Treading Lightly – The Kubota Secret

The Kubota Secret

I have several childhood memories of growing up in the middle of vineyards. One of the images that I’ve carried with me is my father driving a Caterpillar D-2 pulling a disc through the vineyards on a brilliant spring day. There was a lush crop of Mustard, so tall that the tracks of the CAT were not visible – Just the upper half of the tractor floating through the Mustard with my dad at the helm. There was a small flock of red-winged blackbirds following closely, ready to swoop in and snatch earthworms as their world was turned upside down.

Over the years, Pina Vineyard Management (PVM) has had many Caterpillar tractors. They are great machines. In recent years, we’ve been adding some John Deere tractors to the fleet. The overwhelming factor when purchasing these tractors was function. They were chosen to get the job done, pure & simple. And PVM also has lots of Kubota tractors chosen for the same reason.

In the Spring of 2006, the local Kubota tractor dealership approached us with a unique proposal. Kubota had been working on a new tractor and they needed somebody to give it a well rounded field test: Work it hard, find its strengths & weaknesses – If you find problems, we want to know. Say no more, just give us the key. But, they said, there is one more thing:

Keep it a secret.

The tractor was delivered on an overcast day after a period of rain. It came with at least a half-dozen Kubota Engineers that were eager to test the metal of their baby. Their enthusiasm was admirable. After several hours they left and headed back to Japan.

After looking at the top picture, you may be wondering what the big secret is. It’s the side-view picture that will give you the answer.

Yes, a wheel tractor that also has tracks or a tracklayer that also has wheels.

Pina Cellars (in cooperation with Pina Vineyard Management) hosted the Kubota new tractor unveiling for the media and some local farmers. In the picture above, that’s brother Davie explaining our involvement with the project and describing our “testing” of the new Kubota Power Krawler.

You can check out the Kubota website for more information:
http://www.kubota.com/f/aboutkubota/prl67.cfm

If you do, note the pictures that were taken in the PVM vineyard that sits high above Miner Winery. It’s a bit too steep to feel comfortable in most tractors.

After a day of testing - Kubota’s dirty secret

This is beginning to sound too much like a Kubota advertisement, so I’ll get to the point that I intended to make. And that is that new vineyard equipment is changing to meet the needs of new vineyards.

New vineyards/old vineyards, what’s the difference?

Well, for starters, new vineyards are typically planted in much closer rows than old vineyards. My dad’s old CAT D-2 wouldn’t fit down the rows of most vineyards planted these days. As a result, many tractor manufacturers are now offering narrow gauge tractors.
A growing concern among growers is soil compaction. Those old CAT D-2s looked pretty heavy, and they were, BUT the weight was distributed over a much larger area than today’s wheeled tractors. And that’s one of the big selling points of the new Kubota Power Krawler. It doesn’t compact the soil as much as a similar sized wheel tractor. How innovative of Kubota you say? Well, yes and no. It’s not like they invented the concept.

Photo courtesy http://www.fightingiron.com/FI-Heritage.htm

PVM gave the Krawler a thorough testing with several different implements and we were impressed. PVM now owns one of the new Kubota Power Krawlers, and will continue testing another production model for Kubota. Great machines – but I’m thinking the image of the driver sitting in a “climate controlled” cab with the high tracks visible while discing down the mustard is going to fall short of my recollections from the good old days.