Additionally, a property with a barn typically comes with a decent amount of acres and the need for a tractor. I have been researching those as well, especially thin profile versions designed for vineyards. Along with with needing the right amount of horse-power and hydraulics for any attachments, one of the biggest issues with tractors, it turns out, is the large rear wheels make them prone to rolling over backwards, which could kill the driver.
I'm not a farmer and my experience is limited, but I do have some experience doing seasonal summer work on a farm and driving a tractor. When I was in high school, I spent three summers working for a small family farmer. My main duties were driving the tractor for hay baling and livestock operations, feeding livestock, and being the catcher and stacker for storing bales in a hay loft. The latter quickly taught me the weight difference in bales depending on what we baled that day. Bales of straw, grass, and alfalfa are much different in weight. Believe me, you notice the difference when you're leaning over a loft with heavy gloves and a long sleeve shirt to avoid being cut to ribbons and catching bales, being thrown up to you, with a couple of baling hooks to stack over and over. I don't even want to think what the temperature was in the top of that loft on a hot summer day!
It was hard physical labor! I was a city boy that worked those three years because it was a family friend, for the experience, and the exercise. I learned that I never wanted to work
that hard again in my life! I was young and athletic, but this farmer in his 50s made me look like a weakling in comparison. He had biceps like a Virginia ham and could cock a heavy bale back on his shoulder and shoot it straight up in the air for me to catch, which I somehow managed to do
almost every time. Yeah, no conveyor to bring the bales up to me. Don't ask me why because I never asked. The experience was good for me; because anytime in later life I thought that the work I was doing was difficult at the moment, I would remember working on that farm and think, this really isn't so bad. It was an exercise in character building to do that farm work which gave me an appreciation for what
hard work actually meant.
Because Joe is a food guy, I'll mention those farm lunches were memorable. The farmer was a widower, but his mother and aunt prepared lunch each day with veggies from their garden, potatoes of some kind, freshly baked bread or rolls, and lots of protein. In addition to whatever meat was being served, there was
always a big platter of fried eggs from the chickens they raised. We not only worked off the big lunch, but would stop for a short mid-afternoon snack and then back to work.
So, about tractors that I drove on a small farm... I drove two that he owned. One was a very old one-cylinder tractor inherited from his dad and the other much more modern. Both tractors were the utility type that you generally see on small farms. If some heavier or more specialized type of equipment, like a bulldozer or backhoe, were needed he hired someone to come do that job for him.
Driving and hauling with a tractor is very different from driving a car or truck. I got a lot of instruction on when, where, and why to use each gear; when and how to use the brake when hauling; and selecting the right path to steer. This was not only to get the job done efficiently, but to minimize safety risks as well—for both of us, as he was generally in a wagon attached directly to the tractor or behind the baler whenever I was driving. The primary safety mechanism in place was his knowledge of what the limits were for load hauling across different parts of his farm for each tractor.
As for rollover protection structures (ROPS), there was none with the tractors that I drove which made listening to his instructions all the more important. Today, however, I'm pretty sure that all tractors being sold have ROPS to protect the driver.
Sorry for the long intro, but if any young people are reading this and want to give farm work a try... It's a great life lesson in learning about hard work, but it will often be a miserable physically demanding grind. On the plus side, the food was great if you enjoy down-home country cooking! You'll earn that food though as well as work it off quickly.
