Ovlac MINIVID. A short disc harrow designed for vineyard

One more time, we have a tool in our "Test on field" section. On this occasion, the mentioned tool is the Ovlac Minivid short disc harrow (from a Spanish manufactured called Ovlac). As we commented last year when we could work with Pöttinger Terradisc disc harrow, it is one of our favorite implement. The high working speed and perfect work done (independent of the height of the vegetation on the ground) and the aggressive angle of attack of its notched discs are features that convert this implement in a very attractive help for viticulture.

The Ovlac Minivid used by us has 2.15m working width (the working width can be varied hydraulically when you work with Minivid PRO model so it can work on lanes with a width difference of up to 50cm) and 16 discs using independent  tines in high quality steel and 40mm rubber stone protection which is 100% maintenance-free. The working principle is the front row expels the soil to the outside (which is stopped by the side plates), while the back row, which is wider than the front, does it into towards the center of the machine. The roller then, levels, crumbles and consolidates the resulting surgace. A central arm, adjustable in height and fitted with a sweep share, does the job of the middle band which is left by the unmatched position of the front and rear rows of discs.

If we have to comment some problems, they could be its weight (it is important if you have to drive a lot of kilometers) and another problem could be you can't work very near grape vine as you can work using a special vineyard cultivator. We would like to test the new Ovlac Minichisel Vineyard; in a future post we’ll compare it with Minivid disc harrow... Definitely, the Minichisel Vineyard will be a fantastic tool for so many winegrowers.

Finally, in our opinion, we tested a good tool that is really perfectly manufactured (like Ovlac manufacture all its tools), it is made with high quality steel so it is ideal for some certain tasks because it allows us to work at high speed and save time and fuel.

Versión en español.

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Green pruning grape vines. Summer jobs for winegrowers

One of the most popular crops in La Mancha is vineyard. Besides, it is a crop which needs absolute dedication so winegrowers have to work everyday in a great amount of different tasks. One of these tasks in summer is pruning the grape vines when vine shoots are green.

Main goals of this job are mentioned below:

• Winegrowers need to reduce vegetation of grape vines because sometimes they can't go into vineyard using a narrow tractor, e. g., in order to carry out phytosanitary treatments. Another few times, winegrowers can do this task and phytosanitary treatments at the same time.
• They have to avoid problems with windy weather. If vine shoots are very long, they can be broken or fallen from trellis.
• If vine shoots are short, vintages are cleaner and more comfortable.

We visited our great friend Isidro, who is one of the biggest winegrowers of our village. There, we spend a very funny morning seeing his vineyards (they are magnificent) we could see how he worked pruning. When we spoke with him, we could feel he loves his vineyard... we think it is really common among winegrowers.

Isidro was working using a pruning machine manufactured by Jumar Agrícola S.L. (S618 -85 model). It is a pruning machine with dual saw (other models are using  rotary blandes) that can carry out works of 1.8m long vertical cuts and 85cm long horizontal cuts (at this time, the horizontal cut was not done). All movements can be controlled hydraulically (the cutting elements can turn to adapt to the working position for each winegrower). Finally, it incorporates an automatic safety system in the event of an obstacle. 

Versión en español.

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