The Lamb family in western Kentucky had been using the same compact tractor for over 30 years when they finally decided it was time for a new one. After narrowing their choices to a few options, they decided to trust what their instincts had been telling them all along.

“We had several family conversations about this tractor and that tractor,” says Julie Lamb, a data analyst by day who loves taking care of her horses during her off hours. “Every one of those conversations came back to asking ourselves, ‘Will anything else do what our little Kioti has done all these years?’”

“I actually closed my eyes and tried to envision myself on another brand of tractor,” adds Steven Lamb, Julie’s husband. “I just didn’t like what I saw.”

Now you can regularly see both Steven and Julie on the Kioti CK3520 they’d purchased in June 2023. And even though their instincts told them Kioti would be the right choice, it was the performance of their dealer, Little Tractor & Equipment in Paducah, Ky., that sealed the deal.

Value Seekers

The Lamb family’s original Kioti LB2204 was actually the proud purchase of Steven’s father, the late Kenneth Lamb. Steven was fresh out of high school when his dad bought it.

“We’d seen some of our neighbors using different types of tractors, but that Kioti was the first tractor I ever really did anything with,” Steven says.

When Kenneth Lamb was diagnosed with cancer, he decided to leave his 1988 Kioti LB2204 tractor to his son, Steven. Kenneth wanted to make it look like new again, but needed some decals. Steven’s wife, Julie, didn’t have much luck hunting them down. Then one day while attending the National Farm Machinery Show in Louisville, Ky., Steven and Julie stopped in at the Kioti booth and started up a dialogue with some employees. Later on, they ended up telling one of those employees about their decal dilemma. Much to their surprise, a package soon arrived in the mail. It contained the decals needed to complete the restoration of Kenneth’s tractor. Rest assured, that project is high on their to-do list in 2026. Source: Steven & Julie Lamb

Kenneth, on the other hand, did have some tractor experience. He’d grown up on a family farm. That farm gradually evolved into a 22-acre wooded property that Kenneth tapped into for firewood as an adult. He used a loader attachment to push dead trees over haul his freshly cut firewood out of the woods to his pickup truck. Kenneth heated his home with a wood burner, so chopping firewood was more than just a hobby — it was a means of survival. Thus, he viewed his tractor as an integral piece of his homesteading way of life.

Kenneth also became an avid gardener. “I don’t recall ever seeing a store-bought can of vegetables in the house,” Julie says. So, again, Kenneth’s tractor and rear-mounted tiller became integral to his way of life. “Dad even helped neighbors till up their gardens,” Steven points out. “Dad’s tractor truly became part of not only our family, but also our community in Madisonville, Ky.”

Along with a strong desire to help his neighbors, Kenneth had a strong desire for finding a good deal.

“Dad was always a bit of a tightwad when I was growing up,” Steven says with a chuckle. Now as an adult looking back, Steven says his dad was just careful with money. Kenneth was also obsessed with finding the best value. Sometimes that meant buying the least expensive option, and other times it meant buying the most expensive.

Among other tasks, Kenneth Lamb used his tractor to till gardens for himself and his neighbors. Source: Steven and Julie Lamb

“My dad really researched his tractors,” Steven recalls. “One of our neighbors had a smaller Cub Cadet that seemed to work very well. That opened my dad’s eyes that he didn’t have to choose from 1 or 2 well-known brands to get a good tractor. He knew what he needed in terms of horsepower, hydraulic pump GPM and lift capacity.”

With a clear idea of what he needed, Kenneth began looking for the best value he could find in a compact tractor. He discovered a relatively unknown brand at a dealership about an hour away. He ended up buying a Kioti LB2204 in 1988.

Kenneth passed away in 2018. Steven and Julie started thinking about getting a new tractor a couple years later. Just like Kenneth, they were adamant about finding the best value. But with decades of experience using what Julie calls “the little Kioti that just wouldn’t quit,” the deck was stacked against the handful of other brands they were considering.

“When Kenneth passed away, Steven and I brought the tractor to our place a couple miles away,” Julie says. “Ken had really worked that tractor hard over the years. It’s almost like he tried to kill it. But he couldn’t, and it still ran pretty well when Steven and I took it over. It was definitely getting worn down though, and was old enough that parts were getting pretty hard to find. We decided it was time to focus on preserving that tractor so it could be handed down to future generations. We needed to get a new tractor.”

Steven and Julie narrowed their search to a handful of brands. Then one day when they were making the 45-mile drive to Paducah to shop at a home improvement store, something profoundly coincidental happened.

“There was some road construction and we had to take a different exit than usual,” Julie says. “Next thing you know, Steven hollers, ‘Hey, there’s that Kioti dealership people have been telling us about.’ So, as you’d have it, a slight detour led us back to Kioti.”

Steven and Julie were glad it did. The dealership where Kenneth purchased his tractor in 1988 had gone out of business. To now stumble upon Little Tractor & Equipment seemed like pure fate.

Appreciate, Educate & Never Pressure

Steven and Julie did a casual walk-through on their first visit to Little Tractor & Equipment. They also stopped by another nearby dealer of a different brand. Then they went home to think things over.

“We just had this feeling that we needed to stick with what we’ve known,” Julie says.

Julie and Steven paid a second visit to Little Tractor. They spent a lot of time talking with the sales rep and even test drove the tractor they were thinking about buying. They were confident they found the best overall value, just as Kenneth had taught them.

“That sales rep treated us like we were buying a $100,000 tractor,” Julie relates, adding that the model they were looking at was in the $25,000 range. “We knew what our budget was and how much we thought we’d end up using the tractor. The salesperson really went out of his way to understand what we were looking to do so he could offer the right options.”

