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market-farming - Re: [Market-farming] BCS vs. Troy-bilt

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  • From: KAKerby AT aol.com
  • To: market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] BCS vs. Troy-bilt
  • Date: Thu, 12 May 2011 11:16:27 -0400 (EDT)

I'll third the experience with Earth Tools and comments about the BCS and graduating to a "real" tractor.  That's been our experience, almost verbatim, right down the line.
 
We got our BCS 8xx (don't remember exactly which one) about three years ago to do tillage on a 1/2 acre plot that we had previously been working with hand tools.  I could get work done out there in an hour which previously had taken all day.  I am also a relatively small woman, 5'5", mid 40's age.  Strong for my size but still can be bested by a heavy alfalfa bale, particularly when my shoulders or knees aren't at their best (which is often).  I had no problems with the BCS.  The amount of work it saved me was its saving grace because I can take an hour of tillage with that a lot better than I can take 6 hrs on my knees weeding or carrying around the line trimmer.  The folks at Earth Tools have been great to work with, including diagnosing a carburetor problem that had me tearing it apart and rebuilding it a lot.  One of the things I love about the BCS is that it uses a lot of the same design mentality as a standard bicycle, with cables running from the handles to the gears and engine controls.  So I was able to troubleshoot and fix most of the issues myself.
 
But fast forward to the present, and yes now we're shopping for an honest-to-goodness tractor.  That pasture we rented this year will need to be mown, and hayed if possible, often with small windows of agreeable weather.  The BCS does have haymaking tools but they are rare enough here that I'd have to buy them new from Europe, and they're slow.  I'd be able to cut, rake and bale about an acre or two a day with that equipment, when for the same money and easier parts availability I can cut, rake and bale an acre an hour with conventional tractor equipment.  Our goals for small-scale fodder and grains production are all in the same boat.  We just need to cover more ground, more quickly, with bigger, easily-sourced implements.  So I'm working with several older farmers who are looking for good homes for their precious older tractors and implements, such that I learn how to take care of that new level of equipment, and they get to turn over that precious metal to someone who will actually use it instead of just decorate a yard with it.  (PS - anyone with lots of Farmall C and M experience, let me know).  The BCS will still be in the market garden this year and probably for the rest of time.  If we had stayed at that production level, it would have been fine for the rest of time.  But it just can't handle the larger production goals we have now.
Kathryn Kerby
frogchorusfarm.com
Snohomish, WA
Ruminations - essays on the farming life at frogchorusfarm.com/weblog.html



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