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Equipment "Hound Dog" Tracks Down Equipment All Over The World
As farms get bigger, it gets harder and harder to find machinery that fits small scale or hobby farming. And at the same time, it's becoming nearly impossible to find custom operators who'll bother with only a few acres of hay or crops.
That situation has created an opportunity for Californian Eugene Canales,
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Equipment "Hound Dog" Tracks Down Equipment All Over The World SPECIALTY/SERVICES Specialty/Services 24-3-37 As farms get bigger, it gets harder and harder to find machinery that fits small scale or hobby farming. And at the same time, it's becoming nearly impossible to find custom operators who'll bother with only a few acres of hay or crops.
That situation has created an opportunity for Californian Eugene Canales, owner of Ferrari Tractor in Gridley, Calif., who has built a reputation for being able to find just about anything for anybody.
Canales travels to machinery shows in Europe to look for new or unusual specialty equipment. He has contacts with manufacturers around the world. Whether it's a walk-behind mower or a mini baler, a specialized seeder to plant narrow rows of salad greens, or a cutter to clip the greens when they're ready, he knows where to find it. No matter what the job, if you think it could be mechanized, just ask him.
"Somebody called recently wanting a walk-behind tractor with a split roto-tiller so it would work either side of the row. I remembered having seen one at a show in Italy. I sent a fax off that day and got an answer a week later. The machine is on its way now," he says.
Sometimes, he already has what the customer needs. Other times, as with the walk-behind tractor, it takes a week or so to track it down. But Eugene enjoys a challenge, and over the years, he's tracked down some rather exotic equipment. One of the most unusual, he says, was a huller for spelt, a primitive wheat-type grain with a large, loose hull that's difficult to remove. The customer was a small specialty baker who was growing the grain himself and needed a faster way to remove the hulls. "That one took me about six months to track down," he says. But he found it from a small manufacturer in Italy.
"Sometimes I can do some initial research on the Internet. Often though, it's just a matter of calling people I know who make something similar. If they don't make it, they often know who does," he says.
Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Eugene Canales, Ferrari Tractor C.I.E., Box 1045, Gridley, Calif. 95948 (ph 530 846-6401; fax 530 846-6401).
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