Hi all,
So to start off with, here is another iPhone artistic photo – of a tractor in a paddock (of all things…).
But seriously, how good does the country look at the moment? The rain has been such a blessing all year and everything is growing very well. We had left the tractor up in the paddock the other evening and as I walked away from it, I just thought that was a nice photo with the moon rising, canola in the background etc. I know the season can’t last like this, but is very nice to see the crops thriving at the moment.
But why was the 4WD tractor up the paddock? Well, we have been spraying weeds and spreading fertiliser over our canola this week. Another weather change was coming with potential rain forecast at the end of the week and I was very keen to get those jobs done.
But driving a heavily loaded spray unit around a wet paddock is always interesting. It is also a good way to learn about physics in agriculture – you know the two basic formulas…
1. tractor momentum = mass x velocity
and
2. lack of momentum = bogged
And just to prove those formulas, here is a little physics experiment we carried out 😉 .
 |
Here is a picture of the tractor and spray unit bogged to the axles. The photo was taken as we prepare to pull the machine out backwards with the 4WD tractor on the right. What is impressive is the ‘snatch straps’ that we used. We first tried pulling the boomspray combination out with chains, which snapped on the first pull. So we got a couple of 15 tonne ‘snatch straps’, tied one around each side of the boom spray axles, so as not to damage the chemical tank, and away we went. The pull was very smooth, with no damage to the equipment. |
 |
Of course the problem with getting bogged is the mess you make in the paddock. So filling these holes looks like a front end loader job for summer. |
And then as it tuned out, the weather change didn’t bring anywhere near the amount of rain forecast. It means that next week we can try a few more physics experiments with momentum, this time in the Barley paddocks!
Have a good week all.
Cheers
NeilK