Wheel rakes, parallel-bar rakes, rotary rakes and belt rakes are pulled behind a tractor, and each have advantages and disadvantages, depending on the quality of the hay-cutting job, the moisture content of the hay and the equipment-storage area available to you.
Expected Price: Rakes vary greatly in price, starting in the low thousands of dollars for new. Balers Three general types of hay balers exist: round balers, square balers and large square balers.
Round balers pick up hay from the field and roll it into round bales, then wrap it with netting or twine. Square balers are available in various sizes.
The right square baler for your farm depends on how much acreage you bale. You can find balers that tie bales in twine, in wire or in both. A bale thrower is an add-on that makes stacking your bales on the wagon a whole lot easier. Large square balers are designed for large farms.
Unless you bale hundreds of acres, standard square bales or round bales are probably better options for you. Combine or Harvester Grain farmers find they need a combine also called a harvester for their crops. Even with just an acre of grain crop, a combine is the most efficient means of getting it out of the field. Tractor-powered harvesters start around several thousand dollars. Actual combine machinery used by industrial farms costs hundreds of thousands of dollars. Manure spreaders are especially popular on horse farms.
Read about proper manure-spreading techniques to prevent the spread of parasites and pollution from manure runoff. Expected Price: Manure spreaders are available from very small 8 cubic feet for hobby-farm use to very large cubic feet for industrial farms and require a tractor or ATV appropriate for their size. Hydroponics Increasing in popularity, hydroponics is the system of growing plants in water rather than in soil. Benefits are being able to grow a lot of food in a small space, using less water than soil-cultivated gardens, growing indoors and generally faster plant growth.
Downsides are making major investments in hydroponics equipment, finding the plants that do well growing without soil, and having a learning curve of how much and what type of inputs your plants need. More elaborate systems run well into the tens of thousands of dollars.
There is no way to read an article and know exactly what farm equipment you need for your small-scale farm. Using this list, you can start to make your agricultural-machinery wish list, develop your equipment budget and start shopping around.
However, it can be difficult to keep track of all the options. New farmers especially may wonder what the different types of farming machinery are for. For small- and mid-size farms especially, determining the different types of farming machinery you may need to make your operations more efficient can be frustrating. While all the equipment available may seem confusing, knowing about the basic farm equipment options can be an enormous help.
If you're looking into purchasing new or used farm equipment, take a look at this guide. We'll go over the different types of agricultural machines and their uses, as well as some of the options for small, mid-size and large-scale farming operations. Of the different types of farm equipment and their uses, vehicles are the most important and represent the largest investment.
While a truck is often a staple of farming life, there are several other farm-specific vehicles, too. To say that "tractor" is a broad category is an understatement. The tractor is ubiquitous in the farming world, and it comes in a range of sizes to fit any farming operation. The primary purpose of a tractor is to pull farm equipment, but modern tractors can be outfitted with a variety of attachments to suit just about any farming need.
For this reason, tractors are common-sense purchases for small and large-scale farmers alike. The specific attachments that are used with tractors are extremely varied. For more detail on the types of attachments available and what they do, see the section further down covering tractor attachments. Grain farmers require combines , also known as harvesters or combine harvesters, that help to harvest their crops efficiently. Even small-scale grain farmers can benefit greatly by using a combine.
These massive pieces of machinery use a complex system of gears, blades, belts and wheels to turn cereal crops into grain. Combines accomplish this through three primary processes:. There is a huge array of combines and combine attachments to meet the needs of any farm. Many newer combines are even able to track yield data, showing which areas of the field did well and which areas did poorly so that these issues can be addressed the following year.
All-terrain vehicles, also known as ATVs or four-wheelers, are becoming increasingly common on farms of all sizes, as are utility vehicles or UTVs. These sm aller vehicles can move across rough terrain more effectively than most road vehicles and more quickly than a typical tractor. Additionally, several types of attachments will work for these vehicles, including small trailers, spreaders and mowers.
Tractor attachments are attached to tractors or pulled behind them to add a new level of functionality. Their uses range widely from soil management to seeding.
The different types of farm machinery attachments are detailed below. A plow is a large tractor attachment that drags behind the tractor, using long blades to cut furrows in the soil. This process not only loosens and turns the soil, but it also helps kill off any surface vegetation that is not intended to be there. While the soil has to go through several subsequent steps to be ready for planting, plowing is an essential first step.
The concept of a plow may seem simple enough, but there are a variety of different plow types. Each plow type is suited to a specific soil type, soil condition and crop type. Here is a look at the three most common types of plows:. Plows can range widely in price from a few hundred to several thousand dollars depending on the type, size, brand and condition of the plow. Where plowing primes the soil, harrowing further agitates it in preparation for agricultural work. These attachments break down clumps of soil, make the soil surface level and redistribute crop and weed residue to make it easier for new plants to take root and grow.
Harrows can also be used after distributing manure and fertilizer, as they can help break up clumps and distribute the fertilizer more evenly. Often, multiple types of harrows are used for different purposes and may be used multiple times during the soil preparation process. Harrows can be pulled behind tractors or ATVs, depending on their size and complexity.
More advanced harrows require a tractor, but they often combine the benefits of multiple types of harrows all into one. Fertilizer spreaders function as the name suggests — they spread fertilizer across a field. While there are fertilizer spreaders that can be run separately, most farming operations require a tractor-run fertilizer spreader for quick, evenly distributed fertilization. Water is passing through a system of channels usually by pumping. The water splashed into the air through sprinklers with the goal that it separates into little water drops that fall to the ground.
The pump, valves, distribution pipes, and sprinklers are usually designed to apply water as consistently as possible. They are equipment developed to place the seeds directly and to distribute fertilizers and fertilizers.
As the name implies, this agricultural equipment serves to add fertilizer to the land. Its main parts are the hopper or tank. The fertilizer, the drop tube, and the distributor are loaded.
Its main function is to make bundles of cereal straw and other herbs in the field. There are many varieties, with multiple functions, removing soil, opening ditches, transporting products, eliminating weeds, etc.
The most used are husks, shovels, rakes, showers, transplanters, wheelbarrows, machetes, etc. A farm wagon is a four-wheeled vehicle used for transporting goods especially hay, crops, livestock, agricultural materials, and supplies or another specified purpose. This is an essential tool for small farms. The modern wagons serve a similar purpose as wheelbarrows or carts. And, it is bigger and pulled by car or tractor. However, these tools are not now, farmers use this tool from ancient ages.
The only difference is old ones are usually pulled by animals like oxen, horse, and mules. The pickup or farm truck is a common machine in modern farms. They are designed for agricultural use like transporting vegetables for the market. But, must be able to carry a large load in the back.
If you are into organic cattle farming or agriculture operations, drones can be your best mate. Which allows us to find out irrigation, paste, fungal problems, and tracking cattle. The latest and advanced drones come with an application for your computer and mobile. This allows us to find out differences between healthy and unhealthy crops, and lost, or injured or sick animals.
The planters are normally tugged behind a tractor as an extension. Planters are useful to saw crop seeds like vegetable seeds, corn , and legumes in the field. These tractor extensions are used to cut hay or straw.
Letter, it can be picked manually or using a baler. Select basic ads. Create a personalised ads profile. Select personalised ads. Apply market research to generate audience insights. Measure content performance. Develop and improve products. List of Partners vendors. By Lauren Arcuri Lauren Arcuri. Lauren Arcuri is a freelance writer and an experienced small farmer based in rural Vermont.
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