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Catherina Cunnane
Catherina Cunnanehttps://www.thatsfarming.com/
Catherina Cunnane hails from a sixth-generation drystock and specialised pedigree suckler enterprise in Co. Mayo. She currently holds the positions of editor and general manager at That's Farming, having joined the firm during its start-up phase in 2015.
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Two-wheel tractors ‘multifunctional, economical & practical’

Zach Loeks has penned a new book, The Two-Wheel Tractor Handbook: Small-Scale Equipment and Innovative Techniques for Boosting Productivity, which New Society Publishers released in April of this year.

Small but mighty, it provides a “comprehensive” guide to the use of two-wheel tractors for gardeners, homesteaders, landscapers, and farmers.

More affordable than four-wheel tractors and infinitely more versatile than single-purpose power equipment such as rototillers, two-wheel tractors, the author claims, are “an ideal solution” for an “astonishing array” of garden, landscaping, and agricultural applications.

Two-wheel tractors

Two-wheel tractors are, as he describes in the book, “multifunctional, economical, practical, manoeuvrable, portable, and low impact”.

Yet choosing the equipment is only half of it; the other half is integrating the right machine and implements into your land-based enterprise and coupling it with innovative high-efficiency techniques.

The Two-Wheel Tractor Handbook shows small-scale growers how to leverage walk-behind tractors to maximise the productivity and profitability of their enterprises.

The book explores why you need a two-wheel tractor, essentials, including tractor implement options and functions, and equipment decision-making to suit your scale, context, enterprises, and budget.

It also covers safety equipment, operation, and basic maintenance, innovative use strategies, including micro-plowing, making permabeds, in situ mulching, compost-a-path design, crop guilds, scaling up, and diversified crop management.

Find out how to start from scratch, clearing new land, scaling up your enterprises with case studies and rich examples from suburban landscaping to commercial market gardens from Europe to North America and Pro-tips and sidebars for rapidly elevating your skills.

According to a spokesperson for the publishing company, the book, with contains over 250 illustrations, is a “full colour, highly illustrated guide is a must-have tool for urban farmers, suburban gardeners, rural homesteaders, orchardists, landscapers, and market gardeners looking to boost production”.

About the author

Loeks, who has released two other books, The Edible Ecosystem Solution and The Permaculture Market Garden,  is an educator, grower and second-generation permaculture designer innovating and specialising in edible ecosystem design.

His passion is demonstrating how small actions – strategically linked – can “create big change”.

He is the director of the Ecosystem Solution Institute, where he consults widely with homes, farms, colleges, schools, and municipalities across North America and around the world.

His purpose is to help people create “more edible and diverse” farms, gardens, and landscapes while enhancing food security, community well-being, and societal resilience.

He manages an award-winning farm enterprise featuring diversified food forest products, heirloom garlic, and a hardy tree nursery.

Zach splits his time between his rural farm in Ontario and a sister urban farm in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

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