Back Issue - Practical Farm Ideas - 1- Vol 1

Our first issue includes farm designs of machinery which are still in the front line for farmers.

The cover article describes a converntional silage grab converted to carrying four round bales of hay or straw. The farmer had replaced the standard grab with a Sheargrab that has a blade which leaves a clean face on the silage clamp, so this old one was redundant. Rather than part-ex for a few ££s he adapted it to do a useful job in the field each year.

There's a log splitter which splits logs in both directions, i.e. when the ram is returning as well as pushing outwards. Log splitters work in one direction only, so the operator has to wait while the ram returns. This one has the ram below the work table and a pusher that rides in a slot, with a blade each end. The desing is only now being used by the more expensive machines. Many farmer-readers have made their splitters to this design.

There's the first grassland aerator in the UK, built by the editor with the help of neighbours in the workshop. Has been consistenly used since 1988. Aerators are now fairly common, as farmers' interest and knowledge of soil has increased. After 5 years the editor's silage harvest increased by 30%.

Other contents:

Converting a garden cultivator into a narrow trench cutter ; Repairing chipped tooth in gearbox with hard weld ; Oiling long Bowden cable ; Computer used to predict farm milk output ; Angled concave bar improves combine performance ; Making an auto-oiker for chain drives ; Rolling roof on silage clamp covers feed area, rolls away when silage being made ; Chippings hopper ; 80ft 1,000 gall sprayer made using scrap combine ; children's back-hoe toy made in workshop ; 30ft wide triple mower built on redundant combine uses 3 x 10ft 9in Vicon units ; revolving door gate

Products: high performance slurry stirrer