Description
Book SynopsisTrade Review"As much as I favor managing your garden with hand tools, if you scale up to marketing you may need some help. In addition to serving as an operator's manual for two-wheel tractors, this book helps you define your goals for your enterprise and decide just what equipment you may need. A good resource to have."
—Cindy Conner, author of Grow a Sustainable Diet and Homegrown Flax and Cotton
"Jam packed with great information. This book is going to save serious growers a lot of time tinkering around."
—Curtis Stone, author of The Urban Farmer
"Zach Loeks' The Two-Wheel Tractor Handbook is a detailed, beautiful, & much-needed must-have for every market gardener's library - and for anyone serious about using small machines to manage their farm."
–- Matt Powers, author of Regenerative Soil
"This book is essential to anyone who owns a BCS tractor or who is exploring the purchase of one. I use a BCS in the garden, forest and the snow and found a ton of insights in Zach's book. The review of various BCS implements, different uses for these machines and maintenance tips is invaluable to the novice and intermediate user alike. This book should be included as a how-to manual with every BCS tractor sold."
—- Rob Avis, Verge Permaculture, author of Essential Rainwater Harvesting
"Easily the most comprehensive guide to two-wheel tractors ever written. Get more out of your two-wheel tractor with all the tips and tricks while saving money by doing the maintenance yourself."
—- Diego Footer, founder of Paperpot Co.
"This very practical manual will help us really understand our two-wheel tractors and get the best out of them while giving them our best. Even those in favor of minimizing tilling understand that some circumstances call for tilling, so let's do it well. Mindful, good use of machinery is important!"
— Pam Dawling, teacher, speaker and author of Sustainable Market Farming and The Year-Round Hoophouse
"The scale of farming is crucial in designing farm systems and planning for labor, investments, profits, and machinery. This book discusses scale and choosing a family of machinery that work together and allow a farm to grow over time in a comprehensive and innovative way that I have not seen anywhere else."
— Sam Oschwald Tilton, Direct Market Vegetable Specialist, author of numerous articles and resources on sustainable agriculture, vegetable farming mechanization specialist
"When growing vegetables for market, one of the most important lessons is that bigger is not better. It's quite the contrary; even 1 acre of cultivated land can allow a grower to make a living in farming. Another lesson is to size the equipment properly, which is why two-wheel tractors have become so popular in recent years. In this fantastic book, you'll learn everything you need to know about this appropriate technology. This book is truly unique, full of tips, hints and tidbits even for someone like me who's been farming with such tractors for over 20 years."
— Jean-Martin Fortier, author The Market Gardener
Table of ContentsLiability Statement
Cover & Inside Material
Praise
Preamble
Introduction
This Book's Format
About This Book
Small-Scale Profit Resilience
Chapter 1: A Story About a Horse
The Horse and His Boy
The Origin of Two-Wheel Tractors
Honoring the Two-Wheel Tractor
The Italian Two-Wheel Renaissance
Chapter 2: Two-Wheel Tractor Essentials
The Definitive Two-Wheel Tractor
Eleven Two-Wheel Tractor Benefits
The Types of Two-Wheel Tractors
Row Crop Tractor with High Clearance
Row Crop Tractor Features
Tractor Components: Form and Function
Powersafe Clutch and Transmission
Tractor Operation: Getting Started
Steps to Get Operating
Steps to Begin Implement Operation
A Bit of Tractor Safety
Chapter 3: Implements and Their Uses
Types of Implements
Selected Equipment Profiles
Chapter 4: Equipment Decision-Making
Scale-Suitable Equipment
Scale Phases
Equipment Guilds and Operation Cycles
Guild Enterprise Production
Guild Enterprise Brainstorming Template
Budgeting for Tractors and Equipment
Chapter 5: Selected Enterprise Examples
The Backyard Gardener (.25–5 APA)
Suburban Homesteader (1–3 APA)
Market Grower (1–3 APA)
Row Crop Farmer (3–6 APA)
Back-to-the-Lander (3–15 APA)
Groundskeeper and Landscaper (Various APA)
Grassland Farmer (8–13 APA)
Tree Nursery (3–6 APA)
Edible Ecosystem Management
Chapter 6: Permabed System for Two-Wheel Tractors
Permabed System 101
Permabed Architecture
Permaplot Design
Permaplot Layout
Compost-a-Path Principles
Permabed Soil Design
Using Equipment for Crop Rotation Management
Chapter 7: Growing from Scratch
1. Clearing New Land (or Reclaiming)
2. Garden Plot Layout
3. Micro-Plowing a Field
4. Permabed Layout and Bed Building Options
5. Building Beds with a Power Ridger
6. Refining Your Rough Permabeds
7. Seasonal Bed Preparation Operations
8. Succession Planting and Crop Guild Design
9. Other Seasonal Management
Chapter 8: Tractor Maintenance and Care
Tractor Maintenance Simplified
Essential Tools for Maintenance
Essential Maintenance Supplies
Maintenance Tips
Checking and Changing Honda Engine Oil
Two-Wheeling into the Future
Glossary of Common Terms and Jargon
Index
About the Author
About New Society Publishers
