It's really less about the electric and more about manufacturing and selling a tractor that the average owner can work on. Between down time and inflated labor/parts prices tractors are getting too expensive to be comfortably viable. Maybe that's what Caustic Burno meant... we would do better with mules?
What if it was built like a class 8 truck glider, no engine??
Can't imagine why. What a joke of inefficiency an electric tractor.
It shuts you down
You should tell elon how he's f€©®{ing up...I think he's on Twitter
Yeah, I was really trying to suggest someone should build a tractor that the average consumer could keep running without having to go to a dealership. But I'm not really sure that would go over in this world of people buying to brag about how much money they send on bells and whistles.
They are popular in the California vineyards and pot farms.
I haven't seen it in tractors but I have ran diesel electric dozers.
Why would an electric tractor be inefficient?
Because... "Everything worth inventing has been invented." - Charles Duell
probably would be reasonably energy efficient, but time inefficient. A lot of electric vehicles, (semis included) get extended range from regenerative braking, and don't operate at peak power much
Some farmers in my part of the country are going back to horse and mule-drawn implements. Mostly Amish. ;-) But, still...
Truth...
I reckon you could make one that runs for 10 minutes one a week. and that would suit lots of people just fine.
So how small should you be able to be and still make a living. ?
I have 35 acres that I worked hard to earn through a complete military career. Building from scratch with nothing except worn out perimeter and some cross fence (that needs to be replaced with more suitable fence for what I do) and good grass. My operation is entirely self funded. Nothing passed down. USDA hasn't been especially helpful. I'd like to be able to earn a living on what I've got. I suspect many new farmers, who don't have generational wealth/land passed down and are also starting relatively small, think the same.
That's very admirable. And I'm with you on getting the government out of ag.
Truth, all you said above. I'll be in the red for a bit, but entered into "the business" knowing that I don't know everything and that I'd also have to build infrastructure, fertilize, etc., at a loss up front. I "retired into ag" and am fortunate to have been able to have done so. Ag is often romanticized, and after a few months of owning livestock with whom I work with directly every day I think this is fitting, but it is a lot of work, especially if you're also holding down a fulltime job and family.
It used to be that homesteads were a 1/4 section and people made a living on them
In South Dakota, east of Newell going toward Faith, there is a county road with little signs every fifteen miles stating that it was once the location of a post office. I don't know for sure, but I expect it was once an area that was opened up to homesteading. Now the land is pretty barren and the ranches are huge but it takes a lot of ground to make a living. You can drive quite a few miles without seeing any buildings.
