What’s the most important piece of equipment on your farm?
By Diego Flammini
Staff Writer
Farms.com
Between tractors, sprayers and combines, there’s no shortage of equipment on modern farm operations.
But is there one piece of machinery a farmer can’t do without?
Farms.com asked members of the ag community which piece of equipment is the most important, and why.
For Warren McCutcheon, a corn and soybean producer from Carman, Man., it’s his planter.
“With limited planting windows in the spring, (the planter) has to be reliable,” he told Farms.com. “You obviously try to plant into ideal conditions and you only get one chance to do it right, so the planter has to be able to handle long days and multiple acres.”
Cameron Limebeer, a cash crop and beef farmer from Peel County, Ont., points to his John Deere 6125 loader tractor as the most important equipment on his farm.
“We use it to feed our cattle and it’s a very versatile piece of machinery for us,” he said.
Terry James, a cash cropper from Vegreville, Alta., agreed that a tractor is the most important piece of farm equipment.
“When you look around at all the equipment, it’s almost like asking who your favourite child is,” he told Farms.com. “But I think it’s the tractor. It’s usually the first piece of equipment you buy when starting a farm and, with it, you can do so many other jobs around the farm.”
For Leigh Rosengren, a beef producer from Midale, Sask., no one piece of equipment stands out because they all contribute on the farm.
“I think it’s a suite of equipment that makes a farm successful,” she said. “The different pieces of machinery play different roles and you need all of them.”