Recently we were contacted by Nick at Burcombe Estate in Wiltshire. They had just had 25 acres of vines planted for a new wine making facility that they were introducing into the area. The gap between each vine row was 2.2 metres from Vine to Vine, a very narrow gap for most tractors, which was very much the case for the contractors who prepared the ground for the vines to be planted. Their smallest machine could not fit between the vine rows. So, we were called in! As we specialise in compact tractors and can fit into most areas larger machines can fit into we were a perfect fit for the job.
We visited the site early in May and were asked to seed drill the gaps between the vines. This is something we could have done with our dimple roller overseeder, but as it was a vinery, we suggested that we actually use our stone burier/seeder combination machine.
The reason why we proffered this solution was because, as can be seen from the image above, the rows are full of stones, rough clods of earth and just don’t look very nice. Which for a Vinery is quite important! If we ran a seed drill over this, whether it be a dimple drill or a disc drill, all the stones and clods would prevent the seeds from implanting properly and would result in a poor looking alley, as well as a poor yield.
The image above shows clearly the huge improvement that the stone burier/seeder combination machine does. When coupled with our John Deere 2038R, a very powerful compact tractor in its class, it easily fits between the vines, and it took us 3 days to fully stone bury and seed 25 acres of vineyard.
If you have a vineyard, or narrow areas of land, it would be well worth considering this sort of machine to ensure a clean and well presented result.
