The 5-Part Farm Maintenance System; How a structured approach can reduce breakdowns and keep equipment ready when it matters most
One of the biggest weaknesses on any farm is maintenance. It’s not that farmers don’t understand its importance—it’s that maintenance is constantly competing with more urgent work. Walk onto most operations and you’ll see a wide range of equipment: tractors, ATVs, mowers, generators, splitters, and a variety of implements. Beyond that, there are barns, fencing systems, water lines, and the house itself. Each one requires upkeep. The challenge is that daily farm demands—lambing, weather, repairs, livestock care—tend to push maintenance further down the list. Before long, routine service like an oil change gets delayed another hundred hours. That was certainly the case for me. In 2020, after a serious illness forced me to sell off my flock, I had time to reassess how I was managing the farm. What became clear was that my issue wasn’t a lack of effort—it was a lack of structure. Maintenance was happening inconsistently because I didn’t have a system to support it. Over time, I began build...
