Spring Cleaning Around Your Small Farm and Property
Equipment, Ground, and Driveway Projects to Tackle in Spring
At the start of the planting, growing, and maintaining season, it’s time to take a look at your Spring Cleaning to-do list. In this ABI Dirt episode, we walk through what it looks like to de-winterize and prep your small farm and property for heavy use during the warm months.
For more information on these or other attachments visit us at abiattachments.com or call a Product Specialist at 877.788.7253
ABI Products Shown In This Video
SR3 Grading Rake
- For Skid-Steer Loaders (SSL) & Compact Track Loaders (CTL)
- 7.5' Width - Commercial-Duty
- Starting At: $207/mo.*
125 ft³ PTO – Large Manure Spreader
- 4-Speed - PTO Driven
- Min Tractor HP: 35+ HP - Up to 22 Horses
- Starting At: $274/mo.*
TR3 “E” Equine Edition
- For Sub-Compact & Compact Tractors, #1 Selling Arena Drag
- 6', 7', 8' Widths
- Starting At: $123/mo.*
Transcript
Hi, everyone. Matt here with ABI Attachments. Welcome back to the “ABI Dirt”. Spring has sprung or it is springing or it will spring eventually, I hope. And I don’t know, it’s snowed here a couple of days ago. And honestly, we’re in the part of the season right now where we all want it to get warmer. We’ve got projects that we want to tackle and we’re just waiting to get outside and go after it. So if you’re like me and a lot of us around here at ABI Attachments, you’re already starting to make that spring cleaning list, you’re ready to get to it. And that’s why we put today’s episode together because as you put your spring cleaning list together, there are some things you can do to prep and get ready, so that you’re ready to rock and roll when it finally gets and stays warm.
Seed Bed Preparation
First up, let’s talk about seedbed prep. For you die hard gardeners, you probably think I’m already behind on this. You probably have your seeds already picked out, you know what you’re planning. But for those of you who may be new to the gardening game and you are just now catching up and saying “I wanna put some seeds in the ground. I wanna plant a garden of some sort. How do I prepare for that?” Well, first thing you gotta think about is where are you going to do it? What kind of land do you have available? And how are you going to prepare that seedbed? Remember, this is where ABI Attachments shines. Now, with our multipurpose tools that can loosen and level and rake, we’ve got some tools that can create some ideal seedbed if you’re looking to install a garden or return to your garden this spring. Take a look at that finish rake on the back of the TR3 ESeries, the TR3e, the SR line of products. Because with that finish rake, you can remove a lot of sod, a lot of root bed that’s already there, so that you’ve got open and exposed soil ready for you to put that seed in the ground.
Barn & Stall Clean-Up
Now, if you also have animals as well as plants on your property, you know where those animals have been going in and out of the barn and the stalls, all winter long is probably pretty mucky and rutted up and just pretty nasty at this point. And yeah, you could grab a straight rake or a shovel and just muscle it out and try to level that soil, level that ground out around the barn right outside of the stalls. But it’s a whole lot easier from the seat of your tractor, from the seat of your skid-steer, if you can use the tool that can get right up next to the edge of the barn, right up next to the edge of the door and loosen and level that out, smooth it out. So as things start to warm up and it’s not so sticky and muddy that you’ve got a nice level surface there way less likely than an animal is going to injure itself because you’ve got a smooth surface there going in and out of the barn.
Spring Manure Application
Also, if you’ve got animals on the property, unless you’ve been spreading manure all-year long and you’re living a climate that doesn’t have frozen ground like half of us, you probably have a big stinking mountain of manure as opposed to a pile of manure somewhere. And whether you stockpile to have somebody haul it out, whether you’re paying for the manure to be hauled away or just begging people to take it for free, or whether you are legitimately composting that manure to get as much value out of it as possible, you’re kind of sitting on a brown gold mine here. That, come springtime as things start to thaw out, you can use a manure spreader and grab that big old stinking pile of manure and get it spread out across the pasture. Now, if that’s not normal practice for you, again, if you’re someone who typically pays to have it removed because that’s your best option, remember, you have got fertilizer right there available to you, put it to good use. Rather than paying for fertilizer for that pasture, give your animals something delicious to graze on later in the spring. As you spread now, get those nutrients down in the soil. So if you’re sitting on a pile of that brown gold, and I mean that figuratively, not literally, you can have some great fertilizer on your hands. You just need a tool to spread it out. And remember, around here, we’ve got a full lineup of both ground drive and PTO manure spreaders.
Tear Up Heavy Compaction
Now let’s zoom back out and take a look at the front part of your property. If you’re taking care of pastures, taking care of gardens, taking care of animals, what about that front entryway into the property? If you’ve got a gravel drive, and you’re in a climate that’s been freezing and thawing all winter long or maybe it’s just been frozen all winter long, you probably have some potholes, you might have some washboarding. You need something that can really dig in and loosen up that compaction. Especially with the freeze and thaw and you’ve been driving over it on a regular basis, you’ve got some heavy compaction there. You need the right amount of strength from a grounding gauge component, like a scar fire on a TR3 or SR3 to really tear that up. Another condition you could be dealing with right now if you are in a warmer climate, maybe you’ve got your nice pretty driveway with great fresh gravel has turned into a bit of a two track, you’ve got some vegetation running right down the middle of it, that problem is easily solvable. If you’ve got, again, those vertical agitation components or possibly a floating leveling blade on your tractor or skid-steer attachment. Both of those grounding gauge components, super helpful in taking care of the potholes, taking care of the washboarding, taking care of the two-track effect, so that you can have a smooth and beautiful front drive.
Spring Has Sprung
That’s it for our spring cleaning tips and tricks on today’s episode. If you’ve got a spring project that’s especially daunting, maybe something that you’ve always wanted to accomplish in spring before you really get busy in the summer season, drop us a comment below. We’d love to hear from you on what are you avoiding, or honestly, what are you procrastinating on? Like what do you have on your spring cleaning list that you just love to talk with somebody about and you can think through the best way to tackle it. That’s why we’re here. We love talking this kind of stuff. Give us a call, ask for a product specialist. We’ll connect you to somebody who can talk you through your project list and help you get your spring cleaning done this year. See you next time, everyone.