Small scale farming tools

The Urban Farmer by Curtis Stone. Permaculture magazine: print, digital, online. Gift Donate Subscribe.

Search form Search. Wednesday, 11th May Farmers and engineers are joining forces to create the necessary tools needed for small-scale farming. They are 'hacking' and inventing, creating new machines out of components that are low cost, even free, and are already available.

With the increase in small-scale farming comes the need for suitable equipment. Soil blocker and seed trays Jack Algiere demonstrating the uses for a leaf rake for removing thread weeds from beds. All subscriptions come with free digital access to 24 years of back issues www. Help spread the permaculture word The Market Gardener. Don't forget Jean-Martin Fortier and his book the Market Gardener, by far the most useful and dog-eared book on my workbench.

Black Lives Matter - a Permaculture Perspective. Pandora Thomas and Starhawk. Beginner's Guide to Propagating Fruit. Michael Feldmann. They are also great for checking on animals at night. The brighter the better. I use mind almost daily to cut open boxes, bailing twine, and even poly wire. They are just as useful off the farm as they are on the farm. To see which ones we recommend, check out this article on the best pocket knife for a farmer.

And if you want to see the best way to sharpen your pocket knife, check out this article on the best pocket knife sharpeners. You will be building a lot of stuff on your farm. Because of this, I highly recommend buying a good electric screwdriver. A circular saw is pretty much my go-to saw when I need to cut wood on my farm. And if you build as much stuff as I do, you will use one a lot.

I prefer a plug-in circular saw but there are some very good battery powered ones available as well. A jig saw does not cut as fast or as clean as a circular saw but it is more versatile. I use mine for cutting around things or when I need to make a turn on a piece of wood. A reciprocating saw is even more versatile than a jig saw. You can use it to cut things like pipes, tree branches, thick plastic, and even metal.

Make sure you get the right kind of blades for what you are planning on cutting to make things easier.

I also recommend a good craftsman toolkit with an assortment of various types of tools so you never have to farther than your workshop or garage to get the job done. This should include things like screwdrivers, pliers, wrenches, vice-grips, a ratchet set, and a good hammer. A dump cart is basically a wagon with a dump bed. You can use it to haul things like you normally would with a standard wagon but you can also use it to haul things that need to be dumped out like soil, wood chips, fertilizer, rocks, etc.

These are just handy to have around the farm to make it much easier to move things around without hurting yourself. A spud bar can be a good, multi-purpose farming tool. You can use it for things like breaking up ice in the livestock waterers, prying things apart, or tamping dirt while installing fence posts if your spud bar has a tamper on the other end.

Having at least a small air compressor on your farm can be a huge help. But besides that, they are really handy for other things like using the air nozzle for cleaning the radiator out in your tractor. Sometimes the power will go out on your farm. In some cases, this can last a while. Having a way to power your equipment without the power grid can be a big help on your farm. A good portable generator will take care of this for you.

Farms have mud and mud makes things get stuck. Having a good tow chain can be necessary when getting yourself out of a bind. Besides that, a tow chain can be used for other things like pulling logs and other heavy objects on your farm. If you are growing a garden on your farm then here are some essential garden tools that you may need. Arguably the most important garden tool that you will need is a good garden hoe.

Steel shovels are my favorite. I also recommend that you get a good pitchfork if you are doing any type of mulch gardening. A good garden rake will help you spread dirt and mulch around your garden with ease.

If you are raising a more traditional style of garden then you will need a good tiller. The type of tiller you choose will depend on how large your garden is and how much gardening you will be doing. There are some really great electric tillers out now for smaller gardens. Check out this article on the best electric tillers. If you are gardening organically like myself, you should invest in a good weed torch.

You can use it to scorch weeds to kill them off instead of spraying them with herbicides. If you will be starting seeds on your farm, I highly recommend getting a soil blocker.

Just like its name insinuates, a soil blocker creates blocks of soil that you can start seeds in. These blocks can then be transferred to the garden when you are ready. Check out this article on the Best Produce Scales to make sure you get the right kind. Besides using it to water my plants, I use mine for things like filling livestock waterers and cleaning off equipment.

If your farm has trees or if you will be heating your house with wood, here are some essential tools for tree work on your farm. I use my chainsaw all throughout the winter and sometimes even during the summer. Check out this article on the Best Farm Chainsaws to help you decide which one is right for you. If you will be burning wood in a fireplace or a wood burning stove then you will need a reliable log splitter.

Depending on how large the logs are that you will be splitting, you may be able to get away with an electric log splitter. Check out this article on the Best Log Splitters for a Farm to help you pick out the one that will work best for you. If you are into mulch gardening or wood chip gardening, owning a good wood chipper will help you create your own wood chips instead of having to import them.

Check out this article on the Best Wood Chippers for a Farm to help you pick out a good one. Handcarts J. Keeler Johnson This is the first tool I would buy. They are lightweight, yet they carry big loads easily.

Unlike their single-wheeled cousins, they are sturdy and steady over uneven ground as well as through mud or snow and they are just plain hard to tip. They are balanced in such a way as to be easy on the back. Some carts come with an accessory that converts them to a trailer for pulling behind a UTV or small tractor.

We use our carts for many tasks around the farm. In the barn, they are handy for cleaning up small piles of manure, or dragging tack from one place to another. They are perfectly sized for moving a bale of hay or a few pound bags of feed.

We also bring newborn calves easily from field to barn in bad weather, with mama tagging along next to the cart. Even if your animals spend most of their time on pasture, piles of manure accumulate, and spreading this manure thinly over the land improves soil fertility, reduces contaminated runoff and helps keep fly numbers down.

Several manufacturers offer compact manure spreaders ideal for small farms. The tractor-driven units carry more manure in one trip and are probably the best way to go if you have a significant number of animals you keep in the barn regularly.

The ATV units are good for operations with only a few animals stabled regularly, or with a larger herd that is on pasture most of the time. How could anybody not compost? The tumbling units are attractive for folks with small yards and are easy to use; they generally yield useable compost the quickest, because they make mixing and aerating easy.

They are also animal resistant, reducing worries about rodents and other unwanted visitors. For do-it-yourselfers, check local recycling offices for construction plans—many of which use recycled materials, such as tires or pallets. Pick up a container of worms in the spring at your local bait supplier, and add them to your compost pile or bin to speed things up.

Need to build your own compost bin? Out comes the saw and drill. Hanging a new barn door? Get the saw and the drill.