For a smudge we use an old cattle grid Made from railroad iron mounted with chains to a old drill frame. Then you can change the amount of weight and how much dirt it Carries with the hydraulics. It also lets you tow it down the road. Hi from Tassie
I use a 3 meter Imans spader in Germany. Love the job they're doing in my mind a hundred times better than a moldboard plow. I have to have cover crops by law plus we're in a livestock area and the paper puts in all that organic matter evenly
G'day JH you have produced enother great video about day to day operations that spading implement does a good job you might have to use that to do your smudging happy farming 🚜🚜🚜🚜
Hi Micheal, it does do a great job. However you need to do the smudging in order for the spading to do a good job. If we were to just use the spaded there would be large lumps throughout and we wouldn’t get a good result from the claying venture.
Question, how often do you have to spade? I assume the sand works its way to the top with rain? Just an American that has not seen a tool like that, or dirt like that for that matter.
Just have to spade once to incorporate the clay. What does happen is the clay can “set” hard and in a few years may have to come back with a deep ripper and rip it
Interesting video, you don't see spaders in action very often. I have one question regarding the tractors though. I am from Germany and we are restricted in terms of the width of our machines, we are only allowed to run ones legally on public roads that are max 3 meters wide, or 3,5 meters with special permit and an escort vehicle ahead, so most aticulated tractors run big singels if they are not on tracks. I have noticed that farmers in Australia often also have big singles but with a wide track width. Is there a special reason for that? Wouldn't it make more sense to run duals to reduce compaction? Or is this not that much of an issue because of the sandy soil conditions you have?
A lot of people go for the singles and the wide track as most farmers are/starting to be Controlled Traffic, so in order to do this you have a uniform wheel track size and almost everyone chooses to have that at 3 meters. We dont have restrictions on width as long as you have a pilot vehicle in front to warn people of the oversize load ahead.
@@tomsbrookfarm That's interesting, I wouldn't have thought of that, but it makes sense. Controlled traffic, aside from using tramlines for spraying and fertilizing, isn't a big thing among farms in Germany yet, although there are some german farm machinery manufacturers such as Horsch and Nexat experimenting with it at the moment. Thanks for your reply and keep up with the great videos!
I think if we were to do it again we would change the way the door closes so there is nothing on the back. Then when it came out onto the apron it wouldn’t be an issue to push it into the shed. Problem with going higher is cost and there is really no need. And I’m not a fan of the rolling roof as doors are much easier and safer operation.
do you do the whole farm each year, or are you just working across the whole property and when it's done it's done? I've driven tractors all over the world including headers in OZ and that looks like it could be one of the most soul destroying jobs out there knowing the size of Aussie fields and the relatively narrow work width of that spader (vs the usual Aussie size machines)
Have you come across Mike Mitchell Chanel- he runs 5 or 6 drill “bars” you run - he has done a few videos on maintaining those drills you may find interesting
The reason is a moldboard is only turning the soil, putting the stop soil underneath and subsoil up. All this would do is put the clay underneath and bring sand to the top. When you spade it incorporates the clay the whole way through the profile and you can bring your soil back to life and productivity.
Would more weight being added to the smudger help do the job better in those tougher conditions? we do a lot of that here in NZ as leveling but need something heavy enough to Carry enough soil to break up the clumps
Yer there is a fine line with smudging. If we add extra weight then it could tend to make a mess of the paddock and not do the job (turn into a grader instead of smudging and breaking up the clay) What we have seems to do a pretty good job, just need to get speed right and also smudge it before we get any rain on it
Hey Tom's Brook safety first mate tell your workers do not to lay under tines like at is something happens with the hydraulics you will not got get out of it in time they will go down that quick you will never get out they in time never rely on Hydraulics or Electrics and be safe mate and you will live a long life or disrespect safety you will not live a long life always think of safety at all times.!!??
I probably should of shown but the Tyne lock out tap is on. I didn’t even think to inform you all that it was on. I defiantly agree with what you are saying and we take all actions necessary to be able to keep everyone as safe as possible and make sure everyone makes it home all in once piece. With the Tyne lock out tap on that means that hydraulic can’t get back to the tractor or from the tractor to the tynes, which means you can stand on the tynes and try and move them but they won’t budge! Very safe to be operating underneath.
A harrow wouldn’t do anything but move the clay around on top. In order to bring this sand back to productive soil you need to incorporate the clay through out the soils profile. This is why you need to spade it.
