found time to celebrate! Woohoo!
1 comment:
hydro-static is where it's at! i love the kubotas. what type of implements are you thinking? i worked on a farm last year with a kubota that might be exactly the same as yours and we used not only a tiller but an italian spader as well. it's supposed to mimic double digging and creates the most perfect of beds. of course you'll pay for it though. the farm i'm on this year has a 60 something horsepower kubota with three means for neutral and is slightly confusing at first but rad nonetheless. good luck with the new rig!
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