Recommended Equipment

Small Farming doesn't have to be hard work: modern equipment and practices make it easier than ever before. You'll never have to pickup a shovel with the following equipment list:

 

10 - 30 Horse Power Tractor

  • A tractor in this range of power is affordable and can run all of the attachments that make working your land easy. 
  • 10hp is the hobby end of the range, You'll find 30hp+ tractors to be true workhorses on the farm. 
  • Purchase a well-kept tractor used on facebook marketplace to save money. New tractors can be financed for a manageable rate, these also come with warranties and other guarantees.  

Tractor Attachments

  • Brush hog: Necessary for keeping large amounts of grass cut. 
  • Tiller: Prepare planting beds with ease. Leave plowing, shoveling, and roto-tillers in the 20th century.
  • Front Loader: Move dirt, debris, materials, and other large objects around with ease.
  • Loader Forks: Makes moving palleted items easy. Used pallets are a common waste product and easy to come by. With a pair of loader forks, you might find yourself putting everything heavy onto pallets. 
  • Mulch Layer: After running a tiller, a mulch layer saves your back by putting paper or plastic mulch down for you. 
  • Mechanical Transplanter: If you plan to put thousands of pre-started seedlings into the soil, consider a used mechanical transplanter. Alternatively, hand held transplanters save your back and work just as well. 
  • Sprayer: Necessary for some types of crops. Sprayers are pulled behind a tractor and dispense insecticide when needed. 

Repair & Maintenance Tools

  • Go Electric Everything: Modern electric hand tools are just as powerful as gas. Skip the maintenance and struggle of gas tools by investing in a set of electric tools of the same brand, so you can use the batteries interchangeably. 
  • Impact Drill
  • String Trimmer
  • Hedge Trimmer
  • Chainsaw
  • Handheld Transplanter

Plant Starting & Care

  • Trays & Cells
  • Watering Can
  • Buckets
  • Hoses
  • Nozzles
  • Drip Line Irrigation: Run drip lines under mulch layers for easy watering. Order a kit first so you know all of the parts and pieces. 

Small Farm Infrastructure

  • Greenhouses: To get a head-start on seedlings before last frost, you'll want a greenhouse which will keep everything above freezing temperature. Simple tunnel greenhouse kits start as little as $3000 and can be installed by two people. Electric heating wires in sand tables under your seedling trays will keep them warm on a budget. The sky is the limit with your greenhouse design, and many videos on Youtube can serve as inspiration for your unique crop.  

  • Water: Irrigation may be critical for the type of crop you want to grow. Running water lines from existing wells is not as hard as you may think. Many small farms trench flexible plastic pipe under the frost line, and connect this to a "frost proof yard hydrant". Some small farms just drill a pvc-walled well and drop an electric sump-pump down into it. 

  • Electric: Running electric on a small farm follows the same idea as water lines. You'll have to find a buddy who is a qualified electrician to certify the work. You can run thick wires off of the home breaker in a trench unprotected, but it is recommended to pass them through a pipe for best results. If you have the money for it, utility companies will run extra poles through your property to service large barns or buildings. Use your common sense and follow municipality permitting procedures when installing electric.

  • Beater Pickup Truck: Find a cheap Ford F150 or Ford Ranger on Facebook Marketplace. As long as it can drive to Home Depot and back, you have found yourself a quality farm truck. These trucks can be plated for agriculture, meaning less insurance and fees.