Every Farm Needs One
Last month when a walnut tree fell on my neighbor’s driveway, I was MORE THAN happy to help remove it
Having the right tools for the job makes all the difference in the world. If you’ve got more than 5 acres, I’d argue a UTV should be your very first farm-equipment purchase- and the Cub Cadet Challenger MX750 is a fantastic place to start your search.
If you were to ask me about the most useful tool I own, the thing that saves me the most time, stress, and headaches, the thing I use the most often and find the most uses for, I wouldn’t skip a beat before telling you it’s my farm vehicle.
I farm 17 acres by myself, in my “spare time” before, after (and sometimes unavoidably during) my regular workweek. Most of it is uneven, hilly, steep terrain. Maintaining the property, moving temporary fences and heavy electric chargers, toting water buckets, feed and tools, checking on livestock and rounding up escapees *can* be done on foot, as I’ve unfortunately had ample opportunity to prove the past 2 years, but it’s certainly not ideal.
Last summer when my golf cart was broken, morning chores that usually take 30-40 mins were taking me upwards of 2-3 hours a day. After moving the animals out to pasture, making multiple trips toting water by hand, getting chargers set and walking back to the office, I’d be drenched head to toe in sweat and exhausted before my work day even started.
And that’s assuming I didn’t have to make any extra trips from the house to my office across the property because I’d forgotten my laptop, camera, or some other necessity (and I usually did).
Our place in Washington was 3.65 acres, with only one *really* useable, flat acre, but I had every single inch of that one acre set up to offer as much as it could to my ever growing homesteading dreams.
The thing about 1 acre though, is that even packed to the gills, it’s totally walkable. Even “big” jobs *could* be done by hand or on foot, though some could be made faster/more convenient with equipment.
Within 3 days of landing on our new farm in Nashville, I realized a dedicated farm vehicle was not just a luxury, it was an immediate necessity. I sold my old Toyota pickup truck and found a battery powered golf cart on Facebook Marketplace.
If our land were a little flatter, and if I were a little easier on the equipment I use, that golf cart would have probably solved all my problems. But between 10-15 trips a day up our 30% grade hill, the off-road package and other mods I added to the cart, and the many other… “creative” uses I found for the cart, I ended up spending more time fussing with a broken cart than using it.
This CubCadet MX750 unit was on order for almost a year, but when it finally got here, I couldn’t believe I’d survived so long without it. I put 150 miles on it in the first three weeks, if that’s any indication of how much time and effort it was saving me doing chores on foot.
Though I loved the silence of the battery powered cart, that is truly the only thing I miss about it. The power and versatility this machine offers is incomparable. It’s 735 CC engine, 4x4 capabilities, and 26” off-road tires eat our hills for breakfast, I can load it down and tow literally everything I’ve got, and I don’t give it a second thought.
The hydraulic assist dump bed is perfect for garden work, hauling tools, cutting firewood, moving fences, you name it.
I’ll likely be adding a winch soon, and it’ll be a quick project because the MX750 is pre-wired for it. There are plenty of other fun features that come stock too, like a digital dash display, bumper guard and light bars to shine light on the path ahead or on work you’re doing around the farm after dark.
The funniest thing to me was finding out I could put tags on it and it’d be street legal here in TN as well. So the whole tag-line I used all pandemic long about trading my farm truck for utility vehicle proved to be truer than I thought!
If you’re in the market for a UTV- for your farm or off-roading, take a look at Cub Cadet. I’ve taken mine off road with Razors, Rangers, and other big-name off road vehicles, and it held it’s own in a big way. Climbing rocky hillsides, descending slippery ravines, the 4x4 package, 26” off road tires, and ability to lock the front and rear differentials with a simple flip of a switch makes this a truly versatile, all-weather, all location machine. I’ve already put it through it’s paces and then some, and I’ll keep you updated on how it fares as I continue to add on the miles, but 3 months in, I can, without hesitation, recommend this machine.