The Claydon Terrablade

[Wombat]

I went to one of the demos of this back in in the mid 2000's and the independently controlled sections was quite impressive

http://cereals-2.ahdb.org.uk/publications/documents/cropresearch/370_Complete_final_report.pdf

 

[Andrew K]

I thought i was told a 6m one would be around £8k? I could be wrong

Thats not far out Rob, Jeff told me £8.5K
I can see it selling well at that price, should suit most drills spacing at 10 to 12" apart IMO.
How much is a Garford for example?

 

[tw15]

Sooner or later Jeoff will find a plough in the nettles and reinvent it . Fair play to him for his thinking

 

[T Hectares]

I'd be interested to see one of these trialled in the UK, biggest downfall would be BG shedding out before harvest, but could be useful ??


PHOTO

Ray Harrington with the HSD fitted to the back of his harvester.

LANDLINE: GLYN JONES
An Australian farmer's invention, which destroys weed seeds during harvest, has the potential to reduce the need for herbicides in grain farming and is gaining interest from around the world.

The Harrington Seed Destructor (HSD) is the brainchild of Western Australian farmer Ray Harrington.

The machine can be retro-fitted into modern grain harvesters and, with cage mill technology adapted from the mining industry, pulverises weed seeds to the point where they are no longer viable.

This means that when the chaff is spread back over the paddocks after harvest, viable weed seeds are not spread in the process.


PHOTO Ray Harrington was worried his farm would fail under pressure from weeds.
LANDLINE: PRUE ADAMS
Extensive research through the University of Western Australia has shown the machine kills 95 per cent of the weed seeds collected in the chaff.

According to the Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC), weeds cost Australian grain farmers around $3.5 billion a year, and there is an increasing problem with weeds such as annual ryegrass that have built up a resistance to commonly used herbicides.

"Five to seven years ago, particularly in places like the Western Australian Wheatbelt, there was quite a strong feeling that herbicide resistance was going to cause people to have to walk off their farms," said GRDC managing director Steve Jefferies.

'Most elegant' invention targets root of the problem
Mr Harrington grows barley, wheat and other grains on his property near Darkan, about 200 kilometres south of Perth.

An innovator by nature, more than a decade ago he realised if he did not do something about weed seeds at harvest, he "would fail like [his] Wheatbelt cousins" — so he looked at ways of crushing the weed seeds that were collected up in the chaff when the grain crops were harvested.

"I was going to catch it, cart it off, cook it or crush it," he said.

Mr Harrington originally developed a machine that would be towed behind a header, but he realised that would not suit most farmers, so with input from University of South Australia's engineering researchers and funds through the GRDC, a model was developed that could be integrated into harvesters.

The HSD system is based around the cage mill as the chaff processing unit. A pneumatic chaff delivery system, incorporating a cross auger and blower fan, collects and delivers the chaff that is pushed out the rear of the harvester and pushes that material, which is full of weed seeds, through the centre of the cage mill.

The weed seeds are smashed into a fine powder by rotating metal blades, and the inert powder is spread immediately back on the paddock.

Director of the Australian Herbicide Resistance Initiative (AHRI) Stephen Powles said the HSD was "the most elegant tool" in a system called harvest weed seed control — a process of managing weeds at harvest time, rather than relying on herbicides to knock weeds down during the growing season.

"I think we should all be proud of it," Professor Powles said of the HSD invention.

"[Ray Harrington] … is a great Australian, he is a great innovator, a great farmer and an outstanding inventor."


PHOTO The cage mill renders 95 per cent of weed seeds unviable.
LANDLINE: GLYN JONES
US, Canada and South America testing Australian-built technology
The HSD is being manufactured by the De Bruin Group, a family-owned company based in the South Australian regional town of Mount Gambier.

"We've refocused our entire business around producing the HSD," said Judson Wheatley, DeBruin Engineering's managing director.

