These ubiquitous utility machines save backs and time. And while they're often equated with construction, they were born from one farmer's reluctance for a certain chore.

If you drive past most any construction site, from a major building going up to a new highway to a home project, you'll likely see a skid-steer loader tooling around performing a host of jobs. Once viewed as a toy, the stout four-wheeler has become a major force in the construction and industrial worlds over the years with its prodigious capabilities and endless uses. Construction firms, recycling facilities, factories, utilities and municipalities have snapped them up.

This may seem ironic because the skid-steer actually began life as a farm implement. Skid-steers caught on quicker with construction crews, and manufactures have sold most units to that sector. But a homecoming of sorts is taking place, as skid-steers are seeing increased use on farms. George Drott, sales manager at Farmers' Factory Company, a manufacturer of skid-steer attachments, said, "In some areas, it's very popular. In other areas, they're just starting to use them."

Why would a farmer want a skid-steer? Lynn Roesler, loader product manager at the Bobcat Company in Fargo, N.D., manufacturer of the popular Bobcat skid-steer, says, "They're good for cleaning barns and stalls, feeding animals, digging holes to put fences up, moving snow, or moving hay and straw for bedding material. You can do so many different things with a skid-steer, whereas a tractor with loader arms on it is just too big to get into the barn or not maneuverable enough."

John Hoover, a dairy farmer in Mifflinburg, Pennsylvania, can attest to that. He keeps about 55 milking cows and 60 to 70 heifers and others on his family farm, and he bought a New Holland skid-steer to help with chores. "We really like it. Around the farm, it's just a handy machine all around. I wouldn't want to do without it," he said. "We feed a lot of round hay bales, and we have a spear for them. If you want to scrape up manure, you use a quick-attach bucket. You can go from a pallet fork to a manure fork to a dirt bucket."

Roesler and Hoover hit on the very reasons skid-steers have become so popular across many markets: maneuverability and versatility. The smallest Bobcat can fit through an opening 3 feet wide and 6 feet high. And as Roesler puts it, "To call it a skid-steer loader anymore is a misnomer. It's actually a skid-steer attachment carrier."

The evolution of the skid-steer parallels that of the Bobcat Company, which began when E.G. Melroe, a farmer and inventor from Gwinner, N.D. designed an attachment for his combine that picked up windrowed grain. He and his sons opened a small factory in Gwinner in 1947 to produce them.

Meanwhile, brothers Cyril and Louis Keller ran a small machinist-blacksmith shop in Rothsay, Minn., in which they repaired farm machinery. A local turkey farmer came to them with a problem maneuvering his loader around upright poles in his barn. In response, the Kellers built a self-propelled loader light enough to be lifted up to the second floor of the barn and maneuverable enough to clean around the poles. Little did they know the three-wheeled loader with two drive wheels in front and a small caster wheel in back would lead to today's skid-steer loader.

The Kellers' uncle, a Melroe equipment dealer in Minnesota, showed the loader to Les Melroe, one of the sons, and the brothers bought the rights to the invention in 1958. In 1960, they made it four-wheeled, and the first true skid-steer was born. Multitudes of applications in industry and construction became apparent, so the Melroes diversified from the agricultural market.

Fast forwarding to today, some 13 companies now make skid-steer loaders in North America. The Bobcat accounts for nearly half the market. Other players include familiar names such as Case and New Holland as well as Gehl, TRAK International and Thomas. Bobcat, now owned by Ingersoll-Rand, sells loaders through 900 dealerships in 75 countries and offers 10 models with load capacities ranging from 700 to 3,000 pounds.

Skid-steers operate by means of an ingenious hydraulic design, with a gasoline or diesel engine driving the hydraulic system. Two hydrostatic motors power the wheels, each one driving the wheels on one side through a chain drive. You vary the speed and direction of the motors independently with two steering levers, one for the right side and another for the left. Making one side go faster than the other causes the wheels on one side to skid and the vehicle to turn -- hence the term "skid-steer." Perhaps the most novel aspect of the system is the hydrostatic motor used to drive the wheels. This unit runs at low speeds with high torque and comes in a small package, saving space because no gear reduction mechanism is required. More than anything, the combined lack of gearing and steering linkages gives the skid-steer its compactness. Serendipitously, development of the motor took place as the skid-steer concept evolved and ultimately allowed it to reach its potential.

A separate auxiliary hydraulic system powers the hydraulic-cylinder-actuated loader arms on the skid-steer and any attachments used with it. In most cases, foot pedals operate both the lift and tilt functions. About 25 years ago, Bobcat patented its Bob-Tach attachment mounting system, featuring two levers that lock an attachment to the loader lift arms and two hydraulic hoses with quick disconnects. This set the stage for the development of attachments and led to a proliferation of attachment companies. To show how easy it is to use the attachment system, Roesler explained, "In most cases, you can unhook one attachment and hook up another in less than 2 minutes."

Bobcat offers about 50 attachments for use with its skid-steer, including six different loading buckets. The lineup includes a longwood grapple for handling logs, an auger for digging holes for posts and concrete footings, a three-point bale handler that can load and stack bales up to 6 feet in diameter and 5 feet long, and a utility grapple for bundled material, loose straw and manure. According to Roesler, "Many different styles of buckets work well on a farm. The fertilizer-style bucket is a good one for feed. Sometimes we call it a fertilizer and grain bucket."

One of the most prolific manufacturers of skid-steer attachments is Farmer's Factory Company (FFC) in Lee, Ill., which sports approximately 65 attachments. Phil Foster, president, said, "Every place they use a skid-steer, we make an attachment of some kind."

FFC began in 1982 to help farmers in the region maintain and repair implements. This led to a series of buckets for farm use. The company then applied its expertise to the contracting business and now serves primarily

the construction, landscape, industrial and snow removal business while still keeping roots in the farm industry. When the demand for skid-steer equipment took off in the 1980s, Bobcat furnished ample attachments for its skid-steers, but other manufacturers lacked them, so FFC filled the void.

As Drotts said, "We make a number of attachments strictly for the agricultural market, including bale spikes, bale pushes, bale squeezes and various buckets." The scrap grapple bucket, a loading bucket with hydraulically operated grapple hooks, is especially popular for handling loose, hard-to-manage materials.

Not surprisingly, as skid-steers have found their way onto farms, farmers have rigged their own attachments. Hoover says his brother fabricates attachments in his welding shop, and he made a customized manure bucket. Roesler says some farmers make a scraper out of an old tractor tire cut in half and use it to scrape manure off a concrete barn floor. "They might get the big stuff out with a bucket and then use this scraper to scrape it right down to the concrete. It kind of squeegees it. You see a lot of homemade ones like that."

Besides the versatility afforded by all the attachments, skid-steers have shown other advantages around the farm. Hoover says that though one won't replace a hired hand, it does help from a labor standpoint. "If you want to go get a round corn-fodder bale, you can do it alone."

As for the future of skid-steers, Roesler expects demand to continue increasing for a few more years and then level off. Now that users have accepted the attachment-based system, they will buy bigger loaders to expand their use. Bigger machines not only carry more, they can also run more attachments. And with no end in sight to the creativity of attachment manufacturers, farmers should find more and more uses for their "toy."