Little Tractor & Equipment operates 3 southern Illinois locations, along with a fourth store in Paducah, Ky., where Julie and Steven Lamb bought their new tractor in 2023. Source: Little Tractor & Equipment

“At Little Tractor, we make it a priority to treat every customer with the same level of respect, attention and care — whether they’re buying their first compact tractor or adding to a large fleet,” says Justin Ferrell, owner of Little Tractor & Equipment, which operates 3 southern Illinois locations in addition to the store in Paducah. “Consistency builds trust. When customers know they’ll be listened to and supported throughout the process, they feel confident they’re making the right decision.”

Steven and Julie primarily use their tractor to care for their horses. Thus, a front-end loader was a must-have attachment. Kioti’s Quick Hitch system was also an essential add-on so they could conveniently swap out different attachments as needed. One new attachment they purchased was a hay spear for moving round bales around. Steven and Julie also continue to use several attachments they’d already owned, including a rough-cut mower, a finish mower and a blade for grading dirt and plowing snow.

Handling round bales for their horses is a primary use of Steven and Julie’s new tractor. Source: Steven and Julie Lamb

Another new attachment the Lambs purchased was a set of pallet forks.

“One thing we really liked was that the dealer never tried to pressure us into anything,” Julie says. “The salesperson made recommendations, but never pressured us. We decided against a grapple because we didn’t see ourselves moving a lot of trees around. That said, the salesperson thought we could really benefit from having pallet forks. He explained how, despite their name, they can do much more than just move pallets around. Now we use those pallet forks more than anything else. We use them to move brush around and to load/unload big items out of our truck bed.

“We would have lost out on a huge amount of tractor functionality had the dealer not taken the time to educate us on the pallet forks,” Julie continues. “And they only added $600 onto the sale, so it wasn’t a huge upsell. The sales rep was more concerned with how he could help us get the most use out of the tractor and really be happy.”

That didn’t happen by accident either.

“Our sales reps are trained to start every conversation by asking questions, not making assumptions,” Ferrell points out. “Compact tractors are incredibly versatile, and the ‘right’ machine depends entirely on how a customer plans to use it. By taking the time to understand their land, their tasks, their experience level and their long-term goals, we can match them with equipment that truly fits their needs.”

The five-star service didn’t stop when the final tractor package was put together. Steven says the dealership salesperson they’d been working with ended up delivering the tractor. “He spent several hours showing us how to use it and answering our questions,” Steven recalls.

The same sales rep who blew the Lambs away with his personable in-showroom service ended up delivering their new tractor in June 2023. Source: Steven and Julie Lamb

“From day one, the service Little Tractor has provided has been beyond our expectations,” Julie adds. “In fact, we’ve been so impressed that we decided to buy several pieces of Stihl handheld equipment from them, even though there’s another Stihl dealer much closer to us.”

Nurturing that kind of customer loyalty requires not only the right approach to service, but also the right people behind that service.

“A big part of making that possible is hiring people for their mindset, not just their skillset,” Ferrell says. “Skills can be taught, and we can train someone to understand horsepower, attachments and features. But you usually can’t train someone to have the right mindset. We look for people who are naturally curious, service-minded and genuinely interested in helping customers solve problems. When you combine that mindset with the product knowledge we provide, you get a sales experience that’s honest, attentive and focused on long-term customer satisfaction.”

Delivering Support to the Customer’s Driveway

Great customer service initially won over Steven and Julie. Great technical service is what has continued to nurture their loyalty. In fact, just a couple of days after buying the new tractor, Steven ran into a warranty-related issue.

“I went out and did some rough cutting one day,” Steven tells. “I hosed the tractor off when I was done and parked it in the garage. A couple days later, I noticed it was leaking a little fluid. Somehow a seal had worked loose. I called Little Tractor and told them what was going on. The next day they sent a service technician to look at it. He had to order a part, but then came back 2 days later to fix it. I was really impressed by how quickly they resolved the issue, and also that they came right to us to do it.”

Steven and Julie live roughly an hour from the Little Tractor & Equipment dealership in Paducah. Steven says it’s costly and time-consuming to haul his tractor back and forth for basic service.

“I called the dealership and asked what all I needed to perform the routine maintenance,” Steven says. “The parts guy said he’d look it all up and just ship us the parts if that’s what we would like. He also reminded me that the dealership offered pickup and delivery if I wanted them to do the service at the dealership. But I like the idea of saving time and doing the maintenance myself, so having the parts shipped to our house has worked out really well.”

Steven has made a pledge to keep up with preventive maintenance on the new tractor. Maintenance is something his dad was never too big on. “All I ever saw him do is change the oil once in a while,” Steven says with a laugh. “It really is amazing how that tractor kept running all these years.”

Not even a couple F4 tornadoes in 2005 and 2021 could slow down that old Kioti LB2204. The tractor was parked outside on both occasions, within 1,000 feet of the epicenter of major damage. “That tractor started right up after the tornadoes had passed, and played a big role in helping clean up debris around the community,” Steven says.

“More recently, last spring, both of our tractors were caught in the midst of major local flooding,” Julie adds. “The water had risen quickly, a couple inches up on the tires. Thankfully the water started going back down just as quickly. Steven drove the new tractor a couple miles down the road into town to help our neighbors begin cleaning up from their own damage.”

The tractor has always been about much more than just a hobby to the Lamb family. It’s been integral to their way of life, and has become a symbol of the family and valued member of the community. Who would have thought that would be the case when Kenneth Lamb went out bargain hunting back in 1988? Well, Kenneth Lamb did. And now his children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren do too.