Solid sleeve bushings

On rainy days when we cannot work on the fields, we spend our free time into the shed.
Last week the weather was rainy then we changed solid sleeve bushings of our Gil cultichisel because they were as worn they couldn’t be greased. So, we decided to remove all of them.

Regarding solid sleeve bushings are made of nylon and their price is very low. I think they have a short lifetime, only few years. A cultichisel uses five solid sleeve bushings in three different places which have to be greased in two different places.

We had a few problems to loosen some screws but the work was very easy and fast...about 5 hours.

In the end, our Gil cultichisel are ready now.

Joaquín y Herminio Tribaldos (Twins' Farm)

Olives

Another winter work is harvesting olives. While we are suffering a strong and rainy winter the field work is stopped because this weather doesn't allow to follow with it. In the area where I live, we have to harvest olives. This work is normally manual, although some farmers usually use machines when the fields are very extensive. We will speak about that later.

I would like to talk about the Spanish olive oil high quality (Spain is the biggest producer in the world  with about 35% World production). Spanish oil is considered the best in the world because of its great taste and its cooking applications...it is called "liquid gold". The authentic olive oil is extracted directly from squeezing olives without any filtering or chemical process. Almost a third of the olive pulp is oil.

Talking about olive trees, it is necessary to say they are usually small or medium size in this area, so harvesting is usually manual or with semimanual machines because the big vibratos can damage the olive trees. We have planted our olive trees with a distance of 6x7m, although it can be optional. An olive tree in this area can produce about 25kg of olives. 

Our olives variety are Picual and Cornicabra. Picual olives give exceptional oil with green tones and predominance light bitter flavors and fruity; they are very resistant to frost. Cornicabra olives are very usual in this area (Castilla-La Mancha) and they give oil with strong and very aromatic flavors.

About harvester system, we use Campagnola pneumatic harvester. It needs an electric group to work; this electric group has 10HP and it produce 4500w. Pneumatic harvester needs an air compressor; we use Abac air compressor of 3HP and 100L bolier, the maximum work pressure is 8bar and Pneumatic harvester needs airflow of 230L/min. Other air compressor type can be connect PTO tractor with the similar pneumatic harvester. There are other harvester systems which are not pnuematic; they use a small gasoline engine. I think these harvester systems are heavier and the worker needs to word stronger for many hours. As we said before, other harvester systems exist which are stronger and they vibrate olive trees in order to knock olives over canvas and they are picked up automatically.

You can watch two videos from here: Video1, Video2

Joaquín y Herminio Tribaldos (Twins' Farm)

Compaction

We have finished sowing. A few days later we have to compact the fields whenever it doesn’t rain. The compaction should be carried out in order to keep better the humidity because it helps plants to germinate sooner. This work doesn't require a great effort and it can be done quickly because working speed is very high (about 14km/h) and working width is large. Our roller is about 4,5m working width which is composed of three pieces.

It is the moment to take out some large stones and hide small stones with the purpose of avoiding problems with harvesting.

As you can see in my pictures, we use a disc roller whose advantages are the following ones:

• Seeds is better compact.
• The air can't get seeds.
• The soil can absorb better humidity.
• It can be used with wet soil.

You can use plain roller as other farmers use but my recommendation is using a disc roller for this season.

You can watch a video from here: Video1

Joaquín y Herminio Tribaldos (Twins' Farm)

Planting garlic

Coming this time the cold becomes more intense, and the sowing garlic starts. In my opinion, our area is the best and the most productive in Spain. "Las Pedroñeras Garlic" has achieved a great reputation in all Europe and in the rest of the world with our brand "Coopaman".

It usually rains; therefore we cannot work with too much mud. These days are short and we have to work against the clock.

Few days before starting sowing we have to prepare the seed. This starts drying garlic, after that, we have to thresh them and finally, we will get garlic cloves which will be sown.

Our garlic planting is JJ Broch (other known brand is Erme from France) with 5 rows that lets to sow about 4 ha/day. The biggest problem is we have to fill containers so often therefore we waste/lose too much time with this item. These containers have a capacity 40 Kg. with a small trapdoor to regulate the garlic seeds level inside. We are using about 600 kg of garlic/ha. The distance between rows is of 47cm. and the distance between garlic is about 5cm (Distance in the plantation row can be regulated from 6 to 15 cm, through a very easy pinion shift operation). We can regulate it to obtain the most appropriate plantation depth too. Garlic is sowing with tweezers which get garlic from container to ground. We can change these tweezers with a very easy access and dismount. There are 11 different available sizes. The transmission is developed by 2 driving wheels with a perfect behavior even in the hardest conditions.

Mechanical garlic planting is not very accurate but we can work faster, cheaper and easier than sowing manually, the manner we planting 20 years ago. Nowadays other models are been developed with pneumatic system getting greater precision respect of the distance between garlic.

You have a guide that is even more detailed, updated and comprehensive on 15 health benefits of garlic according to science, and includes 5 delicious garlic recipes. It is over 6,000 words and completely free. You can find it here.

You can watch three videos from here: Video1 Video2 Video3

Joaquín y Herminio Tribaldos (Twins' Farm)