Mr Wheatley said the company was manufacturing around 12 to 15 machines a month, and they retailed fully installed for $160,000.

Most of the machines have been sold to Western Australian farmers, but several have also been sent to South Australia's Eyre Peninsula, and testing stands have been exported to the United States, Canada and South America.

"There's a huge amount of interest [in the HSD] in the US market, where they have a number of major weed issues — particularly with Palmer Amaranth," Mr Wheatley said.

Mr Harrington said he did not expect to become "very rich" from his invention, but that he would like to retire "in comfort" before handing over the farm to the next generation.

"It's been a labour of love for 14 years," Mr Harrington said.

"I am so pleased it has come to fruit, because it could have failed. I know if we adopt weed seed management across the globe, we are going to have a chance."

 

[T Hectares]

Sooner or later Jeoff will find a plough in the nettles and reinvent it . Fair play to him for his thinking

Maybe this is his plan, so he can sell the Furrow cracker all over again !!

 

[Brisel]

I have a 6m 19 coulter Hybrid, so that's 31.58 cm or 12.43" rows. With 7" A shares the banding is about 5" most of the time which leaves 7.4" to hoe in with no margin for error. With 3" spoons for beans or osr you'd have 16" to play with.

Hoeing is worth about 40 kg/ha of N due to soil N mineralised from the cultivations.

Here's Feldspar's photo as linked above. It just shows where the weed control needs to be!

 

[AF Salers]

Jeff will maybe reinvent the band sprayer as well!, or even combine the two, but would be better with twin lines, glyphosate between the rows and crop product on the rows

 

[Brisel]

Garford are ahead of Jeff on that one

 

[Alistair Nelson]

Garford are ahead of Jeff on that one

Yes after a fair bit of promotion a couple of years ago haven't seen much about it since are there many about. Sorry to go off thread

Alistair

 

[Wessland]

Buy the Swedish "swizz knife" drill/ interrow hoe/harrow.

 

[York]

Buy the Swedish "swizz knife" drill/ interrow hoe/harrow.

please look at the price tag....

I
Here's Feldspar's photo as linked above. It just shows where the weed control needs to be!
View attachment 537310

Answer the question: Why is there a need of BG control in this zones & you are getting near the solution.
All this approaches are mechanical approaches, bandages on a wond. Address they topic of why the wound came into place & you will find the solution.
by the way, if you have a mixture of swelling & drieng of the seed you will soon find a massive decreased germination ability. Well documented with OSR.
I rather prefer to follow the "biological / natural" approach as it will be without added new kit & encouraging my laziness.
Like Neil Dennis of SK refers to when he says: "Boy what would have happened when I would have known Mob Grazing some 30 years earlier. I would have ended up with a big flock of kid's as I spend too much time on the couch at home".
York-Th.

 

[Brisel]

Answer the question: Why is there a need of BG control in this zones & you are getting near the solution.
All this approaches are mechanical approaches, bandages on a wond. Address they topic of why the wound came into place & you will find the solution.
by the way, if you have a mixture of swelling & drieng of the seed you will soon find a massive decreased germination ability. Well documented with OSR.
I rather prefer to follow the "biological / natural" approach as it will be without added new kit & encouraging my laziness.
Like Neil Dennis of SK refers to when he says: "Boy what would have happened when I would have known Mob Grazing some 30 years earlier. I would have ended up with a big flock of kid's as I spend too much time on the couch at home".
York-Th.

I think I understood most of that!

Why the BG there? Soil disturbance to create a root zone for the osr. Why do we have blackgrass? Tillage, lots of winter crops, lots of nitrogen, little spray chemistry, not enough time between crops for cultural control, continuous arable cropping and so on. Is that what you were thinking of, York?

 

[York]

I think I understood most of that!
Why the BG there? Soil disturbance to create a root zone for the osr. Why do we have blackgrass? Tillage, lots of winter crops, lots of nitrogen, little spray chemistry, not enough time between crops for cultural control, continuous arable cropping and so on. Is that what you were thinking of, York?

Brisel,
you got all correct. However I wasn't refering to the generall question of "Why Black gras", only "why Black gras in strips in this contend. So you got it right.However the generall topic is: think about what the role is of black gras in nature of what it's indicating.
According to my knowledge & observation is Black gras indicating compaction, tight soils. Brome is very similar.
So you can now work on using mechanical solutions, "doctors bandages / plant protection" or you address the origin of compaction & start to work on the soil chemistry & help the soil biology.
always remind yourself off: "There is no life on earth without minerals".
York-Th.

 

[warksfarmer]

98.5% blackgrass control. We're saved by the dreaded weed.

What about the BG that's growing in the same row as the wheat?

And the wider spacing of the rows allow more BG/weeds to germinate.

Seems like a creation to combat a problem created earlier in the system? A better solution is optimum spacing of seed via broadcasting and much higher seed rates around 600 per sq metre.

 

[mikep]

What about the BG that's growing in the same row as the wheat?

And the wider spacing of the rows allow more BG/weeds to germinate.

Seems like a creation to combat a problem created earlier in the system? A better solution is optimum spacing of seed via broadcasting and much higher seed rates around 600 per sq metre.

I believe you must manipulate nitrogen and nutrients better to get on top of bg. It has very similar requirements to cereals so use this against it. Feed cereals only when they can grow fast, delay spring applications and use fast responding varieties. Late season or early feeding is better utilised by the weed. It's so tempting to give the yellowish wheat a boost but BG gets it as well and responds quicker.

 

[Rainmaker]

No, but your famous drill doesn't look like £175k of steel either.

It's only famous to those who have them. Once financially committed to that drilling system one can imagine it close to impossible to look at your decision with anything less than rose-tinted glasses.It wouldn't be human to do anything less.
DD or plough anything goes here, horses for courses

 

[charlie@horizon]

Morning All,

I thought I would share the results of a blackgrass earcount which was done by Agrii on a bad blackgrass field to assess how effective the Claydon Terrablade is at reducing the plant population in the existing crop.

Because this field was dedicated to Agrii trials it was drilled slightly earlier than the rest of the farm on the 5th of October, most of the wheat was drilled at Claydon HQ between 10th/15th October. The field received a full does of Chrystal & Liberator and then Pacfica in the spring. Jeff put the Claydon Terrablade through the crop in the dry conditions on the Easter weekend and we're really pleased with the results.

The image of the crop shows where the Terrablade was used on the left but not hoed on the right.

 

[PSQ]

View attachment 808782 View attachment 808784
Morning All,

I thought I would share the results of a blackgrass earcount which was done by Agrii on a bad blackgrass field to assess how effective the Claydon Terrablade is at reducing the plant population in the existing crop.

Because this field was dedicated to Agrii trials it was drilled slightly earlier than the rest of the farm on the 5th of October, most of the wheat was drilled at Claydon HQ between 10th/15th October. The field received a full does of Chrystal & Liberator and then Pacfica in the spring. Jeff put the Claydon Terrablade through the crop in the dry conditions on the Easter weekend and we're really pleased with the results.

The image of the crop shows where the Terrablade was used on the left but not hoed on the right.

Charlie,

Can you ask James Curtis @ Agrii if he observed any effect on Skylarks and other ground nesting birds in the trials, please.

Thanks.

 

[Brisel]

Charlie,

Can you ask James Curtis @ Agrii if he observed any effect on Skylarks and other ground nesting birds in the trials, please.

Thanks.

That wouldn't be a positive aspect of the sales pitch, would it?

 

[PSQ]

That wouldn't be a positive aspect of the sales pitch, would it?

For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction unintended consequence.

And in the case of inter-row hoeing it's an environmentally damaging 'unintended consequence', not to mention a time bomb for when the press and public get wind of it.