Why Do I Call the Skid Steer My Farm’s Best Friend?
The Honest Truth About Farm Life
Let’s be real for a minute. Farming is hard work. It’s rewarding, yes, but it’s a constant, never-ending list of hauling, digging, scraping, and stacking. My back reminds me of this every single morning. For decades, the big, beautiful tractor was the undisputed king of the farm—essential for tillage and planting. But there’s a new MVP that’s quietly taken over the day-to-day grind and saved me countless hours of physical labor: the skid steer loader.
If you’ve spent any time at a co-op or a machinery auction, you know what I’m talking about. It’s that compact, squat little machine, sometimes on wheels, sometimes on tracks. I call it the “pocket rocket” because it can spin around on a dime and punch way above its weight class. The secret to the skid steer’s success in modern agriculture isn’t brute force; it’s pure, radical versatility.
For anyone running cattle, maintaining an orchard, feeding goats, or just managing a decent chunk of land, a skid steer isn’t a luxury—it’s the most critical piece of equipment you’ll buy. It genuinely turns two-person, two-hour jobs into one-person, thirty-minute tasks. Let’s look at why this little workhorse deserves a prime spot in your shed.
Where the Skid Steer Shines: Why It Beats the Big Tractor
When I first considered buying one, I thought, “I already have a tractor with a front-end loader. Why do I need another yellow machine?” The answer, as I quickly learned, comes down to three things a skid steer does better than anything else on the farm.
1. The Quick-Change Artist: Attachments Galore
My tractor is fantastic for pulling a disk harrow or a large spreader. But changing its attachments often involves climbing up, fiddling with pins, and sometimes wrestling with hydraulics. It’s a chore.
The skid steer, however, has what’s called a quick-attach plate. It’s so simple and so robust that I can swap a bucket for a bale spear, and a bale spear for an auger, in less time than it takes to drink a cup of coffee. This feature fundamentally changes the economics of my operation. Instead of buying three separate, dedicated machines (a post-hole digger, a forklift, and a powerful broom), I buy one compact loader and the three relatively inexpensive skid steer attachments for the jobs I need. That’s real money saved, right there.
2. Built for the Barn and the Bush
Let’s talk maneuverability. My big tractor is a bull in a china shop when it comes to barns, feed alleys, or between the trees in the pecan orchard. It has a turning radius measured in acres, it seems.
The skid steer, whether it’s a wheeled or tracked model, is designed to turn by skidding its wheels or tracks—hence the name. It can practically pivot in its own footprint. This means:
- Cleaning: I can drive right into the tightest livestock stalls and push wet bedding and manure into a neat pile. No more shoveling corners!
- Loading: It’s perfect for loading bags of feed or pallets of fencing materials inside the storage shed, where ceilings are low and aisles are narrow.
- Yard Work: Navigating around the grain bins, fuel tanks, and equipment parked in the yard becomes a snap.
If the job is close to home base, odds are the skid steer is the right tool for it.
3. The Power of Hydraulics (And Why High-Flow Matters)
A modern skid steer is a hydraulic powerhouse. It’s not about the engine’s horsepower so much as the hydraulic flow rate (measured in gallons per minute, or GPM).
If you want to run high-energy attachments—and believe me, you do—you need a machine with high-flow hydraulics. This is what separates a simple loader from a land-clearing beast. With high flow, you can power a massive brush cutter to reclaim overgrown pasture or run a stump grinder to finish clearing a new fence line. The ability to run these heavy-duty work tools is what makes the investment truly worthwhile.
Making the Chores Easier: Essential Farm Attachments
The skid steer’s real job is turning the nasty, time-consuming chores into quick hits. Here are the attachments that earn their keep year after year on an actual working farm:
| Attachment Name | What It Does for the Farmer | Why It’s Necessary |
| Pallet Forks | Handles anything on a pallet: seed bags, chemicals, lumber, tools, fencing. | Replaces a forklift; critical for safe, fast movement of materials. |
| Bale Spear (or Grapple) | Lifts and carries large round or square bales of hay. | The absolute fastest way to feed or stack hay. Must match bale weight to lift capacity! |
| Manure/Tine Grapple | Scrapes, collects, and securely holds matted hay, soiled bedding, and manure. | Keeps the messy stuff contained for transport to the compost pile or spreader. |
| Hydraulic Auger | Drills perfect, deep holes for fence posts, saplings, or deck foundations. | Infinitely faster and more consistent than a hand post-hole digger. |
| Box Scraper/Land Plane | Levels, grades, and smooths gravel driveways and dirt lanes. | Essential for maintaining good drainage and preventing potholes on farm roads. |
Farmer’s Tip: Don’t skimp on your main bucket. A good tooth bucket is better for digging and breaking up packed material, while a grapple bucket is indispensable for clearing brush, debris, and fallen tree limbs.
Tracks vs. Wheels: The Great Farm Debate
This is the big question everyone asks: Should I buy a wheeled Skid Steer Loader (SSL) or a tracked Compact Track Loader (CTL)? The right answer depends entirely on your land and your climate.
Wheeled Skid Steer Loader (SSL)
- Best for: Concrete pads, feedlots, paved roads, and hard, dry ground.
- Pros: Faster travel speed, cheaper tires and maintenance, and it can spin a tighter circle.
- Cons: It tears up wet grass and turf easily, and it gets stuck very quickly in deep mud or soft sand.
Compact Track Loader (CTL)
- Best for: Mud, slopes, sand, snow, and working over soft pasture.
- Pros: The tracks spread the machine’s weight out so much that the ground pressure is often less than a person’s footstep. This means minimal rutting and great traction year-round.
- Cons: Higher initial cost, tracks are expensive to replace, and it travels slower.
My Two Cents: If you live in a region with long, wet winters or manage a lot of pasture and hay ground, the CTL (tracked machine) is worth the extra cost. If your work is primarily in and around dry barns and concrete feeding areas, a wheeled Skid Steer Loader will save you money and be faster.
Getting Started: A Few Practical Pointers
So, you’re ready to buy one. Here are a couple of things I wish I’d known before I pulled the trigger.
1. Don’t Underpower Your Loader
The biggest mistake is buying a small skid steer and then wishing you had a little more muscle. Lift capacity is the key specification, and it’s determined by the heaviest thing you handle. For most cattle operations, you need a machine that can safely lift a wet round hay bale (which can weigh 1,500 lbs or more). That means you should look for a machine with a Rated Operating Capacity (ROC) of at least 2,200 to 2,700 pounds.
2. Vertical is Vaster
Skid steers come with two lift types: radial and vertical.
- Radial lifts the load in an arc. Good for digging in the dirt.
- Vertical lifts the load straight up, then out.
If you are stacking hay bales high, dumping into a tall feed mixer, or loading the top of a high-sided trailer, you absolutely want a vertical lift. It’s the standard for modern agricultural equipment because it gives you more reach and stability when the load is high.
The Return on Investment is Real
A skid steer loader isn’t just another piece of yellow iron; it’s a productivity multiplier. It allows one person to efficiently manage the staggering amount of material that moves on a farm every day—from feed and hay to gravel, manure, and lumber.
By choosing the right size, investing in a few core attachments, and understanding the track vs. wheel distinction for your specific environment, you’ll find that this compact powerhouse quickly becomes the most used (and most beloved) machine on your property. It saves time, saves your body, and ultimately, helps the bottom line. It’s truly the best partner a farmer could ask for.