tournapull scraper

[davidpozzi]

For some reason I couldn't post these in my previous post.
The ATICO scraper was really nice to run. It did a great job and was great at grading roads, filling washed out holes, scooping out catch ponds and reservoirs. Even field leveling. My dad and uncle used it a lot leveling our farm in the 50's then taught me in the 70's.

[Mrsmackpaul]

Gudday Dave I gather you were on a flood irrigation farm there I have been a flood irrigation farmer pretty much since my wife and I got married
The Be Ge box scraper we would call a land plane in Australia it always amazes me how we use different names to describe the same thing in different countrys and in Australia the names change from end to end

Its a good life to grow up on a flood irrigation farm a lot different than a rain fed farm I think I was always very lucky boy to have a life on a farm the farm I grew up was in high rain fall country of Victoria when my wife and I married we couldnt afford any high rain fall land so we bought a irrigation farm man wasnt I in for learning curve

We land planed our farm this way and that I then layed down on the ground to look up the bay for rise and fall ect I would get my wife to go along with sticks ect to mark were the rise and fall was we thought we did a pretty good job until we bought a Laser and scoop it really showed how bad I was LOL

I never used crawlers for leveling always wheeled tractors

the Farmor land plane on the back of Chamberlian C 670

URL of the original image: http://i1370.photobucket.com/albums/ag265/MrsMackPaul/scan0134_zpshtuacrdr.jpg

Hume Collville Scoop on IH 886 laser leveling

URL of the original image: http://i1370.photobucket.com/albums/ag265/MrsMackPaul/scan0170_zpsoqvdhn1f.jpg

Dunstan Smudge Board on the back of IH 886 taking out the imperfections after laser grading

URL of the original image: http://i1370.photobucket.com/albums/ag265/MrsMackPaul/scan0185_zps1mzalrjn.jpg

Paul

[davidpozzi]

Paul, very interesting! We grew Strawberries, Lettuce both Head and Leaf, Celery, Carrots, Cauliflower Broccoli. A few miles more inland where it's warmer they grow Tomatoes, Chilli Peppers and wine grapes. All furrow irrigated, now we start with sprinkler irrigation then switch to drip. Our annual rainfall is 13" but nothing comes in the summer. If it rained here in July, people would go nuts!

We had a large "Marvin" land plane to do finish grading I"m guessing it was 40 feet long or so. Our initial grading was laid out by a surveyor who put stakes every 50' and at every stake was a 3/4" peg they called a "Guinea" driven down to grade level. so we would grade to be even with the top of each peg. That is pretty much how roads were being laid out in those days.
I recall my uncle using the Be-Ge to "fix" a field. We irrigated each end and the water would run to the middle. He would watch the water run in the furrows and adjust the grade when the crop was done. This time, he drug dirt into the middle of the field to flatten it out. He had me run the large land plane over it to finish up and the plane would load up heavily in the soft dirt he dropped and deposit it back on the ends where he removed it! The ends were packed down where he took dirt away. In the end, we cancelled out each others work.

[Mrsmackpaul]

Dave we farmed in northern Victoria to start with and milked cows all flood irrigated pasture but after years of drought and low water allocations we shifted to north Queensland 3000km north higher rain only 14 inches on the dairy farm
Anyway we grow sugar cane on furrow irrigation now and the rain fall is around 40 inches mind you mother nature being the difficult person she is only gave us around 15 inches this year
The soils are a real light sandy loam were we farm now I still find it hard to believe they flood irrigate them but there is plenty of water so I guess why not

The land plane we used to start with had a telescopic draw bar it slid out to around 30 feet long the same company made real long land planes around 80feet long I have never used one I reckon I would have taken the neibourghs out with it when I was turning

Paul

[davidpozzi]

Ours would pivot around the bucket, IF the bucket had much dirt in it. If it was empty, then it might go anywhere. They had me drive the rear when moving it on the road. There was a steering wheel about 4 feet in diameter and a gear reduction but it was still so hard to steer on a side hill that it could throw you off and head downhill which it did a few times. I wasn't a big guy and couldn't put much muscle or weight behind it.
In the field, we would disconnect the steering and the front and rear wheels had a lot of caster so would follow.

There was sugar beet growing here starting around 1900, the Spreckels Sugar company built a plant in the Town of named after them. Eventually the value of sugar dropped and no one wanted to grow them here so the plant was torn down in the 90's.