A Farmer’s Journey – John Deere Gator XUV835 + Video

There is no brand more tied to the American farmer than John Deere. And while most folks probably think of big, green tractors when it comes to John Deere products on the farm, there is a whole lot more to the brand than that. The John Deere Gator family of Utility vehicles are a common sight on farmland and job sites everywhere. To show exactly how they can help farmers, we talked with Jason McClure, an apple farm owner/operator in Indiana, who has been putting the Gator XUV835 through its paces on his property.

Perhaps the most basic use McClure has found for the Gator XUV835 is quick transportation around his orchard.

“Sometimes, since I live a half-mile from the farm, I just take the Gator back and forth,” says McClure. “It’s an easy way to get lunch in. But then we also use it picking berries. We load up the back with buckets, go pull our berries, [and] run them up to the freezer.”

Because of how the orchard is laid out, a pickup truck is too big to be a reasonable option for a lot of tasks McClure has on a day-to-day basis.

“There are times where we don’t want to take a truck through the orchard,” says McClure. “Right now, this time of year, you can see walking through the orchard that apples are starting to hang from the trees. That brings branches down a little lower. So that’s what’s nice about the Gator. Being a smaller vehicle than a truck, we can drive right through. It’s got a towing capacity, has room in the back to load in, so we can throw a couple crates…pick a few apples…haul ladders with it. It gets us where we need to be where a truck can’t.”

McClure also uses the John Deere Gator XUV835 for some heavy lifting and hauling in his heavily treed wood lot.

“Outside of the orchard in our wood lot, Because of the ash borer [beetle], we’ve seen a ton of ash trees come down, so it’s allowed us to clear some paths in our woods to make use of that firewood and get that pulled out,” says McClure.”

Another benefit of the John Deere Gator XUV835 that McClure has been using is that it features a full cab with heating and air conditioning. It’s something he’s really come to appreciate.

“So the nice thing about having a cab on the Gator is being able to work throughout the different seasons,” says McClure. “If it’s snowing…if it’s raining, we can get out there and work. We use it for everything.”

For those times when a tractor isn’t quite what you are looking for and a truck is the wrong tool for the job, a John Deere Gator can be an enormous help for farmers or just about any other property owner with a long to-do list. Visit Deere.com for more information.