Post your Branson at work. Picture thread

   / Post your Branson at work. Picture thread #201  
I've wondered if I should till in my orchard. What's the advantage?
I do it mostly as brush/weed control as I don't have the right implement for it. The cons of doing it with a tiller is that it will create an hard layer under the tilled ground that won't let the air flow and water getting to the ground where it needs to me.

Ideally you want to use a chisel plow, similar to the one in the picture below. This process will loosen the ground down to a foot or so deep that will let air flow, water and nutrients go through. Also, this won't damage the roots of the trees. It's an important process, specially when the trees are young.

I'm planning on getting a chisel plow some time in the future. From what I've heard from people that have been doing this their entire life, this process really makes a big difference on the growth and production of the orchards, plus it helps reducing the use of herbicides.

1679088677314.png
 
   / Post your Branson at work. Picture thread #202  
Aw heck Pedro, with your fab skills, I'm surprised you haven't made the chisel plow already.

That would take you what, an afternoon?

I'm kidding of course.

The guys up here that till their tree rows (not orchards) do it mostly for weed control. I would offer to help my neighbor, but I don't have an offset mower or tiller to get under the trees with. He uses another neighbors riding mower with a tiller on back and just pushes himself into the trees. It works, but he gets kind of beat up by the trees.
 
   / Post your Branson at work. Picture thread #203  
Aw heck Pedro, with your fab skills, I'm surprised you haven't made the chisel plow already.

That would take you what, an afternoon?

I'm kidding of course.

The guys up here that till their tree rows (not orchards) do it mostly for weed control. I would offer to help my neighbor, but I don't have an offset mower or tiller to get under the trees with. He uses another neighbors riding mower with a tiller on back and just pushes himself into the trees. It works, but he gets kind of beat up by the trees.
If it wasn't for the crazy steel prices, I could consider going that route. I know I could pick an used 7 shank chisel plow for about €500, so that beats make my own by long margin.

I do, however, have plans to build on of those 3 pt tool bars that will allow me to attach 3 potato plows and maybe a potato digger for the next year harvest.
 
   / Post your Branson at work. Picture thread #204  
Today the tractor was used as a large motorized wheelbarrow to move tools (not pictured: welder, added a couple minutes after this pic) across the land to where I needed to restructure the bracing for a gate's posts.

I was taking measurements to build a new gate but realized that the posts tilt outwards... 84" space between them at the bottom and 86½" at 7' high! A few years back when I ran the new fence I set it up with N-braces... well I'm pretty sure that the brace poles shank and of course, you can't adjust N braces.

So I decided to convert to H braces by swinging the diagonal brace up to horizontal. Used my rope come-along to straighten the posts, then a heavy duty ratchet strap as backup. The posts for the gate are metal, so I welded a couple small nubs for the H-brace's tension wires to hook on. (My welder just managed to do the job running off a 100' 14ga extension cord! I've measured the voltage at that garden shed plug, its base voltage there is 125V.)

Actually had to relax my initial tensioning of the new H-brace as I had pulled one of the posts too far. It's great now, the gate opening is square and my fence is nice at taut again; now I can build the gate.
PXL_20230325_001536667.jpg
 
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   / Post your Branson at work. Picture thread #205  
This is from a couple days ago but I'll be doing more today and for weeks to come: chipping up huge amount of branches that were broken out of our trees by an unusual snow storm a few weeks ago. I'm still working around the house and driveway. There's a lot of firs and they really took a beating.

Chipping.JPG


That's a UTV and 4x8 dump trailer for the chips just to the left of the chipper.
 
   / Post your Branson at work. Picture thread #206  
This is from a couple days ago but I'll be doing more today and for weeks to come: chipping up huge amount of branches that were broken out of our trees by an unusual snow storm a few weeks ago. I'm still working around the house and driveway. There's a lot of firs and they really took a beating.

View attachment 790753

That's a UTV and 4x8 dump trailer for the chips just to the left of the chipper.
Show us the trailer please?
 
   / Post your Branson at work. Picture thread #207  
UTV trailer:

IMG_0773.JPG



It was sold by Woodland Mills. They have a redesigned model now, which looks like it has some improvements. Like a top hinged tailgate. I have to remove the tailgate to dump. Mine's "galvanized" but it's the worst galvanizing I've ever seen. I need to derust the parts that are rusting and paint them.

It's super useful and carries about 4x what I can get in the bed of the UTV. I have not used the log trailer feature since I have a grapple for the tractor, but it would be good for carrying logs longer distances than I need to on my 20 acres.
 
   / Post your Branson at work. Picture thread #208  
UTV trailer:

View attachment 791141


It was sold by Woodland Mills. They have a redesigned model now, which looks like it has some improvements. Like a top hinged tailgate. I have to remove the tailgate to dump. Mine's "galvanized" but it's the worst galvanizing I've ever seen. I need to derust the parts that are rusting and paint them.

It's super useful and carries about 4x what I can get in the bed of the UTV. I have not used the log trailer feature since I have a grapple for the tractor, but it would be good for carrying logs longer distances than I need to on my 20 acres.
I like it. Looks like the current offering is painted.

signal-2023-03-27-100753_002.jpeg

Would it be possible to attach panels (like plywood) to extend the height of the box for very light materials (like wood chips)?
 
   / Post your Branson at work. Picture thread #209  
I like it. Looks like the current offering is painted.

View attachment 791301
Would it be possible to attach panels (like plywood) to extend the height of the box for very light materials (like wood chips)?
Apparently they sell extensions. I'd probably jury-rig something with plywood instead of the grid.
1679938779557.png


edit: just realized this is for the DR versa-trailer which looks like yours and less like the WM one

It would be tempting to set up a cylinder for dumping, hook it up to a remote and remove the crane for the most part
 
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   / Post your Branson at work. Picture thread #210  
I've been tempted to put an electric winch on mine, but the hand crank works ok and does not require adding a second battery to the UTV. Much of the time I'm shovelling chips out anyhow.

Mine is similar to the DR but had a few features I liked better and I thought it would be made better (DR has a pretty poor reputation).

Piled high with chips it's got about as much weight as I should be pulling with the UTV. I did once load it with wood down at the bottom of my property and drive up to where I process firewood and the UTV was really unhappy about pulling it up the slope.
 
 
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