The Best Uses for a UTV on the Farm

Trucks and tractors are favorites on the farm. Both are essential to managing your operation and completing your daily tasks.

You can get a lot done with just a pickup and a compact utility tractor. Sometimes you need something a little smaller — a machine that can maneuver where bigger equipment can’t while still handling a heavy workload.

For those kinds of jobs, you need a utility vehicle.

How UTVs Help You Get Work Done

Most people still think of UTVs as handier ATVs. They’re a nice-to-have, not an essential piece of equipment on the farm. They’re used for recreation or just to get around your property.

Yes, utility vehicles can do that. But they have so much more to offer than just transportation — cargo boxes, storage solutions, winches, attachments, and towing capabilities.

With all those tools, a Gator™ Utility Vehicle might even be a better option than a pickup on a small farm. It’s more maneuverable, versatile, and lightweight. And it comes at a fraction of the cost of a new truck.

Top 6 Farm Tasks a Gator UTV Can Handle 

Utility vehicles can never match the strength of a truck or a tractor. But there are a number of things their small stature is better suited for: 

1. Transporting Supplies

UTVs can carry more than you and a passenger or two. With a heavy-duty cargo box, you can transport feed bags, tools, small hay bales, and anything else you need to complete your work. You can also customize your cargo box to tilt and dump, carry tools and landscaping equipment on racks, or organize supplies.

2. Cleaning Up Brush and Debris

When you’re pruning trees, clearing land and brush, or cleaning up around your property, a utility vehicle is incredibly helpful. You can easily get around on trails and between narrow gaps in growth or trees. As you complete your property maintenance, you can toss all the debris and wood in the cargo box to haul away to a burn pile, waste site, or storage spot for firewood. If you do a lot of clearing, you can attach a trailer to your hitch and tow up to 2,000 pounds of brush and debris.

3. Feeding Livestock

Gator Utility Vehicles can transport up to 1,000 pounds of supplies in the cargo box, so you can easily feed all the animals on your farm, wherever they may be. Gator UTVs are rugged enough to handle rough terrain in a pasture and quiet enough to do it without alarming the animals. 

The compact size lets you reach where a pickup can’t — inside barns or building and in between stalls. So you can more easily access your food source and get it as close to your livestock without the extra effort of carrying feed yourself.

4. Spraying Pasture

The size of UTV also comes in handy when it comes to managing weeds. When you don’t need to cover much ground or just have spot duty in hard-to-reach areas like field borders, pastures, ditches, fence lines, or wooded areas, strap a sprayer onto your Gator. With portable sprayers, bed sprayers, and tow-behind sprayers, you have options for everything from potholes to large fields.

5. Fencing

The more acres you own, the more difficult it is to maintain the fencing. A compact tractor can help you with digging fence post holes, but a utility vehicle can help you with both new fencing and repairs. 

UTVs can be equipped with rear-mounted wire unrollers and winches. You can unspool fencing wire for new installations or wind up old wire you took out for easier transportation. John Deere has a variety of winches — some with enough power to pull up to 4,500 pounds — so tearing out old posts is a breeze. 

6. Pushing Dirt and Gravel

Attach a blade to the front of a Gator Utility Vehicle and you have a mini-plow to move material around your farm. A UTV with a front-mounted blade can level dirt and gravel, fix eroded trails and paths, and push manure.

There are many more tasks a Gator UTV can take on, plus dozens more attachments and upgrades to make the machine more versatile. And after the week’s work is done, there’s still one more thing a utility vehicle can do that no other farm equipment can — spending your downtime hunting, fishing, or enjoying your favorite outdoor recreation.