We have looked at two wheel tractors, four wheeled tractors, alternate and home made tractors. In order to have a reasonably broad level of knowledge on the subject we should look also at specialized tractors and utility vehicles.

Specialized tractors such as crawlers, row crop tractors, soft land tractors, hillside tractors and handlers are chosen for their superior ability to perform one or more operations in sometimes difficult conditions. Although modern tractors are well designed and very versatile they cannot be perfect for every task.

Crawler tractors Crawler tractors for example are very stable and can out pull any other tractor of a similar size. Many years ago the David Brown tractor company designed a rear engined tractor for row crop work which was very successful and many other manufacturers' copied ideas or built their own specialized utility tractors. The 'Trantor' was a transport tractor with a greater road going potential and for a short while some Landrovers were developed with a three point linkage and power take off drive shaft, for tractor use. Modern telescopic material handlers have almost completely replaced the old system of tractors with front loaders in commercial farming; this is a good example of a specialist unit offering a much improved performance.

A large amount of development work on utility vehicles over the years has been done in Europe where there is a larger market and more varied types of food production. It is now possible to have a very wide choice of these versatile machines at little more than comparable prices. In many cases a utility vehicle may be the best option for a particular situation. The conventional tractor may not always have the best features when it comes to stability and safety, manoeuvrability, versatility and the ability to travel on soft ground.

What is a Utility Tractor?

The term utility tractor or vehicle covers a wide range of designs from small vehicles such as the Kawasaki Mule and John Deere Gator, to the very large machines like the JCB Fastrac and Mercedes Benz Unimog. A major advantage of many of this type of vehicles is that they have an ability to mount a truck (a tractor and trailer in one) to carry either goods or some form of removable special purpose body. The numbers of utility vehicles compared with tractors is quite small, but this should not be a reason to ignore them. They can have features such as two seats or interchangeable bodies which can make them far superior to a normal tractor for many uses.

But how did it all start?

It is not possible to look at tractors and their uses without considering how it all started. The horse, sadly the horse is no longer an economical commercial solution; if it was then tractor development would not have happened. That is however by no means the end of the story, whilst the heavy horse elegant as it is, cannot compete doing heavy work there are many tasks and many good reasons to consider the horse for a wide variety of operations.

Horse versus tractor Let us consider the positive points, a horse is stronger than a man, even the most modern and sophisticated tractor will not stop or go when you tell it to. Tractors are noisier, they don't run at all well on hay and they make a terrible mess when they try to jump a ditch. They are very many clever horse people in this world and not being one of them, I will try to limit comments to the tractor type uses of the horse.

Horse type tasks can include harrowing grass, fertilizer spreading, hay raking, rolling, light cultivations, and moving small loads on carts and sledges. It is not necessary to buy expensive specialist equipment particularly in the early stages.

When it comes to using your pony or horse particularly if it's the first time, you can use a breast harness or a collar, but the traces must go to a wide spreader pole to keep them well clear of the horses legs and the load pulled must be very light perhaps a motor tyre. Slip knots in the trace ropes are also a good idea, as you may only have one chance to convince the animal that pulling things is easier an more pleasant than carrying a person. Progress slowly to maintain good labour relations with the horse, if you already own the horse and patience prevails on both sides then you have gained a tractor. There is no reason to rule out the horse for many light pulling operations. It would be failure where our ancestors succeeded.

Next time we will look at tractor implements and their uses. Ninety percent of tractor owners only get ten percent of value from the money that they invest in their tractors.

Graham can be contacted on 01206 212092 or www.bsg-supplies.co.uk