OrangeTractorTalks

OrangeTractorTalks reader Jamie from Zambia, Africa (map) has posted a picture of his L1501 tackling the task of mowing elephant grass in our gallery. This grass can grow upwards of 8-9 feet in height! Regardless of how much you might neglect your own lawn or brush, I bet your mower has less than this to contend with! Keep those blades sharp and that mower serviced.

Great pic Jamie, thank you for sharing. If you have a picture of your favorite orange machine in action or just sitting pretty, upload a picture of it.

From time to time we like to showcase what readers of OrangeTractorTalks get up to with their favorite piece of orange equipment. Today, we take a look at Antoine and his organic vegetable farm, Ferme de la Coulee douce located in St-Antoine-de-Tilly, Quebec Canada, a mile away from the banks of the famous St. Lawrence River (click for map on google).

Note: Antoine’s site is in French, use google’s translator to convert it if need be.

About the Farm
Antoine’s farm, established in 2004, is 5 acres in size and produces more than 30 varieties of organic vegetables – carrots, lettuce, onions, cabbage, tomatoes, fresh herbs, broccoli, cauliflower, peppers, peas – you name it, his farm grows it. He built the farm from the ground up having purchased the raw plot 5 years ago without buildings, improvements, water or electricity. Today the farm supplies fresh organic produce to more than 150 families in Quebec.

Antoine's farm produces more than 30 varieties of vegetables - like this brocoli for instance.

Snow – Lots of it
In the winter time temperatures drop below -22F (-30C) and the ground sees lots of snow – about 20 feet fall on the farm every year. This means his Kubota is putting in overtime hours running a snowblower to clear a path to a few greenhouses on site. Antoine makes good use of his tractor’s creeper gear to move the heavy wet snow, an engine block heater and the cylinder head decompression function when it comes to starting in those temperatures.

The farm's Kubota L2201 earns its keep - snowblowing, rototilling, hauling or running the irrigation system.

A Busy L Series
The farm uses a gray market Kubota L2201 to blow snow, rototill, brush cut and run a water pump off the PTO for irrigation. Other attachments include a seeder, cultivator, weeder and a couple of trailers for hauling the harvest – a very busy tractor indeed.

On the technical side – the L2201 is closest to Kubota’s North American L245. Both have the 3 cylinder D1101 engine that generates about 24.5 horsepower at the flywheel and 20 at the PTO. The L2201/L245 is similar to its smaller brother, the L1801/L185 which is a 2 cylinder tractor. Antoine’s tractor is a 4WD but the L2201 was manufactured in both 2WD and 4WD configurations and production ran from around 1975 to 1979.

Future Plans
Expanding the existing greenhouses, planting an orchard and creating a windbreak are all in this Kubota’s future. Sounds like Antoine will be busy for a little while to come. We thank Antoine for sharing with us how he uses his Kubota to get the job done! Well done!

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Kubota in Action at Tiny Farm
Discovered it’s a Gray Market Kubota? Relax.
Cold Weather Starting Tips

While crusing eBay today looking for all sorts of Kubota-related goodies, we came across this Kubota-branded toilet seat. Although it does not look to be an officially licensed Kubota toilet seat, perhaps the higher ups in Kubota will take notice and release their own, official, toilet seats. Expect models available in glide shift and hydrostatic versions this fall, with attachments such as toilet paper dispenser and magazine rack as optional upgrades. Financing plans available from KCC.

Perhaps this will inspire Kubota engineers to develop their own toilet seat in repsonse to growing consumer demand for restroom hardware.

See original eBay auction here.

Behind the wheel of Tiny Farm's B1700

Tiny Farm Blog is a comprehsive account of what a few folks with a couple acres of land, some basic tools and a Kubota can do. Tiny Farm is located in Ontario, Canada and is in its sixth season of harvest this year. The author of the articles takes its readers through the various challenges of growing organic food having come from zero farming or agricultural experience back in 2002. Based on their articles and photos, I’d say that that Tiny Farm had done pretty well for itself, the best far for us though, is getting to see some action shots of their Kubota!

Tiny Farm employs a Kubota B1700 they purchased second hand in 2003 but later upgraded with a new LA302 loader and 48″ rototiller. From their articles, we get to see some candid shots of our favorite orange tractor rototilling, suffering through a rototiller breakdown and demonstrating some other novel uses. The articles also dishes out handy loader tips for clearing beds in the preparation stages. My favorite shots are those of the spreader in action! It goes without saying that one should stay well back of that implement!

Head over to Tiny Farm Blog to see a Kubota put to good use and a healthy dose of inspiration.

Stay well back!