Many farms suffer from poor quality swards and limited yields even if they plough and re-seed regularly. Often this is caused by soil becoming compacted which limits water flow through the soil profile and reduces air interchange. Reasons for compaction can vary from gradual soil slump to the action of heavy machinery.

Over the years silaging and slury spreading equipment has become larger and heavier causing deep compaction.

Furthermore shallow compactions can be caused by livestock poaching or simply the weight of animal on the soil.

With the ground waterlogged it can be too wet for spring operations such as slurry and muck spreading, harrowing, fertilising and overseeding. This means livestock cannot be put out to graze which in turn effects forage requirements and productivity.

This is where the OPICO Sward Lifter Grassland Subsoiler can help. The Sward Lifter with its rugged construction is specifically designed to break up hard pans and surface compaction while lifting and opening up the subsoil creating improved drainage.

The Sward lifter Grassland Subsoiler is available with hydraulic auto reset for extremely stoney conditions. An individual ram on each leg that’s connected to a gas accumulator allows the leg to break back and reset if it comes into contact with an immovable object. As the legs are adjusted deeper the leverage on the hydraulic reset ram increases, to compensate for this the Sward Lifter has a pressure adjusting valve and pressure gauge to allows the operator to set the force required for the leg to break back to suit various types of working conditions.the 4 section unit folds to 3m for transport but has improved contour following ability in the field.

Source: www.opico.co.uk