Bill Tracy, a ranch manager in California who spent many years on a ranch in Texas says that on the Texas ranch he had some pieces of equipment that would qualify as antiques, but he kept them maintained so he didn’t have to replace them. “We try to be really diligent and alert on maintenance. I am absolutely fanatic about keeping the oil changed. As a young person I wasn’t nearly as concerned about that, but after you blow up a motor on a truck, you pay more attention,” says Tracy. A major breakdown costs a lot more to fix than does the steady maintenance.

“I tried to have everyone who worked on the ranch aware of this. You have to look at things to see what might need attention. When you’re looking at it and see that something needs to be done, do it right then. Don’t put it off. Also, we keep a logbook with all the vehicle/tractor hours written down, and when these things need to be maintained (oil checked, greased, etc.). Regarding the vehicles, different people will tell you different things on how often you need to change the oil—like every 8000 miles or 5000 miles. But I don’t want to get stranded on the side of the road, and oil is a lot cheaper than a major engine repair,” he says.

“If you’re out there trying to figure out how to put a new motor in your truck while you are stuck out in Wyoming in the middle of the night hauling horses or cattle, that’s not fun! The oil changing on farm trucks and tractors is a big deal at our place and we try to make sure it gets done regularly,” says Tracy.

Another thing he emphasizes is tire maintenance with trucks and trailers, and checking the grease fittings on your trailer wheels. “You need to keep that up. With many people, trailers don’t get enough attention, but you need to be aware of wheel bearings and tire pressure on trailers. I keep one truck hooked up to the stock trailer all the time, and you tend to just get in it and go, but you need to check the tire pressure. This will keep your tires alive, and keep your animals alive—if you can prevent a blowout going down the road,” he says. An under-inflated tire will heat up and blow out.

“You can usually walk through a parking lot and look at trailers and see the ones with fenders that are all bashed up, and that tells you all about tire blow outs. There’s no magic bullet for preventing this, other than being always aware of the tire pressure, and keeping everything greased,” says Tracy.

On farm equipment it is especially important to keep everything greased. Know where all the grease zerks are your equipment. Some people don’t bother to do this on a regular basis, or don’t even know where some of the grease zerks are.

He is fanatic about changing the oil in his truck every certain number of miles and keeps a logbook to record it. “You have to look at the sticker now and then and pay attention to the mileage. You do have to keep track of all the things on a vehicle that need to be maintained, but your top priority should be to always change the oil. I find there are some advantages to take my vehicle to an oil change place, because they are looking at everything in there, whereas I’m mainly thinking about the animals I’m hauling. Those guys might see a fan belt that needs to be fixed, for instance. It’s a good idea to set up a schedule to have your fan belts and your radiator hoses changed. That can also make a lot of difference,” he says.

If you use a tractor and loader to move big bales around, or use a tractor for harrowing, spreading manure, cleaning pens, haying, etc. pay attention to it also. “The nice thing about buying a tractor is they give you a manual. But don’t just put the manual in a file and never look at it.” By the time you open it up, wondering where to change the oil in it, you may have damaged the engine through neglect.

Tire pressure is important to keep track of on tractor tires, also. It’s easy to run over something sharp in the mud, or an old nail, and the big tires on tractors are very expensive to replace. “We are always running over deer antlers. There’s no question about when that happens; the tire goes flat and you have to stop,” says Tracy.

Also keep track of transmission fluid in tractors, and hydraulic fluid if you are running a loader or PTO or anything else. “With our shredders that we use here, we always try to keep those greased and check the oil level in the gear box. A lot of people don’t do that, but it’s easy to check,” says Tracy.

“Even a garden tractor, lawn mower or chain saw needs to be regularly maintained. A lot of people don’t know how to check the oil on a lawn mower, but it’s important to do. Keep track of all your equipment upkeep. I have all our help trained to be fussy about all our equipment. It’s just like vaccinating the cattle, putting the bulls out, or deworming the horses; if you don’t keep a written record, you may not remember exactly when you did it.” Know when to do the routine work on a piece of equipment, and don’t put it off. Keeping it running smoothly and dependably sure beats having to suddenly buy a replacement for it, especially if a new one isn’t in the budget for awhile.

“Some people joke about us having old stuff that Noah used, but it saves money. We try to take care of it, however, because sometimes you can’t get parts for things when they do get really old,” he says. Diligent maintenance—like the old adage “a stitch in time saves nine”—always saves you time and money on down the road.

If You Have to Replace Equipment
Dr. Bob Coleman, Extension Specialist at University of Kentucky, says that for saving money, it always helps to have an organized, planned maintenance program. Keeping something serviceable, whether it’s your pasture fences or farm tractors, is a lot cheaper than replacing it with something new—but sometimes you have no choice but to replace an ailing piece or equipment or upgrade to something that better suits your needs.

If you do have to replace a piece of equipment (if something is broken or worn out and can’t be fixed, or will cost more to fix than to replace), this may actually be a good time to replace it—if you can look around and find some good buys, in instances where people have equipment to sell. “It pays to do some shopping, for new or used, in this current economy, because there are some dealers who have large inventories and they may be willing to make a deal,” he explains.

“You may be able to replace a 15 or 20 year old tractor with a newer tractor, and now you’ve upgraded, especially if it has a lot less hours on it. When you go looking, however, it might pay to take someone along with you who knows as much or more than you do about machinery. It’s just like when you go look at a horse or a group of bulls or a potential new herdsire, sometimes a second pair of eyes might see something you missed. Having someone go with you does not diminish your ability to evaluate; it just makes it better. You may be able to get some good buys on machinery at a farm sale or auction,” says Coleman.

“In other instances you may need to decide whether it’s a good idea to own and maintain a piece of equipment, or more practical to have a local custom operator put up your hay, for instance, or mow your pastures or spread your fertilizer.” If this was the year you thought you might buy a certain piece of equipment, it might be the time to consider using a custom operator rather than making a large expenditure.

If you don’t have the equipment, you don’t need to make payments on it or maintain it, and not having to put up your own hay may give you the opportunity to catch up on other ranch tasks you neglect this time of year, such as fence repairs or cattle management. Do you really want to spend all that time haying? Sometimes you don’t get the cattle or range pastures checked because you are too busy making hay, mowing the pastures, hauling manure, spreading fertilizer, etc. Each operation needs to take a hard look at various options and figure out what works best for their own situation, for saving time and money, for optimum good management.