Acreage Owner Wins Her Dream Machine – A Bobcat Compact Tractor

A year after losing her husband, the odds turned in Kristine McCaskill’s favor. In need of a compact tractor for her overgrown property, she struck gold in an online contest. Read the story below and watch the video to learn more about Kristine and her winning entry.

When Kristine McCaskill hit “submit” on her contest entry, she never thought she’d win. But then she got an exciting email that would change the future of her Florida panhandle property. 

“I said, ‘Is this real? Did I really win?’” Kristine says. 

Win, she had. After poring through 2,800 entries, Successful Farming magazine had chosen Kristine to be the winner of their Reboot Your Acreage contest and awarded her a Bobcat CT2025 compact tractor and front-end loader.

Restoring her property to its former glory 

To enter the contest, readers had to submit a brief essay about a project on their property that a compact tractor could help them tackle. In Kristine’s entry, she noted many.  

“I have 16 acres that my husband and I used to be able to maintain, then he got sick, and after a long battle, passed away last year,” Kristine wrote. “The trees have come up and have been growing for almost 10 years. I had to sell our tractor to help pay for medical expenses.” 

Since her husband’s passing, Kristine hadn’t been able to do much to the property besides hiring her sister to cut back the fields once a year. Kristine wrote in her contest entry that she needed a compact tractor to clean up brush, restore her pasture, repair a large fish pond and reconfigure the property’s fencing. But she also had a bigger project wishlist. 

“My ultimate dream would be to have everything cleaned and a beautiful gazebo built next to the pond and a nice fire pit and outdoor cooking area built for my family to sit and enjoy with me,” she said. “I long for the days of large family gatherings with horseshoes, barbecues and bonfires like we used to have, but the place is so overgrown that I am ashamed to ask anyone to come over to even visit anymore. A new compact tractor would help me return my property to its former glory.” On July 14, Bobcat Company and Successful Farming teamed up with Bobcat of Pensacola to deliver the CT2025 to Kristine, so she could get a start on just that. 

The compact tractor arrives 

“When I saw it coming down the road and around the corner, it was so beautiful,” Kristine says. “It was white and shiny. I thought, ‘That can’t be mine.’ But it is.” 

After learning the ins and outs of operating her new tractor, Kristine climbed up into the machine and gave it a test spin around her property. 

“It’s so easy to drive. I thought all the other tractors I’ve ridden on before were hard to drive. It’s so smooth. The seat is so soft and bouncy. I love it.” 

Kristine plans to start checking off her to-do list right away to restore the property to its original condition with acres of sunflowers, a garden, wildlife habitat and potentially some farm animals again in the future. 

“My Bobcat tractor will help me maintain my property, fix it up like I would like to have it looking,” Kristine says. “I won’t have to ask anybody to come help. I’ll just be able to get out there, get on my tractor and do it myself. Every Saturday I’ll be out there on it.” 

“Thank you so very much for the opportunity to win this tractor. It’s really going to change my life and the way we live out here on this property.” 

Ready to restore your slice of heaven like Kristine? Learn more about our lineup of Bobcat compact tractors.