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Australian flood areas

Farmer Shannon McLellan is situated in the state of Victoria on the east coast of Australia near Horsham. The main crops on his farm are wheat, barley, canola and some oats, on approximately 3000 ha. The area is very well known for flooding and unpredictable rain in winter time. This condition together with the soil structure cause him a few more complications for farming than usual. Therefore Shannon wanted to upgrade his farming methods where he found out about the potential of deep ripping with a TERRALAND TO 5000. Together with Power Ace (Australian Importer) sales manager Grant Borgward chose the right set up of the machine to prevent some of the difficulties.

Farmer Shannon Mc Lellan is situated in state Victoria on the east coast Australia nearby Horsham

Farm situated near mountains Grampians in Victoria

Flood Water management

The area of the farm expects floods every year and farmers here have to solve the field flooding issue with the integration of flood drains. This is a common problem that needs to be solved in all high rain fall areas, however the rain fall water in Australia is high in winter but very low in spring so the storing of the flood moisture in the field is good for crop growth.

One of the processes of TERRALAND is ground levelling

Flood channels crossing field areas to drain the water from field faster. Made by dozer scrapers precisely in small downgrade angle out to the forests.

The flood drains are preventing the fields from becoming lakes also the soil structure has a very high clay content which helps it drain faster but equally it also has a hard pan issue, so ultimately the fields are losing the benefit of the winter rains, instead of retaining the water it is drained away.

Shannon is explaining how hard are the clods that are taken out with TERRALAND. The spiky rollers are still able to brake them into smaller pieces. Some of them are as hard as rock.

Shannons farm is only 10 years old. The soil structure is after deforesting still in upgrade processes. The stum areas after Gum-trees are leaving blind spots.

The solution for hard pan and solving the dry summer when the plants are suffering with high temperatures is to start the ripping process before winter with a TERRALAND TO. This deep ripping process is not only solving the hard pan for a good root structure, but also with the mixing process of topsoil sand and subsoil clay allows flood water to drain into the farm land. This process improves the soils ability to store water.

The combination of soil (sand and clay) provides a better structure for storing and less evaporation in high summer temperatures.

After over 600ha and still couple of hundreds to change. Hard-face tips are the best option for these kind of ripping.

Orange colour clods taken from lower soil have a good mineral (K, Fe, Mn) content, so the TERRALAND upgrades also the chemical structure not only mechanical structure.

TERRALAND TO represents a NEW age in a flood water management technology, where after ripping the field capacity to hold water is dramatically improved. Which means there is more water available for the grain field and less water run off from the field.

The machine is pulled by a Case Magnum 380 hp. In total the average speed is 5-6 km/h. According to Bednar FMT the TERRALAND can be pulled up to 10 km/h. However the land area is basically virgin farm land (established in 2008) and never been deep ripped before so the hard pan has never been worked. A large variation of soil types, which is changing literally by the metre is a challenge for the farmer as well for the machine. The TERRALAND is gaining on its design of hydraulic set up and secure system and the tractor operator can easily control the depth from the cabin depending on the soil type.

3 different soil in a small part of field. White part is very soft sand where bringing clods up (clay soil) is necessary. The sand is unable to keep the moisture for later use.