Planting Countless Bare Root Trees With A Toro Dingo TX1300 | Wildlife Habitat Improvement

We took on a contract to plant 5,000 bare root trees that range from 14 to 44" tall. There are rules and specifications we need to follow and the only way we could follow these specifications easily was to use a mini skid steer with an auger. After looking at all the models, we chose the Toro Dingo for the Yanmar 37 Hp engine and the comfort of the machine.

The operator's station of the Toro Dingo TX 1300 is very intuitive and made us feel comfortable right from the start. We can put a new person in the driver's seat and have them comfortable with the machine in less than 5 minutes. We can also have people drive the machine who require a bit more comfort and have them enjoy operating the machine for long hours. Let's face it, augering out 1,000 holes in 8 to 10-hour days can be hard to handle, especially if you are not comfortable.

Our rules for planting the trees had us digging a 27" deep hole that is 9 inches around. The holes need to be 15 feet apart and the rows needed to be 10 feet apart with the trees staggered. In order for us to get a clean 27" hole in various soil conditions, we had to dig quite a bit deeper to account for any cave-in of the soil. We plant a mixture of white pine, hybrid poplar, and hybrid willow. We prefer to work the soil in the grassy fields to reduce the rooting competition from grasses in the first year and also to aid in us kicking dirt into the holes when planting.

Monetarily, the Toro Dingo TX1300 is very affordable to run. Compared to many others, it sips fuel. We can run 2 full days on one tank of diesel. The Dingo is not hot to run. There is very little heat felt coming from the engine compartment, even during a regeneration cycle. The 37 Hp Yanmar engine does not require DEF (Diesel Exhaust Fluid) but it does have a DPF (Diesel Particulate Filter). The exhaust is not overly loud and the engine seems to have all the power one could want. This heavy-duty auger can drill holes up to 50" wide, so our 9-inch auger does nothing to stress the engine or the auger motor.