John Deere
Fall is upon us, but blink twice and it’ll be winter before you know it. For those of you homeowners out there with a considerable amount of upkeep around your house, now would be a good time to address what you plan on doing about lawn care, landscaping, snow removal, and any other dirty jobs. We’ll save you time guessing and turn to the pros at John Deere and their line of compact utility tractors (CUTs).
As newlyweds, my wife and I naturally have begun the process of looking at houses and know that we want plenty of green space. However, she grew up on a farm and I grew up in Manhattan. Guess who has no idea how to “take care of land”? I desperately need a lesson on where to start.
We sat down with Mark Davey, John Deere’s product manager and resident expert on CUTs, to walk us through the ins and outs of land and lawn maintenance and what tractor is best for you.
What sets John Deere tractors apart from other tractor brands?
We’ve got over 180 years of heritage and engineering to make sure that we’re building a complete solution and putting out a great product for our customers that’s going to help them on their land. Studying customers’ needs is what we do to provide solutions that help get the jobs done on their land quickly and easily.
It’s all about simplicity for our customers. We want to save them time and make them feel good about being able to operate the equipment easily, get the job done, and then get on to enjoying their property. If you’re building a new fire pit on your land, you don’t want to spend a ton of time creating it; you want to get it done and be able to enjoy that firepit with family and friends. Making tasks like that easy is what we’re all about.
What kind of selection can customers expect from John Deere when they’re looking for landscaping and lawn care solutions?
We’ve got over 20 different models in the compact utility tractor lineup in the 25-75 horsepower range that we have really designed and engineered to do different tasks around your land. And really goes through all the different seasons of the year. Being able to manage lawns, pastures, and all the different aspects of managing a property you might think of are the types of things that we built John Deere tractors to be able to do for our customers.
For those who are new to looking for this kind of equipment, what would you say is a good starting point that customers can think about when they begin the shopping process?
Understand what you want to do first with it and envision where you want to go with all the different tasks. You want to make sure that you’re buying a tractor that’ll be able to accomplish those tasks and not wish you had bought a tractor with more horsepower and more features. So, know your project horizon and the different things you want to accomplish. Then consult your John Deere dealer about what kind of horsepower and features you need to be able to do those jobs so you can buy the right tractor for your land.
As we look at our lineup, we start with the 1 Series that’s our entry into a compact tractor versus one of our lawn tractors that are more focused on mowing the yard. With a 23-25 horsepower tractor and loader, you can do a lot of work, even on a smaller property, throughout all the seasons.
As we make the transition between seasons, what should homeowners look for in terms of equipment to manage things from fall into winter?
For starters, many parts of the country will have leaves that start falling on your lawn and it’s important to keep those off your lawn. We have a material collection system that you can collect leaves with on most of our tractors. Being able to do that while mowing at the end of the summer season going into fall will help keep grass from being killed out and also help prevent disease in your lawn.
Another task we recommend at this fall time of the year is aerating. We offer core aerators and different overseeding options as well to seed that grass back in.
For winter, our lineup of snow blowers, blades, and brooms is great if you’re dealing with a lot of snow. On the larger frame size, it’s the Frontier SB12F with an 80-inch slow clearing capacity on the front. We built that to match our new 4075R tractor. It has a new heavy-duty front axle on it that’s built to manage commercial-grade jobs like moving snow with this front snowblower.
We’ve talked a lot about the “do’s” of maintaining your land. What are some of the “don’t’s” or common mistakes that people often make with upkeep?
Make sure that you fertilize for the fall. Going into the harshness of winter, even though your lawn is not growing, it still needs food to be able to build root structures during the winter months.
In addition, make sure you stay up on the maintenance that is called out in the operator’s manual. Each tractor’s going to have those service intervals that are called out for upkeep. Check your tires, keep proper coolant levels, and inspect air filters to make sure they’re clean. Winter can be a hard time on batteries, so if you’re starting up in colder conditions, it can take more draw on the battery. Keep an eye on your battery, and stay connected with your John Deere dealer for any assistance with those maintenance activities.
