Small Tractor for Vineyard Row Maintenance

Paul Hoover is the Land Manager for Hark Vineyards in Earlysville, VA. The farm winery estate consists of 80 acres of land, with a little under 20 acres being cultivated for wine growing.

Paul describes the challenges of mowing steep hillsides on this particular property, like most of the land in Central Virginia. As an operating vineyard, they have to mow and navigate with tractors and sprayers on hillsides and even wet areas of the property as well.

Paul thinks the Ventrac is the most versatile piece of equipment they have as it serves as their primary mower, bush hog, and more. They even use their Ventrac to quickly and efficiently move equipment around the property. Moving things like harvest trailers, firewood, propane tanks, shuttling new rootstock out to the vineyard workers are all in a day's work for the Ventrac. Ultimately, the Ventrac's versatility helps Hark Vineyards speed up their harvest operation and keep things running smoothly.

Paul enjoys the maneuverability of the Ventrac in the vineyard rows. The small and compact nature of the unit combined with the maneuverability of the attachments means it's his first choice when maintaining vineyard rows. Larger equipment is a disadvantage because any contact with the grapevines or trellis can cause damage to the plant's ability to produce.

In addition, the heavier footprint of a larger tractor over time does a lot of damage to the ground, resulting in ruts and uneven terrain on the vineyard landscape. Paul has noted that even with repetitive running over the ground, the Ventrac does not damage the ground with its light footprint. Paul explains why it's important that the Ventrac offers rear discharge options for mowing because, in a vineyard row, grass clippings cannot be thrown onto the grapevines.

To reduce disease, it's common practice to remove the previous year's grapevines from the trellis. Once gathered, the old vines would be collected and removed from the rows, but Paul now uses the Flail Mower to chop up the vines and mulch them back into the rows, providing further nutrients for the soil.

Products featured in this video: VENTRAC 4500: https://www.ventrac.com/products/tractors/4500 MWMY FLAIL MOWER: https://www.ventrac.com/products/attachments/mwmy MK960 WIDE AREA MOWER: https://www.ventrac.com/products/attachments/mk960 EA600 AERA-VATOR: https://www.ventrac.com/products/attachments/ea600 FINISH MOWERS: https://www.ventrac.com/products/attachments/msmtmu HQ680

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