DEEP ripping is not as straight forward as it used to be in the 1990s (where one foot was deep enough, just keep it in the ground and then get ready to go rock picking).
Some soils need ripping deeper than others and some need re-ripping because they have settled naturally in a fully-matched controlled traffic farming (CTF) system.
Some topsoils and top-dressed materials need to go downstairs and some subsoils with clay often need to go upstairs.
Then there is the issue of ripping width to match the cropping layout, position and width of unripped tramlines and the configuration of shallow leading tynes for the best economics, to say nothing of the roller best suited to give the best finish.
Peter Nunn’s NuFab team is trying to cover all these bases and it looks promising.
Their 2018-19 generation of deep rippers have some useful features to enable more flexible choices according to the farm and soil types and cropping system that is employing them.
All the shallow leading tynes can reach 700 millimetres if required, all the deeper tynes can reach 800mm and all tynes use the same rams (75mm diameter) and tyne specs to allow for interchangeability.
The shallow leading tynes can carry delving plates to bring stuff upstairs – the deeper tynes can carry inclusion plates to get stuff downstairs.
The width of delving plates will be variable according to the conditions.
A smarter crumble roller has a stroke of at least 400mm to allow better ground following and an in-line pressure bottle maintains constant downforce, because different soil conditions need different rolling pressures for optimum surface finish and traction.
The lift hydraulics are set up to maintain a level frame whatever the depth the ripper is ripping to, this allows easy variation of ripping depth by soil type in a variable paddock.
A very useful feature of the design is the ability to conserve anchored stubble in the ripped soil to help minimise wind erosion risk – keeping the shallow leading tynes inline with the deeper rear tynes and on a tyne spacing of 600mm helps this.
Testing of the draft requirements of different configurations is planned in the near future – a hydraulic draft tester is being made to do trial work with the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development.
