Has anyone noticed the high cost of farm and garden implements? If you haven’t then you haven’t bought any new equipment recently. It seems like even the simplest things cost hundreds of dollars. So why not make your own or use older implements to cut your costs? I have a small garden and use a Kubota B7100 to maintain it. It’s a small 16 horse garden tractor with a pto and 3 point hitch. All of the implements I use are salvaged from junk piles and modified to work with my tractor. It’s not as hard as you might think to modify and build your own equipment.

Have An Idea

The best place to start is with an idea. Often we do things because that’s the way its always been done. This often works just fine but sometimes the back breaking and time-consuming labor involved in accomplishing routine tasks doesn’t seem worth the effort. So if you find yourself working on a project that seems to be inefficient ask yourself, “is there a better way to do this?” You may find yourself thinking up all sorts of ideas. The first idea that will come to mind is to buy some thing to make your life easier. But buying something isn’t always an option, which will lead you to your second idea, which is to make something yourself.

Putting Ideas Into Action

After you have an idea you need to put it into action. Think your idea through and make sure it’s worth doing. Make some phone calls and find out if something is available to do what you need. If you find what you need then get prices. If the price is ok you might be able to buy what you need. If not, draw a little sketch of what you want. This will help you see the end result of your work. Plus, sometimes we all need a little help. Showing your sketch to friend and getting some advice can never hurt. Don’t forget that when you’re thinking about your idea try to use things that you already have. Maybe that old plow could be used for something or maybe the disc could be modified. If you don’t have access to your own old equipment drive out into the country and talk to some of the farmers. They might be willing to sell some of their older, unused equipment. They may even give something to you.

In the process of designing remember your own skills. If you are a carpenter try to design using wood. If you are a welder or machinist try to design using steel. You can keep a lot of costs down by doing things yourself.

Keeping The Ball Rolling

When you have worked all the bugs out of your sketch it's time figure what you will need to bring your idea into reality. This is the part where you make cost estimates and find people who can help you bring your idea to life. It's at this point where you may decide to take your sketch to a local welding or machine shop and find out how much it would cost to have it made. Or you might need to get an estimate on the prices of steel or wood needed to make it. If you're modifying a piece of existing equipment you might want to take it to a shop and explain exactly how you want it modified. Don’t be afraid to bring your sketch to three or four different shops for a cost estimate. When all of the estimates have been returned you can pick the shop with the best price.

If you’re not sure what type of material to use describe what your idea will accomplish. A good machine shop will help you figure what you need.

Try to work with people who have experience with farm implements. I used to work in shop that was unfamiliar with farm equipment and a mistake was made when a farmer brought a landslide from a plow to our shop to be copied. Someone heard the word "plow" and thought snow plow not moldboard plow. So the landslide was copied but the copy was left handed.

When It All Comes Together

The last step is to make your idea a reality. If you are confident with your design and the cost is good then it's time to bring your idea to life. If you're working with a machine or welding shop all you have to do is wait for the part. Keep in mind that if you work with a machine or welding shop you might need to bring in your tractor or other pieces of equipment to make sure everything fits.

You might decide to build it yourself. If this is the case then you have really cut your costs. Labor is a huge cost in machine shops and building something yourself is great way to get around this cost. It’s important to know your own limitations. Know when to ask for help and make sure that you're familiar with all the tools you will use. Most importantly, don’t give up. You might find that your project takes more time than you thought. That can be expected. Set goals for yourself and make sure you're confident in what you are doing.

A Good First Project

Years ago there were a lot more small farms than today. The great thing about small farms was the small equipment. Where I grew up there were lots of old Oliver two bottom plows. Most of these were in junk piles because the landslides were worn out. The plow point, shin, and moldboard could all be purchased new but the landslide wasn’t made any more. We wanted to use one of these small plows in our garden and needed to have a landslide made. My Dad used a piece of construction paper to trace bolt pattern on the plow. Then he drew what the landslide should look like. He took the pattern to a local welding shop and they made a landslide for him. This is a really good first project for people who haven’t done much on their own. This will get you familiar with machine shops and give you an idea of cost. This project won’t take very long either. You might have a new landslide in a day.

Some Of The Experiences I’ve Had

Several years ago my Dad and I needed a manure bucket for our tractor. We had been cleaning the barn with a utility bucket. It took forever. I started sketching up some drawings of a manure bucket. While I did this my Dad called a local tractor dealership to find out how much it would cost buy a new one. We were both shocked to hear $900. That was a lot more than we wanted to spend. We got serious about building our own. We looked at other manure buckets for ideas and slowly designed ours. In the end it took us about a month of time, $225 worth of steel, and $100 to have it welded together. The end result was worth it.

When I moved away from the family farm and purchased my new house I decided that I was going to have a garden. The first thing I did was till the soil. The next thing I did was mark out rows. This started off horribly. Growing up on a farm, I wasn’t used to planting corn by hand. At first I developed this system for marking the rows using two sticks and a long piece of string. This worked but it was pretty cumbersome and time consuming. I knew there had to be a better way. After thinking of different options I ended up mounting a cultivator shovel on the bar of my tractors 3-point hitch. This worked great. I was able to drive back and forth in the garden marking out all of the rows. The best thing about this was that I didn’t have to buy anything extra. Everything I needed was in my garage.

A great piece of tillage equipment is a disk. For the longest time I knew I needed one but did not want to spend $400 to $600 on a light disk that didn’t look like it would break up soil. I knew my Dad had an old disk in the pasture that hadn’t been used in 10 years. On a visit to see my parents I asked I could take a few gangs off the disk so I could disk my garden. A gang is a single group of disks connected by a steel shaft that runs through their centers. The gang also includes bearings and brackets to connect the gang to the frame of the implement. He informed me that the bearings were pretty bad but I was free to take any parts I needed. When I brought the gangs back to my house I reconnected them by bolting on to very strong pieces of wood. I also made sure to set both gangs to the correct angle to cut into the soil. It took three or four days to get the disk up and running. Now I pull it around my garden with a chain. It looks terrible but it works great.