Western Australia’s Graeme Hammond did not need something big for his first ever tractor purchase, but a Bobcat CT1025 has proven to be perfect
Sometimes a tractor’s main purpose is just to get the job done.
For broadacre farmers covering thousands of hectares, every horsepower boost and new piece of technology can mean crucial efficiency gains, but not every tractor owner has the same priorities.
Graeme Hammond invested in his first ever tractor last year after his retirement, opting for a Bobcat CT1025 from Clark Equipment.
Graeme has lived on a five acre lifestyle block in Mundijong in Perth’s south-east for the past 42 years and his recent retirement has meant having more time to tackle the maintenance jobs which the property requires.
“It’s got to the stage where a lot of the bush block has become overgrown in the 40 years that I was working and putting jobs off,” he says.
“When I retired, I bought the tractor just to make life a lot easier and it has been everything that I wanted.”
Stepping up
Graeme’s first foray into tractor ownership has created the opportunity to manage his property more effectively, having previously relied on an old ute to pull out and shift overgrowth – a method he admits “wasn’t all that effective”.
When he purchased the tractor, he bought it as a package from Clark Equipment which featured a front-end loader and four-in-one bucket, along with several Daken implements including a 1m slasher, 1.2m carryall, 1.2m stick rake and 200L spot sprayer.
Having these implements with the tractor has already paid off for Graeme, who also trains some horses for trots racing as a hobby and has been able to improve the quality of the training track on his property.
“I use the tractor to grade my track, just shifting sand around and things like that,” he says.
“All the implements have come in handy because I’ve got the stick rake which I’ll load up on an angle and use it to drag the sand back into the middle of my training track.
“Everything I’ve got with the machine has been useful for what I need.
“The only things I haven’t used yet are the carry-all and the sprayer, but they will come in handy over winter once grass starts growing again.”
Mighty fine
Bobcat’s CT1025 is the smallest of the manufacturer’s compact tractors.
It “packs a lot of power into a small frame size”, Bobcat says, with the unit itself measuring just 2.52m long and 1.17m wide.
Its three-cylinder diesel engine produces 26hp (19kW) and it also offers a Category 1 three-point hitch, along with independent rear PTO system and mid-PTO system for implements such as an optional mid-mount mower.
These make it ideal for drag-behind and PTO-powered implements, such as those Graeme uses, and other handy features include four-wheel drive steering and clutch-free two-range hydrostatic transmission.
The CT1025 also has a maximum speed of 16.6km/h forward and 11.2km/h in reverse, while it also offers rear standard differential lock and fold-down ROPS.
Other models in the Bobcat compact tractor range include the CT2035 and CT2040, which step up to 35hp (26kW) and 38hp (28kW) engines respectively.
Trusted brand
Graeme used to work in the grain handling industry and used Bobcat machinery during his professional life.
This brand familiarity, combined with applying the same concepts of “pushing materials up and shifting a bit of dirt around it”, made him confident the Bobcat tractor would be what he needed for his own property.
The CT1025 was also not his first foray into Bobcat machinery in a personal capacity, having purchased a 48-inch (1.2m) zero-turn mower from the same brand last year.
Bobcat machinery is distributed nationwide by Bobcat of Australia, which is a business unit of Clark Equipment.
When he later saw Clark Equipment advertising the CT1025 tractor, the decision to purchase it – and the accompanying implements – was easy.
“I’ve dealt with Clark before, I’ve bought a couple of bits and pieces off them,” Graeme says.
“I saw the tractor and I thought if I’ve already got the Bobcat mower I might as well stick with the same brand, and I’ve been happy with it.”
Graeme is full of praise for the service provided by Nick Dicembre from Clark Equipment’s Perth branch, both during the buying process and with follow-ups to ensure everything is running smoothly.
“Clark Equipment were brilliant to deal with when I was buying the machine,” he says.
“Nick rang recently to see if I wanted it serviced, but I haven’t had a problem yet and because I’ve only used it for an hour or so here and there, it’s not up for service yet.
“It is probably another three or four months before I need to have it serviced, but the machine itself has been running like a dream.”
Plenty of plans
Beyond preparing his horse training track, much of the work Graeme intends to do with the tractor and attachments relates to general property maintenance.
“I’ve already made a couple of bonfire heaps and I can heap all the debris up and put it on top of each other, whereas before I was doing it manually,” he says.
“The tractor has been able to handle everything I’ve tried to pick up with the bucket.
“Having the four-wheel drive on it is good as well, because parts of my block are a bit sandy.”
The Bobcat CT1025 is a classic case of purchasing the ideal sized tractor for his needs, with Graeme knowing it would not be used for major earthworks or for travelling around a large property.
“If you had ten acres you might have to look for something a bit bigger, but for what I’ve got it’s perfect,” he says.
Bought with a specific purpose in mind, it has met all of Graeme’s expectations so far – with plenty more maintenance to be done once winter sets in.
“I really haven’t had a chance to do everything I want to do yet because the easterly winds have been so heavy this summer and I don’t want my next door neighbours to get my sand,” he says.
“Our verge is all overgrown with dead trees and I want to heap them up so I need to be able to push them around.
“I walk out every day and think ‘that’s got to be done and that’s got to be done’ but I’ll just wait until it’s wet enough to push things around a bit.
“When the rain starts, I can do a lot of burning off and cleaning up with it as well.
“I’ve got big plans once it gets a bit damp and I can do a bit more.
“I knew what I was getting with this tractor and it is doing everything I expected and wanted it to do.”
The full Bobcat range can be viewed online at www.bobcatofaustralia.com.au
