ON the Fred Hopkins workshop floor at Welshpool last week, mechanics were busy modifying an Italian manufactured Checchi & Magli Wolf Pro transplanter for Environmental Industries general manager Brendon Winterbourne, who requested modifications for a eucalyptus transplanting job he has lined up in June.
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In its unmodified form, the transplanter is equipped with a continuous rotation perforating cups distributer, a parallelogram for constant deep soil work, 41 centimetre compacting wheels and side cleaning blades for the perforating cups.
Fred Hopkins owner Gary Johnson said the machine could be used to transplant a number of different seedlings of varying sizes and lengths.
"In this instance, the customer (Mr Winterbourne) has asked us to combine a few different components, so it'll be doing a few different jobs at the same time," Mr Johnson said.
Mr Winterbourne said he requested Fred Hopkins add, "a fertiliser injection, a water injection, a grader blade and a ripper, so we can do the whole lot in one pass".
Mr Johnson explained the basic gist of the unit.
The operator will insert the seedling in the front wheel and it'll be sucked in - simultaneously the soil will be watered courtesy of the water tank at the front of the tractor.
"So the idea is they're applying water, applying fertiliser, opening to depth and transplanting the seedling, all at once," Mr Johnson said.
He said there was a lot of work around WA and beyond for contractors who were planting trees for carbon credits.
"So people are doing this on a big scale and there are a number of contractors I know that are climbing into this to help them out with tree planting," Mr Johnson said.
"The contractors are itching to get them, but this one is really a one-off."
There are more modifications on the way.
"Next year, the unit will be five metres wide and there will be two of them," Mr Winterbourne said.
"We couldn't get two this year, but next year it'll be the same planter, same fertiliser and water injector, but it'll be two planters wide on a bigger tractor."
Fred Hopkins had also recently received a consignment of front-wheel assist Mahindra tractors, imported from India.
Mahindra tractors have been sold in WA before, but not for a couple of years.
"From what I understand, there are more Mahindra tractors sold in the world than any other brand," Mr Johnson said.
"I think a lot of that is the local market in India, but they're a popular tractor for smaller acreage farmers."
The highest horsepower Mahindra tractor goes up to is 90hp.
"We've got a 40, a 50, and an 80, in round figures," he said.
"But if we're talking about the lowest horsepower tractor, the 40hp 4025, that's a very big 40hp tractor, in terms of its size, linkage and lift capacity."
These tractors also have a front-end loader, which can be optioned to have a hydraulic third function to use other hydraulic attachments like four-in-one buckets and bale grabs.
"So it makes it useful, front and rear," Mr Johnson said.
He said the Mahindra line was strongly built and without frills.
"We're not talking about tractors with heaps of electronics and fancy features - these are your everyday, general purpose tractors," he said.
"It's a relatively low-priced tractor that can do a lot of things that bigger tractors would normally be used for."
