​Our favorite tool for vineyard

Before beginning to speak about cereal and pulse vegetables sowing tasks which will be performed in the next weeks, we are going to speak about another job carried out before pruning. As we said, we would like to publish some posts about vineyard works this year, so it is one more task about that. We should highlight we liked so much the tool used.

As you can see in our pictures and video, the tool used is the Nero SX250-24 mounted disc harrow X-shape which is completely configurable (the SX model disc frames are individually adjustable 360º in order to respond to the exigencies of vineyards for the whole year). Its 24 discs are of 22''​ ​which are fixed at 180mm so the working width is from 2.15m to 2.5m. Its weight is 900kg and it only requires a tractor of 60HP!! (​that is fantastic because the tractors used in vineyard are normally low power). These configuration options are insuperable since there are different widths in each vineyard and the farmer can adjust this tool for all his fields. The final result​ ​is really good... our great friend, who is a good winegrower, told us this is his favorite tool for vineyard jobs: Helio, we agree!

Its manufacturer is Gascón Internacional, who is going to be present in the next edition of Demoagro 2015, where you can test all their implements and especially this tool in the vineyard area... we recommend you to visit this important farm fair.

Versión en español.

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Joaquín Herminio Tribaldos (Twins' Farm)

Sugar beet harvest: Ropa Tiger VS Holmer Terra Dos T3

This week, our friends of www.agriaffaires.co.uk will talk about sugar beet harvesting and more specifically, two sugar beet harvesters (we think this post could be interesting for our Spanish followers because these harvesters aren't used in our country). Photos were taken in a sugar beet field in Picardie (North of France). Indeed, France is the second largest sugar beet producer in the world, just after Russia. Harvesting period usually takes place during the autumn, from September to December. And the majority of sugar beet crops are located in Northern France and the Paris Basin. Let focus on the operating two sugar beet harvesters: the yellow Ropa Tiger on the left and the red Holmer Terra Dos T3 on the right.

The Ropa Tiger offers a tank capacity of 40m3 whereas the Holmer Terra Dos T3 of 28m3. Both harvesters have an articulated frame. Ropa Tiger has a 598HP Mercedes V8 diesel engine with a maximum of 2,800 Nm torque and can receive 6, 8 or 9 ranks. The discharge height is set at 4m. It has a scalping system called Micro-Topper that allows higher and regular scalping regardless of the size of the beets. Holmer Terra Dos T3 runs with a 480HP MAN engine. The discharge height is a slightly lower at 3.90m. The topping thickness of 6 scalpers is hydraulically adjustable.

The big advantage of these farm machines is that you do not need any tractors or trailers. This way, you will need less farming works and thus, you will avoid soil compaction induced by tractors operating on the land repeatedly.

Photos courtesy: http://www.agriaffaires.co.uk

Versión en español.

Joaquín Herminio Tribaldos (Twins' Farm)

​From wheat stubble to spring garlic. Works and techniques

This week we publish a post about one of our favorite crops: the spring garlic. Our follower Felipe Sevilla sent us some nice pictures and comments, ​who ​we met in the first edition of Demoagro where he was working with Same Deutz-Farm Group and we could test the new Agrotron TTV 7250 together with him... we recommend you to visit the next edition of Demoagro in May where you will be able to find all new technologies applied to agriculture and where you can test all machinery without any restriction. His pictures and descriptions were about the works performed to transform the previous year's cereal stubble into a great spring garlic field.

Felipe has his own farm in San Martín de la Vega (Madrid). As he commented and you can see in his pictures, this year he sowed spring garlic on an old wheat stubble. For this task, the first step is ploughing (he uses a Vogel&Noot plough of 3 furrows). After that, he uses an Agric (Agrator) RB100 rotary tillers so the seedbed is really ready to sow spring garlic. Fields are extraordinary in his area, which aren't very extensive... our area is absolutely different so we only use miniplough and chissel plough.  

The tractor used to plough is a Renault Ares 616 RZ (it has a John Deere engine of 115HP and a ​32x32 ​gearbox). It works at 7km/h at 1,750 r.p.m. when he is ploughing with his Vogel&Noot plough and when he uses the rotary tillers the tractor needs to work at 2.5km/h (using the slowest gear) and 2,100 r.p.m. (this tractor doesn't have the 540E configuration in its P.T.O.).

He plants spring garlic with a mechanical JJ Broch planter (it is like ours) that works really fine. After sowing, they have to step a few rows (you can see it in a picture where a John Deere tractor works behind JJ Broch planter) because they carry out flood irrigation system.

Versión en español. 

Joaquín Herminio Tribaldos (Twins' Farm)