Tractors of Mathis Vineyard
In the movies, working in a vineyard is made to look ideal: dramatic shafts of sunlight light up key portions of the vineyard where workers are spread throughout the rows seemingly working at a relaxed pace to care for the vines with nary a modern vehicle in sight.
The reality is that caring for acres of vines is not only demanding of a lot of time (working vine by vine), but it just takes a while to make your way around various blocks in the vineyard to check on growing conditions. If I had to walk the entire vineyard all the time, I'd drop from exhaustion. (And I do walk it planting my cover crop!)
To add to the challenge of time is space: My vine rows are a mere four feet apart. Careful steering is essential. As you can see above, I'm not always looking where I'm going.
Using a tractor aids in a good deal of vineyard caretaking, from hauling materials, such as 
irrigation repair equipment and tools, to pulling mowing equipment to cut down weeds. Other attachments and types of tractors handle spraying equipment to protect my Grenache grapes from pests and other airborne spores.
There is the added benefit that tractors are cool. Kids always enjoy a ride (and some adults too)!
Oh, yes, tractor rides are free!
Here's a rare moment when I stopped to survey the scene.
But it doesn't happen often. ...And so it's back to work!
To learn more, we've begun my video series, "The Tractor Chronicles," introducing my trusty Kubota BX2200. A sneak peek of the series is below and several episodes can be found in this post to view as well.