SALEM — Ag and wine students at Chemeketa Community College in Salem, Ore., will be able to train on two new electric tractors.

While students — and residents in tractor certification courses — are learning the technology, instructor Bryan Berenguer will monitor the machinery’s capabilities.

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“We have to see what this tractor can do,” said Berenguer, Chemeketa’s Vineyard Management Program chairman.

The tractors were recently purchased via a Portland General Electric grant, supported by the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality, that aims to educate and engage residents with electric transportation as a way of reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

The 40 horsepower Monarch tractors cost about $90,000 each.

One electric tractor will be for Chemeketa’s wine program, and the other belongs to the general ag program.

Both will be loaned to local farmers, said Tim Ray, dean of Chemeketa’s Agriculture Science and Technology Department.

“For us, it’s really about testing new technology. … We’re excited to get them out this spring and see what the run times are, what the recharge times are,” Ray said.

“The big thing for us is the autonomous features in the tractor that you don’t see in tractors of this size,” he added.

The Monarchs could work well for small- or medium-size family farms as well as vineyards.

Electric tractors have been a hot topic, but few are available to train on, Berenguer said.

“We need to make sure we’re keeping up to date with what’s going on with industry,” he said.

Berenguer said that if battery issues are solved, electric tractors could be the wave of the future for vineyards. “Cutting carbon emissions is important for everybody,” he said.

Vineyard tractor

Berenguer said the vineyard’s Monarch will be used for mowing, spraying and tilling.

The battery is supposed to last eight hours, but he wasn’t sure if that would be the case pulling a 300-gallon sprayer up vineyard hills.

“We have to try this out for a season and see how it goes,” Berenguer said.

Chemeketa’s vineyard off Doaks Ferry Road in West Salem is 8.5 acres, so it likely could be sprayed on a single charge.

Average Oregon vineyards span more than 20 acres, and to cover that much ground a single electric tractor likely would need to recharge.

Regardless, the electric tractor was a welcome addition for the wine program, which only possessed one tractor.

“We really needed another tractor,” Berenguer said.

Wine program

Chemeketa has 150 to 180 wine students each year, and 60 to 70 work in the vineyard, Berenguer said.

“We’re a bit different than your typical community college course,” Berenguer said.

The program includes a winery and a vineyard that produces 25-30 tons of grapes each season.

Chemeketa uses a third of the fruit to make wine, while the rest is sold to other wineries.

The college bottles about 250-400 cases annually, and proceeds cover operational costs.

Some students in the wine program are employed in the industry and want to get promoted, while others recently purchased vineyards.

Other students experience high demand for their skills, and many quickly land jobs, Berenguer said.