Ploughing In Griffin Forest “Dusty conditions - ploughing the Prairies of Aberfeldy”
The photographs are courtesy of Geordie Davidson via Tom McLellan, Taynuilt.
The venerably aged D6 9U caterpillar with trailing plough is ploughing in Griffin Forest in the area high above and southeast of Aberfeldy. The majority of the area to be planted was ploughed with Double Throw Ploughs - either trailed ploughs pulled by D6 crawler tractors as shown in the photographs or mounted on D4 crawler tractors, provided by Andrew Allan & Son from Callander.
The ploughman here is Geordie Davidson who carried out most of the Double Throw ploughing within Griffin Forest. The double mould board plough with this particular plough mouldboard being developed by Andrew Allan, threw out a plough furrow like the bow wave of a ship, with the furrow “rolling over” with no straight edge cut formed and a smooth slope down to the base of the furrow. The hydraulic ram allowed the mould board to be held level at a set height by adjusting the rake of the head which pivoted on its front mounting bolt. The recovery sling permanently fitted to the back of the plough is slung over the top of the head available in the unfortunate situation of a bogging or breakdown.
It is difficult to give a dimension type to this Clark plough head but looks a double furrow ploughing to 60cms deep with a tine going down to 75cms (D60/T75) but any comments welcome. The plough beam has been substantially strengthened with a base plate along the bottom of the beam and the mountings for side and centre discs have been totally removed.Geordie mentions that the Clark's tines were not used as they were very long and could break. They were replaced with tines from Caterpillar excavator buckets which were shorter, flatter and stronger.
Tom Comments “I think that your dimensions for the plough furrow produced by the Trailed Double Throw are not far off the mark. As I said in the Griffin Forest story, I felt that when we started using the trailed plough it was going too deep and that was when I asked Geordie and Andrew Allan if they could make adjustments to the configuration of the plough in order that the depth could be controlled – that is when they came up with the addition of the hydraulic ram which made all the difference. If I recollect correctly, I was looking for a depth of approximately D55/T65.“
Note some of the bent track plates on the tractor which have fallen victim to the boulders and stones on the surface of the ploughing area. The rank heather has obviously been burnt prior to ploughing and in the dry summer weather the dust is blowing about.
Geordie comments "It wasn't the big boulders, you could see them, damage was caused by the sharp stones or rock six to nine inches sticking out of the heather and the whole tractor's weight on one plate. If I can remember, there was only 3 or 4 plates were affected out of lots of acres ploughed round the country. Caterpillar plates were good. Midland steel not so good, but they were cheaper (quote from Andrew Alan !)."
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Groups: Forestry Areas, Forestry in Action, Tractors Ploughs and Drainage Machines