Sward Lifter Grassland Subsoiler

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 compaction can be caused by livestock poaching or simply the weight of animals 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's unique design leads with a cutting disc at the front that opens up the turf allowing the subsoil leg to travel through the sward without soil bursting onto the surface. Each of the Grassland Subsoiler's legs are fitted with shear-bolt or hydraulic reset to prevent damage. Spring loaded rollers are then employed at the rear of the unit to press closed the turf leaving a surface that is level and ready for use.

The untreated area photo (below left) shows the top layer of the soil is water logged as a compacted layer is preventing the water from passing through, in the treated photo (below right) you can clearly see the water has been able to penetrate through the top layer and down through the soil profile, this will prevent water logging in the winter and allow oxygen into the grass root zone. As the grass is not put under water logging stress through the winter it is able to take advantage of warmer days to grow and starts growing earlier in the spring. 

Spring loaded cutting discs in front of each leg on galvanised manual winding depth adjusters cut through the grass sward preventing damage and soil bursting to the surface.

Leg protection is provided by either shearbolts or a hydraulic auto-reset system to prevent damage from large obstacles under ground.

The front of the leg on the Sward Lifter Grassland Subsoiler has a replaceable reversible shin to keep the cost of metal wear as low as possible, two point options consists of the 6cm standard and a 25cm winged point to suit all conditions and soil types.

Individual spring loaded heavy cast Prisma press rollers follow immediately behind each leg to close and level the surface leaving your field ready for use.

The angled Prisma sections also act to break up surface crusts lifted by the Sward Lifter in dryer conditions.

The Sward Lifter's maximum depth is controlled by a simple double pin system above each rear press roller to ensure the machine does not work any deeper than required. The pressure exerted by the Prisma press roller can be adjusted by moving the spring to one of the twelve settings to give maximum down force ensuring the best possible finish.

The key is the fact that the Sward Lifter employs an individual roller section behind each leg which ensures reconsolidation.

The simple shearbolt system.

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.

Robert Parrish, Hassendean Burn Farm, Hawick

"I turned my animals out to grass three weeks early thanks to the Sward Lifter. We had 25 acres that had been compacted from where we had cut silage and on headlands where we had run a lot of animals. The grass looked pretty stale and wasn't growing well. We subsoiled certain pieces with the Sward Lifter and it has just let the water through. You could see a real difference through the winter - the ground has been a lot more free-draining."

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