250-300mm deep is all you need really. Any deeper and you don’t “crack” the surface pan. Make sure the ground conditions are not wet, as you get smearing. Another point, it does slow/ stop growth for a while. So definitely factor this in when grass is tight!
Groundhog BM300 aerator. Either way aerating is a game changer. Stock off paddock I chain harrow, roll then aerate. Rain washes all that good stuff into the subsoil where you want it
Funnily enough we do the same system here on fuel in Australia. Yep it’s a pain but it works. Got a smaller 200 lt also so can get on and off by hand and fill the 900 lt as a buffer. All overhead tanks are bottom fill now so retro filled with no use of ladders. Fuel bug and grit a problem too
That rat trap is effective. The flatter parts of the Waikato were more known for mole ploughing, just a single ripper with a mole, with hydraulic ram to foldaway. Some (now obsolete)models had a change-over from the mole to a pipe layer attachment, do a first pass with no pipe to find the obstacles then a 2nd pass to lay the water pipe. The spiked aerators have their place (Kyne-aerator (Pahiatua) and Taskpower-groundhog) to do your own. ( Limited budget - used mole plough & new not-so-wide spiked aerator)The larger/ contractor type equipment is the 4AG Titan LV500 and Alstrong(Ireland), medium weight rollers tough still quite light compared to the very heavy Canterbury (REL etc) rollers sometimes used on grass grub.
I recommend the James aerator with the auto reset… meaning each leg is being held at the top by a ram and so you can set the pressure that they will compress under and won’t have to be changing shear bolts every 5 minutes
Interesting about the auto reset, I was wondering if it was worth the extra cost? I was looking at the James ones but my tractors not big enough for their 3m one but it is for the rata 2.5m
@@TheOnceADayFarmer definitely helps where we are with stumps and that but if soil’s relatively clean underneath might not be worth the extra cost, we run our 3m one on a 155 hp machine, pulls it fine
Nice one sir... Now if you were closer we would have a large steel double skin fuel station here for you holds about 4000 ltrs.. our main plastic tank is kept in a container out of sight so no pesky people bore holes in it to gain some red diesel.. stay safe 🏴
FYI. In NZ farm use of fuels is free of excise tax, whereas all bowser sales include this tax which is quite steep, like 50% of the total cost. This tax goes to our govt roading agency for new highways and maintenance of them, hence the targeting of road transport and not farm use.
Definitely get on farm fuel delivery and a new tank . Most fuel companies I believe will supply you with a tank at a very low pay off rate over a few years
Aeration will definitely help, but one of the reasons your grass isn’t lasting is the newer species don’t like being eaten done hard. I have the same problem. Have you had a dig to see if you have a hard pan?
Definitely not because of the direct drilling power harrows are fantastic at creating pans in Nz. I would try and figure out what’s causing it before trying to solve the problem
The reason why they won't fill tanks such as yours as it is dangerous for the person doing the filling. They have to climb up a ladder leaning against the side of the tank and the ladder slipping and someone falling is very much a thing. I had a client who did just that, fractured their spine (minor fracture) and gave themselves a traumatic brain injury.
