There are skid steer attachments every farmer knows they’re going to need if they want to make their life as simple as possible. If you’re a farmer, you have learned two of the most important things about life and work. The first is, simpler is better. The more complicated things become, the harder you must work to thrive. Keep things simple.

The second is similar: Don’t buy crap. If you’re going to buy something, make sure it is good quality and you can rely on it.

The skid steer loader fits nicely into both of those maxims, and so do these five basic skid steer attachments. They’re essential for doing basic activities on any farm: the Bale Handler, the Bale Spear, the Auger, the Post Driver, and the Post Puller.

Bales of grass, wheat, hay, straw, and other crops are staples in rural communities, and they need to be stacked, stored, and moved around. The Bale Handler is one of the simplest skid steer attachments you can buy. It consists of nothing more than a giant hydraulic claw that can pinch any size or shape of bale. The skid steer operator then has the boom to lift or tote a bale wherever it needs to go. The Bale Spear is even simpler, made up of a simple pair of sharp fork tines for poking the bale and putting it in a barn or on the back of a truck.

Fences, as any good cowboy will tell you, are always in need of repair. On a farm of any appreciable size, staying ahead of broken fences is a way of life. The skid steer attachments used for putting in and removing fence posts are well worth the investment. The auger is a giant, spinning drill bit that, when attached to the boom of the skid steer, can be lifted up and pushed down to the exact depth required for a new fence post.

You have a choice of skid steer attachments for pounding in fence posts. The gas charged version is an ingeniously modified concrete breaker, and the vibration type doubles as a soil compactor. When it comes time to pull up old or relocate fence posts, the Post Puller is another of those amazing skid steer attachments that will wow you with its ingenuity and simplicity. A basic pair alligator jaws turned sideways, these high-strength steel teeth will make short work of any post-pulling operation.

Any of these skid steer attachments will make your life much easier. But the veteran farmer has more than a couple of these skid steer attachments in his barn, because he knows how to keep things simple.

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