Using Your Tractor for Post-Winter Cleanup

When you own a plot of land – no matter if it’s one acre or 100 – there’s always work to be done. Especially after harsh winter conditions have taken their toll. Once the skies clear and the snows melt, you never know what you might find. Luckily, with this guide you can make quick work of any post-winter cleanup standing in your way.

5 Spring Cleaning Chores to Tackle With a Tractor

Spring means longer days, warmer weather, and lots of preparation for the busy seasons ahead. By getting your property ready early, you avoid losing valuable time later when you need to be putting your effort elsewhere. Set yourself up for a productive summer and fall by tackling these chores with your tractor.

Clean Up Debris

Winter winds can create quite a mess. Between broken branches, piles of leaves, and even fallen trees, it’s a lot to handle on your own. If your property is cluttered with debris, bring in your tractor for some extra assistance. The most valuable attachment for this kind of work is the landscape rake. Ruggedly durable, Yanmar’s landscape rake can transform a wide swath of land in just a few passes. Beyond picking up your branches and leaves, it can be used to remove stones, prepare soil, spread topsoil, and even renovate an entire pasture.

For larger logs or rocks beyond the abilities of your landscape rake, you can always count on the tractor’s front-end loader. Yanmar’s YT3 Series and YM Series of tractors have a max lift capacity of 2,500 lbs. at the pivot pin, packing some serious lifting power. When equipped with a pallet fork or grapple, your front-end loader is perfectly equipped to lift logs, stack bales, and much more.

Grade and Level Roads

Melting snow and ice will wreak havoc on a dirt or gravel drive. Instead of bouncing around the cab of your truck and exhausting your suspension on a pathway of potholes, use your tractor to get a smooth ride all summer long. In many cases you can repair a gravel drive that's bumpy or uneven with a fresh layer of gravel. 

After distributing gravel with your tractor’s front-end loader, you can ensure it’s spread evenly and effectively with the box blade and grading scraper attachments. These essential attachments will handle more material in fewer passes, giving you a smooth surface without the washboard effect.

Improve Drainage

As long as you’re working on infrastructure like driveways, it’s the perfect time to improve your drainage as well. Over the winter, culverts or drainage ditches become clogged with leaves, silt, and other debris. Between increased snowmelt and spring showers, these backups can lead to flooding issues. Before you break out the shovel, trust your tractor’s backhoe to clear the pathway for you. This also provides an opportunity to refine the ditch’s slope and increase the size for maximum drainage efficiency.

Distribute Supplies

If you have an especially large plot of land, that means distributing supplies strategically in spring so they’re available when you need them throughout the summer. Whether you’re moving fertilizer and compost to the fields or building a new fence for livestock, you can handle this dirty work from the comfort of your tractor’s cab. For new construction such as a fence, the pallet fork will handle moving the heavy materials, while the posthole digger attachment can turn over even the toughest soil in a matter of minutes.

Prepare the Soil

Once your property is cleaned up, your tractor will help you get a head start on preparing the soil for the growing season. If you’re planting a cover crop to prevent weeds and pests on your land, take advantage of the rotary tiller and precision seeder attachments. The tiller penetrates deep into the soil to create a fresh bed for planting, while the precision seeder will evenly distribute your seeds and plant them at an ideal depth. In fact, the precision seeder can plant up to three seed types simultaneously in one pass.

Connect With Yanmar

When you have questions about the right tractors and attachments to maintain your land, trust the experts at Yanmar. Our team has decades of hard-earned experience and is dedicated to helping you get the most out of your machine. Connect with us today and get the conversation started.

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