East Wind With The Lot

Laurie Smythe did his research before buying an East Wind Tractor from Tasmania Farm Equipment. Laurie has a 70 acre property in Colebrook, south east Tasmania

"As a young bloke I spent a lot of time on my great grandfather's farm and part of the fun was using the farm equipment. The rural lifestyle has always appealed to me so we got this property about 10 years ago.

The property is a mix of grassland and scrub and I have a few head of cattle. We mainly need a tractors for general clearing, slashing and keeping the place tidy.

My old tractor died recently so I was in the market for a new one. I am a builder by profession and have spent a fair bit of time using machinery on work sites including excavators, backhoes and loaders. I knew from this experience that a tractor with a front end loader and backhoe would be very useful on a hobby farm. I'm getting a bit older and the sort of thing I would do by hand in my youth I now find a lot smarter to do with a machine. It's amazing what you can pick up and move around with a 4-in-1 bucket. A backhoe is also very handy for jobs such as clearing out spoon drains or putting in a bit of trenching.

I also wanted a machine that was small enough to get in and around the trees, but with enough power to get the job done.

Having decided what I wanted, I started having a look around. I first saw the East Wind Tractor in Tasmania at AgFest. I also looked at some second hand machines and more well known Japanese brands. But I kept coming back to the East Wind

At first glance it appeared that the Japanese tractor and the East Wind were about the same price. But when you compare the features, apple for apples the price gap started to grow.

The East Wind comes standard with a 4-in-1 bucket on the front end loader, dual remotes, a canopy and even a horn. None of these came standard on the Japanese tractor.

I did go for option up the East Wind though. I was impressed by the cabin to keep the weather out. I went for the hay spike attachment to fit to the loader. The industrial tyres suited me and I wanted to get the backhoe. By the time we compared the total cost of the East Wind with all these features compared to the Japanese tractor optioned up to the same level the difference was at least $10,000.

So all up I got a 35 HP tractor "with the lot" for around $40,000. The guys at Tasmania Farm Equipment also supplied me with a slasher and stick rake. I found them to be very helpful and knowledgable and will be back to get some more implements."