My goal, like so many of us, is to be able to pre-bugout, to a retreat
I can live on full time. I dream of having a few acres out in the
country where I can mostly support myself on what can be produced
on my own land. When I first started to think about it, and plan
for it, the first question of course is “How much land?”
After getting past the obvious answer, “As much as possible”,
came the more reasonable answer of: “enough to do accomplish
my primary goal of optimal self-sufficiency.” After more study
I came to realize that five or so acres is about all I could really
work. Five acres, when worked intensively, will produce far more
than a family of four can consume. This five acres would contain
everything, House, Barn, a one to two acre garden, chickens, Rabbits,
Goats, et cetera.
So having settled on five to seven acres, I turned to the issue of
what tools, equipment, and other assets would be needed to make my
micro-farm
work.
Beyond the usual hand tools. And shop tools, my research led me to
study power equipment appropriate for the Micro-Farm. What I found
was the Two-Wheel, or "Walk-behind" Tractor. A good example
of the class is the BCS 852 with a 10 horsepower diesel engine. It
has a single
cylinder engine mounted in front of a trans axle. The
Trans axle drives a pair of wheels that are from 3.5 to 6.5 inches
wide, and 8 to 12 inches in diameter. It is also equipped with front
and
rear Power Takeoffs (PTOs)
used to transfer power to a variety of implements. For me this is the
optimum retreat utility tractor. To justify
that statement I need to go into a bit more detail as to why. As with
all
things,
this selection is based on my plans and intentions, but I believe that
they are generic enough to qualify as a general
solution for most people, but as always Your Mileage may Vary (YMMV).
The factors I am taking into consideration are:
Size of Farm.
Number of people available to work it.
Safety
Maintainability
Fuel availability/economy
Life expectancy under the projected load
The truth is most of us have not, or will not be able to acquire more
than five to 10 acres of land. If you can get more, fine, get it; you
can’t have too much land, but you can leave yourself short on
other things by buying more land than you really need, or can work.
In most cases the garden will be run by just one or two people, either
because of off farm employment or the kids may be grown and gone before
you make the move. People that are already doing this will tell you
that one to two acres, if worked as intensively as is reasonably possible
is all one person can handle. If you have more land, then you have
the option of bartering produce, for labor to work more acres. But
I would still keep it in two-acre units.
The core concept of survivalism/preparedness is independence; you can’t
be independent if you can’t do most, if not all the maintenance
yourself. While yes, most anyone with any mechanical aptitude at all
can work on most regular tractors, however they have four times as
many cylinders, fuel injectors, and fuel lines, twice as many tires,
use
much more fuel, and mostly are too much tool for two to five acres.
When the world ends there will be NO more fuel deliveries from anywhere,
and if there are then they will be prohibitively expensive. So you
need a fuel that you can produce yourself, to me this means biodiesel.
It’s a fuel you can make yourself; it will substitute directly
into the tank with NO modifications to the engine, and gives almost
exactly the same performance, as regular diesel.
So with these concepts in mind I started thinking about what the ideal
tool would be. I eliminated most regular four wheeled tractors like
the Ford 9N and the International Harvester (IH) Farmalls because to
buy
one of their modern counterparts new is very expensive, and to find
parts
for older
ones
that you can
buy on the cheap can also be expensive. While there has been a lot
of development in compact and subcompact tractors in the last few years,
they are mostly compact technical wonders that have all kinds of computerized
fuel injection systems, high volume, high pressure hydraulics, and
just lots and lots of things that need to be maintained or fixed. Simplicity
is crucial.
My search for information about small farm tractors, as with most things
today, started online. I started from the position that a Walk-behind
Tractor would be the optimum choice because on the surface it met two
of the most important criteria, Fuel requirements, and maintainability.
The MOST important question remained, how much land could be worked
with it and still expect it to last a lifetime.
Dean M., one of my online sources, who has actually been running a
Market Garden since 1989, says that much of that time was spent downsizing
his garden to it’s current 1.5 acres. According to Dean,one to
two acres is about all one person can work, when trying to maximize
the production
of a garden. The general consensus is, that the limit on how large
a garden you could work with one of these machines,is really set by
how much labor was available, rather than the capacity of the machine.
To answer that question I needed input from an expert. In my web search
I found many companies that make and sell this kind of equipment, but
they are almost ALL overseas. Of the domestic companies most only sell
Walk-behinds as a sideline. I found a company in Owenton KY, which
specializes in small-scale commercial agriculture equipment. Joel Dufour
founded Earth Tools in 1977, and all they sell is Walk-behind tractors.
.
I asked Mr. Dufour about the capability, capacity, and requirements
of walk behind tractors for a TEOTWAWKI scenario.
He recommended not the largest one he sells, the 948 but rather the
model 852, which comes
with an optional 10 hp diesel engine. He says the 852s are far more
versatile than the 948. Based on what his customers are actually doing
with the units, and have been doing for nearly 30 years he gave me
the following information about capabilities, and requirements of these
units.
You can work up to two acres of Market garden per person, and/or about
15 acres of Haying for livestock. With proper preventative maintenance,
used in a commercial agricultural operation, a tractor like he sells
will last 20+ years. They can haul up to one ton on a two-wheel trailer.
Depending on the specific task, running 8 hrs on a gallon of fuel is
possible. He has several customers that make their own biodiesel and
run their 852s on it, and have reported no problems.
When it comes to maintenance requirement the diesel engines are designed
for 5000 hours TBO (Time Between Overhauls), and are meant to be rebuilt
twice before replacing crankshafts or connecting rods. That means that
the engines have a 15,000 hr life span minimum (with proper maintenance).
For routine maintenance they only use 1.5 quarts of oil per change,
which needs to be done every 75 ours or annually--whichever comes first.
The oil filter is cleanable and the air filter is replaceable. The
conical clutch lasts 1000 – 2000 hrs, and can be replaced in
less than 2 hrs. All maintenance, including overhauls can be done with
regular hand tools, the only exception being one $25 tool for working
on the transmission if it’s ever needed.
One point that Mr. Dufour
thinks is undersold is safety. He pointed out that one of the most
common fatal accidents on a farm is a tractor
rollover. When operating one of these units on a slope, even if you
were on the downhill side of the machine, and you couldn’t get
out of the way, they only weight about 300 lbs, so it is very unlikely
you would suffer a life threatening injury. Where as with even the
smallest of standard tractors if it rolls over on you, death is the
very likely outcome.
So let’s look at how these machines match my original
requirements:
Size of Farm:
A 10 HP machine will work as much land as most of us will be able to
get, and
work, without being too big for the job.
Number of people available to work the land:
The constraint is number of people vs. planting/harvesting schedule; again it
is well matched to the 5 to 15 acres, with which most of us will wind up.
Maintainability:
There is nothing that the owner can’t do on these machines, from routine
maintenance to a complete overhaul, which would require more than basic mechanics
hand tools, and one inexpensive specialty tool.
Safety: I don’t care how much the machine can do or how well it does it,
the one thing that you absolutely cannot afford in the post-TEOTWAWKI world,
is an injury. So the machine that is least likely to cause me harm is WAY up
on
my list
Fuel availability/economy:
These units can be had with Gas, or Diesel engines. Gas engines can be run on
alcohol with modification. Diesel engines can be run on
biodiesel without modification.
Life expectancy under the projected load:
You can work as much acreage as you have time and people to work without over
working the tractor. They are truly an agricultural grade machines, not glorified
Home duty units.
While I’m not trying to sell this particular tractor, however if we use
its characteristics as a baseline then I think it is fare to say that a diesel
Walk-behind Tractor would make an ideal vehicle for a Micro-farm. It is the core
power unit
for almost all farm tasks, can be adapted to do just about anything else that
requires up to 10 HP; from electrical generation to pumping water, with the right
connection to the PTO. It also meets or exceeds the core requirements that I
laid out at the beginning. This is not to say that there might not be other machines
that would also work, but if you are starting from scratch like most of us, then
this
is a good objective solution.
Related info:
http://www.earthtoolsbcs.com/
http://www.chelseagreen.com/1989/items/neworganicgrower
http://www.bcsshop.com/
http://www.adriatica-grifo.it/g/main.htm
JWR Adds:
From the standpoint of a small acreage survival retreat, a
walk-behind tiller/tractor makes a lot of sense. WTSHTF,
fuel will be at a premium, so it is logical to get something that
will
give
you
maximum useful work with minimum fuel consumption. And as Fanderal
mentioned, they will also minimize tractor rollover accidents. This
is especially important
at
a retreat with a lot of newbies. (Just because you are accustomed
to thinking "safety first" at all times doesn't mean that
your recently-transplanted Big City friends and cousins will be!)
If you need to cultivate significantly larger acreage, then a full-size tractor makes sense, but only of course with significantly more training and more voluminous fuel storage. BTW, the new "crawler" (rubber tracked) tractors have a lower center of gravity that traditional wheeled tractors and hence are much less prone to rollovers.
I used a gas engine Troy-Bilt Horse tiller for several years and found it very reliable. The BCS products are made in Milan, Italy. At a list price of $3,799, these are not cheap. But if you go with the principle of "buying something sturdy and reliable once, versus buying something flimsy, multiple times", then this sort of purchase makes sense. To get the most for your money, shop around for a slightly used, diesel-powered unit.
One other consideration: Tractors are noisy and can be heard from a long distance. Wear hearing protection whenever operator a tractor or tiller. In a post-TEOTWAWKI survival situation, this may mean one individual wearing earmuffs operating the tractor, and another individual that is concealed 50 to 100 yards away, on dedicated security duty. (Otherwise, operating noisy equipment like a tractor or chainsaw might be a noisy invitation to get bushwhacked.)
Here are some additional useful URLs:
http://www.earthtoolsbcs.com/html/bcs_tractor_specs.html
http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/tools/msg052243117706.html
http://www.groworganic.com/item_GT034_.html
http://www.wikco.com/bcsfeaturesg.html
