If you have read earlier posts you will see we have had a lot of thoughts about tractors, cutters etc and what to do for the best going forward to be able to maintain the farm.
Early thoughts were for a full mini tractor with capanadeira and box attachment, but we just couldn’t justify the cost for new. Looking at used was the next option but even that was quite expensive and difficult to justify for wanted we wanted to achieve.
We could continue to use locals to clear the land two or three times a year. Cost wise we could probably clean the land to 10-12 years for the same cost as a new setup, maybe only 6-7 for used equipment. The down side is that in the growing season, a week or two after cleaning it really needed trimming again.
We had a lot of discussions with someone who had contacted us via this blog about the possibility of using a ride on brush cutter. Initially I was dead set against this, feeling it would not be man enough for our needs. However, after a long discussion, many backs and forth emails, analysis of his purchase and trying to strim all the land a few days after it had been cleaned, I felt that this maybe the way to go.
After investigations on what was available, costs, robustness, service availability etc we finally agreed on a Grillo Climber 7.13. It was the simplest of what was available, but looked to more than meet our needs, especially as we could add a simple tipping trailer as well to make moving stuff around easier.
I contacted the manufacturers in Italy, they put me in touch with the importer in the Algarve, Portugal who in turn put me in contact with the local dealer, who was based just 30 minutes away from us.
We had the local dealer visit us at our farm to check that in his opinion the Grillo would be man enough for our land and to negotiate a deal.