Expanding your microfarming operation while keeping it small can, it seems, go either of two ways: labor-intensive, where you find more people to help with all aspects, or tractor-oriented, where you concentrate more on leveraging your own labor and that of a few others with tractor-mounted implements (for seeding, cultivating, harvesting) and other labor-saving devices.
From my fairly limited experience of other microfarm operations (mainly from surfing the Web!) and from conversations here on the farm and with farmers, it seems this is really a basic people-vs-machines difference in philosophy. Not that the tractor-side is less about people, or that they're mutually exclusive, just...different!
This year, my fifth, was the first where I expanded production and really relied on people. Previously, I'd been farming alone, with help averaging maybe a day or two per week through the season. The expanded production involved more intense planting rather than increasing space (I did go from 2 acres to 2.5 acres). I hired one full-time person, and had a floating crew of six people, most coming on Fridays, the big harvest day, and some for one or two other days during the week. The crew was about half volunteer and half paid. We also hosted WWOOFers, three in all, each for a week. And two or three extra volunteers, friends of the crew, showed up for a number of Fridays. So, relatively a LOT of people.
We do have a tractor, a compact Kubota, with front-end loader and 48" rototiller. It's used quite a bit, it's small enough to till single beds between other active beds, and the loader is used for all kinds of things. But it's not a cultivating tractor, it has a full floorboard so you can't look down to see what's going on (this, I understand, is necessary for steering cultivating equipment). I've been looking around for an old, used tractor, they're $1,000-3,000CDN, in rough working order, usually with a couple of implements. I'd like to have one, but I'm not planning around it.
As far as I've gathered to date, switching to more tractor-based farming would require some basic changes in the field. These include longer beds (beds are now 50' long, either 3' or 5' wide including paths) and wider spacing. I'm also not sure how flexible a tractor-mounted seeder would be, if I could easily plant a number of different varieties of a crop, for example, 100' each of four beets rather than 400' of one variety.
Looking to next year, I realize from this year that I probably need the equivalent of 2 full-time people, plus myself full-time, to get more out of the 2.5 acres. Also, 3-4 people for harvest days, and for special days like spring transplanting. I'm not sure how much of that labor would be saved by a tractor approach. Most of the hand labor is spent weeding, irrigating (dragging around hoses, soaker hoses, working the pump) and harvesting. The weeding could presumably be largely done by tractor. Putting in drip irrigation is a must. So a tractor plus irrigation could save maybe 60-70% on labor?
The amount I'll spend in one year on labor could easily purchase one or two old tractors, fix 'em up, outfit them. Then there's just fuel and maintenance. Without doing the numbers, it sounds more cost-effective. On the other hand, I like the people approach, and there are intangibles. Perhaps having more people on the land creates more energy, a better buzz, leading to increased sales... Maybe I'll enjoy the farming that much more with people around, be more creative and productive...and thereby increase sales. Maybe all the walking around and hand work keeps me and everyone else more closely in touch with the crops,... And so forth...
People and tractors are of course not mutually exclusive, but I still find myself resisting handing over any more tasks, like seeding and weeding, to machines! Maybe, horses...?! :)
If you have an opinion, pros and cons, EXPERIENCE, please lemme